Cooking Versus Eating Out For the Busy Family

The last year has been about finding ways to save money. Everyone has cut corners and asked friends what they do to pinch a penny here and there. If you are a family where both the mom and dad work and the kids are active, then here’s an idea for you. A great way to cut costs is by preparing your own meals. We all know this but finding the time in a busy household sometimes seems impossible.

So you work all day long and then have to shuttle the kids to soccer, baseball, piano and ballet, so how do you have time to save money on food by cooking? In order to accommodate your haste and desire to penny pinch your immediate solution may be to stop at the corner fast food joint. This quickly made decision has three downsides, 1) the food is not very tasty, 2) you and your family have just ingested more calories than you needed and 3) you’re establishing poor eating habits in your children. You would prefer to cook but if you and your spouse are going to have any quality time with the kids at night and if you are going to get those kids in bed at a decent hour then cooking is not the ideal choice, right? Wrong.

Over the weekend sit down and make a list of casseroles or easy to prep crock pot recipes that you can prepare during the weekend which will last your family the whole week. Focus on making slightly larger portions so the meals last longer. If you set aside some time on the weekend while you are at home you can prepare several casseroles at once and prep your crock pot recipes for the week. You can throw the casseroles together and either go ahead and bake them which means your meals are already cooked and just need to be reheated or freeze the uncooked casserole until you are ready to bake. If you take the second option remember that you will need to thaw the casserole in your fridge at least twelve hours prior to baking.

If you opt for the crock pot, have your vegetables already chopped and other ingredients prepped and ready to throw together so your cooking time in the morning is drastically reduced, thereby interfering less with your normal morning ritual.

At the end of your day you come home and either reheat the meal you’ve already prepped, put the casserole in the oven and eat in a short amount of time, or simply open the lid of the crock pot and serve with little or no interruption in your weekday evening. You can have uninterrupted quality time with the kids, or enough time to get to soccer and back, less stressed and reassured that you’ve provided a healthy meal for your family that costs you less per serving than take out and far less poundage to your waistline than grabbing greasy fast food.