Cooking at Home and Why It’s Important

My Thoughts on a Simple Life and Why Our Families Need It

There are a few things you might not know about me. I love black and white sitcoms and love living a simple life. Making home cooked meals are one of my very favorite things to do. When I remember back to my favorite childhood memories, they consist of family gatherings around the table, food my Mom and Grandma’s made, and just the simple life that all those people led. We went to Church, the occasional trip to Springfield, and sometimes Branson in the summers. We tend to forget that great memories can be made at home without spending lots of money or being gone all the time. Being bored, eating at home and never having technology, didn’t kill me. In fact, it made me love home, love my family and taught me to enjoy a simple life. These things make me so Thankful for my upbringing! I feel a great responsibility to teach my girls to Love the Lord, Love Home, take the responsibility of a Wife and Mom seriously, and budget their money well. To me, this all starts at home, around the kitchen table.

Food marketing and crazy schedules have taken us away from eating a sit down meal with our families at home. We live in a world of fast paced lives and forget that eating together around a table makes the day better. I promise, taking the time to cook and prepare a meal for your family will make them feel so special. Not to mention, how good your heart will feel to see them together; enjoying it! It will take a little time out of your day, but the benefits are so worth it!

Meal Plans and Shopping Lists

Do you have a meal plan & menu for each week? If you have a meal plan and a shopping list for meals, you will go to the store with a purpose. Therefore, knowing you have ALL meals covered, you won’t need to “guess” buy anything. “Guess” buying is what I call wondering around the isles looking for a meal idea and then over spending on what catches your eye. Let me confess, I know about this because I do this all too often and with diet restrictions, prepared food and snacks can really wreck a food budget!! Believe me, when it comes to food, I think I can buy it based on the idea that we are going to eat it. That, somehow makes me feel justified in wrecking my food budget. My New Year’s resolution is making sure I always have a list and sticking to it. I had to give our money a purpose and know where every dollar was going. We knew that food was a hard area to get control over, but it had to get fixed. I will tell you a little secret. Eating meals like your Grandma cooked are easier and cheaper than you think.

Make sure to keep up with the Blog because the next post will be my three dinner meal prep with one tray of chicken!!