My journey to own my family's food

Let me introduce myself. I am a full-time mom with a nearly two-year old daughter, a full-time wife and work full time outside the home. I set out on a mission in 2010 to prepare healthier meals for my family. I’m not going completely organic or taking on any fad diets.

I’m owning my family’s food choices.

At the beginning of 2010, I set two goals and figured I would see where things went. First, prepare at least two healthy meals for my family each week and to reduce our grocery bills. I actually enjoy cooking, but struggle finding the time and keeping all the other balls in the air. But, I was on a mission. Find a way to make meals that are healthy for my family. They are the most important thing in my life and I needed to make our health and future a priority.

So, I know that one of my biggest struggles was coming up with something to make after a long exhausting day at the office. I am not the most creative in the kitchen and like to stick to recipes. But, inevitably, several ingredients for something I wanted to make wouldn’t be there, I would get frustrated and just go out for dinner.

I started making a weekly menu on Saturday or Sunday. The GREATEST thing I have ever done. I actually look forward to making dinner now. I don’t schedule something for every night. I factor in leftovers and nights we have other plans, but I generally cook 3-5 times a week. Once I have the menu, I make the grocery list and STICK TO IT. This is probably the single most important thing to reduce my grocery shopping bills. I’m definitely an impulsive grocery shopper if I don’t know what I’m looking for.

I try to pick quick and easy recipes that have a lot of fresh ingredients so we can eat healthier and eat before midnight! I don’t have all day or night to cook.

Weekly menus and weekly grocery shopping…the adventure began…and now we just take it a week at a time to do what we can to make healthier choices as a family without sacrificing the foods we enjoy or making it difficult to eat with other people. Healthier doesn’t have to be crazy…it’s the simple things.