Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Big Family Food: Have Grocery Prices Gone Up at Sam’s?

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There’s so much talk about high grocery costs! So have grocery prices gone up at Sam’s also?

I had just made a run to our local grocery store – the one I try to support if at all possible. But they aren’t a chain so their prices are often higher than most other stores. Their sales are good though, and I like to support them since they are local, so I go there when I can. (Read here to get some great tips and recipes to help keep food costs down!)

One particular day recently though, I came home so discouraged. It seemed that everything everyone had been saying about grocery prices going up was very true. Everything I needed at the store that day seemed to have doubled in price. Ouch, that can really add up. And because we go through so much food at our house, I just couldn’t justify putting many “convenience foods” (Like bagels, hashbrowns, frozen fruit, yogurt…) into my cart.

I stuck to the very basics, came home with very few groceries, and tried to think creatively about how I could stay within our grocery budget while still recognizing that my cooking/baking time is very, very limited.

(Ha, “came home with very few groceries” was still a cart full. I had planned to get much more for our family that day, that’s all.) ;)

A few days later, I was able to head out of town to Sam’s to try to really stock up on items we needed. I took our 6-year-old with me for a much-needed one-on-one outing. She was BEAMING the entire time we were out! (And chatting. And chatting, and chatting. I’m learning that girls are different than boys, ha!)

Have Grocery Prices Gone Up at Sam’s?

My fear was that Sam’s grocery prices were going to be just as hiked up as they had been at our small grocery store.

I was getting low on just about all of our staples, plus I always need fresh produce. So I decided not to hold back while shopping that day. I was hoping to get enough food to last us at least two weeks. Maybe?? But I was also hoping to avoid going broke.

The only carts available that day were the flats, which I knew I would need. But I also don’t like how difficult it is to get everything onto a flat without stuff falling out. So I took the advice left by JJ on this post, and I grabbed boxes at the front of the store. Instead of just putting items onto the flat, I loaded them into the big boxes that sat on the flat. Worked like a charm!!!

After check out, the boxes filled the back of our Transit, but they sure did stack up nicely!

Then, of course, unloading it and putting it all away once we got home was the fun challenge.

What I got:

  • Big bag of apples
  • Big bag of pears
  • Big bag of nectarines
  • Bananas
  • 1 container of mixed greens
  • 2 containers of spinach
  • Container of blueberries
  • Container of strawberries
  • Container of kiwi
  • Asparagus
  • Big bag of petite baby carrots
  • 2 large bags of Fritos
  • 2 large bags of tortilla chips
  • Case of peaches
  • Case of mandarine oranges
  • Case of Rotel
  • Case of refried beans
  • Box of beef hotdogs
  • Box of orange chicken
  • Box of cheese curds
  • Bag of chicken nuggets
  • Pack of lime juice bottles
  • Coffee creamer
  • 1/2 & 1/2
  • Big bag of tator tots
  • Turkey lunch meat
  • Ham lunch meat
  • White queso
  • Sliced colby jack cheese
  • Shredded colby jack cheese
  • Box of avocado mash cups
  • Double bag of plain bagels
  • 2 large bags of frozen fruit
  • A few clothing items we needed

Total for food: $367

I was AMAZED and grateful that I got so much food for less than $400!

While grocery prices have gone up here and there, I didn’t find that the prices at Sam’s were shocking by any means.

Are Sam’s and Costco still going to save us money?

Absolutely.

Yes, prices have gone up somewhat because that’s what’s happening right now. But the savings I experienced at Sam’s that day was significant compared to what I’d found at a regular grocery store. Plus, overall prices were still extremely reasonable at Sam’s.

Next time I go to Costco I’ll do a similar comparison to see if the savings are still there. :)

What have you experienced with grocery prices where you shop? Are they going up?

P.S. Read this post to get great tips and recipes for help in keeping food costs down!

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Big Family Food: Sneaking Veggies and Avoiding Food Fights

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Does anyone else have picky kids? No? Oh. Well, I guess this “sneaking veggies and avoiding food fights” post is just for me then. But just in case you want to read along just for fun…

Phew. Just when I thought I’d been parenting long enough to have been around all the blocks multiple times, God gave us more precious kids and said, “Here you go. Start all over again. It’ll be just like the first go-’round except that it’ll be also very different. All of these kids are dealing with trauma of some sort. Also, some of them only like sugar dipped in sugar.”

God didn’t say exactly that. He actually said, “I have called you to this. You are equipped for this, even when you feel like you aren’t. I am with you. I will never forsake you. I will give you everything you need. You can trust me. You are loved.”

What a God we serve! Never have I realized my need for Him more than now. And I’m not talking about my work in the kitchen. Clothing and feeding these babes is the “easy” part compared to the rest (though I need Him for the physical work too, no doubt). He continually teaches me what to do and how to do this life. Praise Him!

