Menu planning

I'm not good at menu planning. I realize that I am the mom and that in many cultures I am supposed to be good at this but I'm not - Deal with it.

Actually, I think I used to be better at it. I like experimenting. I think that's my problem. When I hit the mom years of having to have dinner on the table in 30/40 minutes after an 8 hour workday and 2 hour commute all of your, at least my, creative juices were dried up. We started eating the same ol' same ol' over and over again. Add to that 2 picky eaters (hubby and 15) and I think I just gave up and when I found 10 meals that all four of us ate they just became the staple menu items.

Sure once in a while I would get bored and break out and make something exotic like a stuffed shells or jambalaya but only half of us would enjoy it. The other half usually ended up filling themselves with a bowl of cereal after dinner. I have tons of cookbooks. I heart cookbooks! and then there's the internet which has limitless amounts of recipes. I read through them and think -they won't eat that and get frustrated. That explains why I experiment so much when company is coming or when I have to take a dish to someone else's house.

Hilda loaned me one of The Barefoot Contessa's cookbooks the other day. It has some very basic recipes in there. I will of course eat any and all of them. It makes me want to make something new. So, I handed the book to hubby and told him to find something he'd eat. He found 2 whole recipes in the whole friggin book! and neither of them is new! One is for chicken wings and the other is for a breaded boneless chicken breast one of the coatings is Parmesan cheese - I've done that before. So, yeah fine, I didn't use her precise combination of spices for the chicken wings but they are basically BBQ wings which I've done both fried and in the oven. I guess I'll make them again soon just to change things up cuz it has been a while.

I wonder do most people plan menus for the week?