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Groceries You Can Buy for $35 (This is Exciting!)

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I’m very encouraged to see and the groceries you can buy for $35. Check it out!

Groceries You Can Buy for $35

Keith and I went to the store recently, on a mission to get as many fresh fruits and vegetables as possible. We got:
  • Bananas
  • Broccoli
  • Blueberries
  • Raspberries
  • Pears
  • Clementines
  • Mixed Greens (organic)
  • Bag of Spinach (x2)
  • Grapes
  • Potatoes
  • Apples
And it was only $35.
Groceries can really add up. Our family spends a lot on food because there are so many of us. But I love that fruits and vegetables – the best foods we can put in our bodies – can be bought so reasonably.
Sometimes I think we have in our heads that produce costs too much, so we hold back and don’t buy enough. The picture above proves otherwise.
Look at the variety! Look at the meal and snack options! And beyond the health benefits, I’ve found that having all that great produce handy makes life easier because I can quickly grab fruit for the kids’ snacks.
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Need more fruit snacking ideas? This post is full of them!

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Now, obviously, we eat more than fruits and vegetables. This $35 purchase didn’t last us more than 2-3 days (because we feed 11 people daily).
But I wanted us to be encouraged! We can get a lot of bang for our buck when we buy fruits and vegetables!

Challenge:

  • Go to the grocery store.
  • Go when you’re hungry. :)
  • Head directly to the produce department and fill your cart with everything that looks good. (It’ll all look good when you’re hungry!)
  • Make your purchase and be amazed at all you got at such a reasonable price.
  • Go home and eat your produce.
  • Eat it again the next day.
  • Offer it as snacks to hungry kids.
  • Enhance your meals with easy fruit and veggie options.

Ready to get a lot of bang for your buck at the grocery store?! Head over and fill your cart with produce. It’s delicious, reasonably priced, and so, super good for us!

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My Current Favorite Places to Grocery Shop (and My Current Grocery Budget)

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Life is ever-changing (said the mom who suddenly has ten kids). I’ve evolved and adapted the way I grocery shop to make it work better for our family situation. Here’s an update on our grocery budget and on my favorite places to grocery shop!

First, my favorite places to grocery shop right now:

1. Costco

Costco is an hour away from us, so I have to make a plan for all the kids, then I go stock up once each month. Read here about what I like to buy at Costco. I typically spend about $600 each month here.

2. Walmart Pick-Up

I’m not sure how I ever lived without this!! I absolutely love that I can shop online for any of the groceries we need, schedule a time, then all I have to do is go pick it up! This has been a tremendous help during this season of our lives!

I spend around $250 each month using Walmart Pick-Up. Most of this is fresh fruits and vegetables to get us through until I can make it back to Costco. And also ice cream. #priorities

3. Azure Standard

I only get a few items now from Azure Standard, but I do like ordering from them what I have a hard time finding from other places. And I love that it is delivered right to my town!

I spend about $60 there each month on average. Here are some of the items I like to buy from Azure!

4. Amazon Subscribe and Save

Costco is typically less expensive than Amazon, yet I still really love that cases of groceries can be delivered to my door! Here’s what I often include in my Amazon Subscribe and Save order. I spend about $100 each month this way.

5. Local Farm Meat, Eggs, and Milk

We are blessed to have friends with a farm a few miles away. They supply us with our milk each week. We also buy half of a cow from them each year. Our eggs come all the way from across the street where our neighbor enjoys raising chickens!

When I average out our cow purchase, then add in our milk and eggs each week, this comes out to $170 per month.

Our Total Grocery Budget

If you add all that up, you’ll see that we are currently spending around $1,200 for groceries every month. This does not include what we spend on diapers and other household items. This is only food. For these people:
  • 2 parents
  • 3 teen and adult children
  • Many of their friends and lots of college students
  • 4 small children
  • 2 babies (Who don’t cost us much because they are supplemented by the WIC program, praise God!)
Asa and Justus are missing from this picture. But here’s the rest of us!

And that’s that! How about you? What are your favorite ways to shop for groceries?

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Check Out the New Flexi-Sport (Win One?!)

