Creating a List of Meals Your Family Loves!

Has meal planning ever been a stressor in your life?  It definitely has been in mine.  I might even go so far as to say it has been my nemesis!

I used to enjoy it.  I would spread out all my cookbooks, go through them carefully looking for just the right recipes to try, and then write them in the appropriate spot on my list of Breakfasts, Lunches, and Dinners for the month.  (Yes, I used to plan meals a month at a time!  Learn how I did this in my post on Getting Started with Monthly Shopping).  However, somewhere along the road…I’d say about the time I had #7…I lost my meal planning moxie. (imagine that)

Now, if you go over to my Large Family Meal Planning page, you’ll see all sorts of meal planning ideas, but one thing that really helps a mom out of a rut is having a set of go-to meals that everyone loves.  That’s right – I said EVERYONE.

Those of you with a couple of kids have a way huge advantage over those of us with larger-than-average families here, but I am a firm believer that you CAN make a list of meals everyone loves, and learn how to create a meal plan from those meals no matter how many people are in your household!

Let me show you how!

{Don’t want to read?  Listen to the podcast!}

Watch this video on making a simple family menu plan!

How to Make a List of Meals Everyone Loves

Start by writing down all the meals you can remember that you *think* were enjoyed by *most* of your family.  Think back over what you ate last week, the week before, what foods do you tend to buy, and what do you tend to make with those ingredients?  You don’t need to organize this list, you don’t need to rate it or categorize it or anything.  Just brain dump your meals.

Next, you are going to sit down with your family, BUT (and this is crucial) not with all of them all at once!  They will feed off each other (no pun intended).  Meaning, if one kid says, “I don’t like that,” another one is sure to follow. (ask me how I know)  If you can meet with each person separately, do it, but if that’s too hard (or too time-consuming in my case), then gather a couple at a time.  Ones who think for themselves well are good ones to group together.

And here’s where the magic begins!

You are going to ask them to vote on the meals you have listed!  They vote Yes or No.  Not “meh” or “maybe” or anything else wishy-washy.  It’s all in or no go.  (A quick disclaimer:  I do take note of the “maybes” because if that’s the only down vote, the meal can go on another list I’ll mention in a moment…)

In order for a meal to stay on the list, it has to have ALL YES VOTES.  When my kids voted, I went ahead and made a column for YES and a column for NO and used tally marks to keep track.  That way I could see just how NO a meal was, which was disturbingly eye-opening.  There were meals I was certain my family loved that clearly, they did not.  (*sigh*)

After they have voted on all the meals, ask them if there are any meals they think should have been on the list.  This was very helpful, because I found that if one or two kids mentioned a meal, the rest typically liked it as well.  We also voted on those meals so it was completely fair.  Most of the kid-selected meals made the list.

The last step is type it out, print it out, and keep it wherever you typically do your meal planning.  I really tried to shoot for 30 meals my kids loved, but initially I fell short of that.  However, a few weeks into this type of planning, my kids were throwing out new suggestions that we quickly voted on and added to the list!  I now have well over 30!

What about a meal plan for your picky eaters?

While I try to accommodate all my kids, I don’t believe a particularly picky eater should rule the menu plan.  I give them a vote, but if a particular dish gets all YES votes, and theirs is the only dissenting vote, then it stays on the list.  You may want to exclude your picky eater entirely if you think it will be easier to get a solid plan in place.  I figure there will be enough sides for them to survive, and I want them to keep trying dishes they don’t like every so often anyway.

What about meals not on the list?

OK, remember when I said I take note of the “maybes” on the list?  Well, if there are enough “maybes” for a particular dish, I will put it in an Occasional section on the Family Favorites Meal List.  You can see what I mean here:

See that Occasional section down there…that’s a meal I really like and one my oldest daughter really likes.  Most everyone else gave these meals a “meh”…but they will eat it.  So, every so often, those two meals get made so Megan and I can have a little treat.

You might also notice I have included side dishes with most of the meals on my list of family favorites.  I’m a little inept when it comes to figuring out sides on the fly, so I decided it would be very helpful for me to have sides already in place for each meal.  These were NOT voted on.  (Several of these recipes are included on my Large Family Recipes page, with more being added!)

Related post: Large Family Meal Planning

If you are looking for other rotating meal planning ideas, try this 30 day rotating planner, or this 2-week rotation, or give up and have the same thing every week!