If meal planning is something you need help with … you have come to the right place. This is where you will find tips and ideas of all kinds to help you manage the “costly” question … “What’s for dinner?!”

Did you know that the most common cause of overspending in the typical family grocery budget is lack of planning? It makes sense when you think about it. If you come home at the end of a long day and have to answer the question—“what’s for dinner?”—you had better have a plan or the answer is going to “cost” you. Drive-thru, take-out, and even a quick run into the grocery store will cost you more than a meal planned ahead and waiting for you to serve.

One of my favorite tools in meal planning is using the “Cook Once to Serve Twice” method of cooking. It is so easy that anyone can do it! Not only will it save you preparation time, it will save you money too. A great example of this is preparing ground beef for tacos, casseroles, soups, etc. Instead of heating up the stove to brown one pound of ground beef for a single recipe, just use a larger skillet and brown and season 5 pounds at one time!

Use what you need for your meal tonight and divide the rest in 1 pound portions into quart- sized freezer bags for use later (2 cups cooked ground beef = 1 pound). Be sure to mark on the bag what type of seasoning is used and the date.

This pre-cooked and reserved ground beef is a quick addition to spaghetti sauce, casseroles, soups, and even quick burritos. In the morning, just place the frozen bag in the refrigerator to defrost or defrost it in the microwave when you need it. Buying the meat in bulk also saves $$$ and helps with the grocery budget. Do you have some great tips for planning meals? Tell us about them! Tami

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 1st, 2006 at 12:01 am and is filed under Planning Your Meals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.