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It is a brand new patent-pending hair clip called the Flexi Sport! Just when we thought Lilla Rose’s Flexi Clips couldn’t get any better!

The Flexi Sport is made of a waterproof/grippy material that is great for working out, running, swimming, gardening, etc. (Or even just chasing babies and toddlers all day, thank you very much!)


It is easy to put in and take out (no pulling or snagging like elastics do) and stays securely all day. It is also easy to clean with just soap and water (a nice feature after hard workouts or all day doing yard work!)

The pin is reversible for different fits, types of hair, and hairstyles. So one clip can do a half-up, ponytail, French twist, bun, and more. This is a great clip for those with fine, thin, or slippery hair, as it has more “grip” than the classic Flexi. It is also good for ponytails for the same grippy reason.

It is also great for kids who tend to lose their hair accessories while running around and playing.

The Flexi Sport is super comfortable, and does not cause “ponytail headaches.” Woohoo! What a great alternative for those who have metal/nickel allergies and can’t wear the metal Flexis.

Isn’t that purple so pretty! Yeah, everyone else thought so too. So it sold out. But they just added new fall colors: brick, cocoa, gray, and olive!

I love mine, and I know you will too!

Want to try one? Or even win a free one?

Paula, our very own Lilla Rose consultant is giving away a Sport to FIVE of you!! Winners will receive a surprise color, so that’s fun too! What a generous offer!
Enter by Sept. 19 – the winner through email on Monday, Sept. 20.

CLICK HERE TO ENTER

Or, if you just want to shop, head here. Free shipping on orders over $50!

 

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Nourishing Smoothies My Kids Actually Love

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You’ll read in this post about how I have to cheat just a little bit in order to make these smoothies for my kids. But at least these are still nourishing smoothies, and my kids all love them! Even my high schooler.

As you know, Matt and I drink our salads – loading our smoothies with a huge amount of greens, then blending in frozen fruit and milk. We don’t add any sweeteners, and we are good with that. The fruit sweetens these enough for us, and at the end of the day, we are simply trying to get as much nourishment as possible during these days that it’s very difficult to even find time to eat at all.

Our kids though? They aren’t huge fans. Who can blame them? They like their smoothies sweeter than we do. And the truth is the amount of greens that I put in “the adult smoothies” is pretty substantial. Spring mix in that amount does change the taste of the smoothie and indeed, green (greens) and red (fruit) make brown. So our smoothies aren’t pretty. :)

When there is this much sweetness going on at our house,
why would Matt and I need to add sweetener to our smoothies? Ok then.

How to Make Nourishing Smoothies that are Kid Friendly

Back when I “only had four kids” who weren’t all babies at the same time, I took the time to add separate ingredients to my smoothies. Goodness, somehow I even had a freezer full of fruits that we had picked, prepared, and frozen ourselves!! (How in the world did I ever have time to do all that work!?) I sweetened those smoothies with maple syrup or honey, and my kids guzzled them down.

But now.

I know it may sound silly, but as I’ve shared so many times lately, I’m often preparing food with just one hand as I am almost always holding one of our babies. So getting a bunch of different ingredients out of the fridge or freezer to add to the blender? Well, I’ve just found that I have to keep everything to a minimum.

The solution I’ve found is a bit of a cheater method. I buy frozen mixed fruit in bulk from Costco (which is totally not cheating – those good fruits are there to save us all, amen!). Bags of mixed fruit make it easier to give us a variety without pulling out several different bags. One bag. Two or seven fruits. Beautiful!

But here’s the cheat part: I use containers of Vanilla Yogurt. I add around 16 ounces to our blender, along with milk. This covers three ingredients with one grab from the fridge (vanilla, yogurt, and sweetener), so the vanilla yogurt sweetens the kids’ smoothies and flavors them too. Yes, it adds sugar to their smoothies. I’ve decided that I don’t actually care. THIS IS HOW I GET MY KIDS TO EAT SPINACH.

Oh yeah. Because I put fresh spinach into my Blendtec when I make these too. Not as much as I do when I make smoothies for Matt and me. But enough to be sure they all get a nice serving of fresh greens. Between the tasty fruits and the sweetened yogurt – every single one of my kids will drink a big cup full of smoothie and some of them ask for more.

