Meal Planning

Do you know your latte factor? That's a question best-selling author David Bach asks in his books, the most recent of which is The Automatic Millionaire. The latte factor refers to how much a person might spend on a fancy coffee each morning. In your life, there are probably such small but regular purchases that add up to big money leaking from your household budget. It was no accident that Bach chose a dining-out item to illustrate the point. An American family of four spends more than $3,000 a year on eating out, according to government statistics.

Chazz: A Bronx Original starts lunch service on Aug. 30. And Thames Street Oyster House started its lunch service last week. The lunch at Chazz goes from 11:30 a.m. -3:30 p.m., and features the dinner menu along with a few added-in lunch options like panini and chicken Caesar salads. The lunch at Thames Street Oyster House, which Suzanne Loudermilk mentioned in her In Good Taste blog, began on Aug. 24 and is offered on Wednesday through Sunday, 1:30 a.m.-2 p.m., according to the restaurant's Facebook page .

This week's menusEach day of the week offers a menu aimed at a different aspect of meal planning at a different aspect of meal planning. Ther's a family meal, a kids' menu aimed at younger tastes, a heat-and-eat meal that recycles leftovers, a budget meal that employs a cost-cutting strategy, a meatless or "less meat" dish for people who may not be strict vegetarians but are trying to cut down on meat, an express meal that requires little or no preparation, and...

Do you know your latte factor? That's a question best-selling author David Bach asks in his books, the most recent of which is The Automatic Millionaire. The latte factor refers to how much a person might spend on a fancy coffee each morning. In your life, there are probably such small but regular purchases that add up to big money leaking from your household budget. It was no accident that Bach chose a dining-out item to illustrate the point. An American family of four spends more than $3,000 a year on eating out, according to government statistics.

Each day of the week offers a menu aimed at a different aspect of meal planning. There's a family meal, a kids' menu aimed at younger tastes, a heat-and-eat meal that recycles leftovers, a budget meal that employs a cost- cutting strategy, a meatless or "less meat" dish for people who may not be strict vegetarians but are trying to cut down on meat, an express meal that requires little or no preparation, and an entertaining menu that's quick.Sunday/Valentine's DayBe My Valentine Beef and Mushroom Dijon will impress any romantic (see recipe)

CLARIFICATION An article in yesterday's editions about the Tiger Meal Plan, a privately owned and operated food plan available to college students, should have said neither Goucher College nor Towson University endorses the plan. Students who commute to Towson University and Goucher College and who don't want to pay for the traditional meal plan have a new option, one that allows them to patronize local restaurants. "The idea is to get students into the community by going to restaurants they like," said Brandon Lloyd, vice president of expansion for Off Campus Access, the company that administers the Tiger Meal Plan -- named for Towson's mascot.

With millions of dollars in federal and state aid at stake, Baltimore schools are offering students and their families prizes and movie passes if they just fill out a form. The form is an application for free or reduced-price meals at school cafeterias. Not everyone who applies will have a family income low enough to qualify, but the school system is betting that at least a portion of the 26,000 students who don't fill out the forms each year will meet the standard. Last year about 69 percent of the 100,000 students in the school system were enrolled in the meals program.

Each day of the week offers a menu aimed at a different aspect of meal planning. There's a family meal, a kids' menu aimed at younger tastes, a heat-and-eat meal that recycles leftovers, a budget meal that employs a cost-cutting strategy, a meatless or "less meat" dish for people who may not be strict vegetarians but are trying to cut down on meat, an express meal that requires little or no preparation, and an entertaining menu that's quick. SUNDAY / Family Remember all the fun you've had this summer with your family and fire up the grill for Balsamic-Marinated Beef (see recipe)

With millions of dollars in federal and state funds at stake, the city school system is planning an aggressive push to increase enrollment in a program that provides students with free and reduced-price meals. The bottom line is more than a free lunch: Just as the census count helps determine funding levels for local jurisdictions, enrollment in the free- and reduced-price meal program is used by educators to determine how much aid a school system gets. Schools officials have been stymied in getting middle- and high-schoolers to enroll in the program, which is a measure of poverty, in part because of the stigma associated with being poor.