Heavenly Homemakers

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The Easiest 4th of July Menu

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The 4th of July menu I’m about to share with you is going to make you drool. You’ve been warned. Grab a napkin.

The Easiest 4th of July Menu

What I love about the food on the 4th of July is well, eating it I suppose. The flavors, the atmosphere, the excitement – well, 4th of July food tastes so amazing!

This is the 4th of July Menu I suggest as it is incredibly simple and absolutely mouth watering! It comes with plenty of options to fit your family’s preferences!

1. Select Your Meat

Burgers and dogs are great, but my absolute favorite meat to grill is this Simple Grilled Chicken. The key is to select boneless chicken thighs instead of boneless chicken breasts. This will create the most flavorful, juicy chicken you ever did grill.

Prefer to grill chicken legs? I suggest that you follow these great recipe options, then grill them instead of bake them. SUPER easy, and inexpensive too!

2. Select Simple Side Dishes

Fruits and veggies are the easiest foods to prepare and serve, and they are the healthiest too! So don’t stress over the sides. It’s as easy slicing a watermelon!

Our favorite simple side dish ideas for the 4th of July are:

3. Select a Dessert

Though why stop with one? It’s a holiday, after all. :) Our favorites include:

4. Select Fun Drinks

I’m usually a “do you want water or ice water?” kind of a gal. But on a special holiday, I enjoy serving special drinks! Here are some fun options:

What are your favorite foods to eat on the 4th of July?

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Love inspiration for menu planning? Want us to plan your meals for you? You got it! Simple Meals makes putting food on the table for your family easier than ever. For just $1/week? Sure thing!

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7 Ways I Save Money on Groceries With a Houseful of Teenage Boys

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I wrote this a few months ago to share as a guest post at MoneySavingMom.com. As I prepare to feed my teens and their friends throughout the summer, I thought it would be fun add a little to it and post it here for you! After all, who couldn’t use more ideas about ways to save money on groceries?

7 Ways I Save Money on Groceries With a Houseful of Teenage Boys

I just watched my 18-year old son eat an entire pound of strawberries for an afternoon snack. Tonight for dinner my family will plow through three pounds of boneless chicken,  three or four pounds of potatoes, a pound of frozen green beans, several handfuls of mixed greens, and a big bowl full of grapes. They’ll be hungry again before bed, no doubt.

This is my life. Four sons, all teenagers. My table is full and so is my heart. My grocery budget? Well, it’s not so small either.

When our four boys were little, people told me that I’d have to stock up on lots of potatoes, rice, and pasta as they got older so I could afford to feed them. I’ll admit these tricks help the grocery budget somewhat, but I’ll also tell you that I much prefer to fill my family with nourishment instead of empty calories.

That leaves me in a bit of a pickle then, doesn’t it? (Pickles? Oh yes. We go through a lot of those too.)

So how can we afford to feed four teenage boys (and frequently their friends!) without breaking the budget or compromising on nourishment? Well, it’s a continuous learning process, for sure, and I’ve been working at it for the past seven years. I’m excited to share some of my best grocery saving tips! But first let me say this:

Our grocery budget isn’t small. It can’t be – not if I want my kids to feel satisfied after a meal and to be filled with nutrients too. Did I mention all my sons are athletes and three out of four so far are over 6 feet tall? If you’re brave, you can click here to get an idea of how much we spend on groceries for our family every month. You’ll see that I’m certainly not one of the moms who spends”$50 a week to feed my family!” because of the huge appetites at our house and our preference for highly nourishing food. I love reading those mom’s tricks, though, because I always learn new ideas for ways to save.

So here we go!

How I save money on groceries with a house full of teenage boys:

1. We drink water.

I can’t imagine how much money this saves us (yes I can) and it’s a win-win! It’s healthier and saves money too! Our boys aren’t huge milk drinkers, so I buy one gallon of milk every week from local farmers, which I use for cooking and baking. If the boys want something special to drink, they buy it themselves as a treat. As you can see, the fact that we deprive our kids of fun drinks like juice and soda has left them terribly sulky and despondent.

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2. We eat soup.

Homemade broth is extremely nourishing, and I’ve found that it really helps stretch the meat in a meal. If I cook a chicken for one meal, then use the bones to make broth for soup, we’re getting a two-for-one! Here are our 12 Favorite Soup Recipes that help stretch our grocery budget.

3. We love meat, but still have meatless meals.

We love our cows and chickens (boy do we!) and I’m of the opinion that my active family needs the wholesome protein and nutrients that meat provides. But I’ve learned that we don’t need meat for every single meal. Beans and eggs and nuts and cheese help round out our menus and fill us with protein, and I’ve created many super simple recipes that are painlessly meatless.

4. We eat a lot of frozen veggies, fresh greens, and carrots.

It’s extremely important to me that I serve several veggies throughout the day. I keep frozen peas and green beans on hand at all times – veggies that are inexpensive and happen to be our favorites. Fresh greens are a staple and one of the most nourishing options to fill our plates. I pay $6 for a big one-pound container, which lasts our family one week. I’d say that’s a pretty great price for awesome nourishment, wouldn’t you? Fresh carrots are inexpensive year-round so we eat them often! I make homemade dips and dressings, which makes it easier to get the veggies down.

