Holy crap! Didn’t I feed you dinner last night?

It’s the bane of every mothers’ existence. The dreaded “What’s for dinner MOM?”.  Somehow, magically, no, let me correct myself, nightmarishly, it seems to ooze out of every kid’s mouth right about the same time you’re thinking “Sh*t, what the heck am I going to cook for dinner tonight?”

A disappointing self awareness and an overload of mom guilt starts to simultaneously invade your soul. How do all the “good” moms pull this off with such flair and finese? What do they do that I don’t? The comparisons start to eat away at whatever semblance of self esteem you once possessed. The dinner demons and those damn photoshopped moms have now settled in for the night.

It’s ok to admit it. We are all human. Nothing has been defrosted for dinner (afterall, that would require some forethought or advanced planning- and who the h*ll can think that far in advance when there are so many other things that need your attention?).

Do you dare venture forth to the grocery store for the third time this week with your hangry kids impatiently whining in the backseat of your car?  Aimlessly roaming the grocery store aisles longing for inspiration is not always the best response to the lack of a dinner plan.

Inevitably, you’ll find yourself  buying your kids’ favovorite foods in a last minute panic only to have them tell you they hate it when presented to them on their dinner plate later that night. Better yet, in your daze, you wind up buying yet another jar of minced garlic because, for the life of you, you can’t recall the other 2 minced garlic jars you already have languishing in your pantry. 

And what was that damn recipe you were supposed to use it in anyway?

Maybe you’ll settle for Taco Tuesday again, even though it’s Wednesday- because you’ve just run out of ideas of what to cook and your brain has moved on to what you will binge watch on Netflix while snuggled up to a nice cabernet once the kids have all gone to bed.

And just when you think you’ll never see a light at the end of a very bleak tunnel, your fingers start to twitch- the gears start to turn-wouldn’t it just be easier to dial up some take-out?

Perhaps you even find yourself vowing to the nutrition goddesses that you will, from now on, make home cooked meals if she lets this mere blip in planning slide just one more time.

Why, oh why, is this our nightly routine? Are we gluttons for punishment. Masochists in Luluemoms? You’d think we’d have learned by now that our family needs to be fed on a regular basis. And yet, we let this drama repeat itself night after tortuous night.

It’s time to put down the bat. Stop beating yourself up. Life doesn’t have to be an endless replay of should ofs, would ofs, if I only knew hows and the proverbial if I only had a personal fairy godmother/personal chef at my beck and call. We can’t all be Martha Stewarts, and truthfully, we don’t want to be. But, wouldn’t it be nice if we had just a smidge of that Ina Garten ease? A touch of that Pioneer Woman’s pull it all together with a big ‘ole grin?

The truth of the matter is no one needs to be a graduate of the Culinary Institute in order to get dinner on the table fast and fabulously while still keeping your sanity. Here are some doable  tips to help you knock your dinner time routine out of the ballpark. No team tryouts required.

Gather a Few Recipes.

You already know how to do this. You’ve ripped out the recipes from magazines, saved your favorite Pins, drooled over your Instagram idols and by now have watched countless hours of crazy Tik Tok cooking videos. Just put them all together in a computer file called Recipes, a notebook with insertable folders or in an old fashioned file folder. Ask your family what they like, what they are willing to try. You only need a few recipes to get cooking. It’s painless. Just get organized.

Look at Your Damn Schedule.

Don’t plan on any heavy duty cooking on afternoons or evenings when you are already fully booked. Duh.

Start With the Basics.

Learn how to do simple roasting, broiling, sauteeing and baking before you attempt the show stoppers.

Batch Cook.

Make more than you need and then use the leftovers for lunch, next night’s dinner, or repurpose them into something else for another night’s meal.

Don’t be afraid to try, don’t be afraid to fail.

Worse comes to worse, your cooking disasters will become the stuff of family legends, provoking laughable memories for years to come. It’s good to be the brunt  of a joke. Laugh along with your family. Your family will not starve to death over a mediocre meal. The laughter will sustain them for a lifetime.

The key to living a luscious life is to just have fun with it.  It’s just a meal damn it. You’d be surprised what gets eaten when everyone is laughing, chatting or playing a family game while enjoying each other’s company at the dinner table. Just don’t blow the dinner time fun by asking, “How was your day” or “What did you do in school today”. Your family’s silent response will be a definite buzz kill regardless of how delicious your meal may be. Of course the ways to spark clever dinner conversations is a tale for another day. Let’s get dinner on the table first.

Do you meal plan in advance or are you a fly by the seat of your pants, I love the adrenaline rush type of meal planner?Be a balaboosta and share your secrets in the comments. We all could benefit from having a knowing how to get dinner on the table with speed and ease.

Looking for some quick and easy food prep hacks to go with your meal plan? You’ll find them HERE