Find a Recipe by Ingredients You Have at Home

The last thing you want to do after working all day at the office is to spend hours cooking dinner. This is a fear I used to have every weeknight. Add the time to do the dishes to the hours spent into the kitchen and your night is gone.

Why cook when you can just go pick something up from the fast food joint? It’s a lot easier, however, it’s expensive and unhealthy without a doubt. Our goal is to get us all into the kitchen and stop spending money eating out.

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 shopping list of ingredients you need. Many times, when compared to what you already have at home, you’ll find that you don’t really need to purchase a lot of ingredients at the grocery store.

Step 3 – Get to the store with your grocery list early on Sunday morning in order to beat the rush because this trip can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour depending on what day and time you go.

Step 4 – This is the best and most fun step. Cook your meal. Once you have all the ingredients, cooking is easy and a lot of fun. When watching a cooking show on TV you will see how easy it was for them to make the meal once all the ingredients are purchased? With proper planning, this is how it will be for you in the kitchen, each night.

Final step – No dishes for you! It’s time for your husband, wife or kids to step up and help out. You did the cooking and now it’s time to relax. Kick up your feet and watch some TV. After all, you deserve it.

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.