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Whether you are looking for ways to stretch your food dollar or ways to shrink your waistline, there is no question that making dinner for your family at home is one of the best ways to achieve your goal.  Homemade meals are usually healthier and more economical than eating in, taking out, or driving thru a restaurant.  Unfortunately, making healthy, delicious, homemade meals every night can feel like an impossible dream for many American families.  If you take two working parents and add two kids with lessons, practices, and homework, just getting everyone to eat  a meal at the same time can be a challenge never mind finding the time to prep, cook, and clean-up one made at home.  Even if you are pressed for time and the thought of having to squeeze one more thing into your day makes cooking dinner at home sends your stress level through the roof, there are things you can do to make daily homemade dinner simpler and stress free.

1.     Plan Ahead

This is one of the most important things you can do to make it possible to eat a healthy, stress-free, home cooked dinner with your family.  One of the things that can make cooking dinner so stressful is searching for what you have to figure out what you can make so you can buy the rest of what you will need.  Planning your menu ahead alleviates the need for all of that.  No more stressing about what to have for dinner or worrying about whether or not you forgot something at the store.  Planning all your meals for a week or even a month ensures you never have to figure it out and you can shop ahead of time for all the things you will need.

2.     Make Ahead Meals

You can have a home-cooked meal on Tuesday without having to come home and cook it that night.  One of the secret weapons of super-organized moms is make ahead meals.  These are dinners that you can cook on the weekend and then freeze until you need them.  Making these kinds of meals means you can cut the cost and the calories of eating out without adding the stress of making a whole meal when you get home.

3.     Buy in Bulk, Make in Batches

In addition to making meals ahead of time, you can save time and money by making things in big batches and freezing for later.  This strategy lets you cook once, eat several times.  Soup, spaghetti sauce, and casseroles are all great candidates for big batch cooking.

4.     Make a Synergistic Menu

While you are working on your menu plan, look for ways to reuse possible leftovers from one dish to make another.  For example, baked potatoes from one night can be repurposed into Left Over Mashed Potatoes the next and baked ham on Sunday can become ham and cheese sandwiches on Monday.  This strategy can be a real cost saver while also cutting down on prep and cooking time.

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