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Big Family Food: What’s On Every Plate

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I’m so glad you’re following our Big Family Food journey! (Missed the first posts? Catch them here.)

I thought it would be good to follow my Great Compromise post with a post that shares what I make sure to put on every plate, no matter what.

Like I talked about here, sometimes I have no time – or very little time – to cook. Our days are full of this:

I could go on and on with pictures of the days of our lives. It’s amazing, and did I mention full? So when it comes to food, now, instead of making sure every part of our meal is the healthiest of the healthy, here is what I focus on:

I make sure there are fruits and vegetables on every plate.

This is something I recommend for everyone, no matter your family size or what season in life you are enjoying. No matter what else is on your plate, just be sure there are fruits and vegetables there too.

It’s really quite simple. In fact, I’ve found that it’s the simplest way to put together meals!

See from the pictures how there are several fruits and veggies on each plate – no matter what I serve?

The same goes for when/if all I have time to make is Mac and Cheese, Frozen Pizza, Chicken Nuggets, or PBJ. Here are some examples of “compromise” meals I might put together:

  • Mac and Cheese with peas and grapes
  • Frozen Pizza with fresh spinach dipped in ranch and apple slices
  • Chicken Nuggets with sweet potato fries and these rockin smoothies
  • PBJ with clementines and steamed broccoli

I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again: Matt and I survive on these smoothies. I make a blenderful every other day and we share it. They are jam-packed with nourishment and give us WAY MORE GREENS than we could ever chew. I’ve gotten to the point that I stuff my Blendtec full of spring mix (about 1/2 pound), add some frozen fruit, pour in some milk, blend it and go. We would never eat that many greens at one time. But in this smoothie? We drink it down and love it.

So Matt and I tend to drink these smoothies even while grabbing a couple of chicken nuggets or a piece of pizza on the fly. Meanwhile, I make this version for the kids.

Great fruit and vegetable choices for your plates

To make it easy for all of us, I’ve put together a list of easy-to-serve fruit and veggie choices to serve with meals:

It truly is easy to add any of these to your meal plates! It’s one of best my Big Family Food tips: always add fruit and veggies to whatever I find time to make for my family. Even if all I do is open some cans of pineapple and a bag of baby carrots!

Read here about how to have fun filling your cart with fresh produce your family will love!

Stay tuned for more Big Family Food posts, where I share all about how I make food for our big family!

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Grinding Wheat into Flour: Getting Ahead

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Using my time and energy for grinding wheat into flour has felt a little bit difficult lately. Here’s an idea I decided to try!

I love using freshly ground wheat in our baked goods. In fact, I haven’t bought flour at the store in a good long while. Years and years. Instead, I’ve bought hard wheat and soft wheat from Azure Standard. Then I grind the wheat into flour to use in baking.

There’s no comparison! Freshly ground flour is incredible and delicious! Here’s how I do it —>

How to Grind Flour in a Grain Mill! #grainmill #grindflour #wholewheatflour

Meanwhile, God has added a wagonful of littles to our home.

These sweethearts keep me from baking much at all, much less grinding my wheat into flour for baking. Often, I would think about baking something if I had a spare 10-15 minutes, only to nix the idea simply because I didn’t want to have to first grind flour for the task.

Maybe this is a season for me to buy flour instead of wheat? Maybe. But I already had several pounds of wheat in storage. I didn’t want it taking up space or going to waste. So here’s what I did one morning when I had a friend over to help with all the kids!

Grinding Flour Into Wheat: Getting Ahead

I had a marathon wheat grinding morning.

I don’t keep my Nutrimill on the countertop, so digging it out and cleaning up after myself never sounds fun during this crazy season of life. But getting my Nutrimill out to grind a bunch of flour all at once? Making ONE BIG MESS instead of many small messes? Let’s do this.

I labeled freezer bags with “Soft Wheat” and “Hard Wheat” (read more about this below), then I kept running batch after batch of wheat through the mill to grind into flour. I transferred the fresh flour to gallon-sized freezer bags, then put the bags into the freezer.

All said and done, I ended up with about 10 gallons of flour in my freezer! (And a big mess, but whatever. Better one mess than ten, right?)

