Tag Archives: quick dinner ideas

Tools for Meal Planning on a Budget

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When we’re meal planning on a budget, we usually just try to find ways to buy sales items or resist going out to eat. However, there are plenty of other ways to save! All you need is a few tools around the kitchen to help you save big time on your grocery store bill:

  • Coupon box: store all of your coupons based on their category (food, beverages, toiletries, etc.) in a coupon box. Keep all of your coupons neat and tidy to optimize savings. We recommend keeping your coupons in a plastic filing box, which should cost you only about $5.00.
  • Cheap recipes: Tear budget-worthy recipes out of your favorite food magazines and copy inexpensive recipes out of budgeter’s cook book. Then, compile your recipes together in a binder. Next time you want to try something new, all you have to do is open up your custom-made budgeter’s cookbook and flip the pages to see what piques your interest. Use plastic protectors to file your recipes and add plastic dividers to organize your recipes according to category.
  • Meal planner with calendar: Always have a written calendar where you can plan an organize your meals. This will help you plan in advance and never skip a beat when it comes to meal planning. You can often find meal planner templates online or, if you prefer, you can make a meal planner out of a kitchen calendar.
  • Grocery store checklist: Never leave the house without a printable grocery list. You will be shocked at how much you can save when you actually stick to your list. Make sure to include a grocery shopping list on your fridge, somewhere where your kids or spouse can add things that the family needs. You can find printable grocery lists online, make one your own, or buy one at the store.
  • Vacuum sealer: Vacuum sealers or a “Seal-a-Meal,” is the best tool to package your food for the freezer. Freeze your food and use them for leftovers instead of throwing them out or letting them go to waste. Vacuum sealers could cost as little as $28.00, if you do some bargain shopping.  Make sure to date all of your food packages, too. Just don’t date your packages with a marker on the actual freezer back. The ink could run through and stain the food. Instead, write the date on the top of the freezer bag, where the ink won’t touch the food, or on a label.
  • Separate, outdoor freezer: You can always get an extra freezer for your garage if you can’t fit all of your leftovers and ice creams in your current freezer. A compact fridge could cost you as little as $100.00, while larger models will be a bit pricier.

Having tools around the house that help you save is a critical part of the budgeting process. At the very least, make sure you have meal planning tools and a coupon box to help you stay organized. Your investments will pay off!

Family Dinner Ideas for Colorful Children’s Dishes

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Everyone loves a dish that integrates colorful and varied foods together for a beautiful presentation. However, researchers at Cornell University have also dictated that kids prefer a colorful meal, one with about seven different foods and six different colors! No wonder they love their Fruit Loops. Of course, there is (generally) a nutritional component to serving colorful dishes. The more colors you (and your children) eat, the more nutrients you’re taking in. Here are some family dinner ideas that will have your children licking their plates:

  • Stews: Soups and stews give you the opportunity to implement a vast variety of vegetables and flavors in just one bowl. Try cooking up a pork-based stew with a tomato and chicken stock base. Then, add mushrooms, red onion, carrots, and butternut squash, with greens like cilantro and green onions as a garnish.
  • Paella: Paella is the ultimate colorful Spanish dish. Garnished with precious saffron, this cast ironed rice dish has been making mouths water for centuries. Make your paella with chicken or seafood (depending on your kids’ tastes) and add some color with peas, tomato, paprika, green beans, and bell peppers.
  • Breakfast hash: Take all your leftovers and throw them in the pan for a hearty breakfast hash. Served with either sweet potatoes or regular potatoes as a base, add white and yellow cheeses, bell peppers of different colors, green onions, turkey bacon, eggs, tomato, and black pepper for the ultimate breakfast treat.
  • Pizza: Pizza is easy to make and personalize, giving you a blank canvas for any assortment of colors. Bake a pizza with bacon, artichoke, basil leaves, and onions, for a red, green, and yellow dish.
  • Salads: While most children recoil at leafy greens, a salad with tons of flavors and colors may change their minds. A salad with cucumber, red onion, pinto beans, avocado, chicken, dried cranberries, and a lime-vinaigrette could make any family member clean their plate, presenting greens, reds, yellows, and pinks all in one dish.
We’re working up an appetite just thinking up all these family dinner ideas! Make your kids’ dinner menus more appetizing by implementing more color and variety into your meals.

