I try to do mini cook days. If ground beef is on sale for the right price, have a ground beef plan that you can do. Brown it all at once and make 5 or six meals at once. DO the same for stew beef, chicken, ham, or bean recipes. When you process some, process LOTS, and freeze what you can. If
I make lasagna, I start by making spaghetti sauce. Then I use the sauce in my lasagna and use a spinach cheese mixture for the lasagna and for stuffed shells, which also get the spaghetti sauce on top. If I double amounts, I get spaghetti for a few nights, 2 dishes of lasagna and 2 dishes of stuffed shells. Get the idea?

I look forward to one day "once a month" cooking properly, but as long as I'm in this 5 and under stage with my little ones, I figure I just need to do whatever I can do and be satisfied. It is not easy, but it is survival. I do most of my shopping once a month form (plan meals, make list, stock up
for a month worth of meals) as well as whenever I see something REALLY cheap.

I started with the 30 meals cookbook by MaryBeth Lagerborg. I followed it *religiously* for a few months to learn how to cook 30 different meals in one day. Even though the meals were more deluxe and expensive then I was used to it still saved me money (probably because I was not in the
store every night wondering what to fix for dinner!)

After I got the idea, and learned some great tips, I started to change the recipes to include less fat and more veggies. For instance, any of the stews can be changed by halving the meat and doubling the veggies. I also deleted the recipes that we didn't want. I added our family's favorites. It took me about a year to get all the amounts of  ingredients correct, but now I have a notebook ready to grab and shop without much hassle beforehand. 

I keep my shopping lists (one for each of 3 stores), and 30 meals menus and recipes in a notebook, each page in a sheet protector. I make notes as necessary, either during shopping or cooking, with a vis-a-vis pen on the sheet protector. This pen will stay on as long as I need it to. I usually don't check my notes until 2 months later when I am ready to shop and cook again, so the notes come in handy.

Caveat:  Most of the information on this site comes from back issues of The MOMYS Digest, an email-only forum for mothers of many young siblings. It is offered in good faith and is not intended to replace medical advice, pastoral counsel, your husband's opinion, or your own good sense.

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