I’m not an expert in the kitchen by any means. While I really enjoy baking, I don’t get as much of a thrill from cooking – and when you don’t love cooking, meal planning can be a real dismal task.

A way to make a not fun task a little easier though, is to share it with your family. I typically kick start my menu for the upcoming week after browsing the grocery store’s sale flyer – I can see what’s on sale and sometimes plan a meal or two around the weekly specials. Beyond that? Usually I’ve got a few more dishes to come up with to round out the week.

Sometimes we brainstorm ideas in the car (I drive, my seven-year-old writes down ideas) or sometimes we hang out at home poring through cookbooks to come up with ideas – but ultimately, I try to have everyone in the family pick at least one meal for the week – this ensures that everyone has one meal each week that they love (versus them all hating EVERYTHING, which is no fun for me).

Sure, we maintain some ground rules in our planning (i.e. no junky foods, no we’re not having pizza EVERY night) but for the most part, planning the menu with the family makes the task a little easier for me as well as creating a little more variety in our meals.

Photo credit: Tyger_Lillie