Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Big Family Food and Fun: July 2-8, 2023

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We are slowly but surely getting settled in at our Castle. We are amazed at and grateful for the care people are showing us here!

Our moving truck got unloaded last Friday, leaving every room of our house looking something like this:

Picture toddlers climbing over that and rearranging boxes as I try to sort and organize. That’s been interesting – but as I share our Food and Fun photos of this week, take note at all God is providing for us so that we can survive these crazy days!

Food and Fun – July 2-8

My friend Cindy, whom I’ve known for a few years but rarely get to spend time with, came by on Saturday with two of her girls. They brought us this huge box of cherries!!!! She and her girls helped me unpack and clean and play with kids for several hours. How lovely that we will all live in the same town and are able to do life together now. :)

Sunday morning I cooked two pounds of meat from my freezer so we could have a quick meal of tacos when we got home from church. This felt so normal!! Which felt so good in the middle of everything that is not normal right now.

Someone at church gave us these beauties from their garden as we were leaving. What a gift!

Sam’s is a mile from church, so Matt gave all the kids a snack while Elias and I ran into the store to grab a few essentials for our 4th of July celebration plus fresh produce we needed. We grabbed hotdogs and buns, guacamole, queso, grapes, greens, apples, bananas, nectarines, sweet peppers, and strawberries. Oh, and Spindrift drinks were on sale – Elias’ and my fav sparkling water! ;) We got home and ate our tacos then got littles down for naps.

That evening I made a plate full of small turkey sandwiches and took them outside for a picnic with pickles, watermelon, and cheese.

I had a package of English muffins in the freezer, so I made scrambled egg sandwiches for breakfast the next day. I was itching to make something (my kitchen is amazing, who cares if it wasn’t fully unpacked yet?!). So I blended up our favorite Cheesecake Parfait recipe to enjoy with our strawberries.

Mid-morning was already very hot so we enjoyed popsicles to help us cool off.

Lunchtime got super exciting because we got word that our custom-built dining room table was on its way!! I had thawed chicken legs to smoke for our meal because Asa and Eva were planning to join us for the day. Plus I’d sliced up all the squash we’d been given to stir fry and enjoy with our chicken.

Our table was built by Sola Woodshed Designs, friends of ours whom I’d messaged several weeks ago to see if they’d want to tackle my huge table project. :) They did a marvelous job and joined us for lunch too. Check out this beauty of a table!! Even better is the people all around the table…

I asked for a 12-feet long farmhouse table, not fancy, just big. :) I requested long benches for seeing instead of chairs so we could fit more people around our table. It’s perfect! We went with four 6-feet benches instead of two 12-feet long benches. It’s amazing.

After such a full morning and a big lunch, we made frozen pizza for dinner.

That evening, more neighbors stopped by to welcome us to the neighborhood and they came with four pounds of strawberries for us. Perfect!

Tuesday’s breakfast was peanut butter honey toast with bananas and yogurt.

Our fridge looked so delicious, full of cherries, nectarines, and strawberries!

Tuesday afternoon, friends stopped by for a visit and they brought several boxes of food – a gift from the Helping Hands ministry at church. This was all so perfect so that we had easy foods to throw out as snacks and side dishes.

Our 4th of July celebration day was as busy as the other days have been with more unpacking and sorting. But that night we put hotdogs on our smoker and had a feast with Asa and Eva joining us. (Justus and Kelsey have been in Montana visiting her family.)

I snapped this photo of our oldest with our youngest. THIS is why we moved to Lincoln.

While were were outside celebrating, our friend Rebecca stopped by with food that her mom, Barbara, had made for us. They have been so intentional about helping us settle in, and it is remarkable. They had taken the turkey we had in our freezer so they could roast it for us. AMAZING and so very helpful. The delicious cooked bird was delivered along with a big bag of banana pancakes, prepared salad, a bag of kid-sized apples, baby carrots with homemade ranch dip, and a bag of ready-to-eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. This was so thoughtful and has been so helpful!

Our girls dug right into the pancakes the next morning!

Matt and I decided that the kids needed an outing so we packed everyone into strollers and headed out to explore our new surroundings. We made our way to our closest library to check it out!

Everyone had good naps (or rest times) that afternoon, then we warmed up the turkey Barbara had made us along with green beans, strawberries and cream, and salad.

The next morning, Matt and Brayden headed to York to do some work on our house there. I packed them a feast to get them through their day.

While they were gone, Eva and I took the other six on a long walk to play at a park. We enjoyed capri suns with raisins and veggie straws mid-morning.

I’d warmed up leftover 4th of July hotdogs before we left and they were still hot at lunchtime. We ate them before heading home!

That night I made Turkey Cheese Melts with more of Barbara’s turkey. We ate them with fries and watermelon.

Friday morning we took the kids to visit another library all morning. We came home and made pancakes and eggs.

A dear friend sent us a gift of flamingo paper goods and a Dominos gift card from Arkansas, so we enjoyed a fun pizza meal that night!

Saturday morning, Anna and I made Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins before everyone else slept. It was my first time baking anything and it was so nice!

We went to “Discovery Days” that morning on the UNL campus where the kids enjoyed fun science activities at each booth. We took a snacky lunch to enjoy late morning before coming home in time for naps.

While the kids were napping and resting, I went to the grocery store for the first time since moving. Our three littlest girls plus Baby Boy#11 are all on WIC, so I focused on getting all of those qualifying items.

While I was there, I took advantage of a buy-one-get-one-free pork loin sale. Plus I picked up a few other things we needed. Out of pocket I paid $78.

 

Before leaving for the store, I had put this Taco Pasta in the crock pot for dinner. Justus and Kelsey were on their way home from Montana so I told them to stop by for dinner if they wanted. Then I texted Asa to come (Eva was out of town). Asa invited our friends Seth and Corrie. Malachi’s friend Max came over. Elias’ friend Emma came to see the house and accepted our invite to stay and eat.

There ended up being 18 of us, all at the last minute. I LOVE THIS. The Taco Pasta turned out great, and we pulled out lots of sides to round out the meal: watermelon, black beans, corn, cherries, veggie tray, chips and guac, brownies, and rice krispie treat. Our table was full and it was fantastic.

Stay tuned for lots of pictures of what the past week and a half have looked like for us as we settle in!

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Feeding 11 People During Move Week

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It was move week for the Coppinger crew and we.are.tired. We still ate well, thanks to so many loving people!

I can’t wait to sit down and write details about how our move is going. What an amazing house God gave us!!! We can’t get over this, our Castle. This place is going to be amazing for our family and for hospitality. What a gift.

Feeding 11 People

The first few days of last week as we finished packing in York, my goal was to clean leftovers out of the fridge. One of our “fancy” meals included leftover spaghetti and chicken salad in croissants.

Monday night, my niece Kailey brought us a Tator Tot casserole. It was so sweet of her and we all devoured it!

We were blessed on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings with meals from friends also: a meal of Lasagna and a meal from our local Mexican restaurant. So much was going on that I forgot to take pictures!

Just before loading day, I asked our egg-supplying friend if we could get 10 dozen for the road. :) I didn’t want to worry about getting eggs for a while.

