We all know that we need to eat better but isn’t it frustrating that the healthier you try to eat the more money you seem to spend? It doesn’t have to be that way. Here are just a few tips to help you feed your family nutritious meals without breaking your budget.

1) Plan your meals around the sales. Stores routinely rotate sales items every 6 weeks so plan accordingly and stock up. Is chicken on sale this week? Instead of buying 1 pack purchase several packs, separate into family size portions and freeze. If you routinely purchased only what was on sale (besides the perishables you need each week) you will soon have a well stocked freezer and pantry as well as a smaller grocery bill.

2) Avoid purchasing boxed foods. Most boxed foods are full of preservatives and trans fats so it is best to avoid them. Do you like the convenience of boxed foods? There are several good cookbooks and recipes online for making homemade mixes to keep on hand. Everything from homemade cookie mix to macaroni and cheese and more. Put these mixes in a pretty jar with the directions to prepare and it also makes a nice frugal gift!

3) Use coupons wisely. How many times have you gone to the store with a fist full of coupons only to come home spending more than you planned? The key to saving with coupons is to only purchase the items you would normally use anyway. You will also find that the store brand may still be the better bargain. An even better idea is to hold onto that coupon and wait for the item you want to go on sale.

4) Do a coupon exchange. Check with family and friends who get the Sunday paper and exchange coupons for ones you can use. That way you can really stock up when your favorite items are on sale and you have coupons.

5) Buy produce in season. It will taste much better and you will usually pay less. Also in the warmer months be sure to take advantage of farmers markets for low prices on produce. Buy items like peppers and onions when on sale, chop them and freeze them for quick recipes during the week. Zucchini can be shredded and frozen for zucchini bread and other recipes.

6) Make your grocery list and stick to it. Beware of those impulse buys!

7) Shop after dinner. You wont be tempted to pick up take out because you are too tired and hungry to cook when you get home.

Shop alone. Nothing blows a budget quicker than when your kids are with you! You will also get out of the store much quicker which will actually save you money.

9) When buying meat think of recipes where you can get more than one meal out of it. Meatsauce is still satisfying with half the amount of ground beef. Slice up other cuts of meat for stir fries or to put on top of a nice salad and you have a quick healthy meal.

10) Don’t be loyal to just one store. Most grocery stores have certain items priced really low to get your business. If you have several grocery stores in your area try and take advantage of what deals each store has to offer.

11) Have breakfast for dinner once in a while. An omelette, toast and fresh fruit is very economical and very quick to cook on a busy night.

These are just a few tips to help you save money while eating better. I hope that you find some or all of them useful for your family!

It’s the holiday season once again. Did you know that the average person gains between 7 and 10 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Years? The good news is that you can easily avoid these extra pounds using a few simple tips and strategies. The average person also starts the holidays with a Thanksgiving day worth around 3,500 calories. That’s one pound in extra calories, before you eat the leftovers! Try these tips and make your holidays a little healthier.

Tip #1:Take 2 steps to start your day right.

Step One: Eat breakfast. You see, most people skip breakfast on Turkey day in order to ’save room’ for the feast – maybe you have done this yourself. When you eat a healthy breakfast that is high in both fiber and protein two great things happen.

- Your metabolism is started early in the day, thus catapulting you into full fledged calorie burning mode. This will come in handy later in the day.

- You won’t be famished when you sit down for dinner, so you will have less room to binge. (This means fewer calories land on your waist.)

Step Two: Exercise for 30-60 minutes. I know exercise is the last thing on your mind on a busy holiday, however it is worth your effort. You will negate some of the extra holiday calories and your metabolism will climb even higher.

Tip #2: Lighten the menu.

If you are the lucky one in control of the menu, that makes it easier. As chef you can make a few modifications to the meal that will drastically reduce the fat and calorie intake of each guest. Try the following to lighten your meal:

Use nonfat yogurt or sour cream in place of heavy cream-based dips and dressings.

- Replace traditional stuffing with an assortment of chopped vegetables. Fill your turkey with mushrooms, eggplant, onions and celery. Or replace half of your traditional stuffing with chopped vegetables.

- Flavor your mashed potatoes with roasted garlic instead of butter. Or serve baked sweet potatoes instead of butter laden mashed potatoes.

- Roast vegetables without oil – use cooking spray instead and toss them with dill.

- Use unsweetened apple sauce or pureed plums instead of butter or oil in dessert recipes.

- Put out an assortment of fruit for dessert instead of pies.

- Make the recipe for Low Fat Thanksgiving Green Bean Casserole below.

Tip #3: Use strategy.

