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This month, we’re giving away what busy home cooks dream of: easy ways to save time and money in the kitchen. Thanks to our friends at the U.S. Potato Board, one lucky blog reader will win a $100.00 Visa gift card (perfect for slashing your next grocery bill or buying 400 medium-size potatoes … LOL) along with the following super-cool prize pack:
- Reusable grocery tote
- Potato recipe booklet
- Potato peeler
- Grocery list stationery
- Apron
- Kitchen timer
- Bag clip
To Enter our super saver extravaganza, all you have to do is leave us a comment and share your best-ever tip(s) for saving time and/or money in the kitchen.
We Will Enter You into the Giveaway Multiple Times if you do any or all of the following (just be sure to leave us a new comment every time you do one of these things):
> Tweet about our giveaway on Twitter or tell your Facebook friends about it with a link back to this blog post.
> Listen to our weekly radio podcast, Cooking with the Moms, and then head over to iTunes to subscribe and post a review (you can click through to iTunes from our podcast page).
> Add one of our buttons/widgets to your blog or website. They are located in the upper left sidebar of our blog. We have three to choose from: Our blog post widget, our Recipe badge, and our Meal Makeover Moms’ Kitchen badge.
> Subscribe to Meal Makeover Moms’ Kitchen or sign up for our Meal Makeover Moms’ e-newsletter.
Our giveaway ends on Friday, June 12 at noon. As always, we’ll use Random.org to choose the winner. Good luck!
122 Responses to “Giveaway: $100 Visa Gift Card & Other Great Stuff!”
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- Healthy Meal with Kid Appeal Award: Steamy Kitchen’s Chinese Beef Broccoli
- Podcast 96: Good Manners for Kids and a Children’s Book & Restaurant Meal Giveaway!
- Podcast 95: Recipe Rescue – Ham & Broccoli Hash Brown Casserole
- Podcast 94: Stress Busting, Health-Boosting Tips for Moms (and Dads) … and a Cookbook Giveaway
- Cuisinart Waffle Maker Winner
- Podcast 93: Bring Back Sunday Dinner
- Podcast 92: Banana Brownie Waffles & Giveaway for a Cuisinart Belgian Waffle Maker
- Soup’s On: Cuisinart Covered Casserole Winner
- Podcast 91: Rancho La Puerta Adventure
- Cuisinart Covered Casserole Giveaway & Piping-Hot Peanut Butter Soup Recipe
- Jamie: I love making stir fry dishes at home. This beef and broccoli looks great. I...
- Nikki: I’m a “people pleaser” for the most part, so I don’t...
- Wendy Jo Peterson: This looks great! I have my nephews in from Texas this week and this...
- Susan Wheeler: Told my friends on Facebook about the post!
- Susan Wheeler: Several years ago, my son (now 11) took a good manners class at our...
- marla {family fresh cooking}: I agree that the beef and broccoli in restaurants is...
- Melinda Adams: We enjoy traveling, which means eating out frequently with our two...
- Kristin: Man, this post made me hungry and I just ate. Must seek this one out!
- Maria: I love Jaden’s book. Yea for broccoli:)
- Jamie: We’re pretty good in the “please” and “thank you”...
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I love new red potatoes. For a summertime shortcut – I’ll boil up a large pot of red potatoes. Some will be tossed with butter and parsley and served right away. Some will be turned into potato salad. Some will be saved for a later meal – fried potatoes served with scrambled eggs for brunch or a potato/sausage dinner. Yum!
Save scraps!! bones, stems, peels are great for stock. I like to make stock while I’m cooking other things so I don’t have to wait around for it–saves time and money. Put all your discards in a stockpot with water while you’re making another meal and by the time the dishes are done you’ll have a hearty broth made from things you otherwise would have thrown away. Good for soups, obviously, but also risotto, sauces, pasta, veggies… possibilities are endless!
We join the nearby community farm every summer and pretty much live off of that for the summer. It costs $300 for a half share — more than enough veggies for our family, and we only have to supplement with mear, eggs, bread. Cheaper and healthier!
Hit pre-heat on the oven as soon as you come home at night! And chop veggies in one big batch at the beginning of the week.
I’ve started saving a TON of money by doing couponing. It is a little overwhelming at first, but by using the tools on the Internet, it is really a piece of cake! My favorite couponing website is http://www.pinchingyourpennies.com – SO much good stuff and great ways to save lots on your groceries!