The day we closed on our new place, we left all seven littles in York with sitters so that we could get into the Castle and get started with moving furniture. When we left York, I buckled four gallon jars of Homemade Vanilla into toddler car seats. They arrived in their new home safe and sound. :)

Justus and Kelsey brought barbecue pork to the house that day for all of us to eat for lunch. It was perfect.

The next morning, we loaded more belongings and headed to Lincoln with all of the littles. PHEW. They have been exploring the Castle, and are a bit confused about life in general, poor dears. Slowly but surely they are settling in. Eva and Kelsey have been a huge help keeping them occupied while the guys load and unload and move furniture. We’ve been cleaning out the house (a lot of items were left behind) and unpacking our things as much as possible whenever the kids are occupied.

My kitchen is starting to come together now, but on Thursday morning it looked like this. Crib in the doorway? Why not?

Say it isn’t so!! I found this in one of my refrigerators as I was cleaning it out, hahahaha. :) :) :) :) :)

We had been gifted a Wendy’s gift card and I’d saved it for our first day at the Castle. Elias and Malachi brought back bags of food for our lunch.

Some dear friends brought a Nacho feast for our dinner that night. We were starving, it was delicious, and we finished it all that night. :)

As our friends set down our Nacho fixings, they kept bringing in more and more food. Casseroles, homemade sourdough waffles, applesauce – it was incredible!

We enjoyed the waffles for breakfast Friday morning.

We had their Egg Bake for lunch Friday.

Why yes, we did eat the entire pan in one sitting.

That night, we hosted our first gathering at the Castle. ;) We picked up 8 large pizzas as a crew gathered to unload our U-Haul truck.

We were so thankful for the help unloading!

Saturday morning I scrambled 15 eggs on my amazing “new” stove. We ate them with berries, yogurt, and bread.

For lunch that day we warmed up Pesto Pasta that was included in our big food gift from our friends on Thursday night.

Awwww, it is, in fact, my first Castle Smoothie. :)

We are so excited about our new neighbors. Everyone we’ve met so far is kind, loving, and welcoming. Some sent cookies (no picture because they are gone, hehe!) and another brought these lemon meringue cupcakes. So sweet! We look forward to settling a bit so we can really get to know them all better.

I’ll share more as I have time. It’s been intense; it’s been good. We are so grateful.

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Big Family Food and Fun: June 18-24, 2023

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We’re down to just a few days before we pack up and move. Our meals are a bit hodge-podge these days as we use up the food we have on hand.

Here’s what we have left in our freezers. WAIT. Freezer. Singular. We gave one of our uprights to our neighbors. We’re only taking this one with us and here’s what’s in it.

Compare that to last week!!

I took what was left in our other freezer so I could defrost it before we gave it away. Goodbye ol’ freezer. You’ve been good to us.

Grocery Spending

My spending total as of June 24 is only $240. Most of that has been fruit and vegetable purchases, plus a few odds and ends to complete some meals that I’m putting together with the food we have on hand. I love the savings we enjoy when we’re eating from our pantry and freezers!! But I also know that July is probably going to make up for it because once we settle in, I’ll need to stock up on everything again!

Bonus: Look what we got at no cost:

We donate a lot of household items to an organization in York called Blue Valley so I follow their Facebook page. One day last week I saw that they had strawberries, blueberries, oranges, yogurt, and cabbage given to them – and it was all free to our community for the taking. Keith and I ran over there while the four littlest kids napped and we were shocked at the flats of fruit! “As long as you can use them, take an entire flat,” they said. Oh, we’ll use them!! What a gift. (York area friends, follow Blue Valley Community Action on FB. You never know what you might learn about.) :)

The kids have LOVED having a free-for-all with all of the berries!

Here’s part of our Walmart pick up order on Friday. Gotta have greens for these smoothies. :)

Here’s what we ate last week:

And now on to looking at the meals we ate throughout the week.

It all started with Father’s Day. The Saturday before as we were preparing, I was reading this recipe out loud so we could make pie for Daddy. Hearing, “we need 4 Tablespoons of butter,” Anna ran to the kitchen. She came back yelling, “Tablespoons! Tablespoons! Tablespoons!” She was alllll ready to make pie!

We decided to make two pies. First, this Easy Chocolate Fudge Pie – with a big scoop of peanut butter added.

Licking the spatula is the best reason to be involved in helping to make the pies.

Then, we made this Peanut Butter Cheesecake Pie – without the chocolate chips. Yes, Matt loves peanut butter. Both pies turned out so good!

Saturday night, Elias cut up two pounds of chicken so I could make Bacon Chicken Pasta for Father’s Day lunch right after church. I have GOT to make this more often. Every single person ate it and asked for more. It’s so very good!

Justus and Kelsey were able to come that afternoon to help out. AND they brought everything to make a Father’s Day dinner!

I took advantage of the help by spending an hour scrubbing a bathroom. Meanwhile, Kelsey got Kiya and Brayden in the kitchen working on dinner prep. They loved this!

Anna had coffee with Justus. (Not really.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All afternoon I marveled at all of this. THIS IS WHY GOD IS MOVING US TO LINCOLN. Well, one of the big reasons. We’ll get to do life together with our Bigs. We need this.

Matt and I are stretched pretty thin. Any time our older kids pour into our younger kids, everyone wins. Brayden and Kiya needed to work in the kitchen with Justus and Kelsey – this fills them up! Anna needed Justus and Kelsey snuggles. Asa called Matt for Father’s Day and some of the littles ran to the phone to talk to him too. Eva snuggles and reads books to littles constantly when she’s here. I could go on and on. Here’s a shot I couldn’t pass up of everyone getting ready to watch a soccer game after dinner, Elias so naturally holding BabyBoy#11, and the littlest girls climbing up to join.

Meanwhile, Malachi went from going to Ecuador to spending a week at Soul Quest to heading to church camp to spend a week counseling. We’re thankful he’s out there serving, and we miss him. Good thing he’ll be back in time to help us move. ;)

So dinner. Justus smoked meat all Sunday afternoon: chicken thighs and barbecue ribs. Kelsey and the kids made mashed potatoes and brussels sprouts. It was all SO GOOD.

And Kelsey took pictures, because she knows that her mother-in-law is a food blogger who posts everything her family eats. Way to go, Kelsey!

On Monday, we ate up most of our weekend leftover smoked meat. What a treat! I made mac and cheese and peas as a side with lunch, plus let the kids choose canned peaches or canned pineapple.

For dinner we warmed up leftover mashed potatoes and I made corn and these smoothies to go with our meat.

Friends came to hang out late Tuesday morning plus I had case worker visits that day too. So mid-morning while the baby was napping, I browned some hamburger and put together pizzas to bake during my meetings. While I was at it, I made a tiny crustless pizza for my friend. (Tasha. It was Tasha. Remember Tasha? Tasha can’t have gluten. So I made her a crustless pizza.)

We ate our pizza with carrots and watermelon. Then Anna drank the watermelon juice from the bowl. Please enjoy this photo of Anna, along with my left foot and two buckets full of dirty rags.

That evening, I made Salmon Patties and served them with peas, leftover mac and cheese, and canned fruit.