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5. I buy in bulk.

If you saw my storage room, you’d realize this was an understatement. I buy huge quantities of pretty much everything from meat to grains, which means I can buy when I find a sale, then use up our supply while I wait for another sale. I’ve saved thousands through the years shopping this way – and I love that I’ve also saved time and energy since I don’t have to run to the store for single ingredients very often. I just shop my food storage room!

—> Grab a list here of Simple Ingredients I try to keep on hand at all time. It’s a free download you can enjoy at your house too! <—

6. We eat at home.

While this post is about saving money on groceries, it is important to mention that eating at home saves us a great deal of money compared to eating out. Restaurant bills – even fast food bills – are quite large for our family. So we save eating out for special times when we are on the road (though we almost always pack food for travel too!). I wrote here about other ways our family saves money so we can afford a higher grocery bill. I bet you’ll find you save in many of these ways too!

—> Here are 111 of our favorite recipes, all of which use only 5 or fewer ingredients! <—

7. We eat Simple Meals.

Nothing fancy here. After all, my boys just want to eat. They don’t care if it looks good on Pinterest. I avoid recipes that take lots of steps to make and I use only simple ingredients, which we mix and match to put together hundreds of meals!

—> If you enjoy simple eating and want to save time in the kitchen while still putting great real food on the table, I recommend you check out our Simple Meals plan and join the fun! <—

A table full of teenagers? Bring it on! I’ll continue to find ways to be creative and save money as I load my shopping carts and fill my fridge and freezer. Ok fine. My two fridges and three freezers. What can I say? I feed a houseful of teenagers. :)

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P.S. It’s worth a mention that affording to feed these guys is only half the battle. Finding time to cook all the food is no small feat! Solution:

I taught all my kids how to cook.

I can’t say enough good about this.

My boys have spent hours of time with me in the kitchen through the years. Now that they are older, they are all very capable and can make entire meals if needed. Generally, we all work together to put food on the table. This is great for bonding but logistically speaking, their efforts and ability mean I’m not overworked in an effort to keep them all fed!

Learn more about how I taught my kids to cook here. And for just a few more days, take advantage of this great Kids in the Kitchen package offer!

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The Day I Proved That Healthy Food DOES NOT Cost More

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Today I thought it would be fun to explore whether or not healthy food actually costs more than…how should I say it? Unhealthy food? Would you believe me if I told you that I discovered that most healthy food does not cost more? Some healthy foods actually cost significantly less! Who knew?

I don’t even like to call it healthy and unhealthy food, simply because not every person’s dietary needs are the same. Sometimes what’s healthy for me might not be healthy for you.

So as we talk through this subject, let’s switch the word “healthy” with the word “nourishing.” I always encourage people to focus on eating food that offers nourishment. Don’t just eat edible stuff that fills a hole. Work to eat real food that offers nutrients and provides the body with goodness to thrive.

Want to read more on this subject? Read this —>

What is the Perfect Diet for Everyone?

Now back to our initial discussion about the cost of nourishing food vs. the cost of empty calories.

I’ve been crunching some numbers this week because after all my years of working to make a nourishing diet affordable for my family, I still hear so many people talk about how they can’t afford to eat good food. I always cringe at this declaration because I no longer believe it to be true.

Does Healthy Food ACTUALLY Cost More?

In an effort to get to the bottom of this debate, today I decided to compare the prices of basic, real foods to the price of a big box of Goldfish Crackers from Walmart.

Obviously this comparison doesn’t factor in coupon use or off brand options. But spoiler alert: Would you believe me if I told you that an ounce of Goldfish Crackers costs only a little bit less than an ounce of Grass-Fed Organic Hamburger Meat?? This blew me away! Is it possible that we’ve been wrong all these years about the high cost of real food?

Check this out! You’ll be amazed at my findings!

Goldfish Crackers = 30 ounce box for $6.46 = $0.22/ounce

Keep this price point in mind as we look at the costs of other basic, real, nourishing foods most of us love. We’ll start by comparing average costs of favorite fresh fruits and veggies.

Cost of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

Here’s the breakdown of produce price points I usually shoot for. NOTE: These are the prices I pay. Prices will vary from city to city.

  • Grapes = $2.50/pound or less = $0.16/ounce
  • Apples = $1.50/pound or less = $0.09/ounce
  • Strawberries = $2.30/pound or less = $0.14/ounce
  • Bananas = $0.59/pound or less = $0.04/ounce
  • Carrots = $0.99/pound = $0.06/ounce
  • Cuties = $1.50/pound or less = $0.09/ounce
  • Peaches/Nectarines/Plums = $1.50/pound or less = $0.09/ounce

These are all much lower in cost compared to Goldfish Crackers. How fun is this?!

Cost of Fresh Meat, Milk, Eggs, and Cheese

This was a little bit more difficult to measure as we don’t calculate eggs or milk in pounds. Still, it was interesting to note some price breakdowns of these nourishing foods. Notice how many of these prices are significantly less per ounce compared to Goldfish Crackers! NOTE: These are the prices I pay. Prices will vary from city to city.

