Healthy homemade fare can be simple — and convenient to prepare. Plan ahead to make delicious, nutritious dining the easy choice. Keep home-cooking on the menu with these meal-planning tips that will save you time, money, and sanity:

• Check out online tools to help organize and streamline your weekly spreads. Get advice on how to incorporate a variety of nutritious foods into your daily menus from sites like choosemyplate.gov and mealsmatter.org where you can store and build personal recipe and ingredient databases.

• Shop grocery ads for sale items. Compare the foods with your own recipe book to find entrees or head to sites where you can search for recipes that incorporate those ingredients. Use a calendar or white board to jot down meals for the week.

• Schedule daily themes (Italian Tuesdays or Meatless Mondays) to help guide your preparation. If you know a night will be tight for time, assign it for leftovers and double up amounts when making the recipe.