November Habit #21 Let Everyone Get Involved

Dear FlyLady,

I’ve come up with a simple way to plan menus that lets EVERYONE in the family get involved. Each Sunday morning I print out a sheet with blocks for each of the weekdays. There are 5 of us in our family. Each person has until bedtime on Sunday to pick a meal. Weekends are for snacking and grazing, so that’s when the left overs get eaten. I made a list at the front of my recipe book that lists about 30-40 meals that at least 3 people in the family like. Since everyone has a say in the menu, if say on Monday kid number 2 doesn’t really like that meal, they have their day coming up soon. This has made it so that the kids will still eat a bit of what they don’t like as much, in respect for the one that picked that meal. They also don’t want to have a revolt on their meal day and have the meal they picked come off the list. I mostly pick something from off the list at least once a month so that we are adding meals, and maybe replacing ones that people have gotten sick of or if less than 3 like it anymore.  Keeps everything fresh, and everybody gets to play!

The kids have gotten pretty creative, some weeks they decide that every meal must begin with a certain letter of the alphabet, some weeks they decide that every meal must have a certain ingredient. It makes it fun for everybody. I also make sure that whatever is scheduled for that night goes on the meal menu so that the kids don’t pick something we don’t have time to make. For instance, we have Boy Scouts every Thursday, we only have about an hour between when the last one gets home from school and we need to leave, that means we won’t be having something like breakfast for dinner, or something super involved, but we can have something like Mac ‘n Cheese, or Cubana Dogs….. or something else somewhat quick.

In the summer they do the cooking M-F, so they are learning how to make
most of these meals, and they really have started to appreciate the time it takes, as well as the taste.

FlyBaby M

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FlyLady here: Having the whole family involved makes it so much fun. If you make it fun it will get done!

Our November Habit of the Month – Menu Planning will save you so much time, stress and money!

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