“Mom, I’m tired of spaghetti and meatballs,” Josh whined. It was Tuesday night, and it was swap time with Becky’s friend Felicia. At first Josh happily dug in Felicia’s spaghetti smothered in freshly blended tomatoes, drizzled with cheese and topped with plump meatballs but after 4 straight weeks, Becky thought that maybe she should tell Felicia about it. But she didn’t want to lose a dinner group member and a good friend at that.

Have you ever encountered such a problem? Maybe you’ve been in the dinner group for a long time already and had actually become the kind of member Felicia was. You hear groans instead of seeing happy smiles on your husband’s and kids’ faces. The solution? Set a monthly theme for your dinner group! Collect cookbooks of other countries’ dishes such as Mexican, Indian, or something exotic such as Filipino or Thai cuisine. The possibilities are truly endless! Surfing the net can also help you plan out your theme. Make sure of course, that you assign a different dish to each member to avoid duplication. And don’t worry about not finding the ingredients; in this age of globalization, finding a once hard to find ingredient is a whiz and of course you can always try to experiment on your own.