Save Money By Cooking At Home

By L. David Thomas

Today most women work out of the home. Yet even with two incomes coming in, there are a lot of households that are struggling to make ends meet. One great thing we can do to solve the money crunch is to stop eating out so much and do more cooking at home. It is estimated that families and singles eat out an average of four meals per week. That is an increase of 23% from just a few years ago.

Why is this happening? It certainly isn't healthier to be eating more of our meals out. One of the biggest reasons we are eating out more is because of the time issue that is involved in fixing our own meals. First you have to go to the grocery store to pick up what you need for your meal, then you have to bring it home and actually cook it. It can just be more than we want to deal with after a long day at work with the kids screaming.

There are some things we can do to make eating at home almost as easy as eating out. First you need to take a little time make a meal plan for the week. As you are making your plan, make a list of what you are going to need from the store. Take your list with you and get all of your groceries in one trip so you don't have to take the time to go again later in the week.

When you have some spare time on the weekend, sit down and make a menu for the week. This doesn't mean you are locked in and can't change your plans, but it will help you with not wasting food and cut prep time later in the week. When you plan your menu, coordinate your meals so you can use "leftovers" for a couple of your meals. For instance, buy a larger beef pot roast, eat it one night with the standard vegetables, and a night or two later make a quick beef stroganoff served with noodles or rice. No one will ever know it is leftovers and it only took minutes to prepare.

You can also do the same type of thing with a pork roast. Serve the roast pork on night and then make another meal later like sweet and sour pork or make barbequed pork sandwiches. The possibilities are endless. Cook once and get two or three or four meals out of it. If you don't think you can eat the larger roast in a few days, go ahead and throw your stroganoff or your sweet and sour pork together and freeze it for another week. I don't recommend just freezing the leftover roast without having it ready to eat in a finished dish because you will simply look at it when it is frozen and think "I should have thawed that out so I could use it today". If your beef is already cut up and already has the gravy and the mushrooms, you can thaw it out in minutes in the microwave while your noodles or rice is cooking and dinner is set.

To speed up vegetable prep time, don't be afraid to buy some of the pre-packaged lettuce, but be sure to use it up rather quickly. They don't seem to last very long. Or you might try cutting your lettuce ahead and use your vacuum sealer or some of the new vegetable bags that retard spoilage. The prepackage cabbage lasts a lot longer than the lettuce. Try it on your tacos and other dishes you might not have thought of. It gives tacos and dishes a real crunch you might like better than lettuce.

Check out websites and cookbooks to get ideas. For example, buy a roasted chicken and use the leftovers to make a chicken salad the next day. Or use the leftovers to make a chicken sandwich to take to lunch the next day. If you have steak one evening, use what is leftover to make fajitas the next day. You get the idea....

Another way to save time is to cook extra on the weekends. If you make lasagne, make extra and freeze it for a meal next week. Keep things simple. Sometimes the kids will be happy with frozen pizza or hot dogs and macaroni and cheese. There are many simple recipes out there that are amazingly simple and delicious.

For more tips on home cooking and recipes go to www.cookingandrecipes.smmsite.com.

There are lots of free recipes and tons of ideas to great food.

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