  • Free Range Eggs = $2.50/dozen or less = $0.21/egg
  • Cheese = $4.00/pound = $0.25/ounce
  • Raw, Grass Fed Milk = $5.00/gallon = $0.04/ounce
  • Grass Fed Beef = $5.50/pound = $0.34/ounce
  • Naturally Grown Boneless Chicken Thighs = $3.00/pound or less when I see mark-downs = $0.19/ounce
  • Naturally Grown Chicken Legs or Whole Chicken = $2.50/pound or less when I see mark-downs = $0.16/ounce

Wow! Bring on the nourishing, real foods!

Cost of Whole Grains

I typically purchase my grains in bulk through Azure Standard. (Curious how many cups of flour in a pound of wheat? I did the math for you here.)

  • Freshly Ground Organic Wheat Flour = $1.00 per pound = $0.33/cup = $0.06/ounce
  • Organic Brown Rice = $1.10/pound = $0.07/ounce
  • Organic Rolled Oats = $0.87/pound = $0.05/ounce
  • Organic Whole Wheat Pasta = $2.55/pound = $0.16/ounce

Healthy Food Does Not Cost More

With the exception of fresh cheese and grass fed meat, which is only a few cents more per ounce than Goldfish Crackers, we see a lower price on all real, whole foods compared to this empty calorie snack. I am so encouraged by this!

This isn’t to say that we should never eat a goldfish cracker. Some moments in our life call for fun convenience foods! But we should never feel discouraged or defeated about the cost of purchasing wonderful, nourishing food for our family!

I can do it! You can do it!

Are you surprised about these price comparisons? What are some of your favorite inexpensive real foods?

Free Simple Ingredients Printable List

We’ve created a wonderful, practical, basic real food ingredients list for you to download and use as a guide. Now that you know that real food is so affordable, this list will be even more helpful than ever! This resource is free and it’s for everyone. Get yours here!

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The Best Places to Shop for Real Food Groceries

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Want to feed your family healthy food but feel stumped as to where to shop for real food groceries? Hopefully this post will take away uncertainties and ease your mind!

The Best Places to Shop for Real Food Groceries

The Best Places to Shop for Real Food Groceries

I have good news for you! Shopping for real food for your family is not as difficult as you might think. You don’t have to live in a big city. You don’t have to have access to fancy stores like Whole Foods. You can buy and eat real food no matter where you live! I live in a small town in the middle of Nebraska. If I can do it, you can do it. :)

1. Your Local Grocery Store

Yep. While it might seem that your regular local grocery store doesn’t have much to offer, I’m here to tell you that it is still full of real food. Vegetables, fruit, rice, beans, meat, eggs, nuts, oats, and the list goes on. Even the smallest of grocery stores have these basics! They might not be of the highest quality, they might not have a wide variety of options, but these are still real foods and can allow you to eat wholesome meals without falling back on highly processed foods.

Admittedly, smaller grocery stores tend to need to charge more for their food. Sometimes the produce selection is not as good as what you’ll find in a larger store. But you can still eat well enough. And sometimes, a local shop owner is willing and able to order groceries per your request. It never hurts to ask!

Become familiar with your local store(s) so you can learn your favorite sources, find the best prices, and become assured that no matter what your other options, you can still find good food right up the road.

groceries feb 174

2. Azure Standard

This food co-op has been a main food source for our family for years! They are based in Oregon, but ship to hundreds of drop points every month. If you aren’t already a member of Azure Standard, I highly recommend giving it a try if a drop point is available in your area. (If there isn’t one currently, you can look into starting one. That’s what I did many years ago, and now they deliver right to our town!)

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Azure Standard carries just about every food item you need, from meat to fresh produce to dairy to frozen food and everything in between. They also have paper goods, diapers – everything a large grocery store has. They allow you to buy individual items or a full case of that item for a discount. I consider Azure Standard to be like a Whole Foods grocery store that is less expensive and delivered directly to me! I love it!

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How Azure Standard works:

  1. Become a member. (It is completely free.)
  2. Join a local drop point (or start one).
  3. Order online each month according to your needs. (There is no obligation to order if you don’t need or want anything. Just shop as needed.)
  4. The drop coordinator for your group will be informed of the truck delivery time each month. He/she will send information to let you know when/where to meet.
  5. Meet at the designated pick-up time and location to help unload the truck and take home your order! This unload and sorting process usually only takes 15 minutes. Easy peasy!

3. Bountiful Baskets

I’ve been able to enjoy this fun real food groceries delivery option for the past two years and while I don’t order every time it is available, I sure do love it on the weeks they offer great cases of produce at great prices! This is what a typical basket can hold:

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Check here to see if there is a Bountiful Basket location near you. If there is, you can order as often as every two weeks. They supply you with a wonderful basket full of fresh fruits and vegetables for just $18. They also offer “Add-Ons” if you’d like to purchase cases of fresh produce to your order at a discount. Some locations also offer bread, and sometimes there are special offers like coconut oil or apple cider vinegar.

