Too much whine with dinner? Tired of “What’s for dinner?” and the groaning that accompanies your response? Or have you gone completely insane trying to please everyone by making a few different things each night? Ugh. There’s a better way, my friend. A better way . . .

When I was growing up there were two options for dinner: Take it or Leave it.

Yeah . . . that didn’t work in my house.

So, I came up with a different plan: I asked my family what they wanted to eat.

I will admit, dinner in our house used to be a stressful power struggle. I hated dinnertime. Nothing I cooked made anyone happy. That is, until I began including everyone in planning the meals. Thankfully, our kids like vegetables and fruit, plus all the other stuff that most everyone likes – and even a few things out of the ordinary. So when I asked them for meal ideas, they all chimed in with their favorites. Over the past few years or so, they’ve taken an active part in planning dinners for the upcoming week and we posted the menu on a whiteboard attached to our fridge so that everyone could see it. I’ve also taken some time to peruse the 100 unused cookbooks in my cabinet and proposed some different things based on what they enjoy. Some were added to the ‘favorites’ list, others weren’t. But we encouraged our kids to at least try something new and they ended up developing a taste for some interesting recipes . . . and dinnertime has become much more harmonious.

So, if you’re looking to remove some of the stress and aggravation from family meals, try asking your family what they would like to eat. Put the plate in front the them and ask them to fill it. In doing so, you’re not only taking some of the pressure off of yourself by having to create the menu all the time, but you’re taking away their opportunity to complain. If they choose what to eat, then they can’t complain about what’s being served.