Money and Time Saving Tips for Healthy Cooking

So this post is mostly for little sister Rachel who wanted to know how I meal plan and cook. I'm not an expert, but I have come a long way from when I was first married 10 years ago. Here are a few things that have helped me save time and money with cooking while still trying to eat healthy.

1. Meal Plan: I've actually never really made specific meal plans until recently when I read a book on saving money on your grocery bills. The main point of the book is that meal planning is the best way to save money and time with your cooking. I've tried it and love it. We eat much better, have more variety in our meals, and I save time and money.

My Plan:

Breakfast Foods: Granola and baked oatmeal ingredients, Shredded Wheat, Grapenuts, Cheerios

Lunch Foods: Bread making supplies, tortillas, humus, peanut butter, jelly, honey, pita bread, green smoothie fruits and veggies

Snack Foods: Healthy crackers, chips, hummus, salsa, bagels, popcorn, nuts, etc.

Dinner Food: I write down main dishes for the first half of the month. I only cook dinner every other day and we eat the same thing twice so I usually only need 8 main dishes to start with. If you don't like to eat the same thing twice you can cook the same amount and just freeze half of it for later. Half way through the month I take an inventory of what food we still have that needs to be used up and plan the rest of my meals around that. Usually I only have to buy a few items half way through the month to restock. I also buy fruits and veggies for side dishes and ingredients for 1 or 2 easy meals for busy days.

Special Occasion Foods: holiday cake and cookie supplies if needed

Food Storage Items that need to be restocked

Household Items that need to be restocked (I add this to my shopping list because I usually buy most of my food and household items from Costco)

2. Only one major shopping trip a month, with 1 restock trip: You spend less the less frequently you shop. You also save time and money (on gas) by taking fewer trip. It also forces you to use up the food that you already have. I find it easier for me to stay on budget because I buy food for the whole month in one trip using up most of my budget, but saving about $50 for restock items half way through the month.

3. Double Recipes: This has been a major time saver for me, which I especially need when I'm homeschooling. I double a lot of recipes so we can eat it for two days. However I've learned from bad experience that it is best not to double a recipe the first time you try it. You may end up hating it and wasting a lot of food.

4. Saturday cooking sessions: I usually set aside 3 hours every other Saturday where I have a major cooking session. I make bread, granola, baked oatmeal, and muffins so that I'm stocked up for the next few weeks.

5. Discount Bakery: I recently visited the discount bakery and bought 7 loves of high quality whole wheat bread, 4 bags of whole wheat bagels, and 4 bags of whole wheat hamburger buns for just $16. I put it all in my deep freezer so I have them on hand when I don't have time to make bread, etc.

6. Take advantage of produce co-ops or stores: When I lived in Philly we had a Produce Market where we got large quantities of produce for cheap. My mom and my in-laws are part of Bountiful Baskets where they get lots of healthy produce for really cheap. Unfortunately we don't have anything like that around here although we do have great farmers markets during the summer/early fall. We are also able to buy boxes of apples for .64/lb from a farmer in the fall.

7. Look into you-pick options: We have peach orchards where we can pick our own fruit and pay per pound. You may have an elderly neighbor with an apricot tree. Offer to pick it for them if you can keep a box for yourself. One year a local apple orchard offered free apples for the picking--we ended up with 88 quarts of delicious applesauce!

8. Beans, beans, beans: They are healthy, cheap protein and it really does help save a lot of money. They are especially cheap if you buy them dried.

9. Toast large quantities of nuts/seeds and then freeze/save the extra: This makes it easy to add nuts/seeds to salads, veggies, rice, etc.

10. Double sauces/pesto and freeze: Jared and I are not big fans of frozen meals but frozen sauces and pesto usually don't taste too bad. I always double my pizza sauce recipe so I can easily put a homemade pizza together in about 20-30 min.

11. Make large quantities of muffins/bread/rolls and freeze the extra

12. Wash, chop and peel veggies so they are ready to eat: After my big shopping trip I will peel my carrots and slice my celery so they are ready to eat. I also wash/scrub my fruit so it's easy to grab. This makes it easy to grab a healthy snack and it saves time in meal preparation.

13. Store food in the right place/container: nuts and ginger root are best stored in the freezer, onions in a cool dry place, hanging in your nylons, herbs in a green save container, etc. Learning to store food in the right place has helped me waste less because of it going bad too fast.

14. Garden and can, freeze, or dry extra produce: By far the cheapest source for organic produce. We had a bumper crop of tomatoes and didn't have to buy any tomato products for 2 years!