So here we are. I’m too busy to focus on food compared to how much I used to focus on it in the past. At the same time I:

The biggest way I make sure we are all getting plenty of nourishment, even when I serve compromise foods is this: We have fruits and veggies with every meal.

Awesome, right? Right. Except that some of our kids are very picky, and some of them have sensory/texture issues, so I can’t just say, “go eat your green beans.” Because someone might actually throw up. Good times.

Sneaking Veggies and Avoiding Food Fights

We’ve tried idea after idea with multiple kids, and I can’t say that we’ve settled on what works for each of them. But we are making some progress, and for that, I am very thankful. When it comes to food, we simply want our kids to be nourished and healthy, and we are doing what we can to help make that happen.

Veggies are the hardest for some of our kids to get down. So I’m having fun being creative with ways to sneak them into our meals.

Let me be clear:

When I say “sneak veggies” I’m not necessarily trying to pull a fast one on our kids. In fact, our kids are in the kitchen watching me and “helping” me so they actually watch me sneak veggies all the time.

It’s been super good for our 6-year-old and 8-year-old to be a part of our kitchen life. They are learning by helping and watching. But we’ve learned with these two (who have experienced so much trauma, have been lied to, and have had life yanked out from under them too many times) that we have to be fully honest always.

So we “sneak” veggies simply by adding them to meals in any way we can.

And our kids know that we do this. They think it’s fun!

Here are some examples:

1. When I make broth, I add as many veggies as I can, especially onions and carrots. After it’s cooked, I blend the veggies and whisk them into the broth. As a result, we have orange, flavorful broth, and in almost every batch of soup I make, it looks like “cheesy soup.” Ha. Everyone loves my soup, and no one thinks about the hidden veggies that add so much flavor and nourishment.

2. I tear pieces of spinach into our quesadillas or sandwiches.

This works great, and not one kid complains! In fact, the first time our 6-year-old saw me tearing spinach into our quesadillas, she was like, “Oh, is that how we’re going to eat our veggies tonight?” :)

You betcha, girlfriend!

Later, when she was eating her quesadillas, with a big grin she said, “Mom, I can’t even tell there’s spinach in here! I can’t even taste it!”

One day I made the most delicious sandwiches with whatever buns I had on hand, shredded chicken, ranch dressing, torn up greens, and sliced cheese melted on top. They were SO DELICIOUS. And we couldn’t taste the greens at all.

3. We fill our smoothies with greens.

The kids put the greens into the blender themselves, laugh about the weird color of the smoothies, then guzzle them down. They love that they are getting both fruits and veggies in this treat, and think that they are winning over the veggies. Because they are. Take that, spinach. 

4. We make pumpkin muffins and pie.

Is this stretching it just a little bit? Yes. But listen: there’s pumpkin in pumpkin pie, is there not? There is. So it’s a vegetable pie. Amen.

(Also, is pumpkin technically a fruit? What even is a gourd?)

Also muffins. Pumpkin muffins, sweet potato muffins, acorn squash muffins. It all turns out the same product that has nourishment within. See also: Pumpkin Chocolate Cake

These Flourless Pumpkin Muffins are especially nourishing. :)

5. I add veggies to spaghetti sauce.

Ha, check this out and learn a little bit more deeply how weird I actually am.

Three of our foster babes qualify for the WIC program, so we get quite a few containers of baby food every month. This is super nice, and because I have so many I’ve started using some of the pureed veggies in creative ways. Last week I stirred pureed pumpkin into our spaghetti sauce and no one questioned it as they asked for seconds and thirds.

6. I added the same veggies to a pot of Chili.

We add shredded cheese, sour cream, and fritos to our bowls of chili. So when I added pureed butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and carrots to a big pot of chili, no one noticed!

If you don’t have pureed baby food (I won’t buy it once our WIC benefits run out), I suggest adding canned pureed pumpkin or blended cooked carrots – anything you have on hand!

7. We learned that we can add greens to cake mix. For real.

It’s as easy as this. You can also add a can of pumpkin like this. Or add both pumpkin and spinach. It works great!

What ways have you found to add more veggies to your family table?

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Stay tuned for more Big Family Food posts, where I share all about how I make food for our big family! And read here to catch up on other posts in this series you may have missed. :)

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

Big Family Food: March 2022 Costco Trip

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I think I’m getting the hang of how to “do Costco” for my family. Here’s a look at my March 2022 Costco Trip!

