Grocery expenses can add up quickly, especially if you’re feeding a growing family. Although you want to save on food for you and your family, you don’t want to cut nutritional corners. So how do you prepare healthy meals and still keep your expenses under control?

If you plan ahead and incorporate leftovers into your meal plans, you’ll be able to save money and know that your family is eating well. There are several ways to work leftovers into your family’s meals.

v Use last night’s leftovers as an ingredient in today’s meal. For instance, if you had baked chicken for dinner last night, simply chop the leftover chicken into bite-sized pieces. They’ll provide the main ingredient in chicken salad sandwiches for lunch.
v Warm and serve leftovers as they are. Although no one enjoys eating the same entrée several days in a row, side dishes are great candidates for re-serving. The leftover green beans from one dinner could be kept in the fridge until the next dinner. Since there are other dishes mixed with this side dish, its repetition won’t stand out the same as a repeated entrée would.
v Swap leftovers after potluck meals. If you and your extended family combine dishes for big meals, don’t let anyone go home with the dish he brought with him. He’ll appreciate the variety the swapped dish will bring to his meals. He might even be inspired to try to prepare the new dish himself later.
v Have a regular leftover night. Maybe on Saturday night, after you’ve spent the day catching up on errands and other responsibilities, you’ll be too spent to spend the evening cooking. Try making a rule that on Saturday nights everyone eats the leftovers out of the fridge. Let your family members choose the leftover they want and enjoy. You’ll empty the fridge and save on preparation time.

Once you’ve started working leftovers into your regular meals, you’ll start finding lots of ways to use them. Perhaps the biscuits you served with dinner could be covered with gravy for breakfast the next morning. Leftover vegetables could be added to a stew. The possibilities are endless.

When you’re trying to cut down on your family’s grocery expenses good, inexpensive dinner ideas are a necessity. Ramen noodles and rice are cheap, but do you really want your family to live on those for any length of time? That hardly sounds like a nutritious way to feed the people you love. Fortunately, there are some healthy alternatives that won’t leave your family feeling like they’re eating in an institution.

Vegetarian Chili – With meat prices on the rise, any meal that doesn’t require a trip to your grocer’s meat department is sure to be easier on your pocketbook than its meaty contemporaries. This scrumptious chili uses kidney beans as an alternative to hamburger. Like any chili, its flavor can be adjusted to suit your family’s tastes by adding different spices.

Beef & Vegetable Stew – Although this meal idea doesn’t avoid meat entirely, this stew is still a great economical choice for dinner. Because stew simmers for so long you can purchase a lower quality piece of meat to save money. Then, simply cut the beef into smaller chunks, add it to an inexpensive package of mixed vegetables, and place the mixture into a Crockpot. In a few hours you’ll have a tasty dish that your family will love.

Soup – Soup is one of those flexible entrees that can be made of anything that you like. This is a great way to use those leftover vegetables that are lurking in your refrigerator. As an added plus, a steaming bowl of soup on a cold day can be just the thing to chase away the chill of winter.

The important thing to remember when trying to save money on your family’s groceries is to be creative. If you find a recipe that interests you, don’t hesitate to tweak it with your family’s favorite ingredients. And don’t forget to make extra and freeze it when you find a meal that works; you’ll be glad you did on those days when you’re pressed for time.

We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner yesterday and I’ve been busy today being creative with using up the leftovers. Since we have quite a bit of mashed potatoes left over, I’ve been researching some delicious ways to use them up and thought I would share a few of my finds:

1. Tonight for dinner I will be making Shepherd’s Pie. I am going to be using ground turkey for the meat portion but really any meat combo will do. Rachael Ray has a fairly easy and quick Shepherd’s Pie Recipe you may want to try out. Bottom line - make some type of meat and vegetable combo, and top it with mashed potatoes and cheese. Yum!

2. Leftover Thanksgiving Casserole is another way to use up those mashed potatoes and any other Thanksgiving related items. I like the fact that this recipe also uses up the green bean casserole dish that so many like to enjoy on Thanksgiving Day.

3. If you are looking for a lighter dish then mashed potato soup might be a nice recipe to try. This is a quick recipe too, taking about 25 minutes from start to finish.

4. Mashed Potato Dumplings would be a nice treat too, especially if you have leftover gravy you can use as a dipping sauce.

5. Leftover mashed potatoes can be used in several breakfast dishes as well. Here is a nifty little recipe for a mashed potato omelet.

6. Mashed Potato Patties would be great for dinner or breakfast. I watched Michael Chiarello make these today on the Food Network Channel. They didn’t look too difficult to make and looked delicious. He served them along side some turkey/cranberry/stuffing panini sandwiches which looked so good I wished I had enough leftovers to make them!

7. If you’re tired of anything turkey related, then maybe Beef Rolls Italiano might sound appealing.

8. Here is another creative mashed potato recipe using eggs. This one looks good enough for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

9. If you are in the mood for fish, then perhaps salmon croquettes might be a good way to use up those leftover mashed potatoes. This recipe looks easy and quick.

10. Finally, mashed potato rolls can be made and they only require 1 cup of leftover mashed potatoes.