When the extended family arrives to spend a few days you plan meals in advance and have all the ingredients on hand. With ease you cook two or three meals a day and wonder why you can't seem to plan this well the rest of the year. Your mother is worried your kids will never know how good a seven layer casseroles is and you have to admit that the expense of eating out is starting to turn your stomach. Unfortunately, your stomach is growing with that take-out food, despite feeling a bit sick about it all. You may even be one of the many people who have to search online for instructions on how to plan a spaghetti dinner. But with your busy schedule and limited energy, how do you discover the best meal planning approach that will thrive in your family?

Here are five suggestions to get you started:

1. Try a weekly meal exchange with another family in your neighborhood, giving it a trial run for a couple of months. In no time you will see the savings of time and energy, as you just have to make a double batch of your favorite lasagna, and feel the relief that you will receive a meal back another night. Before starting, split the expense of a set of disposable containers and lids that can be traded between the homes.

2. Recreate your favorite restaurant recipes. Search for "copy cat recipes" and soon you will be baking up a batch of Red Lobster's garlic cheese biscuits and a Bloomin' Onion. Just search online for the words "copy cat recipes" or "top secret recipes." Your family will quickly be saying they want to stay home and eat from your kitchen, which is a step toward creating healthy meal plans for teens who don't want to make time for a family dinner any more.

3. Consider trying a meal preparation service like Dream Dinners. For a set price, you go in and choose meals based on your family's likes, dislikes, eating restrictions, and budget. Then you prepare the meals right there and package them up to bring them home to your freezer. The result? Fast healthy dinner plans and finished meals. The cost may be a bit more than if you did it in your own kitchen, but it's significantly less than eating out and much healthier. It's a good chance to learn how to cook better too.

4. Don't be tempted to buy entire meals of take-out, but rather mix up a large meal from your favorite restaurant with partially prepared meals at home. For example, it's inexpensive to prepare a huge Greek salad with dressing, olives and feta cheese. Then stop by your local Greek restaurant and order a large side order of Gyro meat. You'll get more for your money and also feel like you're treating yourself to something that is hard to prepare at home.

5. It can be hard to get motivated to organize your meal planning, but once you do, you may wonder how you ever lived without it. Feel free to figure out what works best for your tastes, schedule and amount of energy. For example, could you easily make a double batch of that marinated chicken and freeze half for another night? Online you can find dinner menu planning software systems or a blank print out of a weekly meal plan. Perhaps plan by breaking down the dinners by style of foods. For example, plan six night's meals as: one - sandwich; one - beef; one - salad; one - poultry; and two - fish.

The last step is to start flipping through magazines, dusting off those old cookbooks, and taking a poll of your family member's favorite meals. Then start your planning and grocery list. Within just a few days you will likely have at least twenty recipes and that can get you through about six weeks of meals. And forgo taking all the responsibility for meals. Make everyone get involved by making the kids responsible for one meal a week; bribe your spouse to accompany you to a Dream Dinner style meal preparation jaunt. In no time your dinner blues will disappear and leave you with a wonderful feeling of accomplishment . . . and relief!