They even know there’s spinach included and I think they are kind of proud. (And probably relieved that they aren’t being forced to eat a salad with dinner.)

These cups hide weird smoothie colors

If I add greens to the blender along with frozen blueberries and strawberries, the dark color of the berries hides the greens. But if I add greens to the blender along with bananas and peaches, the smoothies turn out…not pretty. No matter! All the kids drink their smoothies better from cups with lids and straws anyway. These cups make it fun (except for when they argue about who gets which cup, oy).

Nourishing Smoothies My Kids Actually Love

Here’s “the recipe” even though we all know that measuring ingredients into a smoothie isn’t a real thing. So add the words “give or take” to any of these as you make smoothies based on what you have and what you can put into your blender with one hand.

Nourishing Smoothies My Kids Actually Love
 
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Author:
Serves: 5 servings
Ingredients
  • 2 cups fresh spinach
  • 3 cups frozen fruit (any combination of blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, bananas, peaches, pineapple, oranges, or grapes)
  • 2 cups vanilla yogurt
  • 2 cups milk
Instructions
  1. Blend ingredients together in a high power blender until smooth.

 

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How to Eat Healthier While Traveling

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paleo while traveling

Remember when I shared how I survive road trips while eating paleo? We can eat healthier while traveling by planning ahead, eating before we leave the house, and pack our own homemade delicious snacks… but sometimes we are just hungry and we’re miles away from resources and a kitchen and there are business all about with their flashy signs and great deals and what’s a girl to do but order a medium potato óle? Again, I urge you to set your boundaries and know why you chose to eat the way you do. If you’re doing the Whole Thirty challenge. You can not afford to go off-plan. One sip of a milkshake will set back two weeks of the dairy and sugar cleanse you are on. It can take 30 days for your body to fully rid itself of the dairy and up to 90 days for gluten. But if you’re just trying to lose 5 pounds, you may give yourself a treat here and there. I get it.

If finances are tight, eating out ever can wreck your food budget.

I’m not here to talk you into anything. But I’d like to encourage you in your healthy food journey! Let’s hear it for REAL FOOD! Where can you get real food while traveling? There are some ways to eat healthier from fast food. Some offer salads that aren’t half bad. But if you’re counting calories, you’ll be surprised what you find in the dressings or add-ons. I don’t count calories, but I do avoid most commercial dressings.

The #1 way I eat healthier while traveling is to “eat out” at the grocery store.

Go to the grocery store! Just pretend the grocery store is a huge buffet. Grab a cart, bring all the kids inside and walk around the outer edge of the store and buy lots of things that you can eat immediately. Get some fruit. A few vegetables. Some protein. I promise this will save you money and keep you feeling great. My husband will argue that he doesn’t get full this way, but I argue it’s because he just didn’t eat enough—and next time he will need to get a rotisserie chicken or some other hot meat.

What do we actually buy to make a meal for the family?

Anything we want! And we don’t just do this for traveling, we swing by the grocery store to grab food for picnics, parks days, play-dates, etc. Here are a few meal suggestions that I’ve bought in the past:

Romain lettuce, lunch meat, guacamole, bell peppers, dill pickles, grapes, oranges, carrots. My total was $23 and we had enough for two full meals. We used the lettuce to make wraps with the guac, meat, peppers, and pickles and ate the fruit and carrots on the side. (Hint: I usually have a knife handy to slice bell peppers, cucumbers, etc.)

Last time we splurged and spent a whopping $45 dollars. We bought oranges, apples, bananas, guacamole, Nuthins, Ritz crackers, salt & vinegar potato chips, 12 pack of Lärabars, lunch meat, almonds, and a jug of water. Oh, and The Wonky Donky.

My kids are currently 9, 6, 5, and 2 years old. The six of us generally eat paleo, but nobody but me reacts to gluten, dairy, or sugar, so they’re allowed to eat whatever they want. I prep them before we go inside the store: “Don’t ask for a bunch of things you know we’re not going to buy. I will let you know when it’s time for you to pick something out. You will stay with me and not run off down the aisles. Let’s go get some yummy lunch!”