Did you read My Big Costco Experiment? That is when I figured out how to shop Costco effectively for my family. It looks something like this:

My New Costco Plan

  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.
  5. I’m not even kidding. This job makes a person need some major sustenance and $1.50 for the big dog/drink combo is pretty rockin’.
  6. Grab an empty cart again and fill it with all the fresh produce, frozen foods, refrigerated foods, and bread products that we need.
  7. Check out again, load the van again, open the box of Kombucha I just bought, and drink a bottle for refreshment and survival.

Anyone else shop at Costco like this?

So, March 2022 Costco Trip Round 1:

  • 2 bags tortilla chips
  • 2 loaves bread
  • hot dog buns
  • hamburger buns
  • bag of veggie straws
  • bag of granola
  • case of tuna
  • box of granola bars (x2)
  • jars of peanut butter
  • quinoa and rice packets
  • case of canned chicken
  • bag of brown sugar
  • case of mac and cheese
  • a bunch of clothes and a bridal shower gift :)

Total for the food: $149

The much-needed hotdog (in case you thought I was kidding):

Then Back for Round Two:

  • bag of frozen meatballs
  • bag of frozen hamburger patties
  • bag of frozen corn
  • bag of frozen green beans
  • bag of frozen peas
  • goat milk cheese
  • 2 gallons milk
  • tortellini
  • heavy cream
  • white queso
  • naked smoothies (x2)
  • avocado mash (x2)
  • shredded mozzarella cheese
  • shredded colby jack cheese
  • polish sausage
  • container of croissants
  • red grapes
  • blueberries
  • blackberries
  • raspberries
  • strawberries
  • spring mix
  • fresh spinach
  • pink lady apples
  • gala apples

Total: $265

Total Costco Trip (for groceries): $414

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Stay tuned for more Big Family Food posts, where I share all about how I make food for our big family! And read here to catch up on other posts in this series you may have missed. :)

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

Big Family Food: Family Picnic

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Mid-March gave us the opportunity for a fun family picnic!

The more kids we have and the more adulty our older kids get, the more difficult it is for us to all find an opportunity to all be together at the same time. The stars aligned one day in March, and we were able to meet up in Lincoln for an awesome day at the park together! (Asa and his wife Eva, Justus and his fiance Kelsey, Elias, Malachi, Brayden, Keith, Matt, me, and our four foster girlies)

One of our goals when we get together is to find something we can do that we will all enjoy – from baby to toddler to preschooler to elementary kids to high schooler to adults. Oh, and it helps if we can find something that doesn’t cost much money. Of course. :)

On this particular day, we found a park with a fun playground for all the littles plus plenty of grassy areas for all the bigs to kick around a soccer ball. And the best part – we had packed the frisbee golf equipment we’d invested in one Christmas. So the boys set up our goal and created a course. After lunch, the bigs had fun playing frisbee golf for hours while the littles played nearby.

Also, it was a perfectly sunny, 67-degree day. Gorgeous!

I grabbed this picture of the big boys and in short, while we were together, I couldn’t stop staring at this scene. When our older boys get together, this is what happens. The four of them find their way into a square with a soccer ball at their feet. They kick around and chat without even realizing they’re doing it – it’s what they’ve always done. Be still my heart. God gave us amazing adult sons.

Meanwhile, the amazing babies.

Daddy was holding the littlest. These two had a blast on the swings. The other three were playing and playing on the playground (which I failed to get a picture of, phooey!).

Oh yes. And we also ate a super tasty picnic.

This ended up being a perfect lunch that was easy to put together and pack for an outing. Everyone got their fill and loved it.

The night before, I made a big bowl full of chicken salad.

I packed two bags full of chicken salad, croissants, grapes, applesauce, chips, salsa, and avocado cups.

I also packed water bottles, forks, a knife, napkins, and paper plates.

There was nothing fancy about our meal, but it was perfect for our needs that day!

Do you know how the Bible says that “Mary treasured all these things in her heart…”? That’s what I feel like I do on days like this. They are a gift, they are rare, and I love standing back and watching all my dear ones together. :)

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Stay tuned for more Big Family Food posts, where I share all about how I make food for our big family! And read here to catch up on other posts in this series you may have missed. :)

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

Big Family Food: My Recent Walmart Pick-up Orders

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To supplement my once-a-month Costco or Sam’s trips, I put in Wal-Mart pick-up orders every ten days or so. Here are a couple of pictures from recent orders!

Sometimes when I talk about how much I enjoy taking advantage of Walmart Pick-Up, I hear how some of your experiences with it have been less than positive. Shucks, I’m sorry! For me, it has been a lifesaver. Like, I think it has actually saved my life. Or at least it has saved hours and hours of my life and much of my sanity (which is actually already gone, doggonit).

Apparently our local Wal-Mart rocks in the Walmart Pick-Up department. On the flip side, ours has gone to almost entirely self-checkout which I reallllly struggle to do when I have a huge full cart and babies with me. Thus, my Walmart Pick-Up life-saving claim.