Wednesday morning I blended ingredients together to make Bean and Cheese Salsa Dip. We ate it with chips and the kids’ choice of pears, peaches, or pineapple. (I had to get out cheese for our bonus kid who was spending several days with us. He’s the picky one I referred to in this post, but check out #5 here to see what he does like and eat. I keep these on hand for him if I can!)

My friend, Jenny, went to Costco that day and offered to bring home a Rotisserie Chicken for us. Such a blessing!! We pulled it off the bone that night and filled plates for the kids, serving it with melon from the fridge.

For lunch on Thursday, I made our meal based on food in the pantry. This “spaghetti” tasted great!

We’ve mostly eaten leftovers from then on, except for Saturday night when some wonderful friends came over. We needed to do some work up high on our house, so they hooked up their lift to their tractor and brought it over so they could help Matt accomplish the task. Phew!

The kids had a blast sitting on and climbing on the tractor while their daddies worked.

The rest of us packed and cleaned, then we got out everything we needed for a hot dog roast at our fire pit.

It just so happened to be this sweetheart’s birthday. One might say that we were so busy getting our house ready to sell that we almost forgot to celebrate. OR, one might claim that we went all out for Josie by renting a tractor for kids to play on during her birthday party!! Let’s go with the latter.

We put candles in her rice krispie treat, gathered around to try to keep the wind from blowing out the candles (to no avail), and sang to our birthday girl.

We thank God for the opportunity to have this impromptu party while our friends were there serving us.

And now, we pack the final boxes and load the truck. Stay tuned for next week’s adventures!

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Big Family Food and Fun: June 11-17, 2023

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Only 1.5 weeks until our big move. Here’s a look at what we ate this week as we clean out freezers and pantries and try to survive!

Food We’re Working With

I’ve put in a couple of Walmart pickup orders for fruits and veggies (we are going through fruit like crazy!). Otherwise, we are working our way through our freezers and pantry in an effort to use up food before we move. You can compare these pictures to last week’s shelves to see how we’re doing. This shelf doesn’t look like it’s emptying out much, but we used quite a bit from our stores this week.

You can tell a big difference in our freezers compared to last week!

I don’t have time to bake that turkey, so he’s likely going to make the move to Lincoln with us. ;)

And now on to the meals we ate last week!

Our Big Family Food and Fun

I had a Breakfast Casserole in the freezer, which was GREAT to have on Sunday for lunch. I slid it into the oven frozen, turned on the oven to 225, and let it bake while we were at church. It was done the minute we walked in the door and we ate it with fruit. SO EASY. I highly recommend putting some of these in your freezer!

Kelsey (Justus’ wife) had come to help us over the weekend and brought frozen Sloppy Joe meat with her. I warmed it for our Sunday evening meal and served it with green beans and watermelon. What would I do without my wonderful daughters-in-law? :)

Monday I had to take BabyBoy#11 in for a medical procedure, so I appreciated having lots of ready-made foods to pull out and serve for breakfast. I set out last week’s Mudballs and Pumpkin Muffins then warmed up leftover Breakfast Casserole to go with those. (Our air fryer warms food up so nicely!) Everyone ate well as Baby and I headed out.

Our fella was a trooper through his morning. I was glad he fell asleep on our way home to take a well-deserved nap! :)

Knowing I’d be gone all morning, I had mixed up Chicken Salad and put it in the fridge before I left. We made quick sandwiches when I got home and ate them with carrots, tomatoes, and watermelon.

For the record, chicken salad sandwiches taste better when cut into triangles. :) Also, this little girl LOVES peanut butter on her carrots. If you struggle to get your kids to eat carrots with other dips, try peanut butter. It works for Kiya!

After lunch, we played outside before naptime. Anna chose her own outfit today: shorts and a swim cover-up. Oh, and moccasins. :)

All three little girls crawled into the wagon, so I took them for a short ride. Then it was naptime – one of my favorite parts of the day after a long morning!

For dinner that night I baked a Meatloaf that I’d made a few weeks ago and frozen. Brayden and Kiya scrubbed potatoes so I could make these amazing Mashed Potatoes, plus I stir-fried some veggies and warmed up leftover corn and beans. Justus and Kelsey came from Lincoln for a church event so they joined us for dinner.

For breakfast on Tuesday I made scrambled egg sandwiches and served them with canned peaches.

I cooked three pounds of hamburger one night, seasoned it like this, then we put together tostadas with some shells someone had given us. I made this Cream Cheese Salsa Dip as a topping option.

This week at the YU campus is a camp called Soul Quest. Malachi is there as a camper for his final year with this amazing group of friends. (Malachi is second from the right.)

On the Wednesday of Soul Quest, they send out their hundreds of campers and staff out into our community for service projects. OUR FAMILY was blessed to receive one of these groups this year! They sent 26 high schoolers and adults over and we handed them all paint brushes!

It was a great, but full, morning. Thankfully, earlier I’d put lunch in the crock pot so it was ready to serve our family as soon as the crew left. This casserole doesn’t look pretty, but it truly was tasty! What do I call it? I have no idea. “Clean out the Fridge Casserole?” Yes, that’s it. I used last night’s taco meat stirred into frozen hashbrowns with the leftover Cream Cheese Salsa Dip, shredded cheese, sour cream, and salt. I cooked it on low all morning and it was delicious with steamed green beans on the side.

I left that afternoon to work for several hours while sitters came to stay with our kids (and Matt kept painting the house). Elias picked up pizza on his way home, using the gift cash we decided to enjoy for our Wednesday pizza night until after we’ve settled into our new home.

We sent the kids outside to eat their pizza because the sitters also did some cleaning while they were here. We always hope to keep the floor clean for at least five minutes after our sitters have worked so hard. :)

I went all out the next morning by getting out cereal and oatmeal packets for breakfast. ;)

In an effort to clean out our freezers, I pulled out this super discounted pork roasts I’d gotten marked down for $1.49/pound.

I put them in my large electric roaster, seasoned them, and poured barbecue sauce over the top. Then I slow cooked them all day to shred and freeze in meal-sized portions.

All day these pork roasts smelled AMAZING!! That evening, I shredded all the meat and scooped up some for us to eat for dinner before bagging up the rest for the fridge and freezer. This made five meal-sized portions for us.

I had two pounds of strawberries so I sliced them and made this Cheesecake Parfait to eat with them.

For lunch on Thursday I made grilled cheese and tomato soup – a funny meal on a 90 degree day but a great way to use up soup from the pantry!

Elias was home on his lunch break from work so he grabbed some grilled cheese to take back to work with him, plus chips and guac.

Friday we had a family of eight coming to help us get our house ready to sell. So in preparation, I had thawed two of these big packages of chicken legs. (Remember how I got these for around $0.75/pound?!?!) What a great way to feed 17 people!

I dumped on some sauce and put these in the fridge to marinate all day while we worked.

Meanwhile, Eva (Asa’s wife) came to help us all morning and early afternoon. We took all the littles to the library for the morning so Matt could paint. For lunch we invited our friend Tori to join us and headed to the backyard. We had a lot of sticks we wanted to burn up in our firepit so we thawed the hotdogs we had left in our freezer for the kids to enjoy. We grown-ups enjoyed the pork roast I had cooked the day before.