15. Buy Produce in season: Okay so I'm stealing advice from the Word of Wisdom, but it is healthier and saves money too!

16. Eat no/less meat: Less cooking time and healthier

17. Time Saving Tools I Love: Apple peeler/slicer, Bosch mixer, Bosch food processor attachment(cuts the time to make a soup or salad in half), blender, rice cooker, crock pot, wheat grinder

18. Crock pot Meals for busy days and Fast Sundays: If you know you are going to have a busy afternoon/evening, just throw some stuff in at lunch time and your done

19. Have ingredients for 2-3 easy/quick meal on-hand: This saves you from the temptation to eat out on those busy days

20. Buy spices, nuts, and raisins in the bulk food section of WinCo

21. Buy staples (rice, flour, etc.) in large quantities and store in 5 gallon buckets

22. Make Food from Scratch: This doesn't really save time, but it's SO much healthier and it saves you money. It is unrealistic to expect to have enough time to make everything from scratch. Some labor intensive items I buy ready-made but I try to read the ingredients to make sure that what goes into it is healthy. Due to time I buy whole wheat pasta instead of making it. I tried making whole wheat tortillas but it was too labor intensive and used a lot of oil. I found that the whole wheat tortillas that I buy were actually healthier.

Do any of you have money or time saving tips for healthy cooks? Please share them.

More Meal Ideas

I'm posting these mostly for my sister who is trying a vegan diet to improve her cholesterol, but some of the rest of you may want to try some of these recipes too. Here are 3 vegan and 1 vegetarian meal that our family enjoys.
Meal 1: Gazpacho Soup with Whole Wheat Bread Sticks
Gazpacho (from Practical Cookery: Vegetarian)
1/2 small cucumber, grated
1/2 small green bell pepper, finely chopped
1 lb ripe tomatoes, peeled or 14 oz can of chopped tomatoes
1/2 onion
2-3 garlic cloves, crushed
3 TB olive oil
2 TB vinegar
1-2 TB lemon juice
2 TB tomato paste
2 cups tomato juice
salt and pepper to taste

Place grated cucumber and chopped green pepper in bowl. Blend the remaining ingredients then add to the bowl and stir together. Chill before serving.


Whole Wheat Bread Sticks (from Ciel Murry)

3-4 C. whole wheat flour

1T. yeast

1T. sugar

1t. salt

Mix these in mixer bowl.

Add 1 1/2 C. warm water and knead 7-8 min.

Add more flour if necessary (start with smaller amount and add from there)

Melt 2T. butter in 9x13" pan. Or double recipe and use a sheet pan.Roll or pat dough to fit. Cut with pizza cutter horizontally into 9 1" strips.Cut dough in half vertically. Sprinkle with garlic powder, Italian herbs and Parmesan cheese. Let rise 20 min. Bake 375. 18-20 minme of the rest of you might like to try them too.

Meal 2: Baked Potatoes with Mushroom sauce and Green beans

Baked Potatoes
Scrub and remove bad parts
Cover in Crisco and poke with fork
Bake in oven at 400 for 30 min to hour (depending on size--small red potatoes usually only take 30-40 min while Russets take longer)

Mushroom Sauce
1 lb of mushrooms washed and sliced (I like to use 1/2 lb white, 1/2 lb portobello)
1 onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 cups of vegetable broth
Season to taste (salt, pepper, parsley, thyme, Italian seasoning, etc.)
2 TB olive oil

In fry pan heat 2 TB olive oil. Add onions, garlic, and mushrooms. Stir and cook 5-10 min. Add vegetable broth and heat thoroughly. Serve over potatoes.

Green Beans (modified from JoyAnn's recipe)
3/4 c pecans or almonds
3 TB butter or oil
2 TB maple syrup
2 shallots or green onions minced
2/3 tsp (or more) orange zest
2 tsp flour
1 1/2 lbs green beans
2/3 c vegetable broth
1/3 orange juice
salt and pepper
Toast nuts in oven. Put 1 TB oil/butter, syrup, and salt in fry pan. Get it hot and add the nuts. Stir until glossy (about 45 sec). Remove from skillet and set nuts aside for later. Heat 2 TB oil/butter and add shallots and orange zest. Stir in flour. Add vegetable broth and OJ. Turn heat to medium high. Add beans and cover for 5-10 min, then uncover and cook about 4 min. until tender. Stir in nuts, add salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Meal 3: Easy Crockpot Soup
This is a favorite for busy days when I know I won't have time to cook. It takes me 5-10 min. to throw this together at lunch time and then I'm set.

