Lower your grocery bill: Go veggie

A good friend and I were chatting on the phone the other day and the subject turned to grocery costs. I thought my grocery bills were high, but compared to my friend's bills, mine are chump change. Her grocery costs were literally triple what mine were. Considering we have similarly sized families, it was kind of shocking.

In the end, we determined that the bulk of the savings is because her family eats a lot of meat and mine doesn't. It's not that my son and I eat 100% vegetarian meals every night -- we don't. But our meals have just a little meat, and larger amounts of grains and produce.

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Some ideas:

Make meat stretch.

Instead of cooking one chicken breast per person, make a package of chicken breasts spread over several meals. For example, one average-sized chicken breast is enough to feed three people if you serve enough veggies and grains with the meal. Use the remaining chicken for other meals such as a stir-fry or a cold chicken salad. You can apply the same principle with other meats as well. For example, a package of ground turkey can stretch into three meals for my family -- usually turkey burgers, lettuce wraps, and turkey chili with beans.

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Make vegetarian meals more substantial.

Whole-grain spaghetti and salad is a quick and relatively healthy meal. But you can increase the nutrition value and satiety when you add extra veggies to the mix. Saute some chopped bell peppers, onions, mushroom, zucchini, and garlic in a little olive oil and add it to your marinara sauce. And don't let your salad be boring -- add cucumbers, carrots, mushrooms, celery, and tomatoes to your greens.

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Get creative.

Look at your favorite meals and think of ways you can make them vegetarian or decrease the amount of meat used. If you're making a casserole, increase the veggie content and reduce the meat by half. When making burgers, chop onions and mushrooms right into the meat mixture, then make small patties and top them generously with tomatoes, lettuce, sprouts, or any other veggie topping.

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Aim for several vegetarian meals each week.

The favorites in my household are vegetarian soup (boring, I know ... but my son loves homemade veggie soup) and steamed broccoli and cauliflower over cous-cous.

There are lots of delicious vegetarian recipes out there. If you're a major carnivore, try to reduce your meat habit just a bit. The change will really pay off in your grocery bill!