Do you feel like you make the same meal over and over? Join the club.  If you have kids and/or a busy life (ie. everyone) it is easy to gravitate towards making the same meals again and again.  And this is especially true if you are cooking at home- we make what we know how to make that is quick and easy. But that can get monotonous.  At least for some of us.  One real life experience helped me uncover a meal plan trick when bored with dinner without the hassle of making new recipes.

Over a decade ago I was in college, eating up all I could on everything food, nutrition and science.  I loved it! I would come home from class ready to explore new foods, try out different cooking techniques and make a mess in the kitchen.  But, married to a selective eater made this quite challenging.

I felt restricted and powerless.  To be absolutely truthful, it made me a bit resentful.  It was like the proverbial pinwheel, I would suggest a new menu idea, it was turned down, I got frustrated.  Then one Saturday morning, when I was yet again making a meal plan and grocery list with the same meals and same groceries for the week, I did 1 thing a bit differently.  I began by creating a simple list with every meal we had ever made and enjoyed together.

This seems simple, maybe even elementary- make a list of meals.  I mean, don’t we already know the meals we actually ate? Yes… and no.  

Once I finished this list, there were about 20 DIFFERENT meals on this yellow legal pad.  Twenty! That was enough to have a different meal every day for 3 weeks!

Why had we been eating the same 5 again and again?

What seemed so rudimentary dramatically expanded my world in the area of meal planning.  In a matter of minutes, my attitude moved from frustrated to hopeful, and my husband didn’t make a single change.   

To this day, I still have that canary yellow lined page with meals listed.  We have added a lot more meals to our rotation since then, but I keep it around to remind me that sometimes, I just need to look at the problem from another angle- fresh perspective.

Maybe you live with a selective eater or maybe you are feeling bored with dinner simply because there is no time to try new recipes.  You might find that creating a simple list with all the family loved meals to be a useful tool to open up fresh perspective- like me.

The meals you know how to make tend to be quicker because you develop muscle memory from doing it.  The more you make it, the easier it gets. There is less reading the recipe, double checking steps, and recalling ingredients.  

Create a Master List of Family-Approved Meals

Here’s how you do it:

Step 1: Grab a notepad and favorite pen or pencil

Step 2: Brainstorm recipes you like & write them down- every single one

Step 3: Keep the list in kitchen and add to it as more meals come to mind

Step 4: Use list to create a meal plan each week

This 1 exercise just might eliminate your frustration (at least most of it) as it did mine.  Want to take it to another level?

Create a notebook or binder for your recipes.  Print off or make a copy of the recipes you love and want to make again.  Put them in a binder for easy access and inspiration when you need it. As you try new recipes in the future that get approval from your family, add those too.  This can then become your go-to resource for meal planning each week!

WHAT IF your 4-minute brainstorm session could give you a dozen new options for dinner?

Do you need MORE help with meal planning?  Use my 5-Minute Healthy Meal Plan template to simplify the process every week.  No more wasted time or energy!  Once you have your strategy in place, learn some quick ways to amp up nutrition in everyday meals to look and feel great!