So, now the flour isn’t fresh anymore?

Well, true. But since I’m keeping it in the freezer, it’ll stay good for a long time, and it will still taste great! Considering the fact I was going to buy flour from the store to get me by until I am able to grind flour again, I feel like this is still a better option: to grind my wheat into flour ahead of time and freeze it until I need it!

After this runs out, I’ll see how I’m doing. I may still feel the need to buy my flour already ground for a while. But as for now, I sure do love that I don’t have to pull out my mill for a while. When I need to bake something or make pancakes, I can just pull out the already-ground flour from my freezer!

Hard Wheat vs. Soft Wheat

Both grains grind into whole wheat flour. I like having both on hand and here’s why:

  1. Use hard wheat to make yeast bread recipes.
  2. Use soft wheat to make non-yeast recipes like muffins and pancakes.

It is possible to use hard wheat for ALL recipes. But I like soft wheat because it makes such a nice pastry flour for fluffy muffins and such. Here are some of our favorite wheat recipes:

Favorite Hard Wheat Recipes

Favorite Soft Wheat Recipes

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Big Family Food: The Great Compromise (Is that Frozen Pizza?)

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As we begin our Big Family Food series, I thought it would be wise if I shared what might seem to be “The Great Compromise.” Why? Because as I share our current Big Family Food journey, you will see items in my grocery cart that might shock you. I shall now take a moment to explain myself.

I could sum up my food journey right now with this:

  1. I used to care deeply about the free-range chicken. (2004)
  2. I began to question if I should care so much about the free-range chicken. (2010)
  3. I started to care quite a bit less about the free-range chicken. (2018)
  4. I couldn’t care less about the free-range chicken. (2021)
  5. I have completely run out of chicken. (Real-time update)

We now have ten kids. We eat a lot and the needs are many. Food needs? Well, sure. But beyond that, the emotional needs. The spiritual needs. And I guess it’s even worth mentioning the laundry needs. Goodness, the diapers. Also the dishes.

So at this point, I’ve completely revamped my priorities, mostly because I have no choice. We have four kids under the age of three so I do almost everything one-handed. If I even think about rolling out and cooking all of our tortillas right now, I will have a melt-down (man, they were delicious though). Also, did I use to make our own mozzarella? What in the actual world?

Do I even care about healthy food anymore?

I don’t know. I guess. But in some ways, I almost feel like I should apologize for ever talking about it and making it a big deal. Hear me out.

Is it important to try and stay healthy? Absolutely. Is what we put in our mouths important to our health? So very important. Is it good to be informed and educated and to do our best when it comes to healthy eating? Sure.

I’m really glad that I know what I know. Like – I’m glad I know that hydrogenated oils are bad. I know that butter and coconut oil is good. I know that high fructose corn syrup and msg are bad. I know that vegetables and fruits are good. So I have a good framework in my kitchen for ingredients that are of the real food, nourishing variety.

But I no longer overthink our food and I no longer worry over every ingredient, nor do I make everything from scratch like I used to. I don’t have time or energy and I actually don’t really care anymore. I mean, I do. Like, sort of – as in I’ll never buy margarine or fruit loops. While I think it’s important to teach my kids about healthy eating habits and good food choices, we have very little space for that right now.

  • Our kids need to know how much God loves them. How much we love them.
  • Our kids need security and safety.
  • Our kids need to be held and kissed and rocked.
  • Sometimes, our kids really need a bath and sometimes I have to actually get out my broom and sweep my floor. With one hand. So.

My Big Family Food life is very different from my Regular-Sized Family Food life of 2009.

From 2004-2014 I was very focused on all things healthy. Healthy food, healthy supplements, healthy cleaners. ALL GOOD THINGS. Praise God for all these good things and for people who know about them and teach us about them! I have friends who are my go-to people for all these good things.

But I used to spend more time learning “how to soak my grains” than I did learning “what it means to live through the Holy Spirit.” Soaking my grains (and making my mozzarella) made me anxious and fearful (was I doing it all right? What if I gave my family cancer because I wasn’t doing it right?!). Learning to live through the Holy Spirit is making me free. 

