What's for dinner?

I write this as I sit down with the rest of a box of girl scout cookies...the $4 sirloin was not so appetizing this evening, despite my best efforts.  

Every week I sit down to plan a menu of dinners for the next week and make out my grocery list.  I have a big binder full of recipes that I have cut out of old Cooking Light magazines or pages that I have printed off the internet from various cooking sites.  The first chore is to find something that I feel like making AND eating.  Hmmm...what do I feel like this week?  Once I finally figure that out and get some main courses written down, I move on to the kids...  

I think Jack's eating habits are amazing, but mostly frustrating.  And dinner is his worst meal.  I really think someone could do a study on his eating habits, but it could very well have no conclusions.  I'm very, very lucky if I can get him to eat the same dinner we are eating.  I try not to make special meals for him, but if it is the difference between eating and not eating, sometimes I do.  I've read many, many tips on how to get kids to eat and I've got the cookbook on how to sneak veggies into the food.  Except he doesn't really eat those things...it's hard to sneak anything into plain pasta.  Pizza and pasta are usually the only dinner-type food he will eat.  I'm on a never-ending quest to get vegetables into him...trying to cook them different ways, hide them, dips, etc.  Luckily he loves fruit.  Today for dinner, he ate 3 apples, some cucumbers dipped in dressing and some banana Teddy Grahams.  Not much of a dinner...but I'm actually excited because he ate a vegetable and I'm proud of myself for thinking to put a salad dressing "dip" with it.  

As for Casey, she is not as picky as Jack yet, but there are only so many vegetables that she eats and one of them (peas) is the only one Pat won't eat.  

So basically, I get a main course and then I try to figure out what Casey might eat and then I hope Jack is not too hungry.  :) And really, he isn't usually that hungry for dinner anyway.  Might have something to do with the 2 or 3 peanut butter and jellies that he eats for lunch.  

Despite the difficulties of planning the menu, the time spent doing it saves me a lot of time at dinner.  I know that I've gotten everything I need at the grocery store and I just have to check my menu and see what's for dinner.  No more sitting around at 5pm and wondering what to make and hoping there's something in the fridge.  Now if dinner's not on the table, it's not because I have nothing to make...it's because Jack and Casey seem to get weirdly clingy as soon as I enter the kitchen.  

Oh, and of Jack's 3 apples today, he probably only really ate 1 1/2.  They were cut up and he tends to steer pretty clear of the peels.  Tugger enjoys the peels though.