Our other friends arrived after lunch and they were a powerhouse, working so hard on our house with us all afternoon. I got the chicken on the smoker and we pulled out some easy side dishes. It tasted so good after working in the heat all day!

We were marveling at our two tribes of kids filling up the kitchen and spilling into the living room. :) We are so thankful for our precious friendship with this family.

Matt and I are feeling pretty worn out (but also very grateful). But this might explain why I said “yes” the next morning when Keith and Anna requested butter for breakfast. Nothing else. Just butter. Here’s a slice of butter, and here’s another slice of butter…

So this is where I’m at right now. Thank goodness I do have plenty of butter in our freezer! :) :) :) I did manage to pull off some Father’s Day treats today, which I’ll share about next week. Hope your week is off to a great start!

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How I Shop for Meat For Our Big Family

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How do I shop for meat for our big family? The larger our family gets, the more creative I have to be. Here’s what works for me…

So long, free range chicken

If you’ve been reading my blog for a long time, you’ve watched my evolution from everything free-range, grass-fed, and organically raised to well, surviving. And being at peace over it. As I’ve shared before:

  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)

There are currently 11 of us in our household: 4 adults and 7 kids. We go through a lot of chicken. Also beef. Also everything. We eat a lot of food.

2026 UPDATE: 14 in our household: 7 adults and 7 kids

As our family grows and grocery prices rise, I’ve had to find ways to cut back and save – just like everyone has. I’m determined to keep our budget at $1,200/month as long as I can and I’ve been encouraged to find that it really is possible! What I’ve found that has made the biggest difference?

Take advantage of sales and markdowns on meat.

When I find a good deal, I grab it – whether it’s free-range, grass-fed, or just regular ol’ meat from a regular ol’ store.

Yes, I’ve done the research. Yes, I know that grass-fed and free-range is better. But I also know that God is bigger, and I trust Him to nourish and protect us as we do the best we can with what we have. We also focus on eating a lot of fruits and vegetables, because I love the nourishment we get from a satisfying meal filled with meat, veggie, and fruit! (And no, most of our produce is no longer organic either.)

I’ve settled on a $3.50/pound price point for meat.

After having to re-learn how to shop for meat as I adjust to feeding so many people three meals every day, I’ve discovered that I can fill my freezer when I search for meat that is $3.50/pound or less. I’m amazed at how doable this is!

  • I can often find pork loin, pork roast, and pork butt on sale or marked down for around $2.49 or even $1.99/pound. They are usually nearing expiration so I either cook them that night or freeze them for later.
  • Costco usually has boneless chicken thighs for $3.49/pound. I love how delicious these are!
  • I buy ground sausage and smoked sausage at Aldi, stocking up when I’m there, especially when it is a featured sale item. Their sausage is usually around $2.99/pound and can take the place of ground beef in some recipes like spaghetti, lasagna, or other pasta dishes.
  • Sam’s and Costco’s prepared, hot Rotisserie Chicken is hanging in there at $4.98. It’s a great treat to pick one up when I’m grocery shopping and then turn them into an inexpensive and delicious meal in one of these ways.
  • Costco and Sam’s currently have chicken legs for $0.98/pound. We can turn these into delicious meals with no effort, either on the grill or in the oven. A big package like this feeds my entire family when I stretch it like this.

My Beef Exception

2026 UPDATE:

For several months, I stopped buying grass-fed beef and settled for “regular” ground beef so that I could hit the $3.50 or less price-point. But I just can’t feel good about it. The quality of this meat is just not the same. The taste is different. The texture is different. I just don’t like it.

I can find Grass-Fed Hamburger meat at Sam’s and Aldi for $5.98/pound which is a very good price for high quality beef. Roasts are harder to find, but I look for them at mark-down prices. Overall, we don’t eat as much beef as other meats so that we continue to save money. But grass-fed hamburger meat wins the price-point battle. :)

Ask the meat manager

Once recently at a local grocery store, I ran into the meat manager and asked about an item they had on sale. He did me one better and told me that he had meat in the back that he’d frozen because it was reaching its expiration date. He sold it to me for half price and told me to come back any time and check with him to see what he had in the back! Check with your local meat managers to see what they might offer.

Look at this huge package of chicken breasts that he gave me for just $4.00! There are two packages under that one that marked down to $3.00 each. That divided down to just $1.00/pound for boneless chicken breasts – incredible! And all the ground beef in the box was just $2.49/pound.

What doesn’t work for me as I shop for meat

I attempted to buy and use ground turkey instead of ground beef as a way to save money. Not one of us liked this substitution. So I stopped doing that and went back to looking for great sales on ground beef. When the price is right, ground beef can be less expensive than ground turkey. :)

What’s your price point per pound of meat? What is working for you these days?

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Big Family Food and Fun: June 4-10, 2023

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Two and a half weeks until our big move! Here’s what we ate all week as we’re getting ready…

Food we’re working with

I’m dwindling down our food supply, only buying fresh produce and dairy products as needed so that we hopefully have fewer boxes/coolers of food to move later this month. Here’s a picture of my pantry shelf at the beginning of this week. I’ll share a new picture each week as it empties out!

You can see our freezers last week here, and compare them to this week’s pictures:

What we ate all week

My goal at the beginning of the week was to clean out the fridge. I used leftover spaghetti/meat sauce to make Lasagna Casserole on the stovetop. Then I warmed up leftover green beans and that was that.

While Matt was scraping and painting our house one evening, I pulled out lots of random tidbits from the fridge. It was only 4:30 but everyone was hungry, so I decided on an early dinner/snack.

I plated it up, then carried it all out to the porch for the kids to eat “free-for-all-style.” THIS WAS NOT A GOOD IDEA. There were too many little hands dipping into the ranch, too many kids who didn’t want to share a plate, too many people screaming – and by the end of our meal, I might have been one of them. Blech. From now on, I’ll continue to make individual plates for each kid so we can avoid so many food messes and fights. :/

Since we’d eaten so early, around 7 I made some buttered toast from Jaimie’s leftover homemade sourdough (SO YUM) and carried it outside for the kids to eat before getting ready for bed. There were no food fights this time as I simply handed each kid a piece and they munched as they played. (Yes, we ate with dirty hands. I might be tired.)

The next day, I pulled these two packages of chicken breast from my freezer to thaw. LOOK at what a great price I got on these! It pays to ask the meat manager at your local grocery store if he has anything he needs to get rid of. :) I got these chicken breasts for $1.00/pound!!!

I put the chicken into the crock pot to make Chicken Tacos for dinner.

This was our first watermelon of the year so everyone gobbled it up! Josie ate five pieces, even trying to eat the rind. :)

There was a lot of salsa chicken left over because I’d cooked 6 pounds of meat in order to save time later. So I divided the leftovers into bags for the fridge and freezer to use for other quick meals.

I shared last week that Kelsey and I took the kids to a playground one day and had a picnic. Here are some photos Kelsey got of the kids playing. SO FUN!