I’m choosing now to live in freedom, and I hope you are too. This means that you might be a free, joy-filled, Holy Spirit living, grain soaking, mozzarella cheese maker!!! I think this is fantastic!

As for me and my house, we will not soak the grains and we will buy the cheese at the store. I will even buy it pre-shredded – in bulk – and I will not feel bad about this.

What is Our Great Compromise?

We buy a lot of food that is different from what I ever used to buy, but I don’t actually consider it to be a compromise. It’s simply a new way of life for us because our entire life is different now. Many days we are simply trying to survive and get the children fed (frozen pizza and beef hotdogs). Other days I have a little more time and make full meals (but just this kind because “more time” doesn’t mean “lots of time”).

As I begin to share my grocery hauls with you, you’ll see:

  • Frozen pizza
  • White flour buns
  • Bags of French fries (that we cook in an air fryer, which is SO YUM)
  • Bags of chicken nuggets
  • Boxes of mac and cheese
  • Other frozen prepared food
  • Boxes of crackers
  • Who knows what else

You’ll also see:

  • Lots of fresh veggies and fruit
  • Lots of frozen veggies and fruit
  • Lots of canned fruit, fruit cups, and applesauce pouches in 100% juice
  • Whole grains like brown rice, oats, and wheat
  • REAL BUTTER (do you even know me at all?!)
  • Coconut oil, honey, real maple syrup, and other real food baking ingredients
  • Whole milk products like yogurt, cottage cheese, and well, whole milk (we also still get raw farm milk but not enough for our family’s needs right now)
  • Grass-fed beef and wait for it…
  • The occasional free-range chicken

What?! Well, sometimes. I mean, if I have the funds and the grocery source, I’ll grab that good meat. And if I can’t? If there’s only “regular beef” and “whats-it chicken?” Well, it’s still meat and I refuse to overthink or even underthink it. I don’t even actually think about it at all. We simply need to eat and I need to get out of the meat section to get home to my family. I buy the meat. We cook the meat. We eat the meat.

Love wins

Thank God for freedom! Thank God for you, this community here! And thank God for these mixed-green smoothies that I drink every single day because they give me more nourishment on the fly than I could ever get any other way, woot!

Stay tuned for more Big Family Food posts, where I share all about how I make food for our big family!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

EASIEST Bean and Cheese Quesadillas Our Family Loves

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Our family loves these Bean and Cheese Quesadillas even though they thought they wouldn’t!

This idea is not new or innovative. No one will actually be very impressed. But it is still worth sharing because we all need to be reminded from time to time of the best and easiest lunch or snack ideas!

We’ve always been a simple cheese quesadilla family.

Cheese quesadillas are no-brainers. Tortillas. Cheese. Melted together. In a skillet. That is all. Cut them into triangles. Dip them in salsa. Serve them with fruit. This is lunch.

But in an effort to figure out:

  • how to get my toddlers to eat more protein
  • what other soft foods our barely-has-any-teeth- 1-year-old baby can gum
  • more ideas for easy lunches, suppers, or snacks our whole family will like
  • inexpensive ways to feed our army of children

I decided to open a can of refried beans to smear on our tortillas when I made quesadillas one evening.

Yeah. Wow. I opened a can. It’s so easy I’m wondering why this hasn’t always been my go-to meal idea?? We can always wonder about this.

How my kids first respondedYum

When my kids asked what we were eating for dinner and I said “Bean and Cheese Quesadillas” my 6-year-old said, “Ok, but can you make mine with just cheese and no beans please?” And then my 17-year-old asked the very same thing. Because change is hard? Beans are hard? We don’t know. The bean version just didn’t sound good to them.

Fair enough. But I told them that I wanted to eat the bean version first and then if they really didn’t like it, I’d make them a plain cheese version.

Man, this story is not that exciting. Laura told her kids she was putting beans in their quesadillas. They were nervous. She made them try anyway. Thank you for sharing.

How my kids liked the Bean and Cheese Quesadillas after trying them

Well, I couldn’t keep up. I stood at the skillet and kept making quesadillas until the entire package of tortillas was gone. I cut the quesadillas into triangles and kept throwing them onto plates. I cut the babys’ quesadillas into tiny bites and kept throwing them onto the high chairs.