Here’s a $12 dinner: Small jar of peanut butter, jelly, loaf of bread, bag of oranges, and a 6-pack of ice cream sandwiches. Even though it’s still processed food, it goes better for my family than buying a meal’s worth from a fast-food joint. And you will probably have leftovers of everything but the ice-cream sandwiches!

A few grocery store recipes to eat healthier while traveling:

1) Single serve apple sauce, yogurt cups, deli meat and cheese, Hawaiian rolls, carrots, grapes.

2) Hot chicken from the deli, clearance French bread, sliced cheese, rocket apples, dill pickles.

3) Premade salad mixes, a $1 bowl, can of chicken, small bottle of dressing, ask for forks at the deli counter.

4) Fruit/veggie pouch for the toddler, variety of Naked or Bolthouse Farms juices to sample, bag of chips and jar of favorite dip, box of Lärabars, container of mixed nuts.

5) A protein, a vegetable, a fruit, some add-ons to make the meal fun.

6) Yes, sometimes I still find myself munching down on a handful of potato óles and I have no shame in this.

healthier food while traveling

Don’t make food while traveling harder than it has to be. Just . . . pick out some yummy healthier foods and eat.

My favorite is to let each kid pick out something. One kid will get to pick out his favorite vegetables, while another is in charge of the fruit, one helps decide which type of meat or nuts. You get the idea. They’re much happier this way and so am I.

Is this something you have ever done? Can you bypass the fast-food and grab lunch at the grocery store and eat at the park? Or the trunk of the suburban? Or your friend’s backyard?

Tasha Hackett Tasha Hackett is a friend of Laura and author of Bluebird on the Prairie. When Eloise and Zeke meet under an extremely embarrassing circumstance, Eloise is fine with pretending the whole thing never happened. But they continue to be thrown together when Zeke lands a job working for her brother and it appears God has other plans for this couple. Find a copy of this touching romance wherever books are sold.

To connect more with Tasha and her historical fiction writing, you can find her at www.TashaHackett.com.

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Easy Fruit Choices I Give My Kids Every Day

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We go through a lot of fruit at our house! But I don’t have time or enough hands to cut up fruit for my kids. Here are the easy fruit choices I try to keep on hand to give my kids every day.

Currently, we have six little ones and four of them are in diapers. Therefore, I had to stop buying cantaloupe and fresh pineapple, simply because they would sit neglected on the counter and I would never, ever get around to cutting them.

Six minutes. Ten maybe. That’s how long it takes to prep a cantaloupe. And yet, there are not ten minutes to be found these days. Awww, these babies!

I have started to rely on other fruits that take no prep, or maybe just thirty-seconds of prep. Wash-and-serve fruit like berries. 100% fruit cups like peaches, pears, and mandarin oranges. Applesauce squeezies by the case! Bonus points if there are vegetables in them! (Like these.)

East Fruit Choices I Give My Kids Every Day

Here’s a quick list for us so that you and I can easily reference when we need ideas and inspiration for fruit we can grab and hand to our kids. Better yet, if they’re old enough, they can reach in and grab it themselves!

Some Fruity Tips

~ Usually my kids eat apples and pears better if they are sliced or cut into small bites. So if I have two hands-free, I’ll quickly prep those fruits to hand my kids for snacks or a side dish to our meals.

~ They really love apple slices dipped in peanut butter, so sometimes that turns into our lunch!

~ I usually drain the juice out of our fruit cups before serving them, simply because our toddlers will spill the juice everywhere while trying to eat the fruit.

~ I teach my little ones to peel their own clementines as soon as they are able. So even at their very little ages, if I get the clementine started, they can take over and peel it on their own.

~ I like to cut strawberries into small pieces to make them easier to eat, but when there’s no time, I try to make a big deal of how fun it is to eat a great big strawberry while holding onto the green part.

~ I keep a bowl of prepared 100% fruit cups in our kitchen for our kids to grab as needed.

