Food glorious food!

If I ever stop to calculate how many meals I have made for my family over the years and how much time I spend shopping, storing, searching for new recipes.....and throwing away old leftovers I think you would hear my primal scream for miles! I have yet to master the art of food. Although I do have more success than failures now (after 20 years) I would still opt for a hired chef to take care of all those details if I were ever rich and famous!

To add to the complication I have a husband (wonderful as he is) who has a nutty schedule and can seemingly go for days without really eating. He runs his own companies and spends most if his day lost in the complexity of running his day to day operations. Anyone in my position knows that means there is no real work schedule....work just happens every minute of every day....which has made it a challenge to plan meal time schedules with any regularity.

In addition I have a wonderful 17 year old son who has been a competitive gymnast for most of his life. His weekly workout routine would put most serious athletes to shame. He has always had a waxing and waning (mostly waning) appetite. This makes it hard for him to eat too much before or after a work out. He boils down to needing several small meals a day which never coincide with the regular meal times I try to establish for the rest of my family.

How have you managed to personalize a meal plan that works for your family and doesn't have you always eating out? I dont want to be the mom who has the kids run out and get into the car when ever she announces that its time to eat! I also hate wasting food or spending an inordinate amount of time preparing food that no one is hungry enough to eat. It is never a good thing if I am the only one hungry at dinner time!

I often end up buying the pre prepared meals from Fresh and Easy which are as the store name suggests...."fresh" and "easy". Sometimes I end up grocery shopping several times a week because it is too hard to know who will be home and who will need to be fed. We have a grill and I like to get certain meats to freeze so we can whip up a last minute BBQ. Many times my husband will come into the kitchen at 10 pm suddenly starving for dinner so I have a lot of canned chicken and tuna on hand and I can put together a pretty decent meal in ten minutes or less.

What have you done that works for you and your family? Do you have any practical, favorite web sites that have really helped you with your meal planning and food use?