Home cooked meals are often different. When cooked with health in mind they are missing a lot of the fat (especially the saturated fat which is so bad for our hearts) salt and extra sugar which is rampant in restaurant and take-out food. Despite the knee-jerk reaction to assume that on busy nights the best meals come from a carton, it’s simply not true. Busy nights can still mean lean, lower calorie and low sodium meals. The only rule is you must plan ahead. This may mean planning for the day for example, taking that chicken out of the freezer before work so it thaws in the fridge all day. Planning for the  week, by getting enough groceries to last until your next trip to the grocery store, or even planning for the month by making and freezing enough meals to make it through the busy days of the month ahead.  

Eating in and planning ahead can save you a little money too.  You save money by avoiding the inflated restaurant charges and if you plan ahead you can buy your groceries according to the weekly specials. All this extra money adds up and you may chose to use it to buy the sometimes pricier pre-washed, pre-sliced and pre-cooked foods at the grocery store, saving you even more time in the kitchen.