Thursday, August 6, 2009

Find a Recipe by Ingredients You Have at Home

By Mike Sasaki

Have you ever had a long day at the office and the last thing you wanted to do was go home and spend 2 hours in the kitchen? I think we all have experienced that. Not to mention, having to do the dishes after eating.

Let's stop eating out and ruining our health and our food budget. Although, it's easier to just pick something up on the way home from work, it's both expensive and unhealthy. My goal is to get us all into the kitchen and to realize that it's not as time consuming to cook at home, when done right.

Cooking is easier than you think and obviously healthier because you can control the ingredients that go into each meal.

Planning is the most important part of getting a meal to the table without turning your life upside down.

Step 1 - You need to calendar your meals each week. Find a calendar and write out your meals for the week. I try to cook Sunday - Thursday. It's really important to make enough for lunch the next day. For example, if I'm making dinner on Monday, I try to make enough for the following day. This saves a lot of money! Even though lunches are only $5 per lunch, it adds up quickly.

Step 2 - Make a list of the ingredients you'll need and compare with the ingredients you already have at home.

Step 3 - Make a trip to the grocery store. This trip can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour depending on what day and time you go. I try to get to the store early on Sunday mornings in order to beat the rush.

Step 4 - This is the fun step. Cook the meal. As soon as you have the ingredients at home, it's easy and fun to cook. With the proper planning and support from your family, cooking will be fun and stress free. Cooking could even be stress relieving. Feel free to substitute ingredients and add ingredients to your recipes.

Final step - You are not doing any dishes! Have your husband, wife or kids wash all the dishes. You did the hardest part, buying the groceries and cooking (even though cooking was the fun part), it's time for them to pitch in and help make the dinner night awesome and stress free.

After a couple months, you will be addicted to cooking and you will see your savings increase and you will probably lose some pounds, too.

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