My Recent Walmart Pick-up Orders

I love that I can add all my needed groceries into my online cart in just a few minutes. Then I select a time to pick up that works for me. I take a kid or two with me for an outing when I go pick up, or I send a friend or one of my older boys. And then boom, my groceries walk themselves out to my van (with a little help from an awesome associate), put themselves into the back, TELL ME THANK YOU, and I go home. This is beautiful.

Here’s what I got from this particular pick-up order:

  • 4 pounds strawberries
  • 2 pounds spring mix
  • 5 ounces fresh spinach
  • 6 ounce raspberries (x4)
  • 4 crowns broccoli
  • 8 bananas
  • 2 pounds grapes
  • 18 ounces blueberries
  • bag of avocados
  • 2 packages hot dog buns
  • family size caesar salad kit
  • 5 pounds frozen tator tots
  • 4 pounds frozen hashbrowns
  • 3 pounds frozen strawberries/bananas
  • 4 pounds frozen fruit mix
  • wheat germ
  • cocoa powder

Total cost for all this: $99.

I know grocery prices are on the rise, but truly when I see all I got for a hundred bucks, I’m very thankful.

Another trip I got:

  • 2 gallons milk
  • 2 packages hamburger buns
  • 2 packages hotdog buns
  • 3 pounds clementines
  • 5 pounds shredded Colby Jack cheese
  • 2 pounds shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 2 boxes lasagna noodles
  • 6 jars pasta sauce
  • 2 quarts heavy whipping cream
  • 2 quarts half&half
  • coffee creamers
  • 2 cans pears
  • 1 can peaches
  • 2 bags petite baby carrots
  • 1 pound mixed greens
  • 2 containers cottage cheese
  • 3 pounds gala apples
  • 2 pounds pink lady apples
  • 4 boxes frozen hashbrowns
  • Totinos (ha, gross right? I get these for Malachi sometimes as they are his fav.)
  • 3 bags tortilla chips
  • 4 pounds strawberries
  • large tub sour cream
  • bag of meatballs
  • 2 16-packs of beef hotdogs

Total cost: $168

Do you do Walmart Pick-Up? What has been your experience?

Stay tuned for more Big Family Food posts, where I share all about how I make food for our big family! And read here to catch up on other posts in this series you may have missed. :)

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

Big Family Food: My Big Costco Experiment

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Slowing but surely, I’m figuring out more time and money-saving grocery shopping methods. Check out my big Costco experiment! I’m learning so much!

In this post, I shared that I had tried ordering all of my non-perishable Costco products online and letting them ship it all to me for free. Sounds so smart, right??? Yes. What a great way to avoid having to fill so many carts at Costco, right??? Yes. And this way, all of my non-perishables would land on my porch (with free shipping) and all I’d have to do in-store is buy fresh and frozen food. Maybe I could even get away with just one heaping cart, right??? Yes.

BUT WAIT.

One of you left a comment here to share that when ordering online, the prices are slightly higher than when purchasing in-store. I had no idea! And then I decided that I wanted to know how much more. Because if it wasn’t significant, I figured that my newly-discovered online-ordering method might be a huge time-saving help even if it did cost a couple of bucks more overall.

My Big Costco Experiment

The next time I was able to go back to Costco, I bought everything (and I do mean everything, as you will see in the pictures below) perishable and non-perishable. I filled an orange cart (you know the ones?) and I thought I was going to have a disaster in which everything on that orange cart would topple over onto the aisle as I turned. The stress – it was too much! WHO CARES if it costs more online, thought I. I can’t even fit everything I need onto this huge orange cart! I decided that I would go back to ordering online just to save the headache!

Hmmm. But then later, I pulled out my receipts for in-store purchases and compared several items to the online prices. Well, would you look at that??

Almost every online item costs around $1.50 more than the same item when purchased in the store. Some cost over $2.00 extra. This really adds up since I buy so many items!! I didn’t price check every single product from my past online order, but last time I shopped online I ordered 19 things. If I paid $1.50 more per item, that added up to $28.50 more compared to when I buy them in the store. Yikes, no thank you. I’d rather buy food with that $28.50!

So, now what?

Well, I think I figured out something that might work!

See, I can only make it to Costco about once each month if that. So when I go, I have a really long list of items that I need. If I’m by myself, there’s no way I can fit everything I need into one cart, or even onto one big orange cart. But here’s a plan that will be less stressful, I believe, than trying to Tetris everything onto an orange cart before it topples over.

I’m going to need to fill a cart, check out, unload into our van, then go back into Costco for round two. Ha! Sound like a ridiculous plan? Of course it’s ridiculous. But I think that’s where I’m at.

