Homemade meals

[freedomv]

Working Mom Meal Plan

Hate to admit it, but we don't eat at home nearly as much as we should be much more than we use to. 10 hr work days and working 2 jobs at times puts a damper on my creative cooking juices.

[freedomv]

Working Mom Meal Plan contd

Also meant to say that years ago I found 2 cookbooks that have been great helps to me over the years. One is called "Desperation Dinners" meals that you can go from start to table in about 20 minutes. That was music to my and my hungry kiddos ears.

2nd books is called Once a Month cooking. While I never quite got it together to truely do the method once a month, it did get my noggin' cranking and I consolidated some of my cooking to save on time and energy. The basic premise in this book is to spend a day or weekend of the month cooking up and dividing out the meat, etc. [like ground beef for 5 different recipes] that are then assembled into various dishes and packaged to go in the freezer. Then when you are going to use that meal you only need to do some fairly quick final prep/or reheat, include any sides (i.e. bread, canned veggies, salad) to round out the meal.

[fruitbowlk]

I like to cook and it does save a lot of money but since a couple of months, i am getting lazy to cook..

You can always use a crockpot.

[EarlyRetirementJoy]

We eat at home six out of seven nights. I plan out my weekly menu with my calendar in hand, so I know which nights are feasible for more involved meals, and which nights need to be quick and easy due to prior plans.

I also freeze one-dinner servings on a fairly regular basis, so that on nights when things get out of control, I can simply pull something out and toss it in the microwave.

One thing I do that might be helpful to others, is to keep a rectangular Tupperware-type container in my fridge with all of our salad ingredients - lettuce, tomato, cucumber, radishes, avocado, etc. This allows me to see on a daily basis what I have on hand, and to throw a salad together in literally moments.

[figuringmoneyout]

I cook my own meals and this covers all but about maybe 2 a week. I enjoy cooking so it's pretty rewarding and delicious as well as a money saver.