The 6-year-old forgot about the beans. She just ate her first quesadilla triangle and asked for another. And then another. And then another. So there you have it.

The 17-year-old? Same story. He ate his fair share and was like, “Wow Mom. These are actually good.”

Meanwhile, the 8-year-old, the 2-year-old, the 1.5-year-old, and the nearly-toothless 1-year-old ate and ate and ate.

I served the quesadillas with these smoothies, therefore we also loaded up on greens and fruit:

Bean and Cheese Quesadillas are a WINNER!

But you probably already knew that. This is old news. Everyone already makes these. Laura is 24 years behind.

Just in case, here’s how to make these:

5.0 from 1 reviews
EASIEST Bean and Cheese Quesadillas Our Family Loves
 
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Ingredients
  • Whole Grain Tortillas
  • Shredded Cheese
  • Can of Refried Beans
Instructions
  1. Smear beans on a tortilla.
  2. Sprinkle shredded cheese on top.
  3. Top it with another tortilla to make a "sandwich."
  4. Heat it on low in a skillet until the cheese is melted, turning from time to time to heat both sides.
  5. Cut the quesadilla into trianges and serve as-is or with salsa, sour cream, and/or guacamole.

Add Bean and Cheese Quesadillas to your go-to fast meal idea list!

 

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Our Big Family Food Needs (Follow Our Journey!)

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I always thought it was so much fun to read about big family food needs! You know, those grocery pictures from moms who tell about how they feed their ten kids every day?

I was fascinated by the pictures of their huge grocery hauls. Seeing their weekly super-sized piles of bananas, their multiple gallons of milk, and everything else it took to feed their families always made me smile.

And now? Now, I get to be the one with big family food needs! God has grown our family from six to twelve! So would you look at that? I’ve become a mom with huge banana piles to enjoy. Therefore, I decided that I get to share about this too! Want to follow along?

Our Big Family Food Needs

Here’s a peek at a week’s worth of overflowing Wal-mart shopping cart. (And that is why, if I’m shopping at Wal-mart, I only shop Walmart pick-up now, oy!)

When I go to Costco, I skip the regular carts altogether and grab one of their big orange utility carts. Where do I put the huge haul to get it all home? Oh not to worry. It all fits in the back of the “Mama Copp Mobile.”

It’s a 12-passenger with a lot of cargo space in the back for ALL THE GROCERIES. And the strollers and fold-up wagon, of course.

Everything feels big right now.

Big van. Big needs. Big responsibilities. Big messes. Big family. Big food.

I love this, even if this comes with some big hardships too. We can’t grow if we don’t struggle.

Did someone say grow??

We’re growing in several ways. Adult kids, a daughter-in-law, an almost daughter-in-law, a girlfriend (not pictured), two adopted boys, and four little girls that we’re still fostering. Our current family total is 15, counting Matt and me. Nine kids still live at home (technically one of them lives on the college campus across town but he’s still considered part of our “household”).

A Little Back-Story

Many of you have followed our story from the beginning of this blog. You watched our four biological sons grow from little to big. And we thought our grocery needs were big then (because they were, ha).

Beginning in 2018, God surprised us by making us foster parents. Then adoptive parents. And foster parents again. Six little ones are a part of our family right now.

An answered prayer?

People look at all our babies and tell us how lucky we are. “Look at all those babies you get to snuggle!” And they’re not wrong. It’s absolutely amazing! Sometimes I ask God, “Why did you choose us for this? Why do we get to be so blessed as to enjoy all of these soft cheeks, squishy toddlers, baby cuddles, piggy tails, and pre-schooler giggles? Why do we get to have such a big family? Why did you choose us to be this family, these parents, to have all these kids?”

It appears that He chose us because we asked for it. Not this, actually. We were praying, but we didn’t ask Him for foster care and adoption. We never asked God to grow our family. We were actually on our way toward empty nesting, and we weren’t even sad about it. Our high-need parenting years were almost over and Matt and I were looking forward to the time we would have to devote to different ministries (lol). So we asked God:

Teach us how to truly love our neighbors. We are ready to serve you in new ways. Show us what you want for us!