Thank you for the giveaway!
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I save both time and money by planning my meals each week. By planning ahead, I shop once during the week and have everything on hand that I need. It saves making more trips to the store (that always result in overspending), and we eat at home instead of doing takeout or restaurants. That saves a lot of $$!
A way of saving money is by buying things in bulk. On Jon & Kate Plus Eight, because there are so many of them and like beef, they bought an entire half of a cow and would defrost whatever amount they wanted.
cook once, eat twice (or three times!) as my kids are getting older(now 6, 4.5 and 1) and eating more — i have started doubling and sometime tripling recipes so that we always have some good, healthy leftovers. it saves money b/c a fridge with lots of leftovers = no need to get expensive take-out when i don’t feel like cooking.
i’m guessing in 10 years when they are eating me out of house and home — i’ll be buying that nice, grass-fed 1/2 cow
Well just this past week I made my very first pie from scratch. I had avoided doing this because I thought it would be hard but it wasn’t at all and I’m thrilled with the $$ I saved not having to buy store bought crust. Yay!
I prep everything that can be done beforehand during naptime. Makes the dinner hour loads smoother.
Making a large batch of homemade spaghetti sauce is not only tasty and healthy but saves time for future meals. Also you can roast leftover veggies such as onions, carrots, sweet potatoes, any kind of potatoes, squash along with a couple of cloves of garlic and then put them (after they are roasted) in a blender or food processor (another big time saver) and blend up with some broth or water, add salt and pepper to taste and pour over whole wheat spaghetti or raw, spiralized veggie noodles! Delcious, healthy and saves money, what could be better!
Thank you so much for this opportunity!
Here are some ideas for making healthy foods easier and cheaper:
1. Wash and prep vegetables ahead of time so that they are easily accessible. Granted, they lose some nutrients, but they still have more nutrients than a french fry! 2. Make a large pot of soup or huge bowl of salad one day, and eat from it for several days. 3. Use your slow cooker. 4. Plan your week’s menu. This way you buy exactly what you need, and less food goes to waste. 5. Create a price book. List what your normally buy and what it costs. Record sales prices and dates. Stock up when you find a good buy! Then, prep the food and get it in the freezer. 6. Use your freezer! Double your recipes and put one in the freezer for a quick dinner when you are too tired to cook. Instead of just cooking one pound of ground turkey, cook five pounds and freeze the rest. It does not take much more time and you will save cooking and clean up time in the future. 7. Keep it simple! For dinner, just have a protein and two steamed/baked vegetables. 8. Buy seasonal produce. 9. Make your own low-sodium chicken broth, snacks, oatmeal, etc. Then, freeze these items for future use! 10. Substitute beans for some of the meat in dishes. Meat tends to be expensive, and this creates “bulk” while keeping the protein level high for the carnivores in our families!
One of my best tips is to use the crockpot. As a working mom, I can buy cheap cuts of meat and toss them in the crockpot with a variety of veggies, and let it cook all day. Then, when we come home, dinner is ready to serve. Less meltdowns at dinnertime too!
I try to stick with a theme every night. This way I know every week how much meat for what night is needed. If an extra special meat is on sale we do not normally buy, we purchase it and use in place of a normal meal!
So much fun 
I Twittered!
I facebooked
About the twitter:
it’s
http://twitter.com/his4ever247 in case you need some proof
I substitute things in recipes with items that I already have to save money. I also buy things that are on sale, and items that aren’t specially packaged which cost more.
I prepare my ingredients beforehand to save time and also make sure I have all the things I need.
I suscribed to the e-newsletter!
My best time and money-saving tip is to try to use up everything you buy. I play a game–can I make dinner with what I have on hand? EX: I was going to make English muffin pizzas recently. I had everything but pepperoni. It was too late to go to the store. So I scrounged around until I came up with Canadian bacon. Voila! I chopped it up and it made a great pepperoni substitute. The idea is to save money by using what you already have on hand. Be creative!
Love to double up on recipes. Often times recipes are for servings of 8 so I can divide that recipe in half. In the end, I’ll end up with 4 meals. It saves time by freezing the remainder of the meals for later usage. It also saves money because it can be easier to buy a larger quantity of something and be able to not let anything go to waste.
One way to save time in the kitchen: lay down paper towels on the countertops before you start cooking/baking. That way, cleaning up (when you are tired anyway) is a breeze!
I try to make meat like ground turkey and bag it and freeze it so its easy for casseroles, hamburger helper or tacos or anything else. I also cut up many of the vegetables and clean them when I get them like peppers and onions and tend to throw away less becuase its already done. Idouble or even triple meals and freeze much of it for lunches and dinner in a week or so.
hope you gals are better- subscriber
Coupons!! Combine them with sales and save TONS of money. To save time I prep lunches for the entire week on Sunday afternoons, that way all we have to do is grab them and go!!
I save money by shopping at Aldi, and Dollar General. I am amazed at the deals I get there, and the food is just as good! Especially with dairy and produce at Aldi–they’re just so much cheaper.
I just tweeted it!
And facebooked it!
I try to make more from scratch now. I also thought it was too hard and time consuming to do my own baking and things from scratch but I now find it fun. I’ve started to get my kids involved more (6 and 2) and that makes it go much faster and its a lot of fun for them, too! Plus it is so much cheaper to buy all of your baking needs in bulk and you get so much more for your money.
I was given a Vitamixer, from my mother-in-law; its power is incredible. Just add vegetables and within a few minutes, you have pureed, vegetable soup. Plus it’s ready to be served…. due to friction, the blender makes the soup hot instantly. And all the fiber stays in the soup. Tomatoes, mushrooms, carrots, etc… And add water to thin it if necessary or blend longer and eventually it thins itself. Add spices to taste after serving in bowls. Amazing!
I have just found the green bags. They help my produce stay fresher longer. I can’t wait until our garden come in and we have tons of veggies. I always end up doing some canning and freezing to keep them fresh. With these bags they will last even longer.
Plan ahead! Make a list so you know what you are going to be eating each night.
I buy skinless, boneless chicken breasts in bulk at Costco or BJs. Then, before I freeze the breasts, I trim them and double-wrap them in packs of 4-5 breasts. Then, when I need them, I just defrost them in the microwave for 6 minutes and they are ready to be cooked. This way, I can get all of the hard work done at my convenience, so that during the busy weekdays I have an easier time making dinner!
I stockpile when things are on sale. For example, when boneless skinless chicken breast is less than $2 a pound we buy 15-20 pounds and put it in the freezer. I base my weekly menu on the items I have on hand or the items that are on sale that week at the grocery store. I also make large batches of things like pizza dough and freeze the extra. These freezer stockpiles make dinner faster.
I double or triple recipes that I like and freeze some meals. I have an extra freezer in the laundry room. Recently, I determined that I was wasting some of this food because I forget all I had in the freezer, so I bought a magnetic white board that I keep on the laundry room freezer. When I store a meal in there (or even when I buy frozen meals from Costco), I list it, with the date, on the white board. Then when I am meal plannig for the week, I can also check the freezer door to see what I already have and needs to get eatern. Once I take it out of the freezer, I mark it off the white board. This also helps me plan when it is time to restock.
I double my recipes and freeze half. Same amount of work (more or less), and two meals!
I don’t have many good tips … which is why I am an avid listener to your podcast! The one way I save time regularly is buying roasted chickens and then cutting all the meat off (removing the skin, of course) to use in casseroles, etc.
To save money in the kitchen, I stock up when grocery stores have sales and use lots of coupons to buy food!
I am a subscriber!
I like to prep meat ahead of time. Buy 5 lbs of ground beef. Brown it all and seperate into portions of about 2 cups. Cool and freeze flat in baggies. This has saved me many times from buying fast food. It’s ready for spaghetti, tacos, hamburger helper, and casseroles.
I like to make double and then freeze the extra to have another meal. Also I do alot of prep work on the weekends while the kids are playing in the backyard. Helps to save time.
I twittered
Also, when I buy meat, I separate it into meal-sized portions and place in freezer bags. Then I add my marinade right to the freezer bag before putting the meat in the freezer. That way, all I have to do is put a bag of meat into the fridge in the morning of the day I plan to use it…
Hello I found your site from Vickyandjen.com. Am looking foward to trying the makeover meal you did on their recent contest.
I read all the wonderful ideas to save $$$ from all your other readers. What better way to save time and hassle is my idea. After dinner/lunch when you go to put up those leftovers instead of individual large bowls ,I have divided plate I fix my own “TV” dinner . My husband and any kids can just pop it into the microwave and there is their meal. No mess…no bowls hidden in the back forgotten…easier than taking out 3 or 4 other bowls to fix a plate. I use this method for lunch next day for work.
I’ve been a subscriber for 2 or more years now! I’ve worn out your cookbook! It’s a great standby on nights when I didn’t prepare ahead of time! Your “Our Favorite Chocolate Cookie” recipe has been our favorite, along with the “Oatmeal Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies.”
I’ve been waiting a long time for your new cookbook!! I’m very excited to know that you’re both working on the next one! Can’t wait! :0)
I do not buy ahead anymore, i used to buy a lot of stuff on sale, but didn’t always use it, when the pantry is too full it’s hard to see what is there, so i sometimes bought duplicate anyway. so now i only buy what i can use for 2 weeks of planned meals, shop what is on sale for that time period and make sure i use it.
I save money at the store by planning my meals in two week increments. I then only have to go to the grocery store once every two weeks! I also have a huge garden every summer and “make my own” whenever I can (yogurt (super easy!), pancake syrup, chocolate syrup, etc.).
I try to not buy precut veggies…ever. It may take some time initially…but if you cut them all yourself at once you will save alot of $$ plus have your veggies ready for you to snack on or throw in salads all week!
Plan! Plan! Plan! I have to make the time on Sunday to plan my meals for the week. When I do this everything is “cake”. It takes just a bit of time and a few trips between the freezer and pantry but this always works for me and my family.
I reuse the kids plastic drink cups with lids that you get at resturants for snacks. It’s an easy way to store fruit or pirate booty and it protects the food in the kids backpack from getting crushed. Also, it saves on having to buy the ziploc bags so it’s a good green option too.
I save by planning my meals around what’s on sale and stocking up on an item when I see it in the store for a great price. For example the week before memorial day my supermarket has chicken leg quarter on sale for .49/lb. I stocked up and had plenty to pull out of the freezer over the holiday weekend with more left for dinner this week.
I save on groceries and time in the kitchen by buying a large amount of in season vegetables or sale items and incorporating it into multiple meals for the week. For example, if baby organic spinach is on sale or in season at the farmers market I can make spinach and cheese stuffed shells, spinach pockets and omelets with spinach and mushrooms. It’s easy and healthy and provides focus for planning the weeks menu before shopping, by focusing on one main ingredient.
I save money by planning my meals a week out to make sure I only buy what I need. I pre-cut and measure ingredients ahead of time to save time and I use my crock pot during the winter months to save cooking time.
I save time and money by planning my meals a week at a time and shopping from a list. I rarely buy things that are not on the list, helping to curb wasteful spending. Plus I save time by cooking from my MMM cookbook as much as possible!
I save money on fresh fruit and vegetables by buying from local farmers at the farmers market.
I make ahead like crazy! I get together with friends to do meal prep and freeze. I do the same with baby food. I plan ahead to buy and use items on sale which helps these days. Knowing there is something in the freezer for the whole family keeps me from meal panic at the end of a day!
I save time and money by shopping at BJs and buying in bulk for my non-perishables. That way, I only go to the grocery store for fruits/veggies and dairy products, and I’m able to zip down the aisles. It saves me lots of time!
A favorite time saving tip follows. We (esp. me) eat a lot of salad – maybe 4-5x a week. As you can imagine, it can get a little boring, especially if you don’t have time to be creative (I’m somewhat ashamed to admit that sometimes I’d rather do laundry than chop veggies). So perhaps once a month, I’ll make a salad with prewashed spinach/salad greens and some drained canned beans, complimented with other veggies, fruits, hard-boiled egg, etc., from the yummy salad bar at our local grocery store. (Also, I always do a quick check to see if organic peppers look good and are on sale; if so, I’ll get one to chop up and add to the salad.) I try not to get the entire salad from the bar for fear of spending too much $.
I am always excited by yummy tricked-out salad bar salad!!
I save time and money by using the crockpot.
Coupons! Love to double on Saturdays, get them to coordinate with local sales and shop the dollar stores where sometimes with a coupon you can get things free!
I head to one of the many Boston farmers’ markets to pick up fresh, in-season produce. Over the weekend I got a container of fresh strawberries for $1!!! If I didn’t already have my hands full, I would have picked up ten more for adding to smoothies, breakfast cereal, and my new Strawberry Rhubarb Cake Bake. These inexpensive Farmers Market berries are great to freeze at the end of the summer and thaw when they’re no longer in season (and much more expensive!).
We’re carnivores. Buy all your meat in bulk. Divide and wrap in individual sized packets. Wrap steaks in plastic wrap and then foil to protect from freezer burn. I’ll also place some pork chops in marinade and then freeze. When you need it, just grab as many as you need from the freezer the night before.
May Canadians enter? I save money in the kitchen by buying mostly things that are in season (or growing them myself).
I double up on in store coupons as well as the manufactures coupons for extra savings at the grocery store.
The biggest time saver for me is planning my menu each week.
I buy in bulk, but also prepare my food when I get home. What I mean by that is, I buy the large carrots and peel and cut them into sticks so they are ready to grab out of the fridge at any time. I do this with all my food, whether it be meat or vegtables. It saves time and money. It is easy to do, and the money you save by not buying pre-cut fruit and vegtables is considerable. Just think of the cost of that cut up melon, as opposed to the whole. The same applies to meat. Just buy whole chicken, or loins, and cut them up yourself.
I save time and money in the kitchen by making my own mixes.
I save time and money by making multiple meals of the same recipe at the same time. With a family of six, and multiple after-school schedules, it really helps to have dinner frozen in the fridge that the older children can defrost and pop in the oven! We also crock-pot a lot!!!
Buying in bulk to save money is tough when my household is just me and my young daughter, so I go in with others — either my sister, parents, or friends — to buy in bulk, share, and save money.
Fingerling potatoes have really saved me a TON of time. I love them. I just wash, toss with olive oil and seasoning salt. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes or throw them on the grill while I am cooking steak or burgers and they are amazing! My triplets love “dunking” them in ranch dressing. They are a lot healthier than tater tots and best of all my trio LOVES them!
We have 4 adults and 1 child in the house so we do menu planning and when ever possible I double batch meals so that we can freeze them for later. This saves money and time.
I use frozen chopped onions whenever onions are needed in a recipe. Saves a lot of time chopping.
I like to make enough so that we have leftovers the next night. Cuts down on meal planning and prep!
I get together with 5 other friends and we cook several freezable meals in 4 hours. Last time I spent $60 and got about 12 meals for our family. The other great part is now I just have to pull something out of the freezer on busy days
Hi,
I buy split chicken breasts when they are on sale and bake a ton of them on a Sunday afternoon. When they cool, I take the meat off the bones and shred it up. I use zip lock baggies to freeze many 1-2 cup portions for later use. I use the prepared chicken in soups, tacos, enchilladas, chicken pies, pasta dishes, and more. I love just grabbing a bag of chicken for my easy recipies.
When things are are on sale I stock up and freeze them. One day a week is leftover day. Leftovers are used for lunches. Use coupons every chance I get. Buy what is in season
I have subscribed to the e-newsletter.
I listen to your weekly podcast. Love it!
Save time and money- I’ve been using canned beans. They save time- no soaking and they save money because they are cheap! Love your website! Thanks!
Well, I’ve been saving the bones when I make crockpot roast chicken & using them to make crockpot chicken broth (thx to http://crockpot365.blogspot.com for the recipes), which (I think) saves money, but takes a lot of time (well, creating 1-cup FoodSaver packets of the broth to put in the freezer does for me, at least.
For time (and hand) saving, I love using the food processor to mince onions (I highly recommend it next time you need 2 lbs of minced onions) and grate cheese, carrots, etc.
I’m already subscribed to the Moms’ Club and getting your newsletter – does that count?
I just posted about the giveaway on facebook (and dm’d a friend on Twitter about it).
Like many others, I meal plan (usually a week at a time, or sometimes two if I want to make sure we keep within a certain budget on one pay period), buy in bulk (we live up the street from the world’s biggest Costco — seriously), and do some couponing (though not much, as I find most coupons are for processed foods). I also try to meal plan similar ingredients in meals during the week, so that I’m not left with stray halves of fresh veggies that are going to go bad. It takes a lot of planning, but it’s worth it!
When cooking a many step meal that requires to use the oven at many times plan to use to oven for all the steps at once
Coupons to save money and I love using the crockpot to save time!!!
I hate to chop onions. So, every time that I need to chop onions, I chop more than I need and freeze the rest. Also, I never seemed to have green peppers when I needed them, then they were expensive and I never used them before they went bad. Now I buy them, chop them up and put them in the freezer. The grocery store I go to now has older produce at reduced prices. There is almost always green peppers on the rack.
I try to buy only sale items at the grocery store (or anywhere, for that matter). I stock up on pantry goods when they go on sale.
For years I have prepared the week’s meals on Sundays. Saves so much time during the busy week, especially when school is in session.
A friend and I have been getting together on a weekly basis to make a larger meal (we usually quadruple the recipe), and then we eat that meal for dinner that night, have leftovers for lunch the next day, and then freeze single and family size servings for later in the month. It has been GREAT! We have so many different choices for lunch on the go and they are healthier and taste so much better than any frozen meal I would buy at the store!
I save time and money by buying ground beef in bulk. I brown a whole bunch at one time and freeze it in one pound portions. The frozen, cooked beef is a snap to add to pasta sauce, soups, or casseroles!
I subscribe to your podcast.
I have your widget on my blog.
I subscribe to your newsletter.
I just linked from facebook.
Just signed up today for your newsletter and found you on in the iTunes store using my iPhone and have listened to a couple podcasts. Really enjoying them and really looking forward to trying your recipes. Great website! Thanks!
I subscribe to you newsletter and podcast. Love your show! Thanks!
I save money in the kitchen by planning my weeks meals on friday night and shopping with a list on Sat. morning. I try to make more then I know we’ll eat for dinner so that I can take leftovers to work for lunch the next day. It also saves time since preparing my lunch for work is as easy as putting some leftovers in a container and I’m good to go!
Like many busy families, we are often on the go after school. We have two nights per week where we don’t get home until dinner hour and also end up eating at different times. To stay organized, and make sure we have a healthy dinner every night, I make sure to double up the night before our hectic afternoons. For instance, I will make a double portion of grilled chicken on our quiet night, knowing that the next night the chicken will be all cooked and ready when we get home. I will toss it into a salad to switch things up and not feel like we are having the same dinner two nights in a row. When I’m cutting up a piece of melon for the afternoon snack, I grab my reusable containers and cut up the same fruit for packing in the next day’s lunch bags. Being so busy these days, any little thing to save time in the kitchen, yet make sure we’re eating well, is so important!
I make a three week rotating menu of meals I know my family will eat (for the most part!). This makes planning and shopping so much easier when I know ahead of time what we are eating. The kids also like knowing ahead of time what is on the menu for that night. If it’s something they don’t really “love,” I make sure we have a vegetable, salad or other side dish they will like.
To save money I combine sales with coupons to get the biggest bang for my buck. To save time: When we buy produce such as melons or carrots that are easier to eat when they are cut up, I spend a little bit of time cutting the whole bag of carrots or whole melon and then package it in ziploc bags or a tupperware. This makes it so much easier to eat these things later and I don’t have to waste time getting a knife out and cutting something up everytime I want a healthy snack. I also cook large amounts of beans all at once and either freeze baggies of them or bottle them so I don’t have to wait for beans to soak and cook each time we want to eat some.
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Hello all!
Meredith, here, from the US Potato Board. I’m so amazed at the great ideas everyone has posted–there are definitely some new ideas I’ll add to my own arsenal of time-and-money savers. Whoever ends up with the prize pack will definitely deserve it!
One idea to consider…cook potatoes with your microwave. I blogged about these techniques before Easter for all my friends who need nutritious + quick, quick, quick–even on special occasions (honestly, these are my go-to recipes Monday-Thursday) http://momsdinnerhelper.com/?p=1554. I hope you like them!
I have a ‘can’ casserole that I always try to keep the ingredients in the cupboard for a quick meal when we return from traveling and have nothing in the fridge. You simply combine a can of all of the follwing:
large can of tuna, can of asparagus pieces, can of sliced water chestnuts, can of healthy choice cream of mushroom soup and top with crushed whole wheat ritz type crackers and bake at 375 for about 30 miinutes until hot. Even my three year old loves it.
I listened on itunes and subscribed! thank you so much for your knowledge!
Hi Janice and Liz-
Just lovin your web site.
Thanks for recommending Nutrition Unplugged…another winner.
So here’s how I save time/money in the kitchen.
I make a batch of waffles from a heart healthy mix that I buy in the grocery store….when it goes on sale and I have a coupon – of course. I add flax seeds to the batter for that extra goodness. Then I freeze them. I pop them in the toaster and serve with low sugar jam for a quick school day breakfast.. Add a glass of low fat milk and juice/fruit and my kids are good to go til lunch.
I keep a file of favorite family recipes that use staples we normally have on hand. The file includes where to find the recipe for easy reference. Most of the recipes are made with staples stocked up on when on sale. I also try to make larger batches and freeze lunch size portions for quick prep in the mornings. In the file I have a shopping list (I adapted the MMM grocery list idea), it includes the regular items we consumer for quick shopping as well as avoiding duplicates that may end up getting thrown out.
I was struggling with the pantry\freezer black hole that happens when you start accumulating a stockpile. I have created a spreadsheet that includes a list of the regular items (I hand write in the adhoc items) and keep a print out on the fridge updating as I go. This is still new and I have been known to forget to update the list but at least it is a start. I welcome any thoughts.
Another thing our family has been doing to save money is to recreate take out\delivery recipes. Not only does this save money we have been able to make the dishes healthier and just as fast if not faster than take out or delivery. This has been a fun way to get the family involved in dinner.
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Ok I already left a comment but remembered something I’d forgotten to share. When beef goes on sale I buy 10 -20 pounds. (depends on what i already have on hand) This week I got bottom round roast for $1.48 a pound. I have the butcher grind it up as hamburger as well as slice it into stir fry and stew meat(no charge). I cook up the meat and store it is meal size portions for quick dinner prep . Since I mainly use a crock pot or pressure cooker or make casseroles no one seems to notice the cheaper cuts of meat. I never thought of doing this for chicken thanks for the idea Kelly.
I had grand plans of saving tons by using coupons and scouring ads. I found most coupons were for items I didn’t use and I ended up with not enough items to make meals. Taking the time to create a list of recipes as well as the ingrediants I need to have on hand saves me more money, time and grey hair. Kudos tp those who make the coupon thing work, just didnt have the patience.
I save money in the kitchen by making double meals and freezing one for later. This way we’re not tempted to pay for takeout, because we always have some meals ready to heat up in the freezer.
I Tweeted: https://twitter.com/amylou61/status/2058120149
I save time in the kitchen by rinsing all dishes immediately after we finish eating to save scrubbing later. Also, soak dishes with baked on food in boiling water. Lastly, stains on cups/teapots can be removed without effort by soaking in a solution of biological clothes washing powder – but remember to rinse well afterwards.
Tweeted @ http://twitter.com/Naddez
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I save money in the kitchen by spending a lot of time in front of my computer. I look at the fliers for the two major grocery stores in the area while making my menu and grocery list for the week. We only go to the major grocery stores once a week, if we run out of something necessary we go to the small local grocery up the street. This helps us both not buy the “oh look yummy thing on sale” and to plan our snacking better.
I don’t really save time in the kitchen but I make it more enjoyable by having my kids help out whenever they can (including helping with the dishes, measuring things or even having them sit at the table coloring and being silly. They’re much more interested in eating food they help cook.
I save time in the kitchen by planning ahead as best I can.
I do a lot of cooking on Sundays. I can get the prep work done for 2-3 meals we’ll eat during the week and not be so crazed after work.
I’m not sure…im only 11!
Sadie
I like to make bigger meals on the weekends and use the leftovers in different ways during the week. I add to the ‘community vegetable dish’ until we have a dish of mixed vegetables -or use them in a stir fry with left over meat for the week. And I always keep easy to use foods on handy -cans of beans are easy and practical and the kids love beans in quesadias or tacos or my creation of soup for the week. The new steam vegetables in the store are also handy to throw in the microwave when I get home and while I change clothes. If I made meat in the crock pot and I start the vegetables right away, soon our meal is complete.
We boil off a whole bag of black beans at one time and then freeze them in 2 cup portions. This saves both time and money!!
I plan my weekly meals using the groceries which are on special at 3-4 close by supermarkets. I stock up if the specials are exceptionally good.
I keep a “go-to” / sure-fire list of meals that are sure to please the whole family and plan the next week’s meal by picking from that rotation. Planning ahead makes a big difference!
(I’ll be retweeting too!)
i use a sharpie marker and write directly the date opened on jars of spaghetti sauce, mayo, cream cheese, etc That way I know when I should use things up before they go bad or throw them away before some one gets sick.
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