Traditional Thanksgiving food items weren’t all created equal – nutritionally that is. Roasted white turkey meat (without skin) is a great source of lean protein. Vegetable dishes (without added fats) are also very healthy. On the other hand, buttery mashed potatoes, white bread rolls, cream based dishes, and heavy gravy are all packed with fat and calories. Fill your stomach with the healthy items first – white turkey meat and plenty of vegetables. Then simply ’sample’ the less healthy items in small portions. This is so easy to do, save you lots of extra calories, and you don’t have to feel like you are denying yourself, either.

Tip #4: Pace yourself.

Most people get into trouble at Thanksgiving dinner by eating full speed ahead until they finally realize that they are full (after their second and third helping). The trouble with this method is the lag time in communication between your stomach and brain. In reality, you probably satisfied your hunger with your first plate of food, but your stomach takes a while to get that message to your brain. And during that lag time you took the opportunity to go for your second and third plate of food. This year sit calmly in your chair after that first plate and wait at least 20 minutes before getting seconds. You will be surprised to find that the thought of more food doesn’t sound good anymore – and you will have saved yourself unnecessary weight gain.

Tip #5: Get Support to Keep Off the Weight

Want to make this holiday season extra special? Why not start your very own phone coaching program with a weight loss coach right now! Together you will keep the holiday pounds away. Hiring a coach is different than recruiting a friend to diet with, or asking your spouse to help. Truth be told, it’s doubtful either one of these “supports” are going to hold up when put to the test. If your spouse is anything like mine, he’s no help at all. I’d get, “It’s a party, enjoy yourself!” Or, “It’s Christmas, have what you want.” And a diet buddy is probably no better. When it comes down to it, they aren’t going to jeopardize your friendship over a diet failure.

Having a happy holiday season does not have to mean putting on excess weight. Using these simple, easy strategies can help you avoid being one of those people who end up 10 pounds heavier by New Year’s. I hope these five tips keep you fit and healthy this holiday season.

You already know how important it is to make healthy food choices for you and your family. But how can you fit the best choices into your busy life?

You’ll be pleased to discover that a hectic life doesn’t mean that every meal has to be fast food on the run! Sometimes it’s difficult to make healthy changes, but with a little planning and know-how, it can be done.

Here are some strategies to help you and your family make healthy choices:

1. Avoid temptation. It’s so easy to walk into the store with good intent, but walk out with bags full of unhealthy foods. Unfortunately, our wills are weak, especially if we’ve trained ourselves over the years to buy junk foods.

* Never shop when you’re hungry. This way you won’t pick out unhealthy choices because they look good at the moment.?

* Get rid of the unhealthy foods in your home. If they aren’t around, you won’t be tempted to eat them.

* Think of healthier alternatives to your family’s favorite unhealthy foods. Rather than high calorie chips, try trail mixes or rice cakes. Low calorie puddings or frozen yogurts are better alternatives to higher fat ice creams.

2. Eat fast and healthy meals at home. When you’re tired at the end of the day and you realize you still have to feed the family, it’s easy to go to a fast food chain and throw fast food on the table. It may save some time, but it won’t save your health – or your pocket book!

* The great thing is that there are many easy, fast, and healthy foods you can make at home. This takes some planning, but you’ll be more satisfied, save money, and be healthier as well.

* Look online for quick and easy recipes made with all natural ingredients. Many recipes can be made in 30 minutes or less and only have 5 ingredients. Taking the time to do some recipe research will save your sanity in the long run. Then once you find a “hit” with the family, store the recipe in a book or on your computer.?

* When you cook, make large batches and freeze the leftovers. This way, you’ll already have meals in the freezer that you can just thaw, heat, and serve. No muss, no fuss! This is the opportune way to enjoy “fast” food at home.

3. Eat Slower. Since the brain takes about 20 minutes to get the signal that the stomach is full, if you eat too fast you’ll pack in a lot more food than you need. When you’re still thinking you’re hungry, it’s easy to make the wrong choices about food. If you slow down while you’re eating, you’ll eat less and you’ll still feel full.

* Set a calming mood before sitting down for a meal. Avoid having the television on or eating as you’re rushing the kids out the door to another activity. Sitting calmly at the table will allow everyone to relax and enjoy their meal.

4. Make dinner time a social experience. Dinner should be about enjoying your company and taking pleasure in the foods you’re eating.

When you begin to look at mealtime as a social experience, it becomes easier to make the right choices about healthy foods. Suddenly you aren’t so worried about rushing through and making it quick.

Dinner becomes a great experience when you’re able to enjoy healthy foods together. Take time to eat as a family and enjoy a real conversation with each other. Talking will naturally slow down your eating pace, while also reconnecting you with your family members.

