- Don’t call your supper menu a menu. Call it a rotation. “This recipe was so good, I added it to my dinner rotation.” It feels so Family-Tabley, it’s going to turn the task of cleaning chicken into the coolest activity.
- Once you’ve swapped the word menu for rotation, do not add recipes to your supper — make that dinner— rotation. You can change how you refer to things in your house and get away with it. You cannot change the tried-and-true meals you’ve been serving your family for years and get away with it.
- Start cooking late. As late in the day as possible. I know you think you’ll enjoy getting a head start and then knowing that supper is out of the way, but trust me, I can tell you from experience that it’s never out of the way. If you start early, you’ll basically be cooking supper all day. The cutlets have to be fried fresh, and you’re not reheating roasted potatoes if your kids actually like them roasted. What exactly are you “putting up” early?
- Leave over a little of whatever you made the day before for the kid who won’t touch what you’re making today. I guess some kids do prefer reheated roasted potatoes over anything you’re making today. I’m not saying names.
- Always keep a pack of frozen French fries in the freezer.
Now for the actual rotation. It’s a one-week rotation, unless you’re looking to complicate your life and run into serious bal tashchis sh’eilos.
The week starts on Monday because that’s the first business day of the week, and guess what? Cooking supper for your family is serious business. There are investments, and of course returns, although perhaps not desired ones.
Disclaimer: I shall not mention any vegetable sides since I understand this is a sensitive topic in many households. If you/your husband/your kids polish off their broccoli and officially snack on cauliflower, quietly count your blessings. Very quietly.
Okay, here goes:
Monday
Monday is schnitzel. Breaded, fried chicken cutlets, or else. Any kid — at least according to the perfectly logical brain of my seven-year-old son — who comes home from school on a Monday to anything but breaded, fried chicken cutlets is being deprived of a basic human right. You don’t want that on your conscience.
