Wednesday, August 26, 2009

What's for dinner?

I love to experiment and try new recipes, but with a busy life and 3 kids, I can no longer wing it at dinner time. I have an excel spreadsheet with my 3 week rotations. The three week rotation is a chore rotation for the kids. Each child has a particular chore for a week. They swap jobs on Sundays. The first rotation is finished. I've used it for 15 weeks and loved it. I am ready for variety though and am starting another 3 week rotation. My hope is to compile 4 of these so I can adjust the menu seasonally to take advantage of fresh produce and lower prices. I have found that I spend less money on groceries if I stick with my menu. It is generic enough I don't get too bored, but specific enough I can make sure I have the ingredients on hand for the week's meals. The second 3 week rotation is a work in progress. I'm not too excited with it at the moment so please feel free to leave comments and suggestions. I'd like to add in a cooking night per week per child and my older kids want to start making a family lunch a few times a week. Ideally they'll plan and prepare that meal.

For some reason I can't figure out how to post an excel spreadsheet to my blog, anyone know how to do this?