My New Costco Plan

  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.
  5. I’m not even kidding. This job makes a person need some major sustenance and $1.50 for the big dog/drink combo is pretty rockin’.
  6. Grab an empty cart again and fill it with all the fresh produce, frozen foods, refrigerated foods, and bread products that we need.
  7. Check out again, load the van again, open the box of Kombucha I just bought, and drink a bottle for refreshment and survival.

When packing our van, I usually fill a cooler bag full of meat and cheese, and a second cooler bag full of perishable produce.

This particular Costco trip, pictured above, filled the back of our Ford Transit! This was an exceptionally large shopping trip because we had a lot of events I needed to prepare for, as well as the need to fill our fridge/freezer/pantry at home for normal use. I got:

  • Cheeses and crackers to serve for refreshments after Justus’ senior vocal recital
  • Oat milk, Nature Valley snacks, olive oil, and a few other items for Kelsey (Justus’ fiance) and her roommates
  • Chips, bottles of water, and paper products for Malachi’s Homeschool Melodrama performance nights (each parent signed up to provide items for concessions)
  • Pork butt to make a pulled pork meal to feed the Melodrama group during a dress rehearsal
  • Apples, grapes, mixed greens, spinach, blueberries, and raspberries
  • Shredded cheese, kombucha, and Naked drinks to share with our college kids in apartments
  • Oats and bagged granola
  • Frozen pizza, chicken nuggets, and tilapia
  • Hamburger meat and chicken thighs
  • A few other odds and ends that I’ve forgotten and these:

These are for our 6yo and 2yo for Justus and Kelsey’s wedding this summer! What an amazing find at Costco!

Am I the only one?

So, what do you think about my Costco experiment? Have you ever had to go in twice in order to successfully make all of your purchases without items falling out of your cart?

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Stay tuned for more Big Family Food posts, where I share all about how I make food for our big family! And read here to catch up on other posts in this series you may have missed. :)

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

Big Family Food: Snacks I’ve Made Recently

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Did you see my post about Meals I’ve Made and Served Recently? Today I’m sharing some snacks I’ve made recently. These fly out of the kitchen at this house, that’s for sure!

Lately, I’ve been feeling a little desperate for more good foods for my kids to snack on. The problem is that I really want them to eat mostly healthy, homemade snacks (instead of foods like purchased crackers or granola bars), but I don’t have much time to make the good stuff. And when I do have time to make them, we go through them really quickly!

This is all a very good problem to have, of course. And I give my kids lots of fresh fruit for snacks (which is nourishing and super quick and easy!). But I’ve needed other snack options, and I need them in large volume. So I’ve tried to put together one or two snack options each day recently, and of course, I make a huge batch so I can freeze extras or simply in hopes that they will last us at least two days, ha!

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One day, I had several dozen eggs so I decided to see if the babies would eat boiled eggs for snacks.

This was a no-go all the way around. But bless them for trying (and smearing boiled egg all over the high chair tray and table). Never fear, I used all the remaining eggs to make Angeled Eggs – a rare treat around here (you know, because it takes like three entire steps to make this luxurious, gourmet food). :)

The above picture shows you part of our lunch the day I tried the boiled egg snack. We had Angeled Eggs, strawberries, apples, carrots with ranch, and good ol’ beef hotdogs.

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I made a quadruple batch of Mudballs one morning. These turned out to be very popular with every kid and adult too.

Friends came over to play that afternoon. By evening, the container looked like this:

And by the next day, they were all gone. :) Looks like I need to make these more often!

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I made a huge pot of Tapioca Pudding one day, which is delicious and great for snacks and even breakfast. But I don’t really have time to stand at the stove and stir the pudding for as long as it takes to make such a huge batch, so I won’t likely be making this very often. (I used over a half-gallon of milk in this batch so it took quite a bit longer to cook.)

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Since the Mudballs were such a hit (and also gone quickly), a few days later I quickly stirred together a double batch of No-Bake Snickerdoodle Bites. This recipe makes up for the extra time it took to make the above pictured Tapioca Pudding. The cookie dough bites are ridiculously fast to make and I don’t have to stand at a stove to make them. Truly, get yourself the ingredients for these No-Bake Snickerdoodle Bites. They are so tasty, filling, nourishing, and easy.

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Another day I made a batch of these Peanut Butter Muffins. These are different from regular muffins in that they are grain and dairy-free. We don’t have any grain/dairy allergies at our house, thankfully. I make them because they are full of protein!

The best thing about these muffins is that they are very filling. So they last a little bit longer than other batches of muffins I make!

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We are provided a lot of free cereal because three of our little ones are a part of the WIC program. So I used some Chex cereal to make a big container of Chex Mix. The kids love this!

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Banana Bread is always a hit around here! And while we do eat a lot of bananas, somehow we still often have over-ripe bananas too. So this is perfect.