Bountiful Baskets is a lot of fun and gives us some great options for having plenty of fresh fruits and veggies on hand!

stir fry

Like I always say: When life gives you Bountiful Baskets, make Stir-Fry.

4. Amazon

It’s amazing all the real food you can find at Amazon.

groceries august9

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I often buy food by the case, and it is delivered for free right to my porch! I wrote a post here detailing real food I often buy at Amazon. Also, I’ve learned to make the most of Subscribe and Save to save me money on real food groceries from Amazon.

How Amazon Prime Works For My Family

5. Zaycon Fresh

This one is new to me, but definitely worth sharing when it comes to a great source for real food. Zaycon Fresh can save a lot of money and get you stocked up on good meat for your family!

  1. Sign up for a Zaycon account here.
  2. Click on See Locations and select the best option for you.
  3. Order meat as needed, picking up at the designated time and location.

zaycon chicken

What are your favorite sources for real food?

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Unique and Easy Way to Transport Hot Food For Lunches

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Apparently necessity is the mother of invention. Though I’d prefer to think that I’m the mother that came up with this great way to transport hot food for lunches.

Easy way to transport hot food for lunch

You will certainly love this “transporting of hot food” idea, but first I must tell you why we needed to transport the hot food in the first place.

I don’t think I ever told you about my husband’s latest entrepreneurial endeavor. (Please never make me say the word “entrepreneurial” out loud. I can barely type it, much less pronounce it. There are too many “r’s” in weird places and it is just too much for my mouth to handle.)

So about Matt’s latest entrepre– business venture. Several months ago he studied and apprenticed and studied some more, then he took two extremely difficult tests in order to become a licensed radon mitigator. What does a licensed radon mitigator do, you ask? Well, they mitigate radon, of course.

And by that I mean that he does a lot of hard work for many hours per project in order to safely and legally remove radon gas from homes. It is extremely hard work. There are pipes, holes, and fans involved, and that, my friends, is about all I know. Matt though? Well, he can do all the chemical equations and precise measuring and hole drilling and pipe placing and um…other stuff with brilliant accuracy. I am very proud and impressed with all he knows and does.

All this husband-bragging to tell you about my genius idea for sending a hot lunch to a work site with him. Oh please. If Matt can be a genius who mitigates radon gas out of homes in order to prevent people from getting lung cancer, surely my “here’s your hot lunch, Babe” idea is also genius. Nod and smile. Nod and smile.

portable food11

It all started on a cold day I was sending Matt off to another city for his latest radon mitigation job. Packed lunches are a must for these jobs so that he can grab a few bites and keep on working to get as many hours of work in as possible in a day. But sandwiches? Well, he is a bit tired of those at this point.

So I decided to try putting hot leftovers into the awesome “fake Yeti” Matt and the boys got me for Christmas. (By the way, actual Yetis are awesome but can be expensive! Matt found me this knock off for only $13, and it came with a stainless steel straw. I love it!)

I’ve been very impressed with how my insulated cup keeps hot drinks hot for HOURS! So I thought, surely it would keep hot food hot for hours too. I decided to give it a try, with a ready apology in advance to Matt if my brilliant idea provided him with barely tepid chicken and rice for lunch that day.

I’m happy to share that Matt’s lunch was piping hot that day, even after he let the cup sit in his cold truck all morning. (And by cold, I mean it was 15 degrees that day.)

Oh, and do you see the fork sticking up through the drinking slot in the lid? Brilliant idea, if I do say so myself. I inserted the fork and let the end stick up through the mouth piece so he didn’t risk losing track of it. Also? The smaller insulated cup is one Justus had received as a gift. I filled it with steamed veggies to send along with the bigger mug filled with chicken and rice. Matt ate like a king that day. I was so glad to provide him with a great meal to help sustain him in his hard work day.

portable food22

Radon? You don’t stand a chance when my husband comes to take you on. Hot lunch for the hard working radon mitigator? No problem at all.

Quick Links for insulated cups to transport hot food (and drinks)

  • 30-ounce Double Wall Stainless Steel Mug with lid and straw
  • 20-ounce Double Wall Stainless Steel Mug with lid

These links are my affiliate links.

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Real Food I Consistently Buy at Walmart

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I’m writing a small series of posts to share what groceries I purchase from each of my favorite stores – either online, co-op, or from brick and mortar grocery stores. I recently shared about the groceries I buy from Aldi and groceries I order from Amazon. Today I’ll tell you about the real food groceries I often buy at Walmart!

groceries feb 174

I know many people strongly dislike shopping at Walmart. But for me, it is one of two options in my small town. I have the choice of shopping at our one local grocery store (which is quite a bit more expensive and does not always have great quality produce) or Walmart. The produce selection at our Walmart is usually pretty good, plus I can price-match great deals from stores an hour away like Aldi and Fresh Thyme Market.

So Walmart it is, almost every week. Typically I’ve found the quality of their produce to be very good! And they even carry several organic options.

Real Food Groceries I Buy at Walmart

What do I buy at Wal-Mart?

A cart full, you can bet on it. :)

groceries june 17

~ Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

I look at Pricematcherz.com each week and take advantage of all the deals from stores in Lincoln. I get amazing deals on fresh produce this way, and I am so thankful for this!

