Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Food I Often Buy at Costco

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Curious about what I usually buy at Costco? Here’s the list!

Perhaps I should start with the hotdog?

There it is, the monthly Costco-trip hotdog. As I’ve shared, shopping at Costco is a big deal for me, simply because I can only get there once each month and we have a lot of mouths to feed! I burn a lot of calories while shopping, and that hotdog keeps me on my feet. True story.

Here’s a refresher on how I shop Costco:

  1. Walk into the store, take a deep breath, and shop for all non-perishables. Clothing, paper products, canned goods, boxed snacks and chips, baking products, applesauce, and whatever else doesn’t require refrigeration or extra care.
  2. Check-out, load the van, then go back in.
  3. Take a bathroom break.
  4. Eat a hotdog and drink a big cup of water. This job makes a person need some major sustenance and $1.50 for the big dog/drink combo is pretty rockin’.
  5. Grab an empty cart again and fill it with all the fresh produce, frozen foods, refrigerated foods, and bread products that we need.
  6. Check out again, load the van again, open the box of Kombucha I just bought, and drink a bottle for refreshment and survival.

Indeed, I’ve found that I have to fill my cart twice when I shop at Costco. I’d take one of my big kids with me so that they could help me get the job done in one trip, but actually? My Costco shopping trips also involves “a day off for Mom.” Once each month, we make arrangements for me to head to Lincoln (about an hour from home) to have a day to myself. I take my laptop and work at Panera for hours. I shop at Sam’s, Costco, and any other place that has items our family needs. I come home refreshed and with a van filled with groceries!

Food I Often Buy at Costco

Beyond the hotdog, here’s a rundown of what I almost always grab when I’m at Costco.

1. Lots of fresh produce

  • apples
  • bananas
  • clementines
  • blueberries
  • strawberries
  • raspberries
  • blackberries
  • carrots
  • mixed greens
  • spinach
  • broccoli
  • potatoes
  • pears
  • grapes
  • melons
  • whatever else is in season

2. Frozen Food

I usually pick up frozen:

  • Vegetables
  • Fruit
  • Hamburger patties
  • Pizza
  • Chicken nuggets
  • Sweet potato fries
  • Bacon
  • Tilapia

3. Refrigerated Food

  • Shredded cheese
  • Turkey and ham for sandwiches
  • Sliced cheese
  • White queso
  • Tortellonni
  • Cream cheese
  • Sour cream
  • Cottage cheese
  • Butter
  • Boneless chicken thighs
  • Kombucha
  • Avocado mash (our little girls love these!)

4. Snack Food

  • Applesauce squeezies
  • Tortilla chips
  • Granola bars
  • Occasional other individually packaged snacks to grab for the kids to eat at soccer games or on walks

5. Breads

6. Baking

  • Peanut butter
  • Almond butter
  • Honey
  • Brown sugar
  • Raw sugar
  • Baking powder
  • Baking soda
  • Pancake mix

7. Other

  • Coffee
  • Canned tuna
  • Canned chicken
  • Pasta
  • Baked beans
  • Refried beans
  • Canned corn
  • Rotel
  • Canned olives
  • Spices
  • Mac and cheese

What do you like to buy at Costco?

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Costco Tortelloni Meal: Only $1.41 Per Person

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We all love this Costco tortelloni meal, and it only costs us $1.41 per person!

I almost always pick up this double pack of Five Cheese Tortelloni when I’m at Costco. It’s great to have on hand for an easy, quick meal and every person in our family loves it.

Side note: It is a very big deal to be able to say “every person in our family loves it.” With this many kids, and several of them picky, it’s so nice to have meals I know that everyone will eat without complaint!

Costco Tortelloni Meal: Only $1.41 Per Person

This particular night, we fed 11 people (5 adults, 3 kids, and 3 toddlers). I boiled both packages of tortelloni, warmed a jar of spaghetti sauce, warmed leftover veggies, and got out spinach with ranch.

Total cost for this meal was only $15.56. For 11 people, that breaks down to just $1.41 per person!

Our six littlest kids eat spinach dipped in ranch like finger food. :)

When we eat this tortelloni meal, we usually skip the sauce for the toddlers to avoid the big mess it would create! Instead, we scoop the cheesy pasta pockets into little bowls for them and cut them up with kitchen shears. They eat it and eat it and eat it!

And there you have it. Costco’s tortelloni, sauce, warmed veggies, and fresh spinach cost $1.41 per person. That’s fast food I can get behind! :)

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How to Make Ten Meals with One Turkey

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Is it possible to make ten meals with one turkey? Indeed. I just made it happen. What a great way to stretch the grocery budget!