I love how all of these snacks that I’ve been making double as great breakfast food too!

Stay tuned for more Big Family Food posts, where I share all about how I make food for our big family! And read here to catch up on other posts in this series you may have missed. :)

 

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

Big Family Food: How to Use Produce Before it Goes Bad

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Here are some suggestions for how to use produce before it goes bad!

Obviously, my biggest tip is: EAT IT.

Great post. See ya next time.

But I actually have a few other tips too, simply because I realized that as I regularly buy my big family such a large amount of fresh produce, I also have a system for how we eat it all up to avoid anything going bad. If only everything could be turned into banana bread like over-ripe bananas!

First, a look at my produce selections

I frequently buy a large quantity of fresh fruits and veggies each time I go to the store. My hauls look something like:

Typically, I load my carts with:

  • Berries
  • Apples
  • Bananas
  • Clementines
  • Pears
  • Grapes
  • Mixed Greens
  • Nectarines
  • Kiwi
  • Carrots
  • Broccoli
  • Potatoes
  • Onions
  • Cucumbers
  • Whatever is in season and for sale at a good price

How to Use Produce Before it Goes Bad

We usually go through what you see in each of those pictures in about a week or a week and a half. Here’s my system to eat it before it goes bad:

  1. We eat the berries first. These are the most sensitive and tend to go bad quickly. We try to eat all of our berries within just two days, and usually, it’s not a problem because we love berries! If they do begin to go bad, I freeze them for smoothies so that they don’t go to waste.
  2. We start on the grapes next. They’ve stayed good in the fridge while we’ve worked our way through the berries. If they begin to get squishy, I freeze them for smoothies.
  3. Mixed greens get eaten within a week, otherwise they get slimy. We go through two pounds every week by eating them in these smoothies and these. So they almost never have a chance to go bad at our house.
  4. We’ve been eating on the bananas all along, but we never feel urgency to eat them quickly because we love over-ripe bananas in smoothies and muffins. Sometimes I buy extras just so we’ll have enough to use in these recipes. ;)
  5. Clementines are also being served all throughout the week after the berries are finished off. We find that they taste best if eaten within one week, but sometimes they last longer. If they start to get hard (or mushy), I peel and freeze them for smoothies like this.
  6.  Meanwhile, the pears, kiwi, and nectarines have ripened and are ready to eat. We start slicing these to put on our plates at every meal. If we can’t get through all the nectarines before they turn mushy, I slice and freeze them for smoothies.
  7. The potatoes, broccoli, carrots, onions, and cucumbers have kept just fine, so we just use these as needed without much worry.
  8. The apples are usually just fine too, although we have found that if we haven’t eaten them in a few days, they stay crispier if we refrigerate them. If we do happen to have any grainy apples, I blend them and make Applesauce Bread.

What do we do when the produce has run out and we haven’t made it back to the store?

We open cans of fruit (in 100% juice) like pears, peaches, and pineapple. This gets us through until we can make a run to the store.

What about other veggies?

We keep frozen green beans and peas in the freezer at all times. That way, if I’m out of fresh vegetables, I can quickly steam something from the freezer.

What do you do to keep produce from going bad?

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Big Family Food: Ways I Can Cut Our Grocery Budget

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We eat big around here. Are there even ways I can actually cut our grocery budget?

This is what I’ve been exploring lately. What are some ways I can cut our grocery budget without causing more work or frustration?

I was so positively challenged by Reanna’s comment on this post:

If you are considering ways to save on your grocery budget you might consider buying more in “ bulk” and less single serving items. I’ve never bought individual applesauces, or other single serving items. I also only buy simple snacks such as fruit or crackers. We mainly concentrate on eating more during mealtime and not snacking as much. Snacks can be very expensive!

I 100% agree with her idea to avoid single-serve items, and I used to shop and serve food in just the ways she described. But with caring for so many little ones all while trying to keep up with our big kids (we’re planning another wedding, eeee!) – I have resorted to all kinds of convenience food items just to survive. (Our three littlest babies are each about 9-months apart in age, our three-year-old is potty training, and three days every week we enjoy our former foster babe, another three-year-old oy!)

My first thought when I read the comment was, “Yes, but not right now. Maybe after we get through this season.” But then I let her ideas simmer a while and I started to think about ways I could make some money-saving changes.

What I need to consider before I decide to cut our grocery budget:

  • Is the money-saving change worth the time and energy it will take to make up for the convenience?
  • Will it be worth the messes it might make? (We are already drowning in baby-made messes around here.)
  • Is the cost savings enough to make a substantial difference? (As in, will I spend $6.50 instead of $7.00 but create a significant amount of additional work for myself? If so, saving $0.50 will not likely feel worth it.)
  • Will any changes I make mean that we are eating less nourishing foods overall?