Acacia and Josie often grab hands as they walk. I pray they are always the best of friends.

Not to be left out, here’s our Baby Boy#11. I wish you could see his huge smile! We were being silly in the mirror one morning and his smiles were so big that I snapped a picture!

Back to the food. :) I made quesadillas for lunch one day with leftover salsa chicken and spinach.

Keith has been asking for Mudballs for weeks and I was finally able to make a big batch with him one morning before everyone else got up. (Ugh, he wakes up EARLY! But I try to appreciate the one-on-one time it gives us.)

We also made a big pan of brownies to take to Asa’s birthday party later in the week.

One day for lunch I made 5 cans worth of tuna salad. We made it into sandwiches and we ate it with chips and guac.

I’m working on a post that shares fun ways that I save money on meat. But here’s another example of a great deal I got. These chicken thighs just cost $2.84/pound, which is fantastic for this high-quality meat. I marinated it to smoke that night.

This chicken is seriously the best ever. I made cream cheese corn, baked beans, and steamed broccoli and carrots as sides. After a long day of packing and chasing kids, this tasted incredible.

I’ve tried to get some baking done in the mornings before all the babies get up. My goal is to put some muffins and bread into the freezer so that we can enjoy them after I pack my baking pans and mixer. I made 2 dozen Pumpkin Muffins one morning (and forgot to take a picture). The next morning I made 2 loaves of Banana Bread and 2 dozen Bran Muffins.

For lunch, I had thawed two packages of Brats that I’d gotten marked down for just $1.92/package. How amazing to feed 11 of us (5 adults and 6 kids that day) meat for just $3.84!! Our smoker was giving me fits so the brats took a while to finish cooking. We ate leftover watermelon and carrot sticks while we (im)patiently waited for them to be ready to eat. :)

We were blessed to go to Lincoln at the end of the week for Asa’s big birthday bash that he and Eva hosted in their yard. Many of these people will become part of our new community after we move. It was great to become more acquainted with some of them!

Saturday we did lots of yard work at our house, so hamburgers really hit the spot at lunchtime.

Half of our family was gone at dinnertime, so I just made two quick frozen pizzas and served them with grapes.

I’ll leave you with this gem: We’ve been cleaning out our basement and came across Matt’s boom box from the 80s. The kids have enjoyed trying to figure out how it works. :) :) :)

We’re ready to start a new week! As the days go on, I’ll have to get more creative as I use up the food we have on hand. I’ll share those pictures next week. :)

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Big Family Food and Fun: May 27-June 3, 2023

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Here’s a look at the food and fun at our house during the last few days!

We’ve been working this week to finalize getting our house on the market, so the busy level has gone from insane to whatever is BEYOND INSANE. There’s been very little time to cook or to even think about food. Thanks to so many coming over to help us in so many ways, we’ve survived and been so very well loved and cared for.

Food we have to work with right now

I took a look at both of our big freezers to see what all we had to work with to make meals before we move. Both freezers are still very full, which is great because I can avoid going to the store between now and the end of the month. (Our closing date on “the Castle” is in just a few weeks!) My goal is to only buy fresh produce and dairy until after we settle into our new place. Meanwhile, we have a lot of meat and frozen veggies to work with. This freezer is full of hamburger meat, green beans, peas, corn, cheese, flour, pork butt, hashbrowns, pizza crust, tortillas, french fries, and a couple of ready-made casseroles.

This looks like a lot of food (because it is!). But making three meals a day for 10 people will clear this out pretty quickly! This freezer features a lot of chicken, hotdogs, frozen pizza, a turkey, and some pasta.

And now for the meals we ate!

Big Family Food and Fun

Our breakfast one morning consisted of the last of the Bran Muffins I had baked last week. I cut them in half, buttered them, and warmed them in our air fryer. The kids LOVE them this way. We drank some of our fun Azure Standard kefir with the muffins. Fun treat!

Trying to pack while feeding 10 people (plus a baby) is a bit of a challenge. :) It would help if I could ever finish what I start. This is what the kitchen looked like at lunchtime after I’d started packing a few cabinets after breakfast. I got derailed by the kids’ needs and never came back to it. Then we were hungry and I tried making quesadillas in this mess. Oy.

Keith decided to use safety scissors to cut up a box while I made lunch.

For our smoothies that evening with dinner, I used some of the Azure Standard Kefir instead of using yogurt like I usually do. I used an entire 5-ounce container of fresh spinach in these and I just love that the kids get so many greens into their bellies this way!

I made a pot of Cheeseburger Macaroni, steamed green beans, and sliced oranges for a quick dinner one night.

The kids ate outside again, which is so great but so distracting. Josie isn’t pictured here because she took a few bites and then ran off to ride her little scooter. :)

I grilled burgers one night and we ate them with chips and guac.

Anna woke up from a nap one afternoon and enjoyed a cheese stick while she was still just half awake, precious little sweetheart. :)

One morning, Malachi and I took the kids on a LONG walk so that Matt could do work on our house without kids underfoot. When we got home, I made some fast scrambled egg sandwiches and got out peach cups for lunch.

For dinner that night, I put some beef smoked sausage on our grill. While they cooked, I made baked beans, green beans, corn, and fresh strawberries. I pulled some Banana Muffins from the freezer to round out the meal.

Appetites have been pretty big around here because we are all working/playing outside for hours and hours every day! Keith and Josie “helped” Matt clean up the garden one afternoon. :)

The kids took advantage of Matt watering our lawn. I’m not sure how many times that day we had to put dry clothes on toddlers who kept wandering into the sprinkler.

I captured this rare moment when ALL seven littles were in one spot as we wrapped up our day and joined together in our living room for our nightly “Singing and Prayer Time.” Notice Brayden and Josie pretending to talk to each other on the phone from across the room. :)

I love it when the girls sit down to enjoy a book together. SO CUTE!

I had pizza crusts in the freezer so I quickly added sauce, cheese, and meat (some leftover grilled burgers chopped up!) to bake for dinner one night. I grabbed spinach from the fridge as a side dish and that was that.

Brayden and Kiya sat on the porch to eat their pizza. They’d gone to the pool that day so they were extra hungry!

The others ate their pizza at our picnic tables. Pizza sauce mess x4!

Our friend Tasha (you know her because she’s an awesome writer!) came and worked on our walls one day while her husband helped Matt with our porch and other jobs. We are so thankful for friends who are servant-hearted!

Meanwhile, Asa and Eva were also visiting and spent several hours helping us with the house and with childcare.

While everyone was either working on our house or chasing our kids for us, I put together these amazing Bacon and Potato Foil Packs for the grill. (I actually used leftover taco meat instead of bacon and highly recommend it!) I served them with canned peaches and boo, no veggies because goodness I am not keeping up very well right now! :)

I threw together a quick meal of spaghetti with green beans one night. I’ve found that using elbow noodles instead of regular spaghetti noodles makes it much easier for our toddlers to eat this meal!

At the end of the week, we had a photographer coming to take pictures of our house for the realtor’s site since we were soon to get it on the market. Matt and I were exhausted from all the work it had taken to get the house to this point, so I declared it to be a poptart morning. I’d gotten these with Azure Standard credit and saved them for a time like this. It was perfect – the kids were so excited!