Oh. So see? We actually did ask for this. We just had no idea how He would answer.

It’s what God wants for all of us.

Not foster care or adoption specifically. But He wants open hearts ready to serve in whatever ways He calls us. His ways are incredible and His plans are big. He asks us all to become uncomfortable with Him because constantly sitting in comfort doesn’t accomplish much for God’s Kingdom.

Did I say this was about food?

I’m getting there. But first I needed to share the beginning of the story.

I wish I could say, “So long story short…” but goodness has this story been long. And it’s only been three and a half years. So much has happened in our family and so much of it has involved challenge that it pains me to begin sharing it.

Our gain comes with loss. Heartache is at the root of our family’s growth. Our bonus children bring baggage that only God can heal. And while I don’t like to admit it, I’ve had to grieve loss too. Loss of what I thought my life would look like right now. Loss of freedom. Loss of comfort. Loss of well, sleep, ha.

I thought I knew who God was. Turns out, I only knew a little bit. We can’t know what we know until we know it. And as we’ve been brought through so many new life challenges, God keeps showing us more about who He is. How He works. What His power can do.

The more we walk this new journey, the more we realize how much more there is to God and His ways. It makes me wonder what in the world I might be able to share with you next month. Next year. Five years from now. What a God!

So here we are.

I guess I should start talking about groceries now because that’s really what you came for. But oh I can’t talk about the food until I talk about the faith. The journey that brought us to today. The path we’re on that continues to lead us down unknown futures.

Truth: The future is unknown for all of us. We can dream some dreams and make some plans. But our tomorrows are under the control of One who dreams bigger and plans better. It’s incredibly exciting when we choose to put our trust in the Father!

Big Family Food, then?

Yes, Big Family Food. I thought it would be fun to share what this looks like in our family right now. I have a series in the works to share:

  • What my grocery store hauls look like
  • How much I spend (are you sitting down?)
  • How I cook for this many
  • How I manage our meal plans and snacking needs
  • Where and how I store all the food
  • How we afford it
  • How I keep from going crazy (she has, in fact, already gone crazy)

Who We’re Feeding Daily

  • 3 adults (Matt and me, plus Justus who is finishing out his senior year of college and living at home to save money)
  • 1 high schooler
  • 2 elementary kids (currently ages 8 and 6)
  • 2 toddlers (who just turned 2 and 3)
  • 1 baby (currently age 17 months, but I’m in denial and refuse to call her a toddler yet)
  • 1 infant (who doesn’t affect our grocery budget yet)

And yes, I’ve been around the block enough to know that what our big family food needs are now will only keep getting bigger as these little ones grow into big ones!

Who We’re Feeding Frequently

  • All of the above plus…
  • Elias, our college junior, who lives in an apartment across town. We supply him with some of the food he takes back to his apartment, plus he comes home (often with his roommates) a few times a week for meals
  • 20ish college students most Sundays for lunch (our kids bring their friends, the friends bring friends, it’s turned into a big thing and WE LOVE IT)
  • Some of Malachi’s high school friends once or twice each week so they can hang out during their lunch period.
  • Whoever else God brings to our table during the week

Our grocery needs go beyond our family

But then again, we kind of feel like everyone is family. All the college kids? They are ours. The high school kids? Ours. Extras who we’ve just met who came with the regulars? Welcome to the Coppinger Zoo. You are ours now too (here, please hold this baby).

So actually, if ever we are eating a meal with “just our family” we feel like something is off. Where are the extras? How is it just us right now?

How do we do it?

Well, that’s what I thought would be fun to talk about during the next few weeks. I’ll start taking more pictures as I grocery shop and cook and serve meals. It won’t be glamorous and some of what you see might make you cringe. I’ve had to let go of trying to execute plans perfectly and instead settle many days for “just surviving.”

But hey. At least the kids are cute.

Join us?

 

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Clean Out the Fridge, Freezer, and Pantry: What to Make

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Is it time to clean out your fridge, freezer, and pantry? Here are some ideas for what to make!

