Preparing meals when time is limited

Recently Luke R. wrote me and asked : Could you please write a post for fathers with ready to eat meals that are healthy? Well Luke, I think that this topic is applicable to ALL parents, whether single or married, stay-at-home or working outside of the home. We all want to prepare good meals for our children when our time is limited. Here are my ideas:

1. Plan your menu
I am a stay-at-home mom of two and I recently started being more vigilant about planning menus weekly, and now monthly. This may seem like a hard task (things come up; I don't know what will be happening on that day) or one that seems so simple it is just brushed off. But since I began menu planning:

My grocery budget has reduced. By planning ahead I know EXACTLY what meals I am going to prepare during the week and I know EXACTLY what I need to buy in order to prepare those meals. No more guesswork (do I have that in the pantry?) and no more unnecessary purchases.

Meals are always available. When I have my weekly menu plan posted in the kitchen I can see immediately what needs to be thawed out, chopped up, or boiled for the upcoming meal. This helps to have the items I need to eat always ready to go, again eliminating the guesswork in "what's for dinner?" and even "what should I take/eat for lunch?".

Meals can be tailored to my (and your) family's needs. When making my menu plan, I DO plan eating-out nights and leftover nights. You can plan for soccer practice nights, working late nights, etc. You know your schedule better than anybody else. Work with it, not against it! Try recipes in your crockpot if you are going to be home later and want to walk into your house with dinner waiting for you. Or have a marinated meat in the fridge ready for the grill.

2. Don't feel guilty if you by prepared food/meals at the store. It will still save you more money than eating out when you are having a busy day. For example, sometimes I fret over splurging a little on a nice steak. HOWEVER, if we go to a steakhouse I think nothing about spending 3x that on a steak. So in the end you are saving money over your other choices by buying the steak. I think as parents sometimes we feel like there is no middle ground - I need to either cook something from scratch or just go through the drive-thru. There is a middle ground my friends - and don't be ashamed to walk it! A nice deli pizza from Costco is still going to cost half of what you would spend on delivery. Remember that and don't get caught up in guilt.

Both Fresh & Easy and Smiths grocery stores have pre-packaged meals which, because they are made fresh, get marked down on a daily basis. Fresh & Easy marks their expiring inventory down 50% every day, somewhere between 11am-1pm (thanks Jennifer B.!). If you are able to pick something up at this time, that is a great savings. Combine it with their coupons which come in the mail or you get from the cashiers to save even more. Smiths also marks down their store meals, which are located near the deli. The other day I spotted some gourmet pasta dishes for $1.50.

Here are some other great resources to encourage you in these ideas:
* Organizing Junkie hosts Menu Plan Monday every week at her blog and she has some other great ideas and resources to help in that quest (her recipe index will get you started with some easy to have on hand dinner ideas for those late nights home).
* A Year of Crockpotting has 251 (as of writing) recipes for your crockpot.

So dear readers, do you have any other ideas/resources for ready to eat meals which are healthy?