That day for lunch, our dear friend Phyllis brought us lunch (because I asked her to, because I was worn out, and because she’s awesome). She brought two of her delicious hashbrown casseroles, veggies, and muffins. It was an incredible blessing to enjoy her food, and even more, her company. She spent some time after lunch reading with Brayden and Kiya, which is just what they needed. Everyone needs a Phyllis in their life. :)

I caught three of the littles (even Acacia!) trying to do Elias’ workout with him one afternoon. :)

We took the kids on an outing to the opening night of our Farmer’s Market and took advantage of their free-will donation hotdog meal deal. Magically, the kids lined up along the wall to eat their dinner and they actually stayed there for at least five solid minutes. :)

Amidst all we had going on with getting our house ready to go on the market, on Friday we also had a huge crew of roofers come to replace our roof after last summer’s hail storm. So there were nails and shingles and people EVERYWHERE outside of our house that day. We decided to take the kids to the library for Story Hour for the morning so they could play without getting hurt in our yard. At lunchtime, we ran home and I went inside to fill a bag with food for us to eat at a park that has a brand-new splash park!

Our lunch that day was turkey lunch meat, cheese sticks, pistachios, peanuts, applesauce, raisins, chips, and juice. By the time we got home, the roofing crew was finished, loaded up, and gone. Phew!

That night, a sweet friend, Jaimie, brought us a most amazing meal of chicken-bacon-tomato-ranch salad fixings with this homemade ranch dressing (that ironically, I haven’t made in forever because of our crazy life!). Plus she supplied us with grapes, applesauce, and made us two super tasty loaves of sourdough bread and chocolate peanut butter bars. We felt so loved and spoiled!

Here’s Matt’s creation – isn’t his bowl pretty!

Keith ate his food before I could feature it, as did Brayden.

But of course, they all got seconds and if I remember correctly, Brayden got fifths. :) :) :)

Kiya is as beautiful as her salad.

The next morning, I scrambled eggs to go with our leftover sourdough bread/toast.


Our daughter-in-law, Kelsey, was able to spend the day with us Saturday so she and I took the kids on a walk to a playground so Matt could work on painting our house. I packed lunch again to buy us time at the park, plus because eating lunch on our outings is just a lot of fun! We ate cheese and crackers, blueberries, applesauce, grapes, and pistachios, and I surprised the kids with cookies. :)

Malachi has in Ecuador on a mission trip all week. WE MISS HIM!! We’re looking forward to having him home next week to learn all about God’s work there.

What a week!! We are so thankful for all the people who have come to our rescue this week with meals and help with home repairs, cleaning, yard work, and child care. It takes a village, and we have an amazing one!

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Big Family Food and Fun: Meals and Photos from Last Week (May 17-27, 2023)

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Here’s a look at the meals we ate last week! Plus, now that our girls are adopted and I’m free to share, I decided to add a bunch of photos of our family so that you can get to know our kids better.

As the week began, we were on the heels of throwing a huge adoption party and an even huger graduation party. So the first few days of last week consisted of using party leftovers creatively and mom trying to recover. :) Plus, we started focusing even more on our big move, so meals needed to be more simple than ever.

Meals we ate

I used the leftover hotdogs from our adoption party to make a big pot of Beanie Weanies one evening. I served it with spinach (dipped in ranch), sliced oranges, and grapes.

The next night, I smoked the chicken I’d picked up at half price to use with the leftover gallon of “Cane’s Sauce” from Malachi’s grad party. (Do you have Raisin’ Cane’s where you live? It’s our big boys’ favorite restaurant!) See those frozen peas there? I throw those in our kids’ mac and cheese to cool down their mac and to sneak in more veggies. :)

One lunch as I was enjoying my “salad,” Acacia grabbed my glass to finish it off. Usually I make this one for the kids, but actually most of the littles will drink this grown-up version too.

Who doesn’t want to kiss that face?

Not to be outdone, Keith also had a special mustache that day, but his was from digging in the dirt. While still wearing his pajamas. ;)

One day for lunch, Matt warmed up leftover mac and cheese and chicken, and we put out a bowl of leftover watermelon. Acacia and Josie gobbled it up, but Keith and Anna were too busy to sit down. While we love eating our meals outside when the weather is nice, it is a bit distracting. ;)

After our huge weekend that included our big adoption day followed by Malachi’s graduation, my body decided it should get sick from all the over-exertion. Boo. We used a gift card to order pizza for dinner on a night I didn’t feel like moving.

I had gotten a lot of hamburger meat on sale, so one morning after I started to feel better I cooked seven pounds in my Instant Pot.

For lunch that day, we used some of the cooked meat to build ourselves a Taco Salad.

I froze some of the cooked meat, but before I did that, I used some to put together a container of Sloppy Joe meat and another of an Unnamed Casserole. We’ll never have another cassserole like it ever again as I simply grabbed out some leftover this and that from the fridge to build a meal. ;)

We’ve been making these smoothies every few days, which is so perfect on these warm days!

Here’s Keith with our Bonus 4-year old (our former foster son who comes to visit often). They almost NEVER sit still, and in fact, when they are together, we have to watch them constantly. They are like twins who like to get into mischief. So when I spotted them sitting still, I took a picture to document the amazing moment. This has nothing to do with food and everything to do with what I do when I’m not making food. :)

We had more leftover smoked chicken and I cut it into tiny pieces for lunch one day. We had some whole wheat pita pockets so we filled them with chicken and dressings. I was completely out of greens and tomatoes so we didn’t have much else to work with. We ate our pitas with leftover potato salad and cut strawberries.

The first Monday morning of our summer break, I took the extra time to make scrambled cheese eggs, sausage, and fruit.

We are cleaning up all the limbs in our yard from the winter, so we had a fire pit hotdog night. The kids were so excited! (We didn’t make a dent in the stick pile, ha.)

All I made that night to go with the hotdogs was a plate of sliced oranges. We’re just hanging in there right now!

One morning I baked a double batch of Pumpkin Muffins and made a big pan of Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Bars. We had gone muffin-less and bar-less for about a week when I had been so busy getting ready for all of our parties, so getting these ready for easy snacks/breakfasts was a big relief! Too bad they’re gone already.

I used some of the cooked ground beef to make a big Tator Tot Casserole one evening. Our three little girls gobbled this up (right off of my plate of course, because food on Mom’s plate tastes better).

One morning Brayden, Kiya, Keith, and I drove to Lincoln to tour what will be their new school after we move. I decided to run to Aldi after our visit, and friends! Our new house is six minutes from Aldi. (And 13 minutes from Costco, in case you were wondering.) I’m so thankful for all of this and excited about how my grocery-shopping life is about to change and become easier!

I mainly went in to get a bunch of whole milk yogurt and fresh produce. I then picked up four boxes of tube yogurt to freeze for cold treats on hot days, some cheese, apple juice, and smoked sausage. It felt weird not to get a huge cart full! But I’m trying to only buy what we can eat before the end of June so that we don’t have to pack as much food when we move.