A word about snacks:

Well, three words about snacks: We eat them. A lot of them. Not all of us though – here’s how it works at our house!

Our three-year-olds, two-year-old, and one-year-old kids eat several snacks throughout the day. I would have some incredibly grumpy babies if I didn’t give them a mid-morning muffin (or something similar) and some berries. Sometimes I actually feel like all I’m doing is figuring out yet another good snack I can offer to truly hungry little ones.

I give them substantial meals, of course, but their little tummies can only handle so much at a time. We go through grapes, berries, apple slices, granola, cereal, and muffins like crazy – all eaten between meals.

Now, on the other hand, I almost never give our 6-year-old and 8-year-old snacks between meals. They are expected to eat their fill during meal time and I’ve found that if they eat a snack, they don’t eat a good meal later (which makes them need a snack later, which makes me want to cry later, truth). So the snacking is limited to the kids under 3 – and also to the hungry mom who rarely has time to sit and eat a full meal, thank you for understanding.

Ways I Can Cut Our Grocery Budget

I feel a little bit silly that I haven’t actually looked at cutting such obvious grocery spending options for so long. On the other hand, this mama is tired, has a lot of meetings, and hasn’t had quite enough sleep for approximately 1,460 nights in a row. So that’s why I’m so grateful that Reanna suggested that I consider a different way to shop and serve food.

I discovered peach cups and pear cups and applesauce squeezies a couple of years ago, loved how handy they were, and never looked back. And with that, I never really looked again at the price comparison either. Until I was challenged to consider the necessity of extra spending.

Pear cups cost $0.13/ounce. But a can of pears costs $06.7/ounce – half the cost of the convenient cups. Peaches? Same story. Half the price to buy a can instead of the little cups.

When we hit the road or need to pack food to eat at a soccer game or at the park, the cups will be wonderful and helpful with so many kids. But at home? I can easily open a can and dole out the peaches or pears in little bowls.

IT’S SO OBVIOUS. But I’ve been tired. So.

Meanwhile, the applesauce.

For the past three years, I have been buying cases and cases of applesauce squeezies. These gems are so helpful I can’t put it into words. And what happens when I give my littlest kids a bowl of applesauce? You don’t want to know, but I’ll tell you anyway. They paint with it. On their shirts, hair, feet, and under the table. I learned the hard way not to give them a bowl of applesauce, and there are too many of them eating (read: painting) at once to help them all eat it in a clean way.

Squeezies though? I can hand them out, and actually leave the room to go potty by myself. This is a miracle and though shalt not take my applesauce squeezies from mine house.

But do I need them forever and always? As it turns out, my 6 and 8-year olds are quite handy with a spoon. I can easily serve them applesauce in a bowl and save money on an entire case of applesauce squeezies every week. How about that? A jar of applesauce is $0.5/ounce while the squeezies are $0.15/ounce or more. Triple the savings! And if I’d ever get back to canning applesauce again, well, that’ll save even more.

What else can I cut or change?

I already buy almost everything in bulk. At Costco, at Sam’s, and through Azure Standard. And when I consider all the needs of our day, plus my lack of time to make more of our food from scratch, I’ve had a difficult time knowing what else I can cut.

But one thing I’ve committed to, besides buying fewer individually packaged fruit options, is to buy fewer individually wrapped items in general.

The only time I truly need individually wrapped snacks is when we go to tennis matches, soccer games, or other trips and outings. My goal right now is to keep items like this on hand but to save them for outings instead of resorting to handing them out at home during snack time.

Here’s a post filled with easy food ideas to pack and take to games and events.

What I don’t plan to change now (or ever?)

As I’ve shopped lately and done some price comparisons, here are some foods I’ve decided to continue to buy for the sake of convenience, even though they are a little more pricey.

