Healthy Cooking Blog

So, you know you’re eating out too much, you’ve added a few pounds, and the cost is starting to get out of hand. But with your busy schedule and limited energy, where do you start to find the right meal planning idea that will work for your family? Are you one of the people who check with a search engine online about how to plan a spaghetti dinner?

Here are five ideas to get you started:

1. Set up a meal exchange with one or two families each week and agree to try it for a couple of months. Make a double batch of your favorite taco salad to deliver and know that you will have a prepared meal in exchange one night a week. Split the cost of inexpensive containers and lids that can go between homes.

2. If you have a craving from your favorite restaurant, look online for the recipe. You may have a good chance of finding it when you search for words like “copy cat recipes” or “top secret recipes.” Before long your kitchen will start smelling like the Olive Garden. This is a great way to produce healthy meal plans for teens who think they are too busy for dinner at home.

3. Check out a meal preparation service, for example Dream Dinners, which is in 37 states. It gives you fast healthy dinner plans as well as the food. Your costs include all the ingredients for the meals. You choose meals centered around your own family’s likes, dislikes, eating limitations, and budget. Then you cook the meals right there, package them up, and bring them home to your freezer. Although the cost may be a more expensive than if you’d done it all in your own kitchen, it’s considerably less than the cost of eating out and much healthier. You’ll also pick up some great meal planning and cooking tips.

4. Rather than spending lots of money on take-out, mix up a large meal from a restaurant with meals at home. For example, make a huge Greek salad with dressing, olives and feta cheese and then buy a large side order of Gyro meat from your local Greek restaurant. You’ll get a lot more for your money and also have something that is difficult to prepare at home.

5. Get organized with meal planning by deciding what works best for your schedule. Can you make a double batch of meat loaf and freeze half for another evening? Online you can find various dinner menu planning software systems. Or find a blank print out of a weekly meal plan. Does it help to break down the dinners by style of foods? For example, plan six night’s meals as: two - fish; one - poultry; one - beef; one - salad; one - sandwich.

So, flip through the magazines, dust off the cookbooks, ask your family members their favorite recipes and start planning. In no time you’ll have at least twenty solid recipes that can easily get you through six weeks of meals. And don’t hesitate to get everyone involved. Put the kids in charge of a meal a week, or have your spouse accompany you to a Dream Dinner style meal preparation outing. Soon your dinner blues will be gone and filled instead with a sense of accomplishment . . . and relief!

Possibly you were thinking that baby shower cakes were just a delicious dessert served to your guests… Well, that is certainly one kind of cake. However there’s another kind of baby shower cake that is filled with all sorts of handy gifts for the about-to-be mom. One very popular choice in this area is a gift that really can resemble a tiered wedding cake. However rather than being made of sugar, eggs and flour, it is built from the one thing a new mom can never have too many of - diapers.

These decorative and ingenious baby shower cakes make for the perfect gift for the occasion. Everyone thinks of giving diapers to the expectant mom and she will certainly use them. However giving diapers in this form turns a needed but ordinary gift into an occasion for laughter for the guests and the guest of honor.

Piled high one on top of another and covered with decorative items that really do make it just look like the genuine article, these diaper cakes are practical and fun and the guest of honor can peel them off one at a time as required. Like eating a wedding cake that can last for days or even weeks, the gift provides its own storage bin.

The same idea has been used successfully for many other baby shower gifts. The false wedding cake can be filled with any type of toys for the baby, gifts for the mother-to-be and lots more.

It is not only diapers, after all, that the happy couple will shortly. Baby oil, baby powder, lotion, ointment and many similar hygiene products are all common items for the nursery. At roughly 32 inches high, you’ll find these cakes hold a lot of these necessities. A baby cap, terry cloth towels and several other items of clothing are all part of the package too.

Even the somewhat smaller 2-tier baby shower cakes can offer dozens of most useful gifts and forms a fabulous decoration as the centerpiece for the baby shower table. Peel off the outermost layers and enjoy the teething ring, rattle, pacifier and more that will definitely be used. Open it up and find a brush and comb, socks, a manicure set and other equally useful presents.

A number of baby shower cakes may contain only decorative items, but these too will be much appreciated by the mom-to-be. Ceramic baby blocks, silk roses and much more set on a silver platter make this a gift that will not be put away the closet once the party is over. You will discover the blocks lining the shelf in the baby’s room and the silk roses on display on the mantle, while the silver platter is used to liven up the table on future special occasions.

Take a look at the full range of baby shower cakes available nowadays and you will be astounded by all the creative options.

And, don’t forget of course to order the real thing for the baby shower while you’re at it.