What?! What did that say?
Easy Dinner Ideas that even your KIDS will love??
It must be a sham! A hoax! A deceptive tactic to make you do a double-take and recklessly click on this link.
I mean, unless it’s frozen chicken nuggets and french fries, can the words in that statement even coexist?
Why yes, my friend, they can. And I am gonna show you how.
In my third post, I gave you a peek into our menu planning and dinner prep strategy. My desired endgame is to be able to hand my kids the keys to the city, or in this case, the kitchen, and KNOW that they have become proficient in my their quest for dinner success. I want them to be confident. I want them to be fearless; even DARING, when it comes to mastering their culinary fantasies.
Quickly I determined that in order for this quest to remain fruitful, I needed to implement strategies that would keep them not only interested, but excited, to try their hand at cooking in the kitchen with me.
The best place to start? The menu.
So I sat down and made a list of every meal I could think of that our family had EVER enjoyed, including simple, easy and quick dinner ideas. I even made up a short, but helpful list of simple, easy side dishes. But I didn’t stop there!
What I DIDN’T tell you, is that my kids played a major role in this process.
You see, after making my own list, I sat them down and gave them each a sheet of paper and pen. I asked them to list off all the meal ideas they could think of: meals they’d had at our home or at their friends’ houses. Meals they’d seen in television shows, fast-food commercials, and their favorite movies. Even menu options from restaurants that our family frequented.
I wanted their creative juices flowing on max capacity.
I then collected these gold nuggets lists and after adding them to my own lineup, compiled a comprehensive Meal Suggestions index. But I was not done yet!
Next to each dish, I added either one, two or three asterisks. (You know, these little things ***.) Each group of stars depicting a level of difficulty upon immediate inspection.
* (one asterisk) stood for simple and quick ( 30 min or less) dishes to make with readily available ingredients.
** (two asterisks) stood for a moderate amount of time (usually 30-60 min) and may require ingredients that we didn’t always keep on hand.
*** (three asterisks) stood for a considerable amount of time (more than an hour) and quite certainly called for ingredients that were not among our pantry staples.
I keep this comprehensive list of pure gold meal suggestions in the front of my recipe book, located in a convenient spot in the kitchen; ready to wield in a moment of forgetfulness and frustration during our Saturday menu planning sessions.
So you see, my strategy is fail-proof! Not only will your kids willingly consume a dish handpicked from a list made by their own creative minds, but my handy-dandy index of meal suggestions significantly decreases the dinnertime scramble and prevents that unnecessary, guilt-ridden fast-food run….saving you time AND money!
And THAT is how you can create a list of EASY DINNER IDEAS that even your kids will LOVE.
xoxo, Erica
PS. I am contemplating sharing my meal suggestions list, for those nights when you just don’t know what to make for your family….
Would you be interested in a copy? If so, leave me a comment with your email and I will happily send you my comprehensive list of dinner ideas, including side dishes!
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