Dinner

Dinner-time is tricky in our house like I'm sure it is at most people's houses. Sean has piano lessons most nights of the week plus other church meetings and every other week we both have to be at the church one night for youth activities. That night dinner is often not until close to 9pm.

Then you factor in that it is just the three of us. Sean will eat pretty much anything I make, but Ethan's a bit more picky. I don't like to have a ton of leftovers if I can help it - maybe enough for Sean's lunch the next day - but I don't like to be wasteful or pay more for smaller packages, either. Not too mention that I try to keep it healthy, but can't exactly expect my family to live on chicken, brown rice and a salad every night.

And just when I think I have a routine down, making menus and planning ahead... well, life gets in the way and we have a crazy week and the pre-planning goes to pot and we end up living on cold cereal, mac-n-cheese w/ hot dogs and frozen pizza for the week. I hate those weeks. You know the ones, where every night is a battle just to come up with something to make.

Anyway. Right now we are in re-start mode after the craziness of Spring Break, Easter, Ethan's birthday, taxes and everything else. Yesterday I sat down and made a 2-week menu (that will take us a couple days past next payday), grocery list AND checked coupons before going shopping and stocking up.

A typical dinner menu week for us usually consists of:
- one night that is a pasta dish (pasta is a favorite at our house)
- one night with a mexican/latin flair to it
- one night of breakfast-for-dinner
- one night of cheap-quick-and-easy (usually church youth activity night and this could be boxed mac-n-cheese or even a $5 pizza depending on the craziness of the day)
- one night of "typical dinner plate" with meat, starch and veggies
and then I also try to limit ground beef and pasta to just one or two meals/week and we often have chicken once or twice.

So what's our 2-week menu look like?
We've got spaghetti, roast chicken, chicken chili, french toast, spinach ravioli and tostadas the first week and BBQ, sweet-n-sour meatballs, fajitas, stromboli, mac-n-cheese, taquitos and (maybe) pizza the 2nd week. {Side note: the white, blocked-out areas are our schedule - just little reminders of what's going on those days that may influence the type of meal we'll have. I just didn't want it all over the internet.}

I also have a pretty big list of ideas that I've compiled over the years that helps, but even with 65+ ideas we still have nights where we can't think of what to have. So, I'm wondering... What are some of your go-to dinner ideas?? Please share!!

PS: I've had friends ask for my dinner ideas list in the past, so if you really want it, I would be happy to email it to you.