~ Watch out for the prepared fruit cups labeled “no sugar added.” That’s code for “fake sweetener added” so I always avoid those. Go for the cups prepared in 100% fruit juice.

Some day, I’ll slice cantaloupe, pineapple, and watermelon again! As for now, these easy fruit choices work best for us!

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Breakfast at School: SO MUCH SUGAR

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Hey, breakfast at school? You sure are sweet.

Today I’m taking a moment to process my thoughts about the school’s tasty donuts. Also, the chocolate milk. Then I’m going to tell you what I’m trying to do at our house to help our kids avoid sugar overload.

I am all about offering a fun breakfast. But I try to keep the sugar level down if I expect any of us to be productive. Here babies. Eat these fruity pebbles. Now go sit still for a long time and calculate numbers and sound out words.

First day of school, 2021. Keith had to get in on it too!
And how dare they get on the bus without him?!

School breakfast is free this year, so I decided to check something off my morning list and let the kids eat at school when they got off the bus.

I have no idea what the kids ate on their first day. It was the first day. We survived it. That’s all that mattered.

On the second day of school, our kindergartener came home with precious, sweet chocolate cheeks. She proudly told me that they all got chocolate donuts for breakfast! I celebrated the fun with her, and then gently suggested that maybe tomorrow she pick something less sugary to start her day.

Bless her little five-year-old heart. On day three, she told me that today she’d had cereal – so that was much less sugary, right? Good job, said I. What kind of cereal did you pick?

Her happy reply was, “The chocolate kind. OH! And then I poured chocolate milk into it so it was double chocolate!”

Oy. Well, what would any of us have chosen as kids? The chocolate cereal with the chocolate milk? Well, yeah! (Ok, fine. I would have chosen the fruit loops.)

Yes, of course, the school always also offers fruit and protein. But Mom isn’t there to make them take it and eat it, ha. And it’s easy to overlook it when there lie the donuts. So.

I fight enough battles with our kids.

Our seven and five-year-old babes have plenty of other more important needs for me to focus on. I feel like I am constantly re-training and re-directing and re-teaching them. So for me to say, YOU MAY NOT EAT SUGAR AT SCHOOL! would not be an ok thing. This isn’t a hill I’m going to die on. It’s not their fault that there are so many fun sugar choices. And the school has a lot of kids to feed in a short amount of time. They can’t make omelets to order. Sweet items are easier to dole out!

Chocolate Milk…times three

This one is maybe the hardest for me. When given the choice, of course, our kids are going to take chocolate milk. That’s what I did as a kid!

I’ve tried to encourage white milk, but they don’t like how it tastes out of a carton. Then there was the day Brayden proudly told me he’d chosen a different carton of milk at school. “White milk?” I asked. “No, the pink kind!” Ahhhh, strawberry. Hahaha. Bless.

If the kids just got one sugary milk each day, I would just shrug and move on. Again, I’m not dying on this hill. But in fact, they get chocolate milk three times every day. One at breakfast, one at snack, and one for lunch. My stomach hurts just thinking about it.

So we decided to skip breakfast at school.

Maybe once in a while, I’ll let them go through the breakfast line for a special treat. But I feel like I need to start their day of learning on a better foot so that they can focus better.

  • I feed my kids before they get on the bus. This is tough because they leave the house at 7:05. But it’s worth the extra effort in the morning.
  • I focus on protein and fresh fruit at home before sending them off for the day. If I can get some eggs or sausage on their plates and tummies, I feel so much better about whatever else they might choose to eat or drink at school. Before rushing out the door, I know they have some good nourishment in them.

Some high protein at-home breakfast ideas:

Here are a few of the menu items I’ve given my kids before sending them off. Keep in mind they only have about 10-minutes to eat before leaving to meet the bus (because I let them sleep as late as possible). So the portions are small and easy to eat (and I don’t allow any chattering between bites because oh my goodness that…sloooowwwwws…themmmm…dowwwwwnnnn).

