Healthy Living On A Budget: Dining In
Earlier this week we discussed dining out now lets talk about eating in.
How can eating at home help?
You have control – You have all of the control. You can control: the portion sizes, the quality of ingredients and the costs. When we eat at home we are able to buy high quality ingredients to make dishes that are tasty, healthy and better fit our budget. You can control the salt and the fat, which helps you take control of your diet.
Meal Planning Tips:
– Plan you menu for the week and make a grocery list. Make sure to include snacks and drinks on your list. Planning will help you to stay on track and to cut costs.
– Focus on simple, healthy meals during the week and one “WOW” dinner on the weekend. When you keep things simple you reduce stress and the desire to eat out. The “WOW” dinner is a replacement for eating out; make something special and make an event out of it. One of our favorite things to do is pick a movie and create a meal that follows the theme of the movie.
– Have a prep day. One of the biggest challenges many of us face is time. Take one day per week, I find Sundays work well for me, and prep your meals for the week. This helps things run smoothly through the week and you will have more time doing the things you want, rather than being in the kitchen all night.
– Buy in bulk and portion out. I love to buy nuts, seeds and dried fruit in bulk for snacks. When I get home I portion them out into little containers so they are easy to grab and go. This is also great to do with other snacks such as veggie sticks and hummus or whole grain crackers and salsa.
– Keep it simple and have fun.
This week is kind of a mess. I honestly don’t have much to plan for as we are going to be eating out of the house many nights this week but I’ll take a shot at it.
