If you're anything like me, you need to have a plan. It doesn't matter if I'm having people over or running errands -- if I don't make a plan, I wind up eating cereal for dinner. And while I'm okay with having breakfast for dinner every so often, my family is not. So, I've started to plan ahead.

Every Monday my son and I go to the market to do all the grocery shopping for the whole week. It takes a couple of hours, but I have everything I need so that when Friday night comes around, all I need to do is pull out the ingredients I bought earlier and make a delicious dinner without running around like a chicken with my head cut off.

I never used to plan meals ahead of time because I rarely used to be home for dinner, but now that I'm home most nights to have dinner with the family, making a plan has saved my sanity. Give it a try next week. Who knows -- maybe you'll enjoy making dinner instead of loathing it.

Monday: Chicken, ham and swiss roulades

Tuesday: Steak and pesto

Wednesday: Cheesy turkey mushroom bake

Thursday: Fennel and shrimp risotto

Friday: Dijon salmon cakes