Using these techniques will bring all kinds of healthy benefits to your family and teach your children a healthy lifestyle. Healthy food choices are a possibility in your busy life if you take the time to plan ahead and make dinner time a priority in your home.

If you’ve thought about eating a healthier diet a good way to do it is by substituting some raw food recipes for some of the daily cooked food recipes you use now. This is just another way to look at copy cat recipes.

Although most people think a raw food diet consists of eating fruits and salads and maybe a handful of nuts and seeds, the raw food diet is much more than that. You can prepare dozens of copy cat recipes, those that mimic the standard American diet fare you are probably used to eating.

For example one of the best raw food recipes that is easy to make is almond milk. You can easily make your own almond milk cheaply, at home, to substitute for harmful cow’s milk and boxed soy and rice products. Soy milk and other boxed milks are highly processed. Although a better alternative to cow’s milk they still do not have the health benefits you get from a nice tall glass of homemade almond milk.

Making almond milk is relatively easy and doesn’t require any unusual ingredients. You can use dates, honey or agave nectar for sweetener and still keep it in its living or alive state.

To make almond milk you only need about a cup of raw almonds. Make sure not to buy or use roasted almonds. You soak these overnight in pure water, drain and put in a blender along with 3 cups of pure filtered or spring water and blend for about 2 1/2 minutes. Then pour into a nut milk bag, sprout bag or fine mesh strainer. Squeeze tightly if you are using a bag. Pour into a glass jar, add your sweetener and refrigerate.

Almond milk will keep for up to five days or so. Use it on sliced strawberries and bananas in a bowl, drink as is, add nutmeg for an eggnog flavor etc. Use it wherever you would use other milks.

Of course it can be used on cereal, muesli, granola in a bowl if you still eat those. At the least try to incorporate it into your diet. It’ll vastly help improve your health. This is especially true if you eliminate cow’s milk and other dairy products. Raw food diets are the healthiest diets and help you lose weight naturally.

There are many other copy cat raw food recipes you can make with living foods that will replace the cooked foods in your diet. If you’re a mom with young kids or teenagers, you will be greatly benefiting your kids’ diets with almond milk and other great living food recipes. They will never know the difference and their overall health will benefit. There are many other simple and easy raw food recipes you can fix for breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner.

Those of you familiar with my books know that I love to share my passion for great vegetarian and vegan cooking with easy, healthy recipes, from simple family meals to festive fare for holidays and entertaining. Seasonal produce, vegan baking, and kid- and teen-friendly food are all on the menu.

Aside from simple and delicious recipes, Healthy Cooking Tips will help you set up a healthy pantry, make your kitchen more earth-friendly, plan meals, and much more. Vegetarian Nutrition provides info on protein, fiber, fats, calcium, and lots more need-to know topics to live a healthy veg lifestyle.

Sometimes being a vegetarian seems no fun at all, especially on the weekend barbeque where everyone else is enjoying grilled sticks and many other grilled delicacies.

But no more, before this weekend get yourself a new vegetarian cook book full of vegetarian recipes and enjoy as others are doing. Vegetarian cook books are a great way to enjoy vegetarian dishes which you never know existed.

Vegetarian cook books are in general helpful for beginners who want to experiment with the vegetarian culinary but never know how to start with that. Now get mouth watering dishes right out of your kitchen and set the mood of parties and weekends.

Before starting to purchase a vegetarian cook book understand what suits your taste buds as there are lot many vegetarian recipes which you could ever imagine. If beginner it is always better to start with the simple recipes than experimenting much with the culinary.The best way out is to understand your taste first and shortlist a few recipe cook books.

It helps a lot to read the reviews and excerpts of such recipe cook books to make a choice.To start with cook book recipe experience we will share on recipe with the courtesy of cookbookclub.

Vegetarian Lasagna Recipe

Lasagna Noodles
10 ounce frozen chopped Broccoli
14 1/2 ounce Can Tomatoes
15 ounce Can Tomato Sauce
1 cup Chopped Celery
1 cup Chopped Onion
1 cup Chopped Grn/Sweet Red Pepper
1 1/2 teaspoon Dried Basil crushed
Bay leaves
Clove garlic minnced
Beaten Egg
2 cup Lo-fat Ricotta or Cottage Ch
1/4 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 cup Shredded Mozzarella Cheese or substitute 1/2 t dried Oregano for 1/2 t of the dried Basil Cook noodles and broccoli separately according to their package directions; drain well. Set aside.

