Last week in the Eat Well, Spend Less series I did a lot of talking about menu planning and making your meals fit together, and this week, I’m going to demonstrate with five of my favorite go-to meals and a typical week of meal planning in our household. In our house, we often start by planning two main meals for the week and building from there. We aim to plan five total meals each week, leaving some room for flexibility. Flexibility is key when you have two working parents and four kids,... more

Welcome to Week 1 in the Eat Well, Spend Less series. This week I’m focusing on how meal and menu planning can save you money, including where to start and what to think about as you’re planning for the most financial benefit. Food prices seem to be soaring. When I look back and think of the early days of my family’s grocery budgeting, I’m amazed at how much we could do with so very little. The dollars stretched on forever, and the sale prices were just that much lower.... more

One of the things we strive for when planning our menus is making everything fit together into one nice, neat little package. We look to use ingredients in different ways throughout the week so that we’re benefiting from the ability of do-aheads and being able to buy in bulk. We also benefit from a well-stocked pantry. Starting this week I’m participating in an exciting series that was spearheaded by Jessica from LifeasMOM focusing on how we can continue to feed our family without breaking... more

Easter is coming up quick. Here’s a classic Easter dinner menu with some new flavors and ideas to get you thinking of how you can switch things up a bit for your family dinner. I’m not quite sure how we’re at the end of March, as it feels like we were just the other day making green eggs and ham. Still, here we are looking into April and the (hopefully) warmer weather it will bring. Now is also about the time we start thinking about what to do for Easter dinner. This year we... more

One of the things we strive for when planning our menus is making everything fit together into one nice, neat little package. We look to use ingredients in different ways throughout the week so that we’re benefiting from the ability of do-aheads and being able to buy in bulk. We also benefit from a well-stocked pantry. I spent the last two days at the International Home and Housewares Show in Chicago with Hoover. My family holed up in Minnesota missing me like crazy. I think. Those bacon... more

One of the things we strive for when planning our menus is making everything fit together into one nice, neat little package. We look to use ingredients in different ways throughout the week so that we’re benefiting from the ability of do-aheads and being able to buy in bulk. We also benefit from a well-stocked pantry. You’ll have to excuse me. I think it’s Tuesday or something. The kids had Monday off for Presidents’ Day. They had yesterday off for a teacher work day.... more

One of the things we strive for when planning our menus is making everything fit together into one nice, neat little package. We look to use ingredients in different ways throughout the week so that we’re benefiting from the ability of do-aheads and being able to buy in bulk. We also benefit from a well-stocked pantry. And breathe. Valentine’s Day was a bit of a whirlwind here, what with a sick child at home and swimming lessons right in the middle of it. Here we are on the other... more