Meal Planning

In an effort to kind of stream line some chores around the house, hubby and I decided to take a new approach to meal planning. He likes to cook and he likes to eat so I usually leave the decision of what we are going to eat up to him. On his days off he usually cooks because he is a fabulous cook and will make a dinner that is out of the ordinary. (I am very, very thankful for this!!) He and I don't fuss at each other about much but when the question of "What's for dinner?" comes up or "Make out a grocery list" things can get a little touchy. It is always such a chore to figure out dinners and grocery lists. I had come up with the idea of a set menu for two weeks and just keep rotating that. We knew what we would be having to eat every night and the grocery list wouldn't change much. It works for me. I am not a big eater and I hate to cook and I am not a big fan of the grocery store. But hubby didn't really like the idea. He wanted something not so rigid and that had more variety. About a year ago (probably longer than that) a friend of mine told me about a mom who had a menu made up of all the meals they eat. On Sunday hubby could go through it and pick what he wanted for the week. (Kind of like the hospital) Well, that was the solution. Hubby like the idea and was willing to try it out yesterday. So, let me tell you how it worked. I spent about an hour writing out a meal list and then typing it in a chart on the computer. I printed it off. Hubby came in and said "Get me a grocery list." I showed him his meal list and he went back out to the garage to work on his end table. So, about 45 minutes later he comes back in because the girls have to go to choir and says he is going to the grocery store, where is the list. I, politely as I could, told him I didn't have a list because he never filled out the menu for the week. And, again, politely as I could, asked him to fill out the sheet. In a rush he filled out the menu sheet and the grocery list and off he went. So as we were wrapping up the evening last night I checked what was for dinner. It happened to be meatloaf. I check with him to see if he had gotten all the ingredients to make meatloaf (I do make a killer meatloaf ;) So as I was running through the recipe it came to our attention that even though he had checked meatloaf on our meal planner we didn't have everything we needed for the meal (including bakers etc.). So much for our new plan ;) I think it is a good plan. We just need to work out the kinks. I think it will save us time, money and aggravation in the very near future. Tonight we are having leftovers . . .