Let’s talk about the struggle we all know too well: figuring out what the heck to make for dinner.
Seriously, it’s like the million-dollar question every single day. What if I told you one simple exercise could make that process SO MUCH easier? What is that easy exercise? Creating a go-to list of dinners.
A list of go-to dinners takes away the biggest meal planning pitfall-lack of ideas for dinner. Its literally a list of ideas for dinner. Yes, it sounds simple and obvious but stick with me! I’m showing you the best way to do it to make deciding on dinner super easy and fail proof.
Here is how to do it. Read on or watch the Youtube video. Or both!
Step one: The options.
Brain dump your family’s favorite ideas for dinner.
Grab your notebook, your phone, or whatever you use to jot things down and start listing out ideas dinners. Think about the meals that your family will definitely eat, the ones that you know you can successfully cook, etc.
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Step two: The organization.
Once you’ve got your messy brain dump list, it’s time to bring some order to the chaos. You’ll need to organize these go-to dinners by categories, and the most common way to do that is by protein. Beef, chicken, seafood, meatless—you get the idea.
But wait, there’s more to consider! It’s not just about listing out the names of the dishes. Nope, we’re taking it a step further.
Step three: The details.
Add in the ingredients needed for each recipe. Trust me, this little addition will make creating your grocery list a breeze and save you from extra grocery runs or realizing you don’t have something in the middle of cooking!
And let’s not forget about the source of the recipe. Whether it’s your grandma’s secret spaghetti sauce or that viral TikTok pasta dish, give credit where credit’s due. Plus, it’s handy to have in case you need to reference the recipe again.
And side dishes. Don’t leave those out. Note down the sides you typically serve with each meal. It’ll save you from that last-minute scramble to figure out what to pair with your main dish.
Last but not least, oven temp and cooking time.
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So, think of your go-to dinner list as your own personal recipe cards, but with a twist. Instead of flipping through cookbooks or scrolling through endless websites, you’ve got all your favorite meals right at your fingertips.
This tips follows guideline #1 from the 5 guidelines that help me get dinner on the table 7 nights a week, nearly every week. For real. I share the details of these steps in my eguide The Simple Dinner Solution. You can read more about those guidelines in this post.