Making The Most of Your Food Dollar By Jorj Morgan Want some food for thought? At 4:00 p.m. each day, seventy-five percent of us do not know what we will cook for dinner. Here is another tidbit. About forty cents of every food dollar is spent on food eaten away from home. Did you know this year it is estimated that the typical U.S. consumer will spend about fifteen minutes a day preparing meals? What does this all add up to? One undeniable observation: we spend too much money on fast food mostly because we don't plan in advance. This in turns impacts our stress level as well as the family's nutrition. Let's see if we can come up with a few solutions to counter this unwelcome food trend. Construct a Meal Plan At your workplace you prepare business tactics, meeting agendas, long-range strategy procedure or sales schedules. Why not utilize these business skills to map out well-balanced weekday dinners? Here's how. Identify two weeks worth of your favorite easy meals. Take a blank calendar and fill in each day with one meal. Place the easiest recipes onto your busiest days. Reserve more difficult meals and involved desserts for weekends. Try to vary the meals so that you avoid serving heavy foods two days in a row. By the same token, you won't want to eat chicken Tuesday through Thursday. Allow a "day off" for pizza night or dinner out with friends. Here is an example of a doable two-week meal plan. Monday Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad Tuesday Snapper Fillet with Chopped Tomato and Parsley - Baked Cauliflower Wednesday  Peppered Pork Chops with Mustard Sauce Thursday Stuffed Chicken Breast with Ham and Swiss Cheese Friday Home Baked Pizza - Key Lime Squares Saturday Mommy's Night Out Sunday Marinated Flank Steak - Roasted Herb Potatoes, Carrots and Onions Monday Baked Ziti Tuesday Flank Steak Quesadilla - Simple Cinnamon Cake Wednesday  Turkey Hash Thursday Grilled Tuna - Spinach with Caramelized Onions Friday Pizza Delivery Boy pays us a visit Saturday Friends over for supper: Roasted Pork Tenderloin - Twice Baked Potatoes - Chopped Salad - Chocolate Cake Sunday Barbecue Pork Sandwiches - Tossed Salad Grocery Shopping Made Easy Now that you have a meal plan in place - arm yourself with a shopping list. Create a list that includes all of the items that you will need for your Monday through Friday recipes. Divide your list into various grocery store departments. Lump together the dairy items, fresh produce, meats and chicken, etc. This will make your shopping trip a little quicker and a lot less distracted. Spend A Few Extra Minutes on Weekends Putting in place a weekend meal plan allows you to do extra shopping and cooking when you have some spare time. Use extra portions to create easy meals during the week. Sunday's marinated flank steak becomes Monday's flank steak quesadilla. The roasted vegetable side dish morphs into Wednesday's turkey hash with the simple addition of cubed cooked turkey or browned ground turkey. Get the idea? Here is another example. If you are cooking for friends on Saturday, make enough so that you have Sunday's dinner in hand. Turn leftover roasted pork tenderloin into barbecue pork sandwiches. Chop enough veggies on Saturday to use leftovers in Sunday's salad. Pass on Expensive Pre-packaged Foods Have you looked at the price of those gourmet bags of assorted lettuces? Whoa. Would you stock your office with expensive supplies when generic ones are available at a reduced price? Not if you want that big bonus at the end of the year! You can avoid the expensive prepared bag of greens by combining your own special selection of lettuces. When you shop, purchase one head each of your favorite lettuce such as bib, red leaf and Romaine. Wash and dry the leaves. Combine them in a large bowl. Add a few leaves of basil or arugula. Toss to mix. Divide the greens among several plastic bags and seal. Pierce the bags with the tines of a fork to allow the air to circulate. Your bag of fresh gourmet greens is available when you need it at a huge cost savings. Want another budget drainer? Take a look at what you are paying for deli turkey breast. It can be as high as eight dollars a pound! For less than a dollar a pound, you can purchase a whole turkey breast. Brush the skin side of the breast with a little olive oil. Season with salt, pepper, and your favorite fresh herbs. Roast until done and voila - you've have perfectly done turkey breast for sandwiches, soups or even turkey hash, at a fraction of the cost. Here are a few more examples: Run past those expensive bottles of marinade and salad dressings. Instead, keep good quality oil and vinegar on hand in your pantry and in moments you can create healthy marinades and vinaigrettes while adding the cost savings to your bottom line. Purchase a whole chicken. Place it in a pot and cover with water. Add a few veggies and your favorite herbs. Bring the water to a boil and then simmer until the chicken is cooked. For chicken stock, strain the mixture through a colander into another container. Use this stock for all of your soup and sauce recipes. The cost of rich, homemade stock is pennies compared to the canned or boxed versions you find on the shelf. Remove the broth chicken meat from the bones. Cube the meat to make fresh chicken salad with the addition of chopped celery, fresh thyme and a dollop of mayonnaise. Make yourself a great big chicken salad sandwich for lunch and save even more! And - guess what - your homemade, healthy sandwich is twice as good as any you will find in a "lunch in minutes" restaurant. Isn't This a Lot of Work? Nope. The richest flavored chicken stock simmers while you are talking on a conference call. The all occasion turkey breast roasts while you're surfing on line. You can whisk up the freshest vinaigrette in just a matter of moments - IF - you have a meal plan that has allowed you to prepare ahead and have ingredients on hand. Why not give it a try? Hey, your are a savvy executive - this ought to be a "piece of cake" - chocolate I hope!! Also see: • After-work answers to the what's for dinner question are found in your pantry • Quick and Easy Recipes • Save money at the grocery store with ValuPage Jorj Morgan is the Director of Lifestyle Content for BlueSuitMom.com. Jorj is the author of At Home In The Kitchen, a cookbook due in spring 2001. Email Jorj at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with your great meal plan tips and recipes. We will share your ideas with other BlueSuitMoms.