Join the 2-Week Dinner At Home Challenge with Prep-Ahead One-Pan Meals

It’s a new year, that means new starts, new firsts, new goals and of course…new challenges!

This challenge that we are introducing this year is such a smart one and a great habit to get into – eating dinner at home with the Ditch the Drive-Thru 2-Week Eat At Home Challenge!

Why is this important? We believe it is important for three reasons:

Family Dinner Time – You can arguably state that you get the time together as a family at a restaurant, but in all reality, sitting down together as a family around the table is a practice that is slowly becoming extinct. However, it’s such a crucial time for the family relationships and eating is one of the most intimate activities a person does (as life is dependent upon it), so enjoying dinner together draws the family closer. Sitting at the table makes for a wide open door to discuss the day’s events, get to know one another better. Even more, we encourage couple’s and families to have a nightly 5-10 minute meeting regarding the family’s finances and the goals and what was accomplished that day to work towards those goals (or the things that failed to fix and encourage to do better). There is really no better time than dinner and it is often too intimate of a subject to discuss while at a restaurant.
It’s healthier – No matter how you ‘slice it,’ dinner at home is much healthier as a normal practice versus restaurant food. Sure, there are many at-home meals less healthy than many restaurant meals, but for the most part, many people find a much healthier diet by eating at home more. It is a common problem and complaint from those that dine out, eating dinner out is not as healthy.
It’s cheaper – FAR cheaper, even when comparing fancier at home meals with cheaper meals eating out – it’s still generally cheaper!

Did you know that eating out is now such a common practice, that the money spent on eating out surpassed that of buying groceries? According to Bloomberg, in 2015, American’s spent more money eating out than they did on groceries! Let’s eat at home frugal friends and save money, save health and save relationships!

With that, we encourage you to participate in the 2-week at home challenge.

But of course, a challenge doesn’t come with others making excuses for why they can’t participate in a challenge, with the top reason being that they have no time to make dinner at home because it takes so long!

That is why our friend Michelle at 5 Dinners in 1 Hour shows how to make 5 meals in one hour, stored in the fridge, 5 days at a time.

Simply pull the meal out of the fridge from the baggie you prepped it in, dump it in a pan, and toss it in the oven – bake and serve! Simple as that!

Here’s how this challenge works:

Shop according to the shopping list provided
Come home and prepare the 5 meals according to the provided recipes and place the ingredients in the baggies.