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~ Frozen Veggies as Needed

Typically I buy frozen veggies from Azure Standard. But since that order only comes once each month, I buy (non-organic) from Walmart in the meantime to fill in gaps.

~ Chicken

Our Wal-mart carries a “natural” brand of chicken at a very reasonable price. I often find it marked down and buy every bit of it when it’s available at the discount. But even if it isn’t discounted, the price is still good. I can get whole chickens as well as boneless thighs and breasts. Boneless thighs are my absolute favorite!

groceries august17

~ Cream and Half-and-Half

No it’s not organic. Yes we go through a lot of it.

~ Colby Jack Cheese

Our Walmart has Joseph Farms brand that is a great price and made from cows that are not given hormones. I usually buy 2-3 of these four-pound hunks of cheese each month. We shred it all in our food processor and keep it in these bowls with lids to pull out and use as needed.

~ Day-Old Bread on the Mark-Down Cart

I always check this cart to see if their French or Italian bread is available for $0.53. If so, I grab a few loaves so my boys can make Pizza Boats for a quick lunch or so we’ll have it on hand to serve guests. No it’s not very nutritious. But it makes a nice side for an otherwise nutritious meal, and our guests enjoy it slathered in butter!

~ Hormel Naturals Lunch Meat

If we need sandwiches to take on the road for soccer or basketball games, I grab a couple family packs of these.

~ Nitrite Free Hot Dogs

They recently came out with a Walmart brand of hotdogs that I would consider “better for you” and their price is better too. I like to have these on hand for Beanie Weanies once in a while. :)

~ Organic Mixed Greens and Fresh Spinach

The prices on these are great, and actually cheaper than the conventional options! I love how simple these make my life!

groceries feb 173

 

Are you a Walmart shopper? Does your Walmart still offer Price Matching? What do you frequently buy at Walmart?

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Chocolate Milk on my Grocery List (In Your Dreams, Kid.)

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My 15-year old is quiet. Very, very quiet. But his sense of humor comes out in many ways every day, probably made extra funny because he sits so quietly, then suddenly opens his mouth with something so unexpected that catches us all off guard.

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I laugh out loud frequently at this kid. At all my kids. I mean with them. Not at them. Well, both. What can I say?

Here’s one of Elias’ favorite quiet funny tricks, and you would think it would cease to be funny after so many grocery lists, but nope. I LOL every time, mostly because I don’t know how it is that he manages to sneak his pen to my paper before I head to the grocery store. Every. Single. Time.

I prepare my Walmart list by looking at Pricematerz.com to see what great deals I can get this week. I scratch down everything I want to look at, add anything extra we’re out of, and let the boys know I’ll be heading out.

I get to the store, start to make my way through the list, and there it is. Every time, that kid has added: Chocolate Milk.

chocolate milk

It’s like I take a little piece of him with me every time I grocery shop.

I mean, it never hurts to ask, right? The power of suggestion is huge. But it sure is too bad that I NEVER, EVER GIVE IN. Not once have I put the jug of chocolate milk into my cart.

I get home from the store, the boys all unload the van, and without fail I hear, “Oops, Mom. Looks like you forgot the chocolate milk again.”

Yep, sure did.

Ahh, my Elias.

Never mind the fact that I can make him homemade chocolate milk. He claims that he doesn’t like it, because sure, if you’ve had the store-bought syrupy version, a less-sweet version may not cut it when you’re 15.

A Happy Chocolate Milk Solution

We just discovered a win-win. The Javita Dollar Coffee Club we started a few months ago, which offers healthy herb-infused coffee, tea, and flavored water just reintroduced their Focus Fusion Cocoa. So in honor of Elias (and everyone else in my family who loves chocolate, which is everyone else), I added some to our AutoShip order. “Maybe,” I thought, “Maybe this will do the trick for everyone’s chocolate milk cravings.”

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It does. I win. Chocolate Milk has ceased to make its way onto my grocery list, but something else has replaced it because the cleverness of my children didn’t go away when Javita hit our home. Details below.

Confession: I am a tiny bit disappointed with the ingredients listed in the Javita Cocoa Fusion. I feel 100% good about every other Javita drink, from the coffee to the tea to the strawberry lemonade “Flex” to the very berry “Defend.” They include even-better-than-organic ingredients, and are full of wonderful, healing herbs that offer many health benefits.

The Cocoa Fusion also has healing herbs and offers health benefits. It just also happens to have sugar. So boo for that. But hey, this means my kid will drink it. And so…

I’ve decided that the Cocoa Fusion will be a compromise drink that we’ll enjoy sometimes (but not as freely as I let my family enjoy all the other Javita drinks). It’s many times better for us than any store-bought hot chocolate or chocolate milk. It contains wonderful herbs that are fabulous for concentration, memory, brain health, thinking skills, and focus.

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It tastes good hot or cold, and all of my sons love it.

So while I’ll continue to give big shout outs to the health benefits of the Javita coffee, tea, and flavored waters, and wholeheartedly endorse them with no reservation – I’ll give a “better than” wink to their cocoa. Add it to your monthly auto-ship for a fun treat that will also provide health benefits and a brain boost.