  • Fruit. Any Fruit. Just pick one and eat it. Then I give them something like:
  • Scrambled Cheesy Eggs
  • Apple Slices and Peanut Butter (this gives them both their fruit and their protein!)
  • Apple Slices and Cheese
  • Banana with Peanut Butter
  • Sausage Patties or Links
  • Peanut Butter Toast
  • Bagel with Cream Cheese
  • Fried Slices of Ham
  • Ham on Toast
  • Sausage Sandwich
  • Egg Sandwich
  • Summer Sausage and Cheese

It’s actually been pretty fun to come up with ideas for this. One day I thawed six pounds of meat and made a huge batch of Homemade Sausage.

I froze the patties, uncooked, on paper plates separated with parchment paper. These have been great to pull out and fry quickly while the kids are waking up and getting ready.

Get my Homemade Sausage recipe here. The recipe calls for ground turkey, but I use other ground meats too! Also, you’ll save time making Homemade Sausage if you follow this great recipe for making Sausage Seasoning. I keep a big jar of it, then just stir it into a large batch of meat!

Reference this too!

This simplified breakfast menu idea is my go-to! Sneak peek at the skeleton plan:

Monday – Muffins
Tuesday  – Toast
Wednesday – Oatmeal
Thursday – Eggs
Friday – Granola or Cereal

Details and recipes here.

What do you feed your kids for breakfast before school?

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The Easiest Apple Pie

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How lovely that the Easiest Apple Pie is also The Tastiest!

Once upon a time, I made all of our food from scratch. I took great pride in this and I worked for hours in the kitchen every day to put all of our meals and snacks on the table.

Then God taught me more about loving people. He continues to bring more children into our home and shucks if I haven’t made a homemade pie crust in years.

It’s hard to roll out pie crust whilst holding a chubbo sweetheart.

Do I still love homemade pie crust? Oh yes, very much. Might many of you still make homemade pie crust while loving on all the people God has put in your path? Very much, yes.

But as for me and my house, we shall buy the crust from the freezer section of the grocery store. And we will order it through Walmart Pick-up so that we don’t even have to go into the store because grocery shopping isn’t a thing we can do very easily right now.

So now you know the truth.

I buy pre-made pie crusts. And I simply don’t read the ingredient list on the package. I’ve decided that if I don’t know what’s in it, it can’t hurt us. Heh.

I can’t believe I’m doing this, but shucks if I’m not putting together a bullet list of store-bought pie crust tips for all of us right now. If we’re going to do this, we should do it the best way, am I right?

My Best Store-Bought Pie Crust Tips

  • I like to buy the deep-dish variety instead of the regular (go big or go home)
  • I like to buy several 2-packs and keep them in my freezer to pull out and use as needed (because apparently, I’ve decided that pies are a need)
  • I pull out my frozen crusts to put together quick pies or quiches for desserts or meals (easy peasy pumpkin squeezy)
  • Sometimes we eat Pumpkin Pie for breakfast because this is a vegetable-eating opportunity (and healthier than donuts or fruit loops)

Bonus Tip: Do you know how quickly you can grab out pre-made crusts, whip up Pumpkin Pie Filling, and bake pumpkin pies? So quickly. You should do this.

So now, let’s talk about the Easiest Apple Pie.

I suppose the actual easiest way to make apple pie is to buy a can of apple pie filling and pour it into a pre-made crust. But that would not be the tastiest. So we’re going to work for about ten minutes to make both the Easiest and the Tastiest Apple Pie.

apples

Here’s how to make and freeze Apple Pie Filling:

1. Wash, core, and slice apples into a large bowl. I leave the peeling on to save a step.
2. Stir in 1/4 cup sucanat or brown sugar plus 1 teaspoon cinnamon per every 5-6 apples.
3. Transfer mixture to quart-sized freezer bags, 3-4 cups of apple pie filling per bag.
4. Label the bag and freeze it for up to a year.

Here’s how to make an easy Crumb Topping:

1/2 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup sucanat or brown sugar
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
1/4 cup butter (MELTED, if you recall)
1/4 cup chopped nuts or coconut flakes (also optional)

Mix together oats, sucanat, flour and cinnamon. Stir in melted butter and joy upon joy, it creates crumbs with little to no effort. Add nuts or coconut flakes. Triple the recipe to keep this crumb topping on hand for making the Easiest Apple Pies!

