Most days lately I literally have zero minutes of time to myself and if I don't have some sort of plan ahead of time- then we would never eat dinner. Seriously. With 7 dinners at home a week- that's a lot of food. We don't eat out very often because of a)Money and b) We have two babies...it's sometimes more work than fun! That said- we do build this in sometimes or if we are spontaneous then I'll just do the dinner that was planned a different night- no prob!
So....I print off a monthly calendar and try to plan 1-2 weeks at a time of meals (or if I'm really ambitious longer). I plan this based off what I have in my stockpile, what's in my freezer, what's left in my pantry, and of course what sounds good haha. Looking at past month's calendars definitely helps as I remember which meals we liked most.
You will also want to build in dinners of Left Overs if applicable, see if you can use the main dish from one meal to create a new dish the next day, etc. Do what it takes to get dinner on the table.
I have a plethora of cook books and magazines, too, that I occasionally look through to glean new recipes. Those 90% of you with smart phones can access a plethora of recipe apps. And...by far my favorite recipe website right now is www.weelicious.com. It has lots of ideas for tots and kids- but stuff for the whole family. I like how you can search by type of food- gluten free, dairy free, etc. Our dinners have to be gluten free and mostly dairy free for the hubby- so this helps if I'm stuck on new ideas! And best of all- the site is about healthy, wholesome foods w/o all the additives,etc. I'm beginning to like to make things from scratch and I'm beginning to like to bake even. It's weird, really. In the last couple of years we removed High Fructose Corn syrup and artificial sweeteners from our diet. This year I'd like to use more whole wheat (though not for Aaron...how about brown rice?) and eat more vegetables!
Anyways....I'm one of those people that organizes her grocery list based off store section:
Produce
Bulk
Deli
Dairy
Frozen
Boxed/Canned
Going shopping with a baby and a two year old.....I don't have time to waste and I don't have time to think about what's for dinner while at the store. So planning ahead is a must. I have tried the last two WinCo trips to get two weeks of groceries which was nice because it meant less grocery shopping and it forced me to be creative and use foods up..... but I found this to be a ludicrous endeavor and one not to be attempted a third time. It's just too long of a trip with both boys- while packing the 15 lb baby around, pushing the toddler in the cart, not to mention all the loading, unloading, bagging, and unloading of groceries into the car with same baby in the front pack. Anyways...you just have to figure out a system that works for you in your season of life.
Every night I peak at the calendar to see what I'm making the next night. I'll take out what I need from the freezer. Last night I even prepped the veggies for today's crock pot meal just b/c I didn't think I would have time this morning. And I was right...b/c both boys got up at the same time. I'll work on a little bit of food prep during the day as I have time so that come 5:00 I'm not starting from ground zero.
One meal we had this week:
Crock pot rotisserie style chicken with yellow sweet potato fries, spinach walnut salad, and grapefruit (not pictured).
Favorite veggie of the week was brought to my mind because I helped a friend make baby food a few weeks ago and we used the yellow sweet potato/yams. So yummy! 
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