Family Meal Planning: Kid-Friendly Potatoes

Easy, inexpensive meals can taste great if prepared with a flair, and served up with your family's favorite toppings to add themselves. The basic meal ingredients are extremely low cost, and in many cases much more nutritious if the produce is grown in a home garden, and then prepared by you.

Home-cooked, home-baked, home-canned and/or home-frozen meals provide highly nutritious ingredients, because there are no extra chemical additives, preservatives, or imitation food derivatives! Real honest-to-goodness home cooking will ensure your family stays healthier and happier, while saving money.

Saving Money Now and Later

To ensure your family's health while spending 50% less than you would spend at the grocery store, plant an assortment of vegetables in your backyard, or in patio containers, as in "How to Grow an EMERGENCY Garden" with easy, results-oriented instructions. Growing most of your family's produce in a home garden, without the aid of toxic bug sprays, will erase many your family's future medical bills, while saving money on weekly groceries.

It's All about the One-Dish Meals

While planning your meals and grocery list, add inexpensive potatoes to your staples, and try cooking up these family-friendly dishes. I promise your kids won't even miss the drive-thru mystery meals, once you begin serving these healthy homegrown, deliciously cooked dishes at your next family mealtime.

With a 5 or 10 Pound Bag of Potatoes

Look at all the different meals you can create from a 5 or 10 pound bag of potatoes (from the store or your garden). Make sure to clean potatoes thoroughly before cooking, and serve dishes which encourage the nutrient-rich skins to be eaten.

1. Jumbo baked potato meals - using only the largest baked potatoes, slice open and fill with leftover meats and vegetables, and then hide it all with grated cheese, melted over the top.

2. Potato skins appetizer or meal trays - by cutting baked potatoes into quarters, carefully scrape most of the potato flesh into a bowl for mashed potatoes (below) leaving some attached to the skin. Add homemade spaghetti sauce or salsa, topped with grated cheese, and twice-bake for crispy wedges.

3. Mashed potatoes and disguised vegetables - using the baked potato flesh from the above potato-skins, combine with nutritious steamed cauliflower, grated cheese, chopped chives, and a minced garlic clove, for the best (and healthiest) mashed-potatoes side dish you've ever had.

4. Lunchtime potato wedges or country fries - slice long raw potatoes into wedges leaving skins on, and pan fry in olive oil until dark brown and crispy on the outside, but still tender on the inside.

5. Breakfast hash browns - grate raw potatoes, adding grated onion, and minced garlic to form into one large patty for frying stove-top in olive oil (browning top and bottom). Transfer onto a plate and cut into pie wedges with a pizza cutter.

6. Scalloped potato casserole - slice potatoes into thin circles, layering alternately with olive oil, steamed/mashed broccoli and cheese (or creamed spinach) similar to lasagna; top with grated cheese, baking in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, or until tender.

Spice Up Every Meal with Homemade Condiments

Delight your family with condiment bowls filled with favorite toppings such as homemade salsa, sour cream, grated cheeses, bacon bits, chives, caramelized onions, chopped olives, and canned black beans. Everyone can then make a potato meal their favorite way.

Making kid-friendly potato meals without sacrificing health, can be easy following these, and other simple nutritional guidelines outlined in the cookbook "ABC's of Nutritious Cooking & Living a Healthier Lifestyle" . Experiment until you find the most cost-effective ways of cooking for your family's health, and nutrition, while on a limited budget.