I super love to grocery shop. Scratch that. I love to have a grocery store in my own house. I’m not actually such a huge fan of going into the store and buying all the food. After all, one cart is usually not big enough for my family anymore. And the new self-checkout at Walmart with a heaping cart of groceries? IT IS JUST TOO MUCH.

Here’s a picture of the final time I shopped and bagged my own groceries before finding some different/better options!

My current favorite ways to buy groceries are:

I said something about having a grocery store in my house?

What I mean is, I try, if possible, to have just about every common grocery item in my house at all times. This means I can make just about any meal or snack food we need or want without having to run out to the store. I can just go to my store room and grab what we need. Or I can look around my food storage and plan meals and snacks based on what we have.

I don’t take it for granted that I can do this. I am incredibly thankful for storage space, extra fridge and freezers, and the financial ability to stock up regularly.

I almost never let our food supply get depleted as this actually costs more money and takes more work in the long run. Every few months though, I feel like I should challenge myself to use up some of the forgotten and neglected food that has been stuffed into the back of our pantry and freezers.

You know what I’m talking about, right? Those random half-packages of pasta. The meat that was on sale and sounded good at the time but is now almost freezer-burned. The jars of peaches we canned two summers ago and are somehow saving for a rainy day?? Just eat ’em already, right?

If you need some motivation to clear out some of your hidden and neglected food, I thought I’d share what I did recently in an effort to use up some miscellaneous groceries that I didn’t want to go bad.

Clean Out the Fridge, Freezer, and Pantry: What to Make

1. Creative Casserole

Listen, you may never make a casserole like this again, so hopefully, your family doesn’t love it so much that they ask you to duplicate it every week. But when cleaning out the fridge, if you take some kind of pasta or rice, some kind of meat, and some kind of sauce and mix it together, it’ll probably taste pretty good. And you can call it “Creative Casserole.” These are truly a favorite around here.

If you have a half tub of cottage cheese or sour cream in the fridge to stir in, that’ll probably be good too. Shredded cheese? Yes, please.

And just like that, you’ve used up a few neglected food items, saved some money, and fed your family a tasty meal!

2. Trail Mix

If you have any assortment of nuts and dried fruit, you can dump them all into a bag or bowl and voila. You have trail mix. It’s a great snack for everyone to enjoy – even for breakfast!

3. Omelets, Breakfast Casseroles, or Scrambles

And speaking of breakfast, or even lunch or dinner – why not grab out the tidbits of this veggie and that meat to scramble with eggs? Or if you’re feeling fancy, make omelets! If you have frozen meats, cheeses, and veggies to use up, omelets or scrambles are a fun way to use them up! Or stir them into a Breakfast Casserole like this.

4. Saucy Meat in the Crockpot

This is one of my favorite ways to use up two items: Sauce and Meat.

You can hardly go wrong, and you should trust me on this because I am the queen of grabbing the tail end of three different kinds of sauces from my fridge, pouring them all on a roast or package of chicken, and slow cooking it in my crockpot. It always turns out good – no matter what combination of sauce I use.

Then the shelves on the door of my fridge that hold our sauces become less cluttered. The meat in my freezer has been put to good use. And my family has a great meal!

5. Smoothies

I often have several bags of frozen fruit in my freezers, and using them up really frees up space! I’ve found that you really can’t go wrong by throwing any combination of fruits into a blender for a smoothie. So go ahead. Dump in the oranges with the grapes with the blueberries with the bananas. It’ll be great and your freezer will be less cluttered!

6. Stir-Fry

Collect all of the miscellaneous fresh vegetables in your fridge that have started to shrivel up: broccoli, carrots, squash, mushrooms, sweet peppers, etc. Rinse them, chop them, and make your family a delicious stir-fry side dish. Bonus points if you chop up some leftover cooked meat like steak, roast, or chicken to stir in to make this a main dish!

7. Pie, Crisp, or Cobbler

If you had great intentions during a fall harvest and froze fruit like apples, peaches, or berries – dig them out now and make a special dessert! Since it IS fruit and it MIGHT be topped with oats, you could MAYBE even make it for a special breakfast. :) Here’s my cobbler recipe. Here’s my fruit pie recipe. Here’s my fruit crisp recipe. Use them with any fruit you have!

