How to Plan Family Dinners

Home-cooked, family dinners.

There are many reasons to have them, from fostering closer relationships with your spouse and kids, to being able to control how your food is prepared and what’s in it. Whatever your reason for wanting to have family meals, they aren’t the easiest habit to start. It can be intimidating starting a family dinner routine. In fact, it’s the thing I hear from my friends and clients most often, that they struggle with the most in their weekly dinners. The good news is that it can be done. And I’m here to help make it easier.

My husband and I cook and eat dinner together about 6 nights per week, but we didn’t always have this routine. When we first started dating, we ate out. A lot. We would dabble in cooking every now and then, and we would always enjoy cooking a homemade meal together, but we just weren’t organized enough to do it very often. It wasn’t until we were engaged and started seriously looking at our money, that we realized we could eat much cheaper (not to mention healthier) if we made the food ourselves.

We started simple, but have gotten more adventurous over the last few years. At this point, we have a very tough time going out to eat because we know that we can make a week’s worth of amazing meals for the cost of one dinner out at a semi-fancy restaurant. We still both really enjoy a good hamburger out, but pretty much everything else, from stir-fries and curries, to pastas and enchiladas, can be made at home even better than most restaurants.

By following these 4 tips, you too can enjoy tasty homemade family dinners. So, get over your fear, take the first steps, and get cooking!

Tip #1: Plan the Week in Advance

Each week, set aside 30 minutes to plan your meals for the following week. I like to do this Sunday mornings right after I read the newspaper. Pick your own day and time when it’s most convenient to devote those 30 minutes, but stick with doing this at the same time each week to help you establish a routine.

Quick and Dirty Tip: When you first start creating this new routine, don’t think of it as an all-or-nothing situation. Start small so you can be almost guaranteed success. If you don’t cook at all, don’t suddenly commit to making your own meals 6 days a week. Instead, plan for one, maybe two nights of cooking to start. You can always increase that as you get more comfortable.

After you plan your meals for the week, you’ll need to create a routine around going to the grocery store. By planning ahead, you’ll only have to go to the grocery store ONCE a week, which is going to save you time and money! How? Check out the episode I did with Money Girl to get those savvy shopping tips. In the meantime, you’re just going to have to believe me.

When I’m planning my meals each week, I try to have a protein, grain, and vegetable at each dinner. I look through recipes to find ones I know my family likes, and also ones I think it would be fun to try. If you don’t have any recipes on hand, there are a number of great recipe websites, like Food.com and Allrecipes.com that you can search based on ingredients. Hop on over to one of those, and search away. If you want to see what I’m trying, you follow my pins on Pinterest.

Once you find the recipes you want to use, list out your meals for the week along with the cookbook it is from, and who will be cooking. If the plan is listed, and posted in your kitchen, it takes all the thinking out of cooking each night. After all, deciding what to cook is the hardest part of family dinners. Take that step out, and the rest is much easier.

Tip#2: Make Your Shopping List

Use your meal plan to create your shopping list. Take a few minutes to do a quick inventory of your pantry and fridge, compare it to the ingredients you need for your meals, and write down anything that you need to create your week’s meals. After you have all those items listed, take note of anything you need for breakfasts, lunches, and snacks (if you eat those at home). When making your list, break the items down by category, preferably in the order you walk through the store. That way, when grocery shopping, you don’t waste time searching your list for items, walking back and forth across the store, or forgetting an item that you missed on your list.

Tip #3: Prep and Store Your Ingredients

If you are crunched for time on weeknights, chop and measure your ingredients on the weekends after you shop. Some people even like to cook all their meals over the weekend, and then freeze them to eat during the week. Do as much as you can when you have the extra time, and it might not seem so unrealistic to have a homemade meal on your crazy busy weeknights.

For your vegetables, purchase salad mixes or even veggies that can be steamed in their bags. These options cost slightly more, but if you are short on time, they are GREAT! Even if you don’t want to spend the extra money on these prepackaged foods, you can create the same convenience just by spending a little time dividing cut veggies into baggies and storing them in your fridge.

Tip #4: Involve the Family!

From planning and shopping to preparation and cleanup, the goal of family dinners is to spend time with each other. Creating the opportunities for your family to interact with each other will pay off in fun family moments and lasting memories. Even young children can help pick out recipes, prep veggies, and take part in cooking the meals.

I especially recommend getting your kids (or spouse!) involved if they are picky eaters. When a picky eater is able to have a part in the preparation, they are much more likely to give the finished product a try. So whether your picky eater is 5 or 75, ask them to get involved in the planning, preparation, and cooking, and you can help expand their taste buds.

Now that you have these tips, the rest is up to you. It can be scary, but as long as you don’t expect perfection, you won’t be disappointed. Anyone who has cooked for a while can tell you stories about the meals they completely bombed. But your mistakes will make you into a more confident chef—just ask Nutrition Diva! If you can commit to trying something new, I can guarantee you will spend much less money, improve your health, and have some fun tackling this new adventure in your home.

Have a question about anything in this episode? Or a suggestion for a future podcast? Send me an email at DomesticCEO@quickanddirtytips.com or post it on the Domestic CEO Facebook wall or on my Twitter feed.

I’m the Domestic CEO, helping you love your home.

 Family Dinner image from Shutterstock