Let me begin by letting you know that I am not a gourmet chef. I'm just an "ordinary mom" who wants to write a cookbook to help other busy moms and dads become more organized and prepared for weekly evening meals. I'm sure you've been in that situation when it's suddenly 6 p.m. and you find yourself standing in the kitchen and staring into the cupboards with that blank look, wondering what to cook for dinner. A friend of mine told me how dinnertime became so much easier when she created a weekly menu, along with a list of the necessary ingredients. The preplanning took the guesswork out of making dinner every night. I thought this sounded like a great idea, so I copied her suggestion. I actually started to enjoy cooking, especially with a glass of wine in hand. One day as I was creating ideas for meals and writing down ingredients, I thought to myself, "If I'm benefiting from this dinner menu planning, I bet my friends would too." When I asked my friends if they liked cooking, the most common answer was, "I don't mind the cooking part, but I can't stand figuring out what to make every night. I'm tired after working all day, the kids are hungry and I don't have the faintest idea what to prepare." Creating menus for a whole week is work in itself so I decided to compile my menus in order to share them with you. And so, this cookbook was born.