Quick and Easy Meals

You may get tired of it, but if I stick to similar meal plans week to week it is easier for me to keep the grocery bill under control. I know that one night we will have spaghetti and that one night we will have tacos...I also know that since it is summer I have given myself a break and one night we will either have frozen pizza's or that we will make pizza's. I have made every attempt to make our familiar meals healthier...I buy whole wheat pasta, I buy ground turkey instead of beef. We have been making our own tomato sauce that doubles as spaghetti sauce and pizza sauce and it is not only super tasty, but it is cheaper than buying the jarred sauce.
Plan for all the meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Don't forget some healthy snacks.
As it is summer we have been enjoying fresh fruit as a treat and I do buy the kids microwave popcorn as a treat as well.
The kids have choices still, for breakfast they can have yogurt or cereal with milk, or oatmeal. Usually one day a week I will make a big breakfast with pancakes. Not as much now that it is so hot out, but we used to have breakfast type meal for dinner once a week. This is a great deal when you can find eggs on sale...last week eggs were on sale so we picked up two cartons.
Meal planning around sales ads can work, but we have found that grocery shopping at a budget grocery store works easier for us. We go to Aldi's.
Doubling recipes and freezing half works great, I almost always make two lasagna's and freeze one for later. I also like the idea of one meatless meal a week, although this doesn't happen much at our house, there are some awesome recipe sites. I like allrecipes.com and also kraft has a great site, they even have premade lists and weekly meal plans.

I set aside an hour on sundays to plan for the week and an hour to do the grocery shopping. If we run out of milk or need other odd items during the week, I usually go on my lunch break.

I look up 3-4 recipes (usually online) that I want to prepare. I make a grocery list doubling these recipes along with drinks, breakfast and lunch items. I cook about 3 nights a week, preparing twice as much as what I need for dinner and freeze half. The days I don't cook we eat left overs or thaw one of the frozen meals. I always have lots of sphagetti sauce on hand - it's easy and everyone likes it.

I like one pot meals for easier clean up. Crock pot meals are always good - put the meat in frozen to lengthen the cooking time.

To be healthy, I focus on what we should be eating. Lots of fresh (or frozen) fruits and vegetables and equal portions of carbs and protein (carbs taking up half the area as the vegetables). Don't buy processed foods (stay on the outside of the grocery store), they're expensive and unhealthy. Do spend the money on whole wheat (check the ingredients and make wure "whole wheat" is first).

You can look at what's on sale from the mailers and plan your meals around that. One meatless dinner a week is healthy and saves money. We also make a point to eat fish once a weak (very quick - you can put tilapia on the stove with butter, lemon, garlic, salt, pepper, and parsley, ready in 15 min with a salad or steamed veggies). Fruit makes for good dessert.

The biggest money saver is only buy what's on your grocery list!

It takes some time to get going but it's well worth it. Good luck!

First thing I would do is to go through your cupboards, fridge, and freezer and take inventory. Throw out anything expired, donate stuff you bought but did not and will not use. Then with your list of the stuff you have on hand, figure out how to use each item in a meal. Pick a week or two's worth of meals from your list and make a grocery list to fill in the blanks for ingredients you don't have or need more of. Plan out your days with a little flexibility, so if you are running late one day and don't have time for the planned meal, then you can do something else.

Some meals I like to make that are pretty cheap and easy to do are:

Tacos
Taco salad
Sandwiches with chips and maybe a store bought potato or pasta salad
Spaghetti and a side salad (Get the bagged salad, just open, mix, and serve!)
Pork chops (I use Oven Fry breading and cook in oven) and serve with a potato and your preferred veggie (we LOVE the Bird's Eye Steamfresh Mixed Veggies)
Rotisserie Chicken and some rice and veggies
Crock Pot recipes (chicken, sloppy joes, baked potato soup, BBQ pulled pork, etc.)

Those are just a few, browse websites like allrecipes.com for lots more ideas. Good luck!

I have asked this in my history and I have been cut and pasting recipes from the responses to others in a Word document so if you (or anyone else) wants a copy, just message me your email address and I'll send it.

I'm in AZ and its hot so I don't cook at all in the summer. Only something I can make in a skillet if even that. Mostly we do salads, sandwiches, meat on the Foreman grill (indoors!) and my latest favorite is tostadas. Heat up a can of refried beans, put on a store bought shell, shredded lettuce and cheese and done in a minute!!!

Also, I brown about 6# of hamburger at a time and put in about 5-6 zip lock freezer bags and use as needed for tacos, soups, pastas, etc. Same thing for boneless skinless chicken breasts....cook a bunch in the crockpot all day with some seasoning and shred and put in bags. Use for sandwiches, salads, enchiladas, soups, tacos, etc.

I also keep a big tupperware container of salad already made in the fridge. I'm lucky that all of us are good salad eaters.

I cook Mon, Tues and Wed, leftovers on Thurs and pizza on Friday. We just kind of wing it on weekends depending on what our plans are. But Sunday is a day of rest so I NEVER cook on Sunday...got that great habit from my grandma.

Hope you find some things that will work for you. Good luck!

Couscous comes in whole wheat and literally takes 10 min to make--the ratio is 1 liquid to 1 couscous. Use broth to make it taste great, boil it, add a pat of butter, bring broth to boil then turn off stove, add couscous and cover. Keep it covered for 7 min, open and fluff. Add frozen peas if you want. Fish (we love Swai fillets from Target frozen section--it's a super mild white fish and my kid loves it) takes 7 min to cook. Defrost by setting on counter about 2 hrs in advance or in pkg in hot water for about 45 min. Put some butter in pan, spice w/lemon pepper/season salt and cook about 3 min each side. That's my "I can't cook, I'm tired" go to meal. It's healthy and is done in no time. No cutting involved, just a pan and a pot to clean.

As for meal planning, we made a weekly calendar that had a type of food for each day of the week, Mon Italian, Tues Asian etc. I put down some easy ideas for each type of food to remember what my repertoire was. This wasn't super organized but it helped me beat the "what do I make tonight" problem.

Looks like lots of great ideas here:
http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1RNPN_enMX401&sour...

Use a crock pot to make it quick and easy. Go to allrecipes.com for recipe ideas.

Chicken in the crock pot. You've got 5 of you. Get a 5 lb chicken. Remove the liver and discard. Add a can of cream of mushroom or chicken soup and a can of water. Add potatoes, carrots, a diced onion, diced celery leaves, and spice to taste. Cook on low for 6 hours. I put a cloth hand towel over the lid (lid only) and let it cook. You get the same temp on low with the hand towel as you would on high without the hand towel. Cooking on low is cheaper than cooking on high.

Chicken Chili: place two fingers (about an inch) of dry beans in the crock pot, add about 4 inches of water, turn crock pot on low for an hour. The beans should swell fully in the hour. Pour the water off down to the top of the beans. Add 1 26 ounce can of enchilada sauce, one diced onion, diced chili peppers, one packet of chili seasoning, 1 16 oz can of refried beans and 4 lbs of chicken leg quarters. (Chicken leg quarters work better than chicken breasts.) Cook on low (with a towel covering the lid). After the chicken leg quarters have cooked, debone the chicken, cut it up and place it back into the crock pot and stir briefly.
The seeds and the white membrane in the chili make the chili peppers hot. If you want mild chili use poblano chilies and remove the white membranes and seeds. If you like hot chili, use jalapenos and leave in the seeds. I usually put in half the diced onion and half the diced peppers about 45 minutes before its ready to be served. ((BTW, I used this recipe I "invented" to win 3 first place trophies and one 3rd place trophy in chili cooking contests.))

Good luck to you and yours.