“Play with your food!”: Table Games and Family Meal Plans

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Studies show that traditions are critical to family happiness and bonding. In fact, family traditions encourage children’s social development and provide schedule and structure to everyone’s life. According to The Pfaltzgraff Co.’s national survey, comprised of over 1,000 married men and women, the daily ritual of eating together at the dinner table is the most important way to strengthen family ties. That’s why allotting one day a week to a fun dinner with a family meal plan, is a great way to bring the whole family together. Here are some games and family meals to go along with them:

  • Play the Critic: Make your kids your food critics when you’re trying out new recipes. Give a “review card” to your kids to get their opinion on new meal plans or create a thumbs up or thumbs down system. This works great with exotic dishes that you’ve never tried before.
  • Murder Mystery: Create a story of murder and assign everyone as the suspects. You can often find murder mystery plots and clues online to help you create your own murder mystery. This game is great for bigger families with older children.
  • Cooking Games: Cook fun family meals, like Smiley Face Soup (with ritz crackers as the eyes and cheese as the mouth), heart-shaped pizza, or dino-shaped grilled cheese sandwiches. All you have to do is cut out the dinosaur shape with an appropriate cookie cutter and make them green with pesto or mix butter with food coloring and put the dino to the grill. Whichever way you choose, you’ll have a green dino-sandwich ready to be attacked by hungry family members.
  • Guess Those Ingredients: Try to make your kids and husband guess the ingredients you put in a casserole, sauce, or sides. Tally up the points and give the winner a special price!
  • Dress Up to Dinner: Throw a theme night and have everyone dress up in costumes to dinner.  Add some meal theme ideas.  Everyone will have so much fun pretending it’s Halloween every Saturday night. Try matching your outfits to your meal plans. For example, if you’re having a Scooby Doo themed night, prepare Scooby snacks (cookies in the shape of bones) for dessert with a bit of ice cream and chocolate fudge.
  • Board Games for Dessert: If you’re not really the “play with your food type,” skip dessert and play trivia or board games after you’re done with your meal. Even a simple board game will promote family unity and make the whole family feel closer.

With theme nights, dress up, and cooking games your kids will be able to express their creativity, even at meal time. More importantly, after just a couple of fun game nights, you’ll feel closer with your family than ever before.

Tips for Preparing and Selecting Family Dinner Menus for a Family Event

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Kids who eat meals with the family are more likely to do well in school, delay sexual activity, eat their vegetables, and even speak articulately. Mealtime socialization helps children learn family values and even more so, “A meal is about civilizing children, It’s about teaching them to be a member of their culture,” says Robin Fox, an anthropologist who teaches at Rutgers University in New Jersey. However it’s not only family time that’s important. General socialization, especially with familiar and helpful adults that may or may not assume a “mentor” position is critical to children’s development of language and social skills.

To really immerse your children in a happy, healthy, social environment, try throwing a backyard barbecue or dinner party every once in a while. If you really want to bring the family together and have your kids feel closer with their family, why not get the whole everyone? Invite brothers, sisters, grandma, grandpa, mom, dad, and various aunts, uncles and cousins over for a dinner party at your place. Dinner parties are not just beneficial to your child’s development, they promote family bonding, allow everyone to catch up, and can be the perfect opportunity to smooth over any conflicts within the family. All you have to do is plan a menu and your dinner event will be well on its way.

Tips for Planning Your Family Event

All you need to do is consider family dinner menus, and pick which ones are best for your family. Here are some tips to decide on a family dinner menu:

  • Try to have something available the second your guest comes in. You don’t want people grasping their stomachs as they wait for the meal to be finished. Try something simple, like crostinis, garlic bread, deviled eggs, or chips and dip for your family dinner menu.
  • Decide whether you want to have a sit-down or buffet style dinner when planning the menu. Buffets offer a variety of foods, so you may have to do a lot more cooking, however with buffet style the host or hostess doesn’t have to serve every guest individually.
  • If you do decide on a sit-down dinner, try to follow the general meal structure of salads, entrees, then desserts when making your family dinner menus. Salads will add some greenery before the meal and desserts will make the family dinner menu feel that much more festive and decadent.
  • Make sure to include salads, greens, and other healthy options for dieters on your family dinner menu. Those who are watching their figures and health will be grateful for your consideration.
  • Also help vegetarians in mind, if you have any vegetarians in the family. For example, if you’re serving sirloin steaks have a stir fry or veggie-based dish to satisfy your vegetarian or vegan guests.
  • Make your family dinner menus ahead of time and plan in advance. You may want to prepare a week-long plan so that you don’t get overwhelmed the day before and the day of the party.
  • Make space for food in your refrigerator before you even start planning out your family dinner menus. Clean out the food in the fridge and ice beverages in an ice chest to make room in the fridge.
  • Remember that you can also use an ice chest to keep things hot if you’re in need of extra storage when you’re preparing the meal.
  • Most importantly: consider your guests! Even if you’re throwing an intimate, family dinner party, be cordial and consider what dishes they would like over your own tastes.

With the help of this guide, hopefully you’ll have no trouble at all pondering family dinner menus and picking the best one for your needs. It’s time to celebrate the whole family coming together. Cheers!