Planning Ahead Helps Avoid Dinner Disaster

Thanks to challenger Diporter for sharing some of the cook at home tips that help her family successfully eat, and snack, healthier!

I love to cook but for a while our schedules were so busy that it seemed so much easier to eat out rather than to cook. After realizing the true cost of eating out – to our wallets and our waists – we decided that we somehow had to cook at home. To do this I started using a menu that I type up and post each Sunday. I try to cook using what we have on hand in the freezer (chicken/fresh pasta/ Sauces) combined with fresh veggies. I have even started making marinades to freeze chicken in so we do not get tired of this healthy meat.

I’ve also started cooking ahead – freezer cooking, so to speak – and keeping homemade meals in the freezer so we can grab them for lunches if we do not have leftovers, or if we need a quick meal because of various meetings that come up.

My husband is a volunteer fireman so there really isn’t a set schedule for him. If the pager goes off, he’s outta here. To help him with that, I made 9 quarts of homemade granola that he can grab as he’s going out the door to hold him over until he returns for dinner. This helps keep him from going out with the guys to a fast food joint after a fire call. He comes home for home-cooked dinners instead.

We feel better, have more energy, and have spent less money on each meal than we did when we went out. We’ve even gotten our friends involved, and instead of going out they contribute to a meal I cook at our house, which keeps costs down for all of us and we can sit and talk as long as we like without feeling guilty or without the bother of other people around.