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So now that we’ve got the chocolate milk situation figured out at our house, Elias no longer needs to sneak the words “chocolate milk” onto my grocery list.

Never fear though. Now’s he’s started writing in “Ice Cream.”

Good try, Kid. Good try.

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How to join our Javita Dollar Coffee Club

Want to give these great drinks a try? The least expensive option is to purchase with Auto-Delivery so that you only have to pay $1.25 per drink. Each month after that you can adjust, add, subtract drink options at any time before your next delivery.

  1. Click here, then on “Experience the Products.”
  2. You can look through the various drinks and check out each of their ingredients, then click on “Order Now.”
  3. Select the country where you life (United States is at the top left).
  4. Click on “Build Your Own” to select any of the products you are interested in for your family.
  5. Once you’ve added your selections to the cart, proceed with the check-out process.
  6. Again, each month you can make adjustments to your auto-delivery to fit your family’s needs!

P.S. Read here to learn 6 Unexpected Blessings I’ve Experienced Thanks to Javita Drinks.

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Chocolate Chip Breakfast Bars – From Freezer to Oven!

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Well, here we are. The school year is in full swing. Fall soccer season is knocking our (smelly) socks off. I have completely forgotten which way is up.

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I already lost track of which way is south because when people give me directions they are not allowed to use ridiculous phrases like, “Turn east and you’ll see our house on the north corner.” What kind of foreign language are they even speaking? When giving me directions, people may only use phrases like, “turn right” or “turn left” or better yet “turn toward the sign with the monkey.”

In summary, September is always a very busy month for our family, and I am extremely directionally challenged. However, as long as I do everything I can to keep our food simple, I handle myself okay in the kitchen (which, as it turns out, is located in the northeast corner of our house).

Stashing prepared food in our freezer (found when you take a south at the stove and head due west toward the toaster) is only helpful if said prepared food doesn’t get lost in the back and freezer burned. I’ve discovered a couple of tricks during the past couple of years that make freezer cooking much better for our family, and my favorite is this:

Stir together breakfast baked goods, but freeze them before baking. Pull out desired amount of said frozen goods and bake them fresh on the morning you plan to serve them.

When doing this, I get baking messes out of the way so I don’t have to measure and mix on busy school mornings. But we can still eat the goodies fresh out of the oven.

Breakfast Cookies for the Freezer

Take, for instance, my “famous” Giant Breakfast Cookies. I mix up a double batch (because why make one batch when you can make two?). I scoop the dough onto cookie sheets and freeze the cookie dough balls. Each morning when we want hot, fresh Breakfast Cookies, I simply pull out some frozen cookie dough balls and bake them while I scramble eggs and slice strawberries. We all eat a fabulous breakfast and I’ve hardly worked at all.

Freezer Breakfast Cookies5

I do the same with muffin batter, freezing it in muffin cups, unbaked, and pulling them out to bake as needed. Homemade Poptarts are perfect frozen unbaked as well.

The Easiest Way to Make Muffins

This is all wonderful, seeing as I must use all my energy after breakfast to try and understand what my phone means when it tells me to “head north toward Highway 2” as I’m trying to locate a soccer field in another city. For the love of my brain cells, JUST TELL ME TO GO STRAIGHT OR TURN RIGHT. Well, anyway…

My most recent “Mix and Freeze” breakfast food discovery is this: I can mix up big batches of these Chocolate Chip Breakfast Bars, freeze them unbaked, then pull out squares and bake them as needed.

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See? I line my 8×8 inch pans with parchment paper, press in the dough, and freeze. I even freeze it in layers (though learned the hard way that it is important to keep parchment paper between the layers). Once frozen, I transfer the unbaked dough to gallon-sized freezer bags. If I think about it the night before, I’ll pull out a square to thaw in the fridge so I can bake it the next day. Otherwise, I simply pull out a frozen square in the morning, put it into a pan and bake it with a few minutes of extra baking time.

Where has this tip been my whole life? (Probably hiding somewhere between the east and the west, but of course, I could never find it.)

Chocolate Chip Breakfast Bars

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Chocolate Chip Breakfast Bars - From Freezer to Oven!
 
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Author:
Serves: 24
Ingredients
  • 1 cup melted butter
  • ¾ cup sucanat or ½ cup honey
  • 2 eggs
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups rolled oats
  • 2 cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground hard white wheat)
  • ½ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. Stir together melted butter and sucanat.
  2. Add eggs, baking soda, salt, and vanilla, mixing well.
  3. Stir in oats and flour until well combined.
  4. Fold in chocolate chips.
  5. Spread mixture in a 9×13 inch baking dish (or two 8x8 inch baking dishes).
  6. Bake in a 350° oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.
  7. To Freeze Dough: Line 8x8 inch pans with parchment paper, press in the dough, and freeze. Once frozen, transfer the unbaked dough to freezer bags. Thaw dough squares in the fridge overnight to bake the next day. Or pull out a frozen square in the morning, put it into a pan and bake it with a few minutes of extra baking time.