In an effort to save grocery money, I’ve been brainstorming ways to use the food I have in my freezer and to make it stretch as far as possible. It turns out that one turkey stretches really, really far! (Unless you host 25 people for Thanksgiving. Then you get one or two meals out of one turkey.)

But say you took advantage of holiday sales on turkeys and got an extra one or two to eat throughout the year after the holidays were over. How far could you stretch that bird?

Ten meals, perhaps? Even five is a great return on your turkey investment.

How to stretch that turkey!

I had a 20-pound turkey taking up room in my freezer. I decided in August to thaw it and smoke it on our Traeger. Delish!

Matt pulled all the meat off the bones for me (one of my least favorite jobs) and it produced two 9×13 inch dishes full of cooked meat.

At the time of this turkey extravaganza, there were eight kids at home (one has since headed back to college). Plus we fed a few extras here and there. Still, we were able to make ten meals with one bird! Because this was such a cost-effective and tasty way to feed so many people, I plan to stock up on turkeys this November when they go on sale!!

NOTE: We didn’t eat these meals one right after another. I froze quite a bit of the turkey in meal-sized portions to pull out and use as needed. So not only did this save money but having the pre-cooked meat saved time. Win-win!

How I made ten meals with one turkey

You’ll notice as you read my meal descriptions below that we were able to make our turkey stretch by eating only small amounts of it with each meal. We’ve found that it’s better to enjoy meat as a secondary dish, filling up instead on plenty of fruit and veggie side dishes to stretch the meat and stretch the budget. Fruits and veggies are actually a super inexpensive way to stretch your grocery budget!

Here’s the turkey meal breakdown:

Meal #1: We ate freshly smoked turkey with a lot of side dishes.

Meal #2: We ate some bites of leftover cold turkey in a chef salad. A little bit of meat is all we needed.

Meal #3: We made lunch plates filled with warm turkey with ranch for dipping, plus fruits and veggies.

Meal #4: We ate turkey sandwiches on rolls. It doesn’t take a lot of turkey to make a sandwich on a roll. We got out lots of different condiment options to make our sandwiches fun. Plus we had chips with guacamole and watermelon.

Meal #5: Right after we smoked and boned the turkey, I used the turkey bones and skin to make a huge batch of broth. I used some of the broth to make a simple noodle soup. I didn’t add any turkey to the soup, but instead boiled noodles in the flavorful, rich broth along with added veggies to make our meal.

Meal #6: I made a big pot of stir-fried veggies and tossed in a few pieces of shredded turkey.

Meal #7: I used some of the turkey broth to make rich potato soup. Incredibly good!

Meal #8: I made gravy with some of the broth (Matt’s request!). We then made mashed potatoes doused and enjoyed them with turkey gravy.

Meal #9: I made quesadillas for lunch with cheese, spinach, and bits of turkey.

Meal #10: We warmed the remaining turkey and served with it barbecue sauce for dipping, plus leftover cheesy potatoes and veggies.

As you can see, not every meal includes actual turkey. But the broth made from the turkey bones and skin is super nourishing and flavorful. That’s why I feel just fine about skipping meat in those meals. We are still completely satisfied. And if you take a look here at how I make broth, you’ll see how veggie-packed it is.

How many meals can you make with one turkey?

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Can Swagbucks Help Pay for Christmas?

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I fell off the Swagbuck wagon but now I’m questioning why. After all, right now I’m thinking: Can Swagbucks help pay for Christmas?

I signed up for Swagbucks years ago and have I enjoyed redeeming our Swagbucks to use for free Christmas gifts. But I’ve never spent much time or effort to increase my “earnings” so it never goes very far. Hmmm….

What is Swagbucks?

Swagbucks is a way to earn gift cards through some pretty easy methods like:

  • Taking short surveys (this is my prefered way to earn)
  • Playing games
  • Buying things you are going to buy anyway

It’s free and there’s no catch; it only takes time. Time isn’t something most of us have to spare. But as a way to earn some free Christmas cash, I’m going to make time. It takes just a few minutes each day.

—>I made my way up to 2,210 Swagbucks this week, which earns me $25 to spend on Amazon, Walmart, or Target! <— See why I’m excited?! There are many more gift cards to choose from, I tend to grab one of those three though because I can get just about anything at those stores.