In crockpot:
5 cups vegetable broth
Add chopped onions, carrots, celery.
Add diced potatoes or whole wheat pasta
1 bay leaf
1/4 tsp ground cumin and salt and pepper to taste
1 can of mushrooms or beans for protein
salt and pepper to taste

Put crock pot on high and this will be ready by dinnertime. Add chopped parsley right before serving to garnish. To make this into a more of a minestrone-type soup add tomatoes, spinach, sage, thyme and Italian seasonings. Serve with crackers, corn chips, bread sticks or garlic toast.

Meal 4: Vegetable Enchiladas (from Martha Stewart)

Vegetable Enchiladas
Get a freezable Mexican meal rolling in no time with a no-cook filling and a sauce made from pantry ingredients. Jack cheese and a combination of black beans and corn tortillas give this meatless dish complete protein.

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for baking dishes
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/4 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) reduced-sodium vegetable broth
Coarse salt and ground pepper
3 cups grated pepper Jack cheese (12 ounces)
1 can (15 ounces) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 box (10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry --I used fresh and it was great!
1 box (10 ounces) frozen corn kernels, thawed
6 scallions, thinly sliced, white and green parts separated
16 corn tortillas (6-inch)
I like to add sliced olives as well

Make sauce: In a medium saucepan, heat oil over medium. Add 1 teaspoon cumin, flour, and tomato paste; cook, whisking, 1 minute. Whisk in broth and 3/4 cup water; bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, and cook until slightly thickened, 5 to 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, and set aside.

Make filling: In a large bowl, combine 2 cups cheese, beans, spinach, corn, scallion whites, and remaining 1 teaspoon cumin; season with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly oil two 8-inch square baking dishes; set aside. Stack tortillas, and wrap in damp paper towels; microwave on high for 1 minute. Or stack and wrap in aluminum foil, and heat in oven for 5 to 10 minutes. Top each tortilla with a heaping 1/3 cup of filling; roll up tightly and arrange, seam side down, in prepared baking dishes.

Dividing evenly, sprinkle enchiladas with remaining 1 cup cheese, and top with sauce. Bake, uncovered, until hot and bubbly, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool 5 minutes; serve garnished with scallion greens.

To Freeze:
Prepare enchiladas through step 3; top with cheese, and cover baking dishes with plastic wrap and then aluminum foil. Place sauce in an airtight container. Freeze enchiladas and sauce for up to 2 months.Bake frozen, thaw sauce overnight.heat oven to 400 degrees.Remove foil and plastic wrap from baking dishes, and pour sauce over enchiladas; cover with foil. Bake 30 minutes; remove foil, a bake till bubbly about 15 minutes more. Rest 5 min before serving.

I hope you enjoy these meal ideas. I have a few more really good looking recipes, but I'll wait until after I try them to share them with you.

January 2011 Update

January has been a busy month for us. Jared and I have been working on some new years goals to simplify, organize, exercise, and eat more healthy; and the kids have been busy keeping us busy. Jared finally finished the tile and it is really nice to not be "under construction" anymore. When he is not busy working or doing Elder's quorum he has been studying for the DAT and working on my never ending honey-do list. I was released as a R.S. teacher this month and was called to work with the young girls in Activity days. I like to read when I get any free time, and I had fun hosting book group this month. I've also been working hard to de-junk and organize, which is really difficult with three kids who are sentimentally attached to everything, including tiny scraps of paper. I finally had to resort to organizing while they sleep since they protest everything I want to throw away or give to Good Will--even then, they manage to salvage things from the garbage cans or Good Will boxes.

The kids are happy and busy. Abby loves kindergarten and homeschool. Maddy and Nathan enjoy Playgroup at the church and Storytime at the library. Maddy has been having a hard adjustment in Primary with her new teachers so we have been trying to help her develop more friendships with the girls in her class by having them come over to play. Nathan has discovered coloring and loves it. If I ever get on the computer while he's awake he wants me to print out coloring pictures of McQueen, Mater, or Bobder (that's how he says Bob the Builder).

Here are some random pictures from this month:

Cute picture of the kids all ready for bed on Saturday night.

Here's a picture of a doll I made for my little sister's birthday when I was just 4 years old. My mom saved it all these years because she was so impressed.

Nathan trying on Abby's roller skates.

The girls were super excited to finally get some snow this winter. Nathan wasn't sure what to think of it at first, but the girls were so excited he decided it must be a good thing. Abby was even more excited when they canceled school for 3 days.
Here's their snowman. For the next few days before it melted Nathan would look out the sliding glass door and wave and say "Hi snowman."
Abby has gotten to be a really good reader. Jared found her reading to Nathan and Maddy one day and couldn't resist taking this picture.
For FHE one night we made apple pie. The kids loved eating "apple snakes" (the peelings) and Jared made a CTR and a I love you hand on the crusts.