Family Dinner

Deciding what to make for dinner is a never ending battle for me. I do menu plan my month, which makes things easier. But I still have to decide what I am making each day, I just do it all at once. That is a little better than standing in my kitchen at 5 o' clock, looking through the pantry trying to decide. But I still needed help. Then my mom got me a cookbook called "What's for dinner". It is fabulous because all the recipes are organized by weeks and days. And it has a full meals worth of recipes in a row. For example it would have a main dish, a salad, a different side dish, and a dessert. (I rarely make the desserts) It is great becuase it is all there together in one place and I don't have to figure out what goes with what. But then that created another problem. There are 29 weeks of meals in the cookbook, and lets me honest. I don't cook every night, and when Scot is out of town I make simple meals like pasta or pancakes. (I have to be able to prepare it in less than half an hour and it has to be liked by the majority of my children to qualify.) So as it was I wasn't really repeating meals, ever. I would make something different every night. Now I love to cook, especially for Scot, and I love reading cookbooks and coming up with something new, but some of the family was starting to complain that their favorites hadn't made a comback. So Scot suggested that we let each kid have a night that is their special night. They get to pick 2 items on the menu (I fill in where need be with healthy options). They also help me cook the meal and set the table. They even have their own special salt and pepper shakers that we use only on their special dinner. We have been doing it for a few months now, and we have had to tweak the rules some, but it has been really fun. And the kids are assured one night a month that there will be a meal they really like.However, some menu items are very popular! For example: Jello Jigglers. Ben picked this one month and then wanted to pick it the next month, and his sisters complained that they wanted to have it for their meal to. So we had to make the rule that you can't pick the same thing 2 months in a row. We still have jello jigglers once a month, but a different child picks them. It is a fun thing for all of us, and we are looking forward to having it continue. Sometimes I am really surprised by what they pick. But most of the time they rotate the same meals over and over. So here's to lots of (Sugar Free) Jello jigglers in the future!