Cooking

One of my favorite things to do is cook.....but on my own terms! I love ethnic foods, such as Mexican, Chinese, East Indian, Thai and of course good ol' American classic dishes. I love to eat....therefore I have to cook! My family and I enjoy our favorites. I try my best to ensure we have a  variety of meals each month. At the end of each month I sit down and plan out the next month's weekly meals. Then from there I create a shopping list.

I will spend a whole day cooking some meals and then freezing them to last us 2-3 months. For example, from ground beef I will make chili, shepherd's pie, meatballs (for spaghetti and meatball subs), lasagna, red chili enchiladas, tacos, tator tot casserole, meatloaf, salisbury steaks etc. I use Ziploc bags and my vaccuum seal machine, Food Saver and label each bag with the date.

I look on the net all the time for good recipes. My favorite places to find things are on http://www.allrecipes.com/ and http://www.marriedtoamexican.com/. I'm also busy pinning everything that looks delicious on Pinterest! I have over 30 cookbooks. My family will go through them and list the ones they want me to try. I got these three great books for Christmas from Costco......I absolutely LOVE them!! They have hundreds of recipes in each one.

Another great place to look for is on cooking blogs....my favorite place I recently found is over at http://www.aturtleslifeforme.com. Natalie has fabulous ideas for meal planning on a tight budget!

Please let me know how you and your family plan meals and follow a tight budget. I'd love to hear from you. If I knew how to do a linking party on this subject, I would. But I am new to blogging, so for me to add a post once a week is already an accomplishment! lol