When we arrived back home it was lunchtime. So I washed berries and got out avocado cups for the kids to eat. Matt and I prefer these with tortilla chips, but the kids just eat them with a spoon!

For dinner that night, I had premade a Hamburger Hashbrown Casserole. We ate it with steamed broccoli and carrots and Bran Muffins.

We got a nice-sized Azure Standard order this month and Malachi went and picked it up. I love that some of the littles are getting big enough to help unload groceries! I’m realizing that I’ll have to check to see if there are Azure Standard deliveries in Lincoln. Any locals want to chime in on that for me? :)

The kids helped me unload boxes, discovering frozen green beans and peas, frozen bananas, frozen strawberries, a case of tortillas, a case of canned peaches, onion salt, seasoning salt, yogurt, several varieties of Kefir, and a big surprise: Poptarts. If they’re organic, they’re good for you, right?! ;) I had some Azure Standard credit from referrals so I took advantage of it to order some convenience food to help us during move time. OH! And I meant to order a case of canned pears but as it turns out, I only ordered one can. Hahaha, that’ll get us through half a lunch. :)

Food and Fun

That was the food. Now on to the fun!

Here’s Acacia feeding her baby.

Josie chose a butterfly dress one morning and she was so proud.

I came across this photo of Elias and Matt on Elias’ graduation day and LOVE their smiles!

Brayden was getting huge smiles from BabyBoy#11 one morning!

This merry-go-round at one of our local parks is perfect for us because it’s safe for the littles and they all fit on it together.

Keith got a new bike for Christmas and is finally able to enjoy it now that the weather is so nice!

I’m not sure how Matt pulled it off, but as I was still unloading Josie, he headed into church with all these ducks in a row…

Firechief Keith to the rescue!

Here’s Brayden and Kiya on their last day of school. See ya later, 3rd and 1st grade!

Anna and Acacia had the opportunity all school year to go to a pre-preschool hour once each week. The little bus picked them up and they LOVED it! Here they are waiting for the bus on one of their last days.

We were blessed to go to the wedding of some dear friends, and I snapped this of Malachi as he was their videographer.

During the reception, Josie wanted in on the action.

Brayden and Kiya danced their hearts out and were a bit mad at us when it was time to load up and leave. I asked if I could get a picture before heading out and after four tries, they finally smiled. :)

And that’s a wrap! I suppose I should take some pictures of the COMPLETE MESS that is our house right now as we sort and pack to move! Meh, it’s more fun to see our adorable kids. :)

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May 1- 17, 2023 Groceries and Meals We Ate (Big Family Food!)

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Here’s a look at our groceries and meals from the first part of May 2023 for our big family!

Everything feels a little bit EXTRA right now. We just finalized the adoption of our four girls. Elias and our daughter-in-law, Kelsey, just graduated from college. Malachi graduated from high school. And oh yeah, we’re moving.

I adore this recent photo of Malachi with our youngest babe. It is so significant that Malachi used to be the youngest and as of his graduation last weekend, we would have been empty nesters. But here he is now, the oldest of 8 at home (9 if you count our former foster son who is still very much a part of our lives). Malachi’s life has changed significantly during the past five years. We’re incredibly proud of how he has let God grow him through this.

Food has been abundant around here because we’ve hosted a lot of parties as we’ve celebrated such wonders! But then on non-party days, I’ve resorted to a lot of scrambled eggs in an effort to survive and put food into our bellies, ha. I’ll share more about our meals below, but first, let’s take a look at…

Groceries We Bought

Early in the month, I made a quick run to Walmart to get formula for Baby#11 and a few other WIC items for the little girls. The produce they allow is so very wonderful! While there, I checked for meat markdowns and found two packages of brats for just $1.92 each. How great it will be to feed our whole family meat for less than $4!

In preparation for our Adoption Party, I went to a local store to get hamburger meat that they had advertised to be on sale. BUT, I came home with much better deals!!! They didn’t have any of the advertised meat in the cooler, so I asked the manager if they had more in the back. He replied with, “I do have more, but if you want an even better deal I have a bunch of meat back there that we froze before it expired. I’ll give it all to you for half price.” YES PLEASE.

I ended up with 69 pounds of ground beef and four big packages of boneless chicken for $181!!

Now, I have to say that I wasn’t really planning to stock my freezer before our big move to Lincoln next month. But the prices were too good to pass up!

Costco and Sam’s

Two days before adoption and graduation, I took a day and went to Sam’s and Costco to get ready for two huge parties. For Malachi’s graduation, I splurged on several cases of a variety of individual drinks to serve. We packed them in ice and guests could choose what they wanted. It was a huge hit!

I picked up some of our normal groceries for our family’s needs, plus some convenience items to help us as we pack and get our house on the market. I got triple the produce I usually buy at one time as our menu for Malachi’s party included lots of fruit and veggie trays.

Not only was the back of our van packed on my way home, but the side was full too!

Now let’s look at what we did with all these groceries!

Meals We Ate

The last weekend in April we celebrated Elias and Justus’ wife, Kelsey’s college graduation. We came home and served a Sub Sandwich Station to 15 of us, but of course, I was too distracted with feeding everyone to take a picture!

That night, we hosted a huge reception that filled our living room, kitchen, and front yard.

I didn’t get many pictures, but here’s our “toppings table” as we had another table with a huge roaster full of baked potatoes plus a big bowl of tortilla chips. People could then fill a bowl with baked potato toppings or nacho toppings – however they wanted to enjoy their meal! We also had a lovely dessert made by Kelsey’s mom. :)

The day after graduation I used many of the leftover sub rolls to make 19 Breakfast Sandwiches for the freezer (and for breakfast that morning).

For lunch that day, I fried leftover baked potatoes with leftover nacho/taco meat and served it with steamed green beans.

The next day, Malachi had a soccer game an hour away. We knew it could be his very last high school game, so instead of lugging all the kids there and chasing them instead of watching, Matt and I invited three babysitters to come to our house and help us. We left all seven littles behind – what a gift to know they were well cared for – while Matt and I actually had time to visit on the road and then enjoy watching Malachi’s game! I made six pizzas before we left (some of them with more of the leftover taco meat from the graduation party). We took some to eat on the way to the game and left the rest for our kids and their sitters. :)

One morning I got a huge batch of Vanilla Extract started so we’d have some ready in time for the holidays.

I grilled Chicken Legs for dinner one night (there were a couple of extras joining us), following this Dump Sauce on Chicken method. <— This is such a great idea! Except for when you get the bright idea to finish off random sauce bottles from the door of your fridge and ONE OF THEM IS MANGO HABANERO. Meh, I figured the ranch dressing I added to the bag would cool the spice. I was wrong. Our chicken was super spicy and not kid friendly. We ate it all anyway, though, ha!

We ate our spicy chicken with fried potatoes (this finished off our graduation party potatoes), fresh pineapple, and roasted broccoli and carrots. Brayden’s head is featured in this photo – isn’t he cute?

The first Saturday of the month, we took all the kids to a park in town that was hosting a special free “play in the sand” event. Matt and I decided at the last minute to take a picnic lunch so that we could stay longer on the playground so I threw together everything I could grab quickly and we loaded everyone up.