Make-Ahead Chocolate Chip Breakfast Bars

I highly recommend making and freezing bacon ahead so that within thirty seconds, you can serve hot, sizzly bacon with these bars. Any fruit will go with these as well, and with that, breakfast is served.

May your mornings be pleasant, may your breakfast be tasty, and may you never tell me to head south on 6th street.

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Real Food Groceries I Often Order from Amazon

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

I’m writing a small series of posts to share what groceries I purchase from each of my favorite stores – either online, co-op, or from brick and mortar grocery stores. Last week I shared about the groceries I buy from Aldi. Today I’ll tell you about the real food groceries I often order from Amazon!

Real Food Groceries I Buy From Amazon

Amazon is one of my favorite online stores for finding good deals on bulk groceries! I especially like to take advantage of Subscribe & Save deals paired with coupons. That’s where the real savings happens!

You can read more here about how I get the best deals at Amazon with Subscribe& Save. Also, you can bookmark our Amazon Deals page which we update regularly with all of the real food grocery deals we find at Amazon!

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The grocery items I buy from Amazon fluctuate depending on the prices and our family’s needs. But here are the foods I often check at Amazon first when looking for grocery deals online:

Real Food Groceries I Often Buy From Amazon

  • Natural Value Products – This is a healthy food brand which keeps their prices very reasonable most of the time. I almost never pay full price, though. I watch for Natural Value to offer a coupon that I can pair with my 15% off with Subscribe and Save option! I especially like their whole black olives, sliced black olives, yellowfin tuna, coconut milk, and tomato sauce.

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  • Izze – This is a special treat at our house, and one that I only buy when there is an Amazon Coupon that I can use with Subscribe & Save. I try to only buy them when an individual Izze breaks down to $0.50 or less.
  • Delallo Whole Wheat Pasta – This is our favorite brand of organic, whole wheat pasta and I buy them by the case with Subscribe & Save. There are many varieties of shapes, though for some reason this one is our favorite! I always get their spaghetti noodles, lasagna noodles, and elbows too!

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Awww, here’s Malachi a few years ago hanging out on the porch with our big Subscribe & Save order!

  • Bearitos Organic Tortilla Chips – We love the texture and taste of these! They go on sale often so I get them when they are less than $3.00/bag.
  • Individual Nut Pouches – Often Planters offers a coupon I can pair with Subscribe & Save, so I get them to use as snacks when we’re on the road for soccer and basketball.
  • Muir Glen Products – I watch for coupons to pair with Subscribe & Save on these tomato products, specifically their ketchup and pizza sauce.
  • Stubbs BBQ Sauce – I recently discovered that this brand includes all real food ingredients and Amazon carries it for a good price (usually!).

Again, sometimes I buy other food items when I come across a good deal and need it for our family!

Do you buy groceries from Amazon? What items do you often buy?

Some of these links are my affiliate links.

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Food I Keep in My Fridge and Freezer to Make the School Year Easier

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Simple as some of the items on the following lists are, I thought it was worth sharing the basic food I keep in my fridge and freezer to make the school year easier.

Food I Keep in my Fridge and Freezer to Make Meals During the School Year Easier

Some of these require work (as in, I actually have to mix something or cook something). But many of these only require that I purchase them and sock them away to use as needed. Either way, having these foods ready to grab at all times (if possible!) means I can relax more when feeding my family during busy school days.

If you haven’t already downloaded our free Master Lunch, Breakfast, and Snack Ideas and Recipes Lists, go grab those here. Those lists are helping keep my planning to a minimum!

Master List of 100 Simple Snack Ideas

And now, the big list of food I like to keep on hand to make many of those lunches, breakfasts, and snacks!

Food/Ingredients I Keep in my Freezer

Freshly Ground Flour

Here you’ll find all the posts I’ve ever written about grinding grain in a mill. I’ve been grinding all of our flour for almost 12 years now! It’s easy, saves money, and doing this makes our baked goods taste so much better. It’s also great for our health!

If possible, I try to keep a bucket of ground Hard White Wheat (for yeast recipes) and a bucket of Soft White Wheat (for non-yeast muffins and pastries) in my freezer so I can grab it out and bake as needed!

Pastry Flour 3

Pizza Crust

I’ve recently mentioned that I’ve been buying some premade crusts from Azure Standard to keep in the freezer for quick pizza meals. My Homemade Pizza Crust is also freezable. And if you want, you can even make your own Frozen Pizza!

Make Your Own Frozen Pizza

Frozen Cookie Dough 

My boys would say that having cookie dough in the freezer is a necessity for a happy school year. I say this is great to have on hand when people come over last minute so we can bake cookies without making a big mess. Sometimes we mix up cookie dough, roll it into a tube with parchment paper and freeze it until we need it. More often, we scoop the dough onto a baking sheet and freeze the dough balls to make very quick cookies!

How to Make Refrigerator Cookie Dough

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Breakfast Cookie Dough Balls

Along the same lines as the cookies I just mentioned, having these Giant Breakfast Cookie Balls in the freezer ready to pull out and bake in the morning is a huge time saver! I used to bake a double batch and freeze them as a ready-to-eat breakfast. But we’ve since learned that it’s fun to pull out a few frozen dough balls and bake them fresh as needed. It doesn’t get much better than a fresh-from-the-oven Breakfast Cookie with coffee in the morning!

