I don't know if it's particularly healthy, but we make one of my grandma's unusual recipes - 1 head of cabbage, 1 lb. browned ground beef, 4 cups cooked plain rice and 2 cans of tomato soup. Layer it in a deep bowl with some soup over each layer, with some salt and pepper to taste, and bake it at 350 until it bubbles. It sounds kind of strange, but it really is good. You can do a heck of a lot with a head of cabbage.

Through the winter, I tend to make a lot of stews and soups in large quantities and freeze the leftovers. Then if we run into a tight week, we don't have to worry about groceries, we just crack out a container of homemade beef vegetable or chicken corn soup.

We also buy meat in bulk. Usually we buy 3 lb. packs of ground beef and freeze it in 1/2 lb. portions. We found we can save a good deal of money like this. Just recently we found 10 lb. pork loins marked down to $15 each (originally $45). We bought two and carved them up. We froze about four small roasts, ten or twelve chops and two packs of "stir-fry" meat. A deep freezer was the best investment we ever made.