The kids played hard and were super hungry. So they devoured turkey lunch meat, cheese sticks, bran muffins, peanuts, applesauce, veggie straws, and clementines. I was so thankful I had enough to-go foods on hand to throw a lunch together like that!

Before my big meat markdown purchase, I was in a “clean out the freezer” mode. There were a few homemade frozen Meatballs, so I thawed and baked them one night and made spaghetti to go with them. I grabbed out some leftover fresh pineapple and fresh spinach to serve with it.

I had some Hawaiian rolls left over from Easter that I’d frozen, plus I found some small steak burgers in the back of the freezer that I’d gotten marked down a couple of months ago at Sam’s. We smoked them one night and had Mini-Burgers on rolls with cheese, pickled green beans, and baked beans.

I had a package of bacon in the freezer, so I cut it into bacon bits. Then I made scrambled bacon cheesy eggs and smoothies.

One morning, I took the girls’ snack outside to their little table. Here’s Acacia and Josie enjoying blueberries and peanuts. I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to finally be able to share their beautiful faces with you!

The day I went to Costco and Sam’s I also brought back a Rotisserie Chicken for our dinner. Matt pulled all the meat off the bone for us to eat while the rest of us unloaded all the groceries. I put fresh berries I had bought that day on the picnic table to go with the chicken and that was our simple but perfect meal for that night! To think, our entire family ate that meal for less than $10 and I didn’t have to cook! Using those $5 rotisserie chickens as fast food is fantastic!

May 12, this happened! You can read more about our four girls here. :) :)

After court, we headed to a park for a big party. Around 100 people were there to celebrate with us. It was incredible!

That week, I had pre-made 40 hamburgers so on the morning of adoption, I warmed them up along with 80 hotdogs and put them into a roaster to stay warm. A friend of mine picked it up for us on her way to the park and by the time we got there, everyone had set up a lovely spread of food!

With the burgers and dogs, we served veggies, grapes, watermelon, potato salad, chips, drinks, and desserts.

But the most important part of the day was the people who have been such a beautiful part of this journey with us!

We went home and rested for a while during the girls’ naptime. That night for dinner Matt scrambled eggs and I used leftover buns to make scrambled egg sandwiches. We set out the leftover grapes, some strawberries, and Matt made hashbrowns and sausage. All of our big kids were there, plus Matt’s dad from California. Everyone was fine with a simple, thrown-together meal. :)

The next day was Malachi’s graduation. This post explains how we have a homeschool graduation at our house. This was our fourth time to do this and we have come to love this tradition in which we gather ’round in our living room and each speak a blessing over our graduate. Justus had to miss this so here is a picture of the rest of us (during the girls’ naptime) while Malachi was FaceTiming Justus so that he could still be a part of the day.

For lunch that day, Malachi chose Lasagna, salad, corn, and fruit, plus cookies baked specially by a dear friend of ours. I had made the lasagna two weeks prior and put it into the freezer to make it easier to serve a big lunch during such a hectic weekend.

That evening we threw a huge graduation party along with some friends. Over 300 people came, shocking us all. It was incredible!!! What a gift to see so many people come in support of our children!

We served Chicken Strips with a variety of sauces, chips, veggies, fruit, and a variety of drinks. Elias was the rock star who kept baking the chicken and dumping it into the warm roaster to serve. Most of the food was gone by the end of the night. It was amazing!

The next day was Mother’s Day and I was pretty tired. :) I set out easy breakfast food for everyone, we had leftover lasagna for lunch, then Matt made dinner (which I forgot to get a picture of!). Best of all: that afternoon I took a nap! :)

I was able to capture this sweet moment between Grandpa Coppinger and Acacia during one of our meals during his visit. What a gift it is that he came to celebrate adoption and graduation days with us!

On to something new!

These “groceries I bought and food we ate” posts are super popular and fun to share! So instead of working on it all month long and posting one huge post, I’m going to try posting each week to share what our food looked like the week before. Sound good? We’ll see how it goes! Watch for our first Weekly Food Update coming up in a week or so. :)

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Ways to Eat Out Without Eating Out

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Here’s how to eat out without eating out. What in the world am I talking about?

I’m talking about enjoying outings with your family that are a special treat – but that don’t cost much and offer a fun variety to restaurant outings.

I’m not completely opposed to restaurants, but for our family right now, they simply do not work. Why?

Why Our Family Doesn’t Go to Restaurants Right Now

  1. Because we have so many kids (11 plus two daughters-in-law) and many of them are very small. Taking seven kids under age nine to a restaurant sounds the opposite of a treat to me. Oy.
  2. Because feeding 15 people at a restaurant costs much more than we want to spend.

Therefore, Matt and I have gotten creative as we find ways to give our kids outings without spending money beyond what we are already spending for regular groceries. Here are some of the ideas we’ve tried. I’d love to hear yours too!

1. Take Food to the Park

This one is a no-brainer that you didn’t need me to share as “go on a picnic” isn’t a brand-new idea. BUT, it is worth sharing because we’ve relied on this over and over as a great way to have outings with all 15 of us! And we’ve become creative with the food we enjoy at picnic tables together. Think wayyyyy beyond the sandwich!!

Here are some food ideas we’ve enjoyed in various parks:

2. Take Food to Outdoor Games

I always pack our dinner when we go to Malachi’s spring soccer games. Here’s a picture of our kids eating hot hamburgers that I made at home and packed for them to eat on a blanket. :) As an added bonus, this keeps them occupied for a while so that I can actually watch the game. Sort of. ;) Here are some other great foods that work well to pack and take to games.

3. “Splurge” on a Costco or Sam’s Meal

This is the only way our family can “eat out” for around $35! I usually grab a bunch of hotdogs and a pizza and all 15 of us can get full for a very reasonable price. The kids love it when we do this!

4. Find a Grocery Store with a Seating Area

Find a grocery store that has a section of booths and tables. Typically they have prepared food to purchase there, so take advantage of that if you want. Otherwise, grab a cart and run through the store and grab any variety of:

  • Sandwich or wrap fixings (even just a loaf of bread and a jar of jelly and peanut butter)
  • Carrots and other veggies with dips
  • Fresh berries, cut melon, grapes, or oranges
  • Chips and dips
  • Fun drinks
  • Yogurt or applesauce pouches

Then go through check-out, and sit down in your booths and eat!

Our littles had so much fun the last time we did this, and our older kids enjoyed it too (grabbing some prepared sushi!).

5. Play Restaurant at Home

This idea is only fun for littler kids, but it’s worth a mention! My 9 and 7-year-olds enjoy coming into the kitchen at dinnertime and ordering “tonight’s special.” I tell them what their cost is (usually something ridiculous like $1,000), they put their fake, invisible money on the counter, and they grab their plate. Somehow dinner tastes better this way. :) :) :)

Bonus Idea:

Eat at the shopping mall food court. But take your own food.

I felt weird about this at first but tried it anyway on a day we were going to be shopping with most of our family. It was too cold to take our food to a park to eat, so we just sat down at the food court where we were shopping, passed around the food, and it was all just fine!

What are some of your “ways to eat out without eating out” ideas?

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