This year I plan to start now and be intentional about racking up the Swagbucks so I can redeem them in early December and use them toward gifts I need to buy. (Sometimes I redeem them for a restaurant gift card to use as a special treat for our family during the holidays!)

They are offering a sign-on bonus:

If you sign up through this link, you get a bonus 300 Swagbucks after you earn 300 regular Swagbucks within your first 30 days. As in, your 300 turns into 600 Swagbucks. It isn’t hard to earn your first 300 Swagbucks. Just fill out a few surveys and you’re there!

A word about the surveys:

Some of them are annoying, but they aren’t difficult and I’m motivated to mess with them because I’m doing it for Christmas money. :) Also, after you answer the first question or two, you’ll either be let in to finish the survey or they’ll redirect you to a different one. This is because they are looking for a certain demographic and we may not fit what they’re looking for. No biggie. I just move on to the next one!

Want to try it?

I encourage you to. It’s free and easy and fun to earn free money to spend at places we like to shop.

Sign up here to try it out!

Then get to “work” right away to earn your first 300 Swagbucks so that you’ll qualify for the bonus 300.

Holler if you have questions!

P.S. Add the Swagbutton to your computer and earn an instant 25 Swagbucks.

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Sam’s Smoked Sausage Meal: $1.48/person

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This super tasty Sam’s Smoked Sausage Meal cost just $1.48/person. Here’s how!

Are you finding this as interesting as I am, or am I just a little on the geeky side as I break down the cost of our meals and discover that we really are eating well for quite a low cost!

If nothing else, perhaps you’re getting some good meal ideas. :) I just love that even with the big rise in grocery costs, we are all still able to eat for very little money overall. We can all be so encouraged!

Sam’s Smoked Sausage Meal: $1.48/person

I’d picked up a nice package of beef smoked sausage on a recent Sam’s trip. Cost for a 4-pack of beef smoked sausage was: $11.28. I like having items like this in my freezer because they offer a very quick meal I know my family will like!

One day when I was planning a meal around the leftover mashed potatoes and green beans in my fridge, I spotted the sausages and knew they’d be perfect! We had guests eating with us that night, so we fed six adults, three kids (who’d been swimming and were hungry!!), and three toddlers.

Total cost for this meal with smoked sausage, mashed potatoes, green beans, and watermelon was $17.78. Divided by 12 people, this cost just $1.48 per person!


Let’s keep looking for ways to cut back and save as we buy groceries. But let’s also recognize that eating high-quality, well-balanced meals is very doable on a budget!

 

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Moist Chocolate Muffins (With Hidden Spinach, ha)

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These Moist Chocolate Muffins are truly made moist because of spinach. And yes, it’s like a new obsession with me, apparently.

What’s an obsession? Oh, just that I keep blending spinach into my chocolate baked goods because guess what? NO ONE CAN TELL. It adds nourishment, and as an added bonus, it is making all of our chocolate baked goods extra moist. True story.

See, it’s chocolate cake. With spinach. And it’s awesome.

Read these to learn more and to join the craze:

And now, we are adding spinach to our Chocolate Muffins. It changes nothing about the taste of the muffins. It only makes them moist and easy to eat. Alrighty-then. Why have we not been doing this all along?

Moist Chocolate MuffinsYum

Moist Chocolate Muffins (With Hidden Spinach, ha)
 
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Serves: 24
Ingredients
  • ½ cup melted coconut oil
  • 1 cup milk
  • ½ cup sour cream
  • 2 eggs
  • 3ish handfuls of fresh spinach
  • ½ - ⅔ cup brown sugar or sucanat
  • ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 3 cups whole grain flour
  • 1¼ teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
  1. Place all ingredients into a high power blender, beginning with liquids.
  2. Cover blender and blend on high until the spinach is pureed and all ingredients are thoroughly mixed.
  3. Pour into 24 prepared muffin tins.
  4. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20-24 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean.

 

 

Can you make these muffins without a blender? Yes. But make sure you puree the spinach with the liquids first so that it isn’t chunky in your muffins.

When I mix all of my ingredients together in my Blendtec, I find that the spinach is no longer recognizable and simply adds moisture to the batter! Plus it makes the mixing part of this recipe super easy!

NOTE: I bake for a large family so this recipe is the double version. Cut ingredients in half if you only want to make a regular 12-muffin batch!

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Sunday Roast Dinner: $1.62/person!

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I didn’t hold back on buying food to make our high-quality Sunday roast dinner. Still, the total cost per plate was only $1.62!