  • Diced Ham – For $0.24/ounce, I can buy a package of ham that’s all cut and ready to dump into an egg casserole or this soup. A whole ham costs about $0.14/ounce. But I have to cook it and cut it (which is fine when I make a whole ham for a meal and use the leftovers in soup and such). Having the diced ham in my freezer ready to help me put a meal together in 5-minutes is worth the extra cost by far!
  • Frozen Shredded Hashbrowns – I buy 4-pound bags of Mr. Dell’s hashbrowns for $0.7/ounce. I can buy a bag of yellow potatoes for $0.4/ounce. Dude, gimme both. :) Those frozen hashbrowns save me so much time and make meal prep so very easy! They are delicious and the Mr. Dell’s brand includes only potatoes. So I feel great about using them for many of our meals. And whole potatoes? We use those too, and they are also an inexpensive convenience food in my book. But only when I make them like this or this.
  • Pre-Made Pizza Crust – I keep these in the freezer at all times. Do I know how to make pizza crust? Yes. Is it hard? No. But right now it’s fantastic to go to the freezer and grab crusts already made for me. I then grab a couple of cans of pizza sauce, shredded cheese, and whatever other toppings I have on hand. We quickly make pizza and it’s super easy. It’s also a lot cheaper than ordering pizza.”
  • Shredded Cheese – Talking about the shredded cheese for pizzas reminded me of the beauty of the gift of bags of pre-shredded cheese. I used to buy huge blocks of cheese and my kids would shred it in our food processor. Gone are the days. My bigs are either gone or don’t have time, and I have decided not to give my babies a cheese grater. Smart, eh?Grating cheese would never happen if I had to wait until I had time for the task. So bagged shredded cheese it is! Are there ingredients added to the bag to keep the cheese from clumping together? La-la-la! I can’t hear you, I don’t know what you’re talking about… :)

Well, I’m quite sure that as I consider ways I can save, I’ll be able to add to this list. Any other ideas you all want to throw out there?!

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Stay tuned for more Big Family Food posts, where I share all about how I make food for our big family! And read here to catch up on other posts in this series you may have missed. :)

 

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Big Family Food: The DISHES!!

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I’m not sure. Can we even talk about our Big Family Food Journey without taking pictures of all the dishes? Eeek.

What you see pictured above is what our kitchen almost always looks like by lunchtime. It looks that way again after dinner and confession: I almost always leave the kitchen looking like this disaster when I go to bed at night. Yowza.

Why do I do this? Why do I not wash all the dishes after dinner? BECAUSE I AM TIRED. And because my hands are literally always full. Yes, I sometimes “wear” our littlest babe, but usually one of our other babies wants to be held too. So I am almost always working with just one hand.

Therefore, I go to bed and the kitchen is usually a disaster.

Where is the help?

Ah, the help is helping alright. They are holding kids, chasing kids, keeping kids alive, and even changing diapers (awesome daddies in training!).

This is my all-time favorite picture of Elias and baby Keith!

And of course, Matt is surrounded by babes from the minute he walks in the door each evening until we put them all to bed each night.

Sometimes in the evening, if all the kids are being held/watched by Daddy and the big bros (and their fiance/girlfriends or whoever is at the house at the moment) – I can get the dinner dishes done before bed. But usually, the dishes have to wait until morning.

How I take care of the dishes

Besides neglecting them? Ah yes. It’s this:

My typical routine is to get our 6 & 8-year-olds off to the school bus in the morning at 7:10 (which stops a block from our house, praise God!), settle in our 3-year-old with a show, drink my coffee, and read my Bible/journal, then tackle the kitchen before our baby girls are ready to get out of their cribs. (Usually, Matt has fed the littlest baby a bottle in the wee morning hours and she goes back to sleep. I take sippy cups of milk to our one and two-year-old girls at 6:45 when I go in to wake up our 6yo for school. So the baby girls enjoy their milk and sleep again until around 8:00.)

While it would be wonderful to wake up to a clean kitchen to start each new day, that’s just not how it works for us right now. So after my coffee/Bible time, I fill the dishwasher and run it. (We usually run a full dishwasher twice every day.)

Please don’t cringe when you look at my dishwasher loading methods – I know it’s horrendous! But I don’t care, because there are way more important things to care about. :) The top is filled with sippies, bottles, and coffee mugs and then I usually haphazardly throw cooking utensils on top. They all get clean, and they don’t care if they are unorganized so neither do I. (I do also have a third rack above this one, which I use for lids.)

Once the dishwasher is loaded, I hand wash the big bowls and pots from the night before.

After Malachi gets home from his morning classes, he unloads the dishwasher and we start over again with snack and lunch dishes. Eat and repeat. :)

Someday, I’ll have more kitchen help again!

When our older four boys were all still living at home and capable, I almost never had to even wash a dish! We got into a system where they would all take turns loading and unloading the dishwasher, sweeping, and wiping everything down. Now, three out of the four have graduated and moved on, leaving only Malachi (now 17) at our house. (Justus, our college senior, actually lives at home this year too, but he’s almost never here. When he is though, he’s always grabbing a baby so I can get something done!)

Malachi can’t take on all the chores that his brothers left behind, tho he really is a super help to me in many ways and always does what he can. Also? He’s running a videography business, taking college classes, is in a melodrama, is playing tennis and soccer, and for some reason, he also likes to hang out with friends from time to time.

—> We hire a lot of help now – I’ll share about that in another post! <—

I could have taken a lot more pictures of all the dirty dishes at our house. But why? Why would you want to see that? You don’t want to see that. Trust me on this. :)

Stay tuned for more from our Big Family Food series.

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