If you have frozen apple pie filling and frozen pre-made pie crusts, all you have to do is:

  1. Thaw your apple pie filling and your crust.
  2. Pour the filling into the crust.
  3. Top with Crumb Topping.
  4. Bake in a 350-degree oven for about 45 minutes to an hour or until apples are tender and juicy.

Oh how cute. This photo is from back in the day when I made crusts with my own hands. :)

How do you feel about store-bought pie crust? Is this perhaps a good time for me to tell you that I also consider frozen pizza to be a “need” in our home right now? Heh.

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What to do with All the Zucchini

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Trying to figure out what to do with all the zucchini?

what to do with all the zucchini

Yum

It’s zucchini season! I didn’t grow any this year. Sad. But other people did and around this time each year people are giving them away because when a zucchini plant does well, it does well. And when it doesn’t, we all curse the vine-borer grubs in unison and praise God for grocery stores and our friends who somehow fought off the nefarious and disgusting grubs. Ah-hem. Back to the yummy part.

What to do with all the zucchini?

Zucchini might be one of our favorite versatile vegetables. Here’s what I do with it:

  1. Chop it up and pan fry with salt and pepper and other stuff to make a quick skillet dinner: a.) garlic, onions, mushrooms, shrimp. b) garlic, onions, beef, cabbage. c.) garlic, onions, tomatoes, parmesan cheese. You get the idea: cook it and eat it for dinner with some meat and garlic and onions.
  2. Shred (or use the food processor to chop) and bake it into muffins, brownies, pancakes, waffles, breads, etc. Some people freeze the shredded zucchini to use for later. I have done this and I NEVER have good luck with it later. It gets all weepy and soggy and then I get weepy and never use it. Best of luck to you if you decide to freeze it. I’d rather bake the bread and freeze that instead.
  3. Cut in half, scrape out the middle and make pizza boats. (Broil, then melt on your pizza toppings. Dip in pizza sauce.)
  4. Slice in half, or chop, and roast, broil, or grill with oil, salt, and pepper and just eat it!
  5. Use a zoodle thingy and make noodles. Easy Alfredo and shrimp used to be my favorite with this.
  6. Have I ever been tired of zucchini? No, I have not.
  7. This is my announcement: I will take your extra zucchini.

Don’t let all the zucchini go to waste, let’s start baking!

Of course, Laura already put together many of her favorite zucchini recipes, but that was ages ago and you may have forgotten about it. Click through some of those recipes or search “zucchini” on this site for more great ideas.

Are you a zucchini lover like me? I used to only be a zucchini bread (which is usually cake, let’s not kid ourselves) kind of girl. But then I grew up and realized that as a vegetable it can take on the flavor of butter and garlic and I do so love butter and garlic. Here are some great recipes for you to try as the zucchini crop comes in.

Simple Oven-Baked Pizza Nachos

Finely chopped and baked over the nachos is a great way to sneak more veggies into this meal.

Last Minute Stir-Fry

Frozen chopped zucchini will be a little soggier than fresh, but it holds up better than shredded, OR just add a few fresh ones to your frozen veggie bags.

Zucchini Waffles

This is a pumpkin recipe. I know. You can sub one squash for the other. It will be fine. Really. Many popular baked zucchini recipes have so much sugar in them they may as well be cake… try a less-sugar option and top with just a few drops of maple syrup, honey, or nut butter.

Have zucchini for breakfast!

Why have we decided that most vegetables are for lunch and dinner? Here’s a quick breakfast that I’ve made many times already this summer: In a hot skillet I melt butter, fry up a chopped summer squash (yellow or green), add in a can of chicken (because it’s breakfast and people are hungry for the food), salt and pepper and (here’s the secret ingredient), a tablespoon or so of lemon juice. You must not forget the lemon juice. Once the chicken is warmed and the lemon juice has sizzled for a few seconds, we eat and dance and go about our day warm and well-fed.

In hindsight, I will need to make that one into an actual recipe post for you. You will need to be reminded of it again because it is so delicious.

