When I went back to work after having my kids I would literally be crying at 6:30 pm every night. My kids were cranky, tired and starving. I never had the right ingredients for things I wanted to cook. Everything I cooked before took so long. My husband was super picky and complained about everything I proposed, so we would be negotiating or even fighting about it every night.
A friend told me that she and her family would plan a month's worth of menus in advance so everyone got a say in what they had for dinner, she always had a plan and always had the right ingredients on hand.... I thought she was nuts. How could you plan an entire month of dinners?! She gave me access to her google calendar meal schedule and I started plugging along with her. What do you know, it's not so hard and it works!! This really saved my life. I don't cook like this right now, but I did for 6-8 months. Just getting in the habit of planning and organizing entire meals instead of buying random things at the supermarket changed my life.
I love Women's Day month of menus:
http://www.womansday.com/Artic.....h-of-Menus!.html
They are all really simple recipes that are quick and have few ingredients. I never follow them day by day but it helps me stay organized. I know a lot of these are meat based, but I find it easy to swap out a few ingredients to tailor it to something my family would prefer to eat.
