Happy Healthy Families

Did you know that according to the U.S. Statistical Abstract (table 668), the average American family spends 12 percent of all their money on food? (The other two biggest areas of spending are housing -34%, and transportation--17%.)

Since food is such a large part of our budgets we really need to focus on ways to save expenses in the eating category if saving money each month is a goal for us. Which means, yes, breaking the dreaded fast food habit. (If you are fast food/drive-thru clean already, congrats to you, and you may want to skip this post...)

The number one way I know of to try and not give in to the urge to grab some burgers and fries on the way home from work, little league, ballet, etc... is to make our freezers our best friends! Seriously, what would be your own personal motivation for heading to the nearest fast food drive-thru, or picking up the phone and ordering a pizza? Sure, you might actually have a craving for some greasy fries and hot pepperoni, but usually it is all about saving time and being too tired to cook a meal, right?

So to help deal with those reasons, we need to be prepared by having fast yet healthy and delicious food to go in our freezers. And this can be accomplished with surprisingly little effort really.

Say you are making a meatloaf for dinner tonight. Make 3 meatloafs instead. Little time and effort needed as you are already cooking anyway, right? Take two meatloafs out of the oven when they are about 70%-80% cooked, wrap in freezer bags, date them, and freeze them.

When you have dinner with meatloaf, potatoes and veggies (just an example here,) take the leftovers and make individual meals. Put leftover meatloaf, potato and veggie on a paper plate. Put it in a freezer bag, mark it and date it, and you have a frozen dinner ready to go!

Spend some extra time on the weekend preparing food for the freezer. Make breakfast burritos, spaghetti sauce, chicken, casseroles, etc. It really will save you money, time and be better for you and your family's health. Plus, you will find it much easier to kick that fast food habit!