With Heart From the Home

 Shelf cooking is a concept I learned early in our debt journey. The idea is simple--take inventory of what you have in your pantry, fridge and freezer. Write it all down if you'd like and try and create meals from what you already have on hand. If you come up short on several items needed, write those items down and that creates your grocery list.  I like to do this when we've been overly spendy or know that we have a week coming up where we need extra items or will need to spend more. We just roll over the cash not put toward groceries for the week and have it available in an envelope later on.  I'm shelf cooking/ meal planning today and thought I would share what that looks like and exactly what I do to help cut food cost. I am a visual person so I like to clean up the kitchen and lay all available items out. This really helps to pin down what is an option and what I might need to put together a meal. One thing to keep in mind is that each meal doesn't have to make s...

 Taco salad is a great way to use up whatever veggies have been lingering in your fridge. You could make minute rice to accompany the taco meat & toppings to make this meal even more simple. We tend to make a lot of meals with taco meat, but this one creates a lighter option with the satisfaction of having Mexican food! See recipe below. Enjoy! Ingredients:  1lb ground beef Taco seasoning Half onion, chopped Sour cream Salsa Iceberg lettuce Tortilla chips Monterey Jack cheese Mexican cheese blend Cup brown rice, cooked. Any other veggies you gave to use up! Recipe: Brown ground beef, drain and add taco seasoning. Cook brown rice. I use a rice cooker for ours, but microwaveable would be good too. Chop up all veggies you are adding to your salad. On a plate layer lettuce, taco meat, onion, rice, cheeses, avocado sour cream and salsa. Add chips to the side to crumble on top.  That’s it! So simple.  This would be a great meal to serve a crowd if you put together a ma...