Ideas to Keep the Family Dinner Menu Fresh

The ideal meal is nutritious, relatively simple and quick to prepare, and will appeal to a variety of eaters. However, with today's busy schedules, it's easy to fall in a cooking rut and end up with the same 10 meals all of the time or an excess amount of take out dinners. With limited time (and often funds) what are some of the best places to find new meal ideas, or even dinner itself?

Ask Others

Word of mouth is one of the most effective ways to get ideas for what to feed your family. People like to talk about their favorites, and likely would like to hear suggestions to add to their weekly repertoire. Many of these family dinners are just a variation on old stand-bys but a new twist is enough to re-charge the tired day-in-day-out menu. For instance, instead of spaghetti with marinara sauce, serve egg noodles with olive oil and veggies. Just talking about what kinds of things you typically serve can spark ideas for how to change them. And a friend or co-worker might have a completely new idea for a fast and easy dinner.

Online Forums

Go on any parenting or pregnancy message board and one of the hot topics is virtually guaranteed to "what's for dinner tonight" or "quick meals for toddlers, please share." Yes, people are interested in what others are eating, but mostly they want to get ideas for what they can feed their growing families. Because of this, message boards are a terrific place to get information about what other families are having for dinner, and even instructions for how to make the meal. One woman's old-standby (i.e. veggie burger or hummus and pita) is another woman's new star meal. The beauty of this venue is the posters are likely in similar situations (i.e. suffering from morning sickness, transitioning young eaters to solid foods, or with a houseful of school-age children) and can make recommendations based on that point in time.

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