 

What other great ideas do you have to share?!

 

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One Easy Way to Meal Plan

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Here’s one easy way to meal plan. Well, besides just letting us meal plan for you!

When figuring out what to make each evening, I’ve found that this is what works best for me right now…

One Easy Way to Meal Plan

  1. Begin by figuring out the starch I want to cook.
  2. Create my meal around that starch.

Weird maybe? I know. Many meal plans start with the meat/main dish and go from there. But if I want to be sure we’re eating a variety (instead of say, three meals in a row that include pasta), I’ve found that it often works better for me to plan our meals around these starch possibilities:

  • Rice
  • Potatoes
  • Pasta
  • Corn
  • Bread
  • Tortillas
  • Chips
  • Beans

This list includes are eight starch categories (and there are probably others I forgot to include!). So we can have a great variety of meals each week if I simply plan around these eight categories!

Here’s a sample of the meal variety I could come up with for eight consecutive days:

No more overloading our families with pasta. No more burning us out on rice. No back-to-back heavy meals that include bread. No overdoing the beans, ahem.

Do we even need starch anyway?

Some of us don’t need to eat much starch to begin with.

All of the athletes in my family do great eating all eight meals eight nights in a row as I detailed above. But me? I don’t need starch every night. My system does better on a meat and vegetable-based diet. I tend to go easy on pasta and bread. My body thanks me for this.

Still, I’ve found that I tend to plan my meals this way. I like the results! No burnouts. No overload. And it helps me be more creative with meal planning!

What have you found that works best as you plan your meals?

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Golden Latte Recipe (oh so delicious!)

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For years I’ve seen other bloggers post pictures of Golden Lattes. I’d skim the recipe, and stare in disbelief at the list of ingredients: coconut milk, black pepper (!!), turmeric, cinnamon, ginger…it sounded more like a stirfry than a sweet drink.

(Laura’s note: Bethany has done it again! Enjoy this awesome recipe idea!)

And yet…

I couldn’t get it out of my head. These mugs full of golden, frothy goodness. Not only did they look amazing, but their ingredients were so healthy. So many health benefits are tied to ground turmeric, and ginger. They are immune-boosting, and anti-inflammatory, but also just plain delicious. 

I just had to try it.

So one chilly evening, I pulled out a jug of coconut milk, and poured it in a saucepan. I added a crazy amount of ground turmeric, a hesitant shake of black pepper, a large spoonful of other spices, and some honey. I stirred and stirred, and then when it was hot, blended it with an immersion blender to give it some froth.

Then I poured it into a mug, and gave it a taste.

You guys: oh wow. This drink is so unbelievably good. It is as comforting as hot chocolate. It has the spice of a chai tea and the sweetness of a vanilla latte.

We’ve been making these lattes almost every night, and now I’m eyeing bulk ground turmeric. At this rate, we’re going to have to begin purchasing bulk spices. 

Try it! You won’t be sorry!

A few questions…

What if I don’t have all the spices?

It’s okay! Use what you have. When I made my first Golden Latte, I only had pepper, ground turmeric, and cinnamon. So that’s what I used. As time has gone by, I’ve added the other spices to my latte as well!

What kind of milk should I use?

We use coconut milk, but it would be just as delicious if you used dairy, almond milk or another type of milk!

Why is it called a latte when it doesn’t have coffee?

There are many recipes that include instant espresso. You can add some to your latte if you prefer! I just like a nice, caffeine-free drink for the evenings, but a bit of espresso gives it an extra kick if you drink it earlier in the day.

Why black pepper?

You barely notice it, but it does give the drink a nice, spicy kick. Also, did you know that turmeric is WAY more anti-inflammatory when you eat it with black pepper? It’s true! Add a pinch of black pepper every time you cook with turmeric to get its full anti-inflammatory benefits.

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Golden Latte Recipe (oh so delicious!)
 