Breakfast Cookies for the Freezer

Cooked Bacon

Pre-cooking bacon to store in the freezer has been awesome! I pull out a few slices to cook for each person a couple times a week, and I can have it on the table in about thirty seconds. I love this time-saving method!

how-to-cook-bacon-in-the-oven-and-freeze-it-for-quick-reheating

Hashbrowns

If I have time, the boys and I make hashbrowns to keep in the freezer. This task hasn’t been making it onto our to-do list lately though, so I was glad to find the Mr. Dell’s brand of frozen hashbrowns at our local Walmart, which contains one ingredient: Potatoes. I love having these in the freezer so I can throw together Egg and Cheese Hashbrown Waffles, Bacon Ranch Hashbrown Casserole, and Simple Hashbrown Casserole. Oh yeah. And hashbrowns. :)

hashbrowns3sm

Ground Beef

I feel like as long as we have hamburger meat in the freezer, we will never go hungry. There are so many meals a person can make with ground beef! And now that I’ve learned how to cook frozen hamburger in bulk in my Instant Pot, life just got even easier! :)

instant pot hamburger8

Boneless Chicken Thighs

Almost as versatile as hamburger meat is boneless chicken pieces! I have learned to love boneless thighs much more than boneless breasts, and as it turns out, thighs always cost less per pound! I watch for the natural brand at my store to be marked down, buy all I can, and throw them into my freezer to use in all our Simple Recipes!

ranch chicken salad1

Homemade Poptarts

No one will starve if we don’t have poptarts in our freezer, but these sure do make a fantastic and fun breakfast. My favorite way to make these is to put together a double batch but leave them unbaked in the freezer. Then I pull them out and bake just a few at a time so we can eat them hot. They are the best! I made a bunch of these before school started this year, and they’ve made mornings just a little bit simpler. :)

homemade-poptarts-for-the-freezer

Muffin Batter

This little tip is fantastic to fill your mornings with freshly baked muffins without having to get out a mixing bowl. I love having several different kinds of muffin batter in my freezer, pulling out a few of each, and baking up an assortment without going to any trouble!

Freeze Your Muffin Batter 3

Frozen Veggies

I have big bag of frozen peas and frozen green beans in my freezer at all times. This way, even if I haven’t made it to the store to restock our fresh veggies, we always have something green to serve with our meals. These steam up quickly, and I always add a good fat to them, which makes them healthier and tastier!

grilled chicken3

Frozen Fruit

If I have peaches, strawberries, blueberries, and/or pineapple in the freezer, I can make smoothies, slushies, or fruit cobblers very quickly. Typically I stock up on these during the summer because they are less expensive when then are in season. I don’t always buy them pre-frozen. I often buy them fresh and freeze them myself if they are a better price this way!

pineapple_mango_smoothie

Butter

But, of course. For all of the delicious, buttery reasons, I keep butter in my freezer at all times. Beef and butter, beef and butter…

beef_and_butter

Food I Keep in my Fridge

Shredded Cheese

I buy 4-pound chunks of Colby jack cheese, and sometimes mozzarella too. I have my boys shred it by running it through our food processor, which makes the job super fast! We store the shredded cheese in pyrex bowls with lids in our fridge and pull it out to use in any casserole, quesadilla, taco, scrambled egg, or anything else which calls for shredded cheese. This is, for sure, a refrigerator staple.

grating cheese2

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Mixed Greens

I buy a one-pound tub of these mixed greens every week so we can always have salads without any effort! Bonus: At our local Walmart, the organic greens are less expensive than the conventional!

mixed greens

Peanut Butter

I buy 5-pound bags of peanuts from Azure Standard every month and make the entire bag into about 6 pint-sized jars of peanut butter. I figure I might as well make one mess to produce 6 jars of peanut butter to have on hand, instead of making only one or two jars at a time every single week. We go through all 6 jars in a month. This homemade peanut butter is super delicious!

Super Creamy Peanut Butter

Cookie Bites

Having these No-Bake Cookie Bites, in one form or the other, in the fridge is great when any of us need a quick snack with protein and fiber. These are super low in sugar and naturally grain free. Yum, they taste good!

No-Bake Cookie Bites - Easy Recipes!

Fat Bombs

Just like the Cookie Bites, these Fat Bombs provide us with energy from good protein and fat. My husband and I like the Stevia Sweetened Fat Bombs. Our kids prefer the Honey Sweetened Fat Bombs.

fat-bombs-easy-and-delicious

Ranch Dressing

I always have a quart of Homemade Ranch Dressing in the fridge. It’s is our favorite dressing, it is easy to make, and we eat salads almost every day!

Ranch Dressing and Dip Mix

Cold Water for Javita Drinks

We almost always drink Javita coffee and tea hot, but for all of the others, I like to keep a jar of water in the fridge so that at any time, we can mix up whichever drink we need. The boys make a Rush drