Cookbooks are a great tool.  The index makes it easy for you to look up a favorite ingredient and find something new to make.  You may even be reminded of a recipe you tried in the past and just forgot about.  Cookbooks also usually have basic cooking techniques that you can try on whatever ingredients you have on hand.  Several of my favorite cookbooks are “Fanny Farmer – Boston School of Cooking,” “Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook” and the new “Martha Stewart’s Cooking School.”

I like to just browse the ads and food section when I am unwinding after work.  The Thursday Food Section of the newspaper and the weekly grocery store ad have some of the same benefits.  Both usually have either sales or articles and recipes on seasonal items.  When strawberries are in season, they are usually on sale.  If you open the food section you will usually find articles and recipes, also.   Often, the articles and sales relate to an upcoming holiday.  You can almost always find a nice ham on sale at Easter time and the food section will have recipes and articles on traditions or histories of foods. 

Another way I like to plan healthy meals if to break down the types of meals I want to cook and how many of them.  For instance, I try to cook at least two meatless meals per week.  Those meals might be egg based, meat-free pizza, vegetable soups or cheese ravioli or tortellini.  I then try to plan three meals using poultry and two meals with beef or pork.  Making a plan helps me make sure that we aren’t just feasting on red meat every night of the week.

It does take some time and energy to plan healthy, tasty meals for your family.  But, I truly believe that it is worth the time and effort.  With a little planning you will not only eat healthier meals, where you can control the amounts of oils, salts and seasoning, but you will save money and time running out to restaurants or fast food places.  You and your family will be healthier when you plan your meals around fresh, seasonal produce and you won’t believe how tasty everything will be!

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Sometimes I just can’t think of something to make for dinner. With my master list, it’s like having a menu. I also give it to my husband or kids to pick a few dinners off so that they can have their favorites, too.

I like to do my major shopping every two weeks. Then once a week I pick up fresh produce, milk and bread. So twice a month we select 14 meals off the master list. I make a shopping list of everything needed for all the main dishes and side dishes. I divide my list in sections like the grocery store – produce, dairy, meat, cans, etc. Then, I check my pantry and refrigerator to see what is on hand and doesn’t need to be purchased. I also add in breakfast and lunch items.

I have found that this strategy works very well for me. It helps me to not “over buy” just because something is on sale. It also makes it much easier to decide what to make for dinner each night. Sometimes I just ask one of the kids to pick what they want and I don’t even have to make a decision. Another plus is that when my husband wants to take a turn cooking dinner, he knows what we have all the meal components to make.

I find when I am organized about planning meals and making a shopping list that we not only eat healthier meals, but we save a lot of money by not going out to eat or running back and forth to the grocery store for “just a few things.” It does take a little time to get started, but once you have your master list created it is a huge timesaver. Hope it works for you!

I got a lot of help from my freezer on this one! I had a great stir-fry vegetable mix with everything I love in it. I also had a ring of frozen shrimp left from New Year’s Eve. Just a few more ingredients plus 20 minutes and dinner was done! This was a big batch for the six of us. You can always halve the ingredients for a smaller portion.

Stir-Fry Shrimp and Rice

Ingredients:

2 cups white rice

4 cups water

6 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons grated ginger (I keep it in the freezer)

2 garlic cloves minced

1/4 cup sesame seeds

large pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)

1/4 cup honey

2 tablespoons vinegar

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups orange juice

1 cup water

2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 – 1 pound bags frozen stir-fry vegetable mix

1 – 20 oz. ring of cooked shrimp (thawed, trim off tails)

Boil the 4 cups water. Add in the white rice. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes, until done. In a saucepan, sauté the ginger, garlic, sesame seeds and red pepper flakes in 2 tablespoons of the olive oil until the sesame seeds start to brown. Stir the cornstarch into the orange juice and 1 cup water to dissolve. Add the orange juice mixture, vinegar, salt and honey to the sauce pan and bring up to a soft boil. Allow to simmer until the sauce thickens slightly. In a large skillet, add the remaining 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the vegetables and stir-fry them until they are done to the tenderness you desire. Stir in the sauce and the shrimp. Keep cooking until the shrimp are warmed through. Serve over the rice.

Like my mom, I like to do a thorough cleaning before we decorate for Christmas. So for the last week I have been dusting, scrubbing and vacuuming like a mad woman. The living room and den are almost done, windows and all! The kitchen is well on its way and so is the carpet cleaner. My husband cleaned out little ones’ room, so hopefully Friday we will put up our Christmas tree and start the decorating.

For my holiday housekeeping, like most other things, I need to organize! To me, the words “organize” and “list” are synonymous. I have my Housekeeping To Do List. I make a heading for each room: living room, kitchen, den, bathroom, etc. Then I make a detailed list of each thing to do: declutter mantle, clean off tops of cabinets and TV armoire, wash windows, vacuum under sofa cushions, all the big and little things. As I make progress I cross items out.

I leave this list by the telephone. You would be surprised (I always am) at how many times one of my kids will choose something off the list – do it and then cross it off. Without me even asking! I don’t think they mind helping out with chores, but they need something to guide them in what they do.

I know that if I was more thorough in my housekeeping all year I wouldn’t have the big housekeeping project at Christmas. And to be fair, I do a complete cleaning the first week that I am off work in the summer, but there are still some things that just don’t get done until I have the “big” motivation. But, it feels so good when it’s all done and the Christmas decorations are the icing on the cake. Everything so clean and jazzed up and sparkling for the big celebration of our Savior’s birth! Now that’s motivation!

I find that making a list really helps me to organize my time and thoughts.  I usually create a big spreadsheet with Microsoft Excel and put all the list titles that I need.  I type in as much as I can and save it.  I send a copy to my email so that I can have access to the list from home or work, then I print a copy and keep it with me at all times.  Sometimes I need to add something by writing it in by hand, other times I am crossing things off as I complete them.  I update the list almost daily and print a new one.

I do worry about my husband or kids seeing the list if they get in my purse or something, so I fold it into quarters and in large print mark it TOP SECRET – Don’t spoil Christmas!  So far, no one has decided to ruin their Christmas by reading my list.   If you are not a list maker, you should be!  I cannot tell you how much easier everything is, and how much more organized you will be if you just take the time to start your lists.  List making is my Number One tip for being organized; at Christmas time, and all the time.

When it comes to good nutrition, all forms of fruits and vegetables matter-fresh, frozen, canned, dried and 100% juice  but, there is evidence to show that frozen vegetables have almost the nutritional value of fresh.  In 1998, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) confirmed that frozen fruits and vegetables provide the same essential nutrients and health benefits as fresh.

Frozen fruits and vegetables are nothing more than fruits and vegetables picked at the peak of freshness and blanched (cooked for a short time in boiling water) then frozen within hours of being picked, preserving nature’s nutritional value at a higher percentage than fresh. Freezing vegetables quickly locks in quality and nutrients while fresh vegetables steadily lose nutrients once they are harvested. Frozen vegetables may contain more, or at the very least have the same, nutrients as fresh vegetables. Dr. Barbara Klein, a professor of food and nutrition at the University of Illinois, found that after three days in a freezer, frozen green beans contain twice as much vitamin C as fresh green beans that spent the same amount of time in a display case.

Now I take advantage of all the wonderful frozen fruits and vegetables available.  I love the stir-fry blends at our local grocery store.  The green beans are perfectly cut every time!  You can even get pre-chopped onions, green peppers or potatoes.  Then I combine the frozen vegetables with a few fresh one and voila’!  Dinner is served in no time.

Having been on a fairly tight budget for the first few years of your marriage, I got used to planning what meals we would be eating for the week. I would make a shopping list, grab my calculator and off to the grocery store I would go. So the problem wasn’t what to cook, but where to find the time and energy to do it? I came up with a few BIG time-saving strategies that really work for me. The first, being to prepare some of the meal components ahead of time.

When I go shopping on Saturday morning I come home and get several things going at once. I get the oven preheating to 350°F. I grab my huge cast iron skillet. It is 16 inches wide. Very big, very heavy. I throw three pounds of ground beef into the skillet and break it up with a spatula. I take a large baking sheet and coat it with cooking spray and spread out a family pack of boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Salt, pepper, garlic powder – flip – salt, pepper, garlic powder and into the oven they go! As the ground beef starts to brown I continue to stir and breakup the large pieces. I chop up three large onions. One for each pound of beef I am using. I drain off the fat and water in the pan and add the onions. Now a bulb of garlic. Yes, the whole bulb. I peel and chop it finely and into the pan it goes. Now – salt, pepper and a big handful of dried oregano.

The chicken is flipped after about 30 minutes. I let it go for another 30 minutes and then allow it to cool off on the top of the stove. When the ground beef is well browned and the onions are soft, I let it cool and then portion it into six zipper bags. I use small sandwich bags and then stuff all six of them into a large freezer bag. I do the same thing with the cooled chicken. One breast per bag and into a larger freezer bag. This strategy allows me to pick the amount of meat needed for any particular meal.

I have also been known to throw a london broil or pork loin into the crock pot with a bunch of onions, garlic, carrots and celery and let it cook for hours until it just falls apart with a fork. Divide into smaller portions, bag and freeze. Another trick is when I make meatloaf or meatballs, I make a huge batch (3 pound of ground beef) and make half meatballs and half meatloaf. I freeze whichever one is not for dinner that night.

I have an arsenal of recipes that I use the prepared foods in. I call them my Quick Fix Meals. They are usually my regular recipes, but some of the preparation steps are already done. I can get a stir-fry chicken dinner on the table in the length of time it takes to make rice. Spaghetti in the time it takes to cook the pasta. This works so well, that my husband is now on board and helps with the Saturday preparation and often the makes dinner.