Blog Posts

There’s nothing better than a bowl of hot soup to warm you up on a cold day. Soups can be easy and quick to prepare, as well as very nutritious. Here are the top reasons we love soup:

It’s usually more budget-friendly to eat most meals from home, but let’s face it – fast-food restaurants are part of many people’s routines. In general, these foods provide more calories, sodium and saturated fat and cost more money than meals you make at home. While we encourage you to limit fast-food to special occasions, with a little planning, it is possible to find items or full meals from fast-food restaurants that can fit into your MyPlate plan.  

One of our favorite foods this fall is winter squash! Winter squash is a vegetable that is easy to find (and easy to cook) and it is usually on sale in the fall. Common types you might see are butternut, acorn, spaghetti, delicata, and even pumpkin. They can be cooked many ways, from a roasted squash medley, to hearty and comforting soups, and even mashed like potatoes or diced in a salad. Here are some tips and tricks for adding this delicious vegetable to your next meal. 

It has happened to all of us. We had to throw away leftovers, a food item spoiled in the fridge, or a pantry item went stale. When food is thrown away, your money is being thrown away, too. How can you keep this from happening? Here are some tips to help save money and make sure all the food you buy is eaten. 

Foods like ramen, mac and cheese, instant potatoes, rice mixes, and oatmeal are common items in many pantries. They are quick, easy meals that are also comforting and affordable. But have you ever thought about jazzing them up? Tossing in a few extra ingredients can really take your classic pantry staples to the next level!  By adding more ingredients to packaged foods, you can: 

Do you know about all the different ways to stay in touch with us? Eat.Move.Save. is here to help you make healthier choices on any budget. Whether you’re looking for grocery shopping tips to save money, tasty new recipes, or ideas to get active, take advantage of these Eat.Move.Save. tools that will help keep healthier choices at the top of your to-do list (and your inbox and social media feeds, too!). 

MyPlate is a simple tool that reminds you to choose a variety of foods throughout the day. It gives you a picture of what and how much to eat from each of the food groups each day, whether you eat on a plate, from a bowl, a cup, or some other way. Eating a variety of foods from each food group will help you get the nutrients you need. The five food groups that make up MyPlate are Vegetables, Fruits, Grains, Proteins, and Dairy. MyPlate, in a nutshell:

Eat.Move.Save. is like a toolbox that can help you make healthier choices on any budget. In this blog series, we will highlight many of the tools that you can use to build your plan to Eat, Move, and Save in a way that works for you and your family. The first tool we’ll pull from the box is Find Food IL!

Sheet pan suppers are great because you can cook everything together on one foil-lined pan, making clean up a snap. You can use all kinds of ingredients and flavors to create something everyone will love. They are a good option for using up any leftover meat or produce you have on hand. Sheet pan suppers use the roasting method for cooking, which brings out the natural flavors of whatever you decide to put on the pan. 

Grain bowls make great 5-ingredient meals for lots of reasons. They are easy to make. They are made with things that you probably already have in your kitchen. They are a great way to use leftovers or use single ingredients in different ways. And maybe most important, they are full of nutrition, including all five food groups!