Looking at a week's worth of cooking for the family can be tough. You're driving home from work and you think, What’s for Dinner!?! Menu planning takes basic organizational skills beginning with visualizing how your week is filled; baseball games, piano lessons, soccer practice etc.

Determine all the meals you will need to provide for the week. Now fill out a grocery list. Begin your list with the easy meals, the routine ones like breakfast, that doesn’t change very often. Cereal, eggs, bagels, and milk. Don’t forget the complementing staples like jam, butter or orange juice. Lunches are very often the same.

Dinners, on the other hand, are where you can be more creative. I use cookbooks, trade magazines or ideas from customers and colleagues. It is important to consider the time it will take you to prepare a meal. Some meals are 30 minutes, others can take more time.

I lay all of my pans on the cooking surface, organize my ingredients and off I go!
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Weeknight dinners for four that begin at 7 o’clock when you just got home at 6 o’clock can be intimidating. Start off by trying stir-fry dishes, pasta dishes, and salad entrees.

Dinner for two can be a little more creative with quick marinades, Brie encroute, encrusting seafood, herb and spice blending for poultry and beef. The weekend offers more time for food preparation and perhaps time to do some cooking and freezing to give you a head start for the next week. After choosing your menus for the week, be sure you've listed all the needed ingredients on your grocery list. Keep your weekly plan and grocery list with you for reference when you go shopping.

As professional chefs, we are taught several aspects of a good menu:

• Change the texture, temperature, color, sweetness, saltiness, and spiciness of your dishes. If your salad tastes like your entrée and sides…drab! Give your guests a palate pleasing and interesting meal.
• Change up your preparation method: sautéed, boiled, steamed, roasted grilled etc... Grilled strip steak, served with roasted potatoes, and steamed veggies.
• If your center of the plate (often the Entrée) is spicy and hot, cool it with a side dish.
• Consider how each dish will present. I often draw pictures of my dish presentation.
• Begin the meal with lighter flavors, adding bolder ones with each course.
• Do not serve too much on a plate.
• Try not to duplicate flavor notes from one course to another.
• Good menu planning is based on balancing the foods you eat. When choosing foods, consider how many calories are in each serving. Learn about the amount of saturated fat, total fat, cholesterol and sodium these foods may add to your daily menu. Choose foods low in saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol and sodium

Wondering how to encourage your children to eat healthier?
There are several ways to get your kids to eat better. One is getting them involved in meal planning. Some other ways are:

• Keep cut up veggies in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. Keep apples, bananas and oranges in convenient places. Introduce varieties of the same fruit, not the same ol’ same ol’. If you give your kid enough chances to try new foods, you will usually find something they like.
• When you’re trying new food, make sure your kids like what is on the plate next to the new food.
• All kids love dessert. Try healthy ones like fresh berries topped with yogurt instead of ice cream, air popped popcorn instead of cookies, dried fruit instead of candy.
• Add fruit to their morning cereal.
• Serve juice as a beverage.
• Kids love to cook and get their hands in their food. That's a great opportunity to let them mix marinades, spice blends, cut up fruit, and muffin batter.
• Kids love to dip their food. Try applesauce as a dip, or yogurt and cottage cheese.

Lead by example. If you set a good example of healthy food choices, then your kids will follow your lead!