Better than Fast Food!

Eating at home is superior to fast food in many ways: dollar signs and calories, plus family time cooking together!  However, when work gets tough, life gets busy, or kids have a bad day, the drive through line or pizza place sucks your money like a magnet.  I cannot focus on "What's for dinner???"  when the kids are melting down or I have gobs of things to do.  To avoid the takeout temptation, I strongly recommend you write a menu on Sundays ( I will post mine in a bit) to avoid mid-week take out, shopping trips, and dinner time stress. Plan your meals with the week's activities in mind (no big prep meals on a night kids have activities!) Look at your menu before you go to bed and make sure you take what you will need out of your freezer (aka, the bank!  Using your freezer is money in the bank!!!) To manage my time in the kitchen better, I need to plan!!! Typically I boil a dozen eggs (they work for breakfast, lunch, snacks, or salad toppers) for the week; I like to make a large pot of chili or soup for lunches that are easy to grab in the morning (healthy too! Today I am making chili AND lentil soup for the week ahead).  Sometimes I make pasta salad, cut fresh veggies, anything I can do to conquer the week ahead without breaking the bank or the diet.  Before you shop for the week or plan your menu, do yourself a favor and take an inventory of what you already have and/or need to use up before it spoils (The ultimate waste of money, who cares how cheap it was if you don't eat it!!!).  Today, I am using up six yellow squash I had bought for only $1.11 a couple of weeks ago, the last skinny stalks of celery left over from the week, a wrinkly green pepper from my garden before the freeze (no good raw, but fine cooked with wrinkles)  Great price, healthy food, and the perfect addition to my lentil soup!  Do you have any Sunday cooking ideas that help your family stay fed without sacrificing lots of time, money, and health? Add them here! Thanks for reading!