Healthy Heating on a Budget

I am teaching a class called Healthy Eating on a Budget this Saturday for the World on Your Plate Conference. I tried to prepare for the class today and I keep hitting a brick wall. I think I am pretty good at this but I am still having a hard time preparing for the class. I guess because it depends on the people in the class.... to be honest there isn't any cookie cutter approach for saving money and eating healthy a lot of this depends on how much time and energy a person wants to put into this. I used to try to convince myself and others that cooking from scratch doesn't take anymore time then preparing processed food. About two weeks ago I had a an ahha moment..... cooking from scratch does take a long time.... but if you love doing it-the time really flies by quickly.

I do believe that.

I almost never pay full price for meat, I either buy whats on sale, buy the bulk meats or buy meat that has to the use or freeze today reduced price.

They say you should plan you menu out for the week before you go shopping, I have to be honest I have never done this. I thought about trying it for this class, but that never did happen. I believe there are some items you should always keep in the house...basic baking needs, meats, frozen, fresh and canned veggies and fruit. Also pasta, potatoes ( never instant) and rice. With this on hand you can always whip up a meal. I will think about what I am going to make the day before or the morning I wake up so I can take out the meat and start preparing. At that point I will also decide it I need to stop at the store to pick up something I forgot. Keeping that in mind I also have to review what I doing that day to decide if I have time to stop at the store and that store needs to be on my way home from work... If it can't be done on the way home from work then I will have to think of a different meal. I have to admit I can come up with a meal pretty quickly. So I am not sure if this is something that can be taught or if it is something I just do.. Maybe I like cooking so much this come natural... see my brick wall.

So far I have more time preparing for this class then I do most meals,and by the way my meals are pretty good. The class is only an hour long....I guess I will keep preparing and just be myself !