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Ingredients
  • 1 cup milk of choice
  • ½ tsp ground turmeric
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • ½ T raw honey or maple syrup
  • Pinch of black pepper
  • Pinch of ginger powder
Instructions
  1. Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth.
  2. Pour into a small pan and heat for 3-5 minutes over medium heat until hot but not boiling.
  3. Enjoy!

What’s your favorite hot drink?

 

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Don’t Have Time to Cook Dinner? Make This!

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Laura’s note: Enjoy this fantastic, helpful post from Bethany!!

Don’t have time to cook? Eyeing the fast food line? Wanting to eat at home, but don’t have the time for lots of prep work? Here is what I make when I’m in survival mode.

Don't have time to cook dinner? Here's a list of easy recipes to make at home within minutes!

Yum

I used to cook and bake for fun. Before I had kids (barely remember those days!) I’d spend all morning on Saturdays leisurely whipping up cinnamon rolls, soups, muffins, and pastas. I remember those easy breezy mornings: listening to my podcasts, humming away, stopping to leisurely sip my hot coffee in silence.

Fast forward to present time: I now have three kids, ages four, two, and four months old. Gone are the leisurely baking hours. Now I’m just desperately trying to get something—anything—in the oven with two toddlers clinging to my legs, and one baby in the baby carrier on my chest. If the something I get in the oven is healthy than I feel like I officially deserve a gold star. 

It’s called survival mode, and I for sure am in it these days. The first few months after having my third, we had a wonderful meal train and lots of help. But now that baby girl is a bit older, we are self-sufficient, and I’ve had to figure out how to feed us all (three times a day!) without hitting up the fast food line too often. 

Here are the dishes I turn to again, and again when I just need to throw something quick into the oven or crockpot to get food on the table, and into bellies without a lot of chopping or prep.

Simple Cheesy Salsa Chicken

This is one of the most incredible main dishes, if you ask me. It takes TWO MINUTES to prep this. Just throw three ingredients in your crock pot or Instant Pot, turn it on, and walk away. The most laborious thing you might have to do is shred the cheese, but you can even skip that step if you purchase shredded cheese. It couldn’t get any easier!

I use this to make soft or hard tacos, burrito bowls, nachos, or for soups! It’s the best!!

Beanie Weanies

Is it glamorous? Probably not. Is it easy and does it fill tummies, and make my toddlers happy? Yes, yes, and absolutely yes.

Easy Noodle Stirfry

My husband LOVES Chinese food, but none of us like how we feel after getting food from the restaurant. When I tried this Easy Noodle Stirfry, I was blown away by how good it was! Now, it does require some vegetable chopping (which is stressful if you’ve got a bunch of littles around) so I like to prep the veggies early in the week, so it takes just minutes to throw this together. I chop up a bunch of veg on Sundays and then use it throughout the week to make easy, nutritious meals!

Simple Hawaiian Crock Pot Chicken

This one’s right up there with the Cheesy Salsa Chicken in the easy category. You guys, it is SO simple to throw together, and incredibly delicious! I like to quickly get some rice simmering as a side, and then set out fresh fruit and we’ve got an entire, nutritious meal that took minutes to prep!

20-Minute Taco Soup

Here’s what I do when I make this soup: toss the ground beef in the skillet, and walk away. Stir it now and then. Pour in the salsa and broth. Stir in the cheese. And done. It has only four ingredients, and doesn’t require anything of me except perhaps opening the salsa jar. It’s delicious, nutritious and a crowd pleaser!

Simple Barbecue Beef RoastIs there anything better than coming home to a roast in the crock pot?

Here is what Laura says to do to make this recipe:

  • Walk to the freezer and get out a roast. (30 seconds)
  • Open the package and put it into a crock pot. (20 seconds)
  • Get out some barbecue sauce and dump it on the roast. (20 seconds)
  • Grab an onion, pull off the outer layer, rinse it, and quarter it, then threw it in with the meat. (40 seconds)
  • Plug in the crock pot, turned it on low, walked away. (10 seconds)

Now that’s my kind of recipe! The fact that it tastes AMAZING is a bonus.

Those are my favorite recipes to make when I don’t have the time to cook. Try them and be amazed at how much easier they make your life!

Your turn to share! What’s your favorite easy-peasy recipe to make when you are in survival mode?

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