- A balanced dinner menu usually includes several courses. Gourmet dinners can start with an appetizer and cocktails. More typical dinners begin with a salad or soup and bread. This is followed by the main course of meat, fish, or vegetable protein. Sides of cooked vegetables and a starch like rice, pasta, or potatoes accompany the main course on the same plate. The last course at dinner is dessert. To make the dinner menu balanced, include green leafy vegetables, a yellow vegetable, and limit the fat. If you serve a rich cream based soup, for example, end the meal with a dish of fresh strawberries instead of a heavy cake. Make sure that you include a variety of textures and colors so that the meal will be appealing to the eyes as well as delicious.
- Once you have decided on the menu for your dinner, check the recipes for each course to make a master shopping list. If you plan a week of dinners at once, it can save money to use similar ingredients in more than one meal. For example, plan to cook a turkey dinner on Sunday. Then plan a turkey pot pie for the next day. Cook down the bones for broth that you can freeze as the start of next week's hardy turkey noodle soup. Consider which parts of the dinner can be prepared in advance. You can chop onions, peppers, and mushrooms hours ahead of time as well as shred cheese. Store the prepared ingredients covered in the refrigerator until you are ready to cook them. You can also set the table in advance to be ready for your guests.
- Use the recipes to decide how far in advance of the time you want to serve dinner you need to preheat the oven and start cooking. The goal is for everything to be ready at the same time. Hot foods should be piping hot, and foods you plan to serve cold should be sufficiently chilled. Allow for the time it takes to heat water for pasta in addition to the 10 or 12 minutes it needs to cook. If you are not a natural multitasker, take that into account when planning the menu.
- How you serve the dinner sets the mood for the meal even more than the food. Family style is the least formal way to serve dinner. Each course is placed in the center of the dining table in a large serving dish or on a platter. Then the diners pass the dishes around the table, serving themselves the amount they wish to eat of each choice. Another way to serve dinner is to set out a buffet. Place each food in a serving dish or on a platter. Arrange the courses so that they are easy to reach on a counter. The diners walk past the counter, stopping to take a portion of each dish that they like. Then they carry their plate to the dining table where their silverware and beverage is at their place. The most formal way to plan to serve dinner is to seat the diners around the table and bring their food to them already plated as in a restaurant.
