Home Entertaining Ideas - Take the Toil Out of Meal Planning

(ARA) – Hey, honey, what’s for dinner? It’s 5:00 and you’re in your usual dinner frenzy. The microwave is buzzing with quick-defrost and you’re slicing and dicing everything in sight. The kids, already full of cereal, wince as you sling the food across the dinner table.

To make matters worse, you’ve already been to the grocery store three times this week, but the dinners just aren’t coming together. You hobble around in last year’s sandals because your grocery budget is through the roof and there never seems to be much money left over for frivolities. And for what? Frustrating dinners filled with last-minute kitchen blunders?

For the millions of families tired of takeout and drive-through, Ann Bender with Relish! has an eat-for-success philosophy: “Click onto www.relishrelish.com for better planning and easy menus that put an end the dinner hour frustration for good. The key to meal planning is getting organized and grocery shopping with a purpose,” says Bender, co-owner of Relish! on-line menu service. “Make dinnertime fun and cook wonderful meals at the same time.”

A successful meal depends on menu selection, healthy side dishes and the all-important grocery list, she says.

6 Steps to Successful Meal Planning

* On Friday or Saturday develop a menu for the following week.

* Make sure to include healthy side dishes or simple salads.

* Become savvy with recipes, and alter them for your family’s tastes.

* Develop a grocery list by store location and stick to the list.

* Keep within a budget; don’t opt for expensive fish and meats all in the same week.

* Try to use recipes that are fun, interesting and use fresh herbs and ingredients.

It seems we are more harried and less healthy by the day. As a result, inventive companies are increasingly answering the call for delicious, easy, nutritious meals. A bevy of meal-planning solutions have emerged in recent years, from user-friendly menu services like Relish! to dinner assembly shops like Supper Solutions, a franchised business of storefront locations where customers assemble freezable dinners. Also, there are many quick prep cookbooks on the market and some pretty savvy Internet sites.

Get Your Kids to Step Up to the Plate

Getting kids to eat poses a whole different challenge. As Americans settle into an eat-on-demand lifestyle, the results are showing up in our children --- with skyrocketing obesity rates and the sad state of our family dinner hour.

“Children need to try a variety of foods at an early age,” says Relish! Gourmet Consultant, Gwenn Wilson. “You’re not doing your kids any favors by cooking to their likes and dislikes. Children need to be exposed to fresh and different foods, this builds healthy, life-long eating habits.”

6 Ways to Engage Children in Good Eating Habits

* Encourage kids to try at least one new thing per evening.

* Allow a healthy snack after school but nothing right before dinner.

* Avoid ordering from the “kiddie menu” at restaurants.

* Don’t overdo it. Tomatoes one night, mushrooms the next. Take baby steps.

* Let them help with the dinner preparation, this works!

* Make dinner hour fun and listen. Refrain from being the “manner police.”

Meals Made Simple

“Mealtime no longer has to be a fight to the finish,” says Bender. Relish! provides subscribers with weekly, easy-to-follow menus and corresponding shopping lists. “Relish! offers menus that are simple and healthy and you also learn some wonderful cooking techniques along the way. For only $6 a month, our subscribers are cooking fantastic dinners, every night,” she says.

For now, the tedious “What’s for dinner?” question is solved. For more information, visit: www.relishrelish.com.

Courtesy of ARA Content