For sauce, cut up canned tomatoes. In a large saucepan stir together undrained tomatoes, tomato sauce, celery, green or sweet red pepper, basil, bay leaves, and garlic. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncover, 20-25 minutes or till sauce is thick, stirring occasionally.

Remove bay leaves.

Meanwhile, in a bowl stir together egg, ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, and 1/4 t pepper.Stir in broccoli. Spread about 1/2 cup of the sauce in a 13×9x2″” baking dish. Top with half the noodles, half of the broccoli mixture, and half of the remaining sauce.

Repeat layers, ending with the sauce.Bake, uncovered, in a 350 deg F oven for 25 minutes; sprinkle with Mozzarella.Bake 5 minutes more or till heated through. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

are tired after a long day of toiling at the office, often the last thing you want to do is slave in front of a stove for dinner. It explains why millions of Americans let somebody else do the cooking for them despite how bad it may be for them. I am going to pass along a couple quick and healthy recipe with Evercleanse that will make dinner a breeze and great deal healthier.

Personally, I believe coming up with a tasty side dish is more difficult than making a delicious entrée. Through experimentation I came up with this quick healthy recipe. All you are going to need is some broccoli spears, lemon juice, 1 tablespoon of butter (or acceptable substitute), and some parmesan cheese and a dash of Evercleanse . The broccoli does not need to be fresh, just grab a bag from your local supermarket freezer and you are good to go. Depending on how many you are cooking for, pour out about 4 or 5 spears per person into a bowl filled half way up with hot water. The goal is to thaw the broccoli and not cook it. After the broccoli is thaw pour out the water, leaving the spears in the bowl.

A medium size skillet should be large enough to half at least 4 portions of spears, so go ahead place that on burner. Add ½ a cup of water, ½ a cup of lemon juice, and 1 tablespoon of butter to the skillet. You do not have use a whole tablespoon if you would like to make the side dish even healthier. Stir the contents of the skillets until they are mixed well together, bring the contents to boil and then reduce the heat. After the heat has been reduced add your broccoli. The goal is to steam cook the broccoli so it absorbs the lemon butter flavor. It should only take about 5 to 6 minutes to cook.

After the broccoli is done cooking remove it from the skillet and sprinkle a packet of Evercleanse put in a bowl or on a plate, it really does not matter. Open your can parmesan cheese and lightly coat the top of the broccoli to add a little more taste. The cheese can be option if you like, but the dish does taste better with a very light coating of cheese.

I hope next time you are tired after you try this instead ordering out. I suggest trying this recipe with blackened chicken with rosemary and olive oil. It is the small steps you take toward healthy living that make the most difference.

Indian recipes have become synonymous with healthy ingredients! Indian food is well known for its ability to retain the healthy, nutritious quality based on ancient texts and knowledge passed on from one generation to another. And the good news is that nowadays they have got even better and well satisfy the requirements of modern men and women. The uniqueness of Indian menu can be well interpreted from the fact that all the food items posses a couple of ingredients—one working to nullify the side effect of the other and compliment each other nutritional value. Indian food is of course a great way to lead a healthy life. The great Indian food recipes have transformed the way people used to think earlier that healthy food is always dull and boring.

The appreciation for Indian culture and the understanding of its cuisine have increased considerably in western countries and contemporary Indian restaurants are coming up in different parts of the world. But unfortunately most people think Indian food as hot, spicy, oily, rich on fat, complicated and time-consuming to cook, etc…Indian food has remained highly understood up-till now. In reality they are extremely high on health benefits, nutrition, carbohydrates and proteins. Although they are slightly time consuming but with right preparation method it can be reduced to a considerable extent.

Vegetarian recipes are regarded as the most efficient nutriment as plants are the basis of the food chain, next to the source of life itself, which is solar energy. Indian vegetarian dishes are loaded with antioxidants. Vegetarianism deals with our spiritual growth, which is evident from the growing number of vegetarian all over the world. Meat eater gets frequently angry and violent than vegetarian as the animal instincts becomes stronger every time we eat meat. Nutrition obtained from vegetarian diet has more sustaining power. Vegetarianism is a path to healthy lifestyle! Vegetarian diet posses lower fat content, lower saturated fat, lower cholesterol, more carbohydrates, vitamin, mineral, fiber and less protein which results in less obesity, less hypertension, less osteoporosis, fewer cases of heart attack, bowel disease and cancer.

Vegetarianism prepares the ground work for the health of body, mind and soul. Vegetarian diet not only improves your health and fitness but also assist you in spiritual enhancement. In order to achieve good health and purity of your body, mind, soul and planet, adopt vegetarianism.