Do tell, what is your favorite way to eat this amazing and versatile vegetable?

book cover of bluebird on the prairie Tasha Hackett is a friend of Laura and author of Bluebird on the Prairie, a historical romance set in an 1879 Nebraska town. Zeke has his sights set for California, but Eloise prefers the quiet safety of her home. Is it possible they’re both searching for the same things? Find this heart-warming romance wherever books are sold.

To find out more about Tasha and her world of historical fiction, connect with her at www.TashaHackett.com.

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Instant Pot Whole Chicken

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Did you know you can cook a whole chicken in your Instant Pot? This is one of my favorite time savers!

Instant pot Whole Chicken Recipe

Instant Pot Whole Chicken

by Bethany Lotulelei

Once upon a time, I was afraid of the whole chickens at the store. I wasn’t sure how to cook them properly, so I avoided buying them. Then one day, I got my courage up, and I purchased one. I stuck it in the oven, following a recipe I’d found online, and cooked it until I was sure it was done. The result? A sad, dry chicken that would have greatly benefited from some gravy.

I didn’t buy another whole chicken for quite some time, until I read a recipe that promised a moist, delicious rotisserie-style chicken with crispy skin. All from cooking it in the Instant Pot.

Could it be true? Would the Instant Pot deliver me a beautiful roast chicken in less than an hour? My curiosity was piqued, and I gave it a go.

This recipe has changed my life.

We routinely eat roast chicken, thanks to the ease of making it in the Instant Pot! It is seasoned, delicious, and (thanks to a secret which I will share with you in this post) the skin is nice and crispy! Win-win-win!

If you, too, are avoiding whole chickens, because of less-than stellar experiences in the past, might I encourage you to give this recipe a go?

A few tips:

  • Only buy a chicken that will fit in your Instant Pot. If you have a smaller Instant Pot then you’ll need to purchase a smaller bird as well! I was gifted some beautiful, free-range chickens that were double the size of the grocery store version, and none of them fit in my Instant Pot! Sob! I use Laura’s method to cook them, rotisserie-style, in the oven instead!
  • Stuff your chicken with something delicious–lemon slices, sprigs of herbs, onions, garlic, all of the above!
  • Season your chicken liberally. Add your favorite herbs + salt, and don’t sprinkle it lightly! You want a well-seasoned bird!
  • Save the chicken broth in the bottom of the Instant Pot, and mix it into your Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes or make a delicious gravy out of it!

How to Give it Crispy SkinYum

Are you ready to hear the secret of how you are going to ensure your chicken has beautiful, delicious, crispy skin? Step in closer. I’m about to reveal all…

I LOVED cooking the whole chicken in the Instant Pot: it was easy, it was fast, it was incredibly moist. But what I didn’t love? The skin. I missed the crispy skin the oven would give a whole chicken.

Then I discovered this tip: after you have finished cooking your chicken in the Instant Pot, pull it out, set it on a cookie sheet in the oven, and broil it.

Broiling it after it has already baked will give you an amazing, delicious, crispy skin paired with the moist, flavorful meat from the Instant Pot.

So good, and so easy!

Instant Pot Whole Chicken
 
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Delicious, moist whole chicken cooked in the Instant Pot!
Author:
Recipe type: Main Dish
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 1 whole chicken with the innards removed
  • 2-3 T of melted butter
  • 1 lemon cut in half
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • 1 onion, quartered
  • Seasoning of choice
Instructions
  1. Place trivet in the Instant Pot
  2. Pour 1 cup water into the bottom of the Instant Pot
  3. Rub melted butter over chicken.
  4. Stuff chicken with lemon, garlic, and onion.
  5. Season the outside of the chicken liberally with your seasoning of choice.
  6. Place chicken in the Instant Pot, and close the lid.
  7. Set on high pressure for 7 minutes per lb.
  8. Once cooking time is finished, allow pressure to release naturally for 15-20 minutes.
  9. Remove chicken from the Instant Pot, place it on a cookie sheet, and broil it for a few minutes until brown.
  10. Enjoy!

 

Seasoning Ideas:

What’s your favorite Instant Pot recipe? Share below!

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