On a recent trip to Sam’s, I picked up a high-quality beef roast. I hesitated at the $17 price tag, but I knew it would feed a lot of people, so I took a deep breath and grabbed it. I also splurged on a package of Hawaiian rolls, which I don’t do very often. I got two meals out of this roast and the rolls, feeding 13 people (7 adults, 3 kids, 3 toddlers) the first meal and 10 people (4 adults, 3 kids, 3 toddlers) the second meal. (Details below!)

Here’s what I love about doing the price breakdown on meals like this:

If I can splurge on a big roast, mashed potatoes, grapes, green beans, and Hawaiian rolls and still get away with feeding everyone for just $1.62 per plate – how much less will I be spending when I make more frugal-minded meals?? I am so excited to challenge myself with this to see what other great meals we can all make for this much or less per person!

Sunday Roast Dinner: $1.62/person

This meal was super easy to put together before church. (As easy as it is to put a meal together while trying to get six littles dressed and out the door, ha!)

We hollered at a few college students to join us, and three took us up on our offer. We feasted on this:

Want to see what I did with the roast leftovers?

While putting away leftovers of our meal, I cut the remaining 16 Hawaiian rolls in half and spread the saucy roast over the bottom halves of the rolls.

I put cheese slices on top.

Then put the top halves of the rolls on. I covered and refrigerated the “sliders” I’d built and baked them for lunch a few days later!

This was a great way to use leftovers and to have a work-free lunch ready for my family!

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How I Make a Grocery List (Without Making a Grocery List)

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This is how I make a grocery list without making a grocery list. It’s kind of like taking my kitchen to the store with me…

Have you ever been at the grocery store and wished you had looked in your fridge first to check on your bottle of ketchup? Do you see a sale on pickles but can’t remember if you are already stocked up for the next three years worth of picnics?

The most recent time I was heading out of town to do a great big Sam’s run, I started to write down everything I wanted to be sure to pick up. But with babies underfoot I really didn’t have an opportunity, so I decided to try this instead…

How I Make a Grocery List (Without Making a Grocery List)

I took quick pictures on my phone.

I know what goes where on my shelves. I know what a full pantry and freezer are supposed to look like for our family. So instead of taking pen and paper into the store, I had these pictures to reference! Then I could see what was missing on my shelves.

Did I need canned beans in any form? No I did not. But was my fruit shelf almost empty? Indeed. Was I almost out of corn and olives? Yep. Did I have to question these things when walking down the canned food aisles? Nope. There’s the picture I took that morning!

Freezer number one shows that I have pasta on the top shelf (yes, I keep it in the freezer because we have mice issues if I don’t store things well.) I’m good on pasta. The second shelf shows that we are getting low on frozen pizza but I prefer buying those at Costco, and today I am going to Sam’s. We’ll make do, ha. The third shelf shows just one package of chicken thighs and a package of chicken legs. That’s not enough to get us by until the next time I have a chance to stock up. Get chicken…check!

There’s a frozen turkey someone gifted us with and some bags of whole wheat flour…

In the other freezer, I can see meat from our local farmers, meat I’ve bought from mark-downs, frozen veggies and fruit, and some meatballs from Costco. Overall, that freezer is looking pretty good!

This is the inside of my second refrigerator, which is out in our storage room. We keep extra milk out there, and usually, it is full of extra cold food that doesn’t fit in our kitchen fridge. Yikes, it’s almost bear! So at Sam’s I will stock up!

My Sam’s Trip with my “Grocery List”

We were completely out of fresh produce, plus we were getting ready to head to Montana for Justus’ wedding: a 12-hour road trip. Snacks for littles (and bigs) were very necessary. So I bought packaged food I don’t normally buy in an effort to help our long drive be a little more fun. :)

The pictures I’d taken on my phone were super helpful so that I could reference what I already had and what I still needed to pick up. I’m telling you though, they just don’t make carts big enough for our monthly grocery shopping needs, ha!!

I barely made it out of the store without spilling this mountain of food. :)

It might be hard to tell the difference, but here’s our shelf once I got our canned foods restocked.

From here on out, I will definitely be taking pictures on my phone to the grocery store so that I can use this as my list. Technology at its finest!

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Sam’s or Costco: Which is Better??

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If you have a Sam’s or Costco membership – or both like I do – I’m wondering if you have an opinion about which is better. :)

My first membership purchase was Costco because I polled Facebook and the overall consensus was that Costco was better. So I joined in and love it!

