Make a New Year's Resolution to Have More Healthy, Tasty, Inexpensive Meals at Home!

Why not promise yourself that you will serve your family more healthy, inexpensive meals at home in the year 2012? It is not hard to do, is much easier on your pocketbook, and is usually much healthier too. This article is full of recipes for old fashioned inexpensive, healthy, tasty recipes to help you toward that goal! Notice I did not say these recipes are for a meal. You will probably not want to serve all three of these recipes together; they are just ideas for various meals. Have a great 2012 and eat well!

CORN AU GRATIN

Growing up in the midwest corn country, corn was always a favorite no matter how you cooked it. Since corn and cheese are two of my favorite foods, I love this corn au gratin! You can make it even healthier by substituting whole-wheat flour for regular white flour, Splenda granulated for the sugar, egg substitute for the eggs, low-fat cheese for the regular Cheddar, and evaporated skim milk for the milk or cream. Simple substitutions your family won't even notice!

1 can (16-oz) cream-style corn
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup grated Cheddar cheese
1/4 cup milk or cream

Place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix together well. Place in a greased 8-inch square baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

SAUSAGE AND SWEET POTATO BAKE

1 lb bulk sausage
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced
3 medium apples, peeled and sliced
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp flour
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup water

Brown sausage and drain. Arrange the sausage, potatoes and apples in a 2-quart casserole. Combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt and water. Pour over sausage. Cover and bake at 375 degrees for about 1 hour or until potatoes and apples are tender.

Make this an even healthier dish by substituting turkey sausage (but read the label well to be sure it doesn't contain ground up turkey fat). Sweet potatoes and apples are two very healthy ingredients. And believe it or not, the cinnamon is very good for you.

TAILGATE PARMESAN CHICKEN

3 lb frying chicken, cut up
1 1/4 cups grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp salt
1/4 fresh ground black pepper
1/3 cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Wash the chicken and pat dry.

Mix the Parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper together.

Dip the chicken into the melted butter then into the Parmesan mixture.

Lightly spray a 13 x 9-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Arrange the coated chicken pieces, skin side down, in the baking pan. Pour the remaining butter over the chicken.

Bake, uncovered, at 425 degrees for 30 minutes. Turn chicken and bake another 20 minutes or until tender and juices run clear.

Yield: 4 servings

You can update this recipe to a more healthy status by removing the skin from the chicken. In my opinion, such as it is, substituting margarine for butter is not a healthy alternative. Butter is a natural product and more readily accepted by our bodies than is the artificial margarines.