A few months later, I came across a pay $45 for a Sam’s membership, get $45 back in gift card. So basically a free Sam’s membership! I took advantage of the deal simply because I live 45-minutes from Grand Island, which only has a Sam’s. And I live about an hour from Lincoln, which has both Sam’s and Costco. So I now have the ability to shop at either warehouse or both as needed!

Sam’s or Costco: Which is Better??

Well now, that’s the question, isn’t it?

I truly like them both for different reasons, and now that I have both memberships, I think I will keep them both for the long term.

My favorite aspects of Sam’s:

  1. Their Scan-and-Go feature. I absolutely love this! As I put items into my cart, I scan the bar code into my phone. It keeps a running tally of my order, then when I finish shopping I simply swipe to pay, then show my phone to the worker as I leave. SO EASY and a huge time saver!!!
  2. They offer a pick-up option. This is super handy if I want to avoid going inside to shop. Just like I do with my frequent Wal-mart pick-up orders, I can order my Sam’s groceries online and select a time to pick them up. Very convenient!
  3. They have a few fun food items that Costco doesn’t have. Now that I’ve shopped both stores for several months, I’ve found items that I prefer from each place so I make sure to grab them while I’m there. (Orange Chicken from Sam’s frozen section – a great convenience food I always pick up at my family’s request! And what is it about the delicious frozen Sam’s beef hotdogs??)
  4. Markdowns. Sometimes I find meat marked down. Sometimes they are clearing out items for huge clearance prices. It’s so fun to come across these steals!

I don’t have a fun money-saving code for Costco. But I do have this one for Sam’s and you’ll get a free $20 eGift card when you join!

My favorite aspects of Costco:

  1. Organic food. There is a much bigger selection of organic food at Costco – from fresh produce to frozen food to meat to cereal and coffee. I love this. So many organic items at such good prices! So overall, if I had to pick, I’d say I like Costco food better than Sam’s.
  2. Their clothes. Sam’s also has great clothes and I’ve found that with so many kids in our home now, I really take advantage of both stores when it comes to jammies, school clothes, and coats. But clothes for me and for my older sons – man Costco is awesome. Such a great high-quality selection (and you never know what you might find!) at such great prices.
  3. Gifts. There is always a really nice selection of items I like to look through to pick up as gifts for birthdays and showers. I have to be careful when shopping, actually, because their stuff is so cool, I find I want one of everything!

Is there a price difference?

The Costco membership costs more, especially since I got my Sam’s membership for free for the first year.

Of the items we can get at both Costco and Sam’s, I’ve found that maybe a few items here and there are a few cents or dollars different in cost. But there hasn’t been anything I’ve found to be drastic enough for me to say, “I’ll wait and get that at Costco (or Sam’s).” Both have great prices on bulk items!!

So in summary, I love both Costco and Sam’s and I’m glad I don’t have to pick one!

What’s your opinion on which is better, Sam’s or Costco?

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Pumpkin Spice Cookie Dough Bites (Naturally Grain and Gluten Free ~ High Fiber and Protein!)

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Is it too soon to start talking about Pumpkin Spice Cookie Dough Bites? I figured we needed to get a jump start on fall.

I’ve kept a supply of Cookie Dough Bites in my fridge since school started. Why? Because they are a perfect snack to grab when we need something fast and filling. They are filled with protein and fiber, and are sweetened with honey, so I don’t mind if my kids grab two or three at a time to hold them over until the next meal.

Up until now, we’ve enjoyed these fun Cookie Dough Bite varieties:

Recently, I decided it was necessary to experiment with Pumpkin Spice Cookie Dough Bites.

I usually make my own Pumpkin Spice to use from now through all the holidays. It’s fun, easy, and tasty. Now we can use it in these cookie dough bites!

Pumpkin Spice Cookie Dough BitesYum

Pumpkin Spice Cookie Dough Bites (Naturally Grain and Gluten Free ~ High Fiber and Protein!)
 
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Author:
Serves: 15-20
Ingredients
  • 1 cup natural almond butter
  • ¼ cup honey
  • 1 Tablespoon Pumpkin Spice*
  • ½ cup coconut flour
Instructions
  1. Mix the ingredients together in a bowl until well combined.
  2. Roll the mixture into teaspoon-sized balls.
  3. Refrigerate for about one hour before serving.

*Find the recipe for our Pumpkin Spice mix here. Or substitute 1 teaspoon ground cloves, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg in this recipe.

If you want to get fancy, roll your bites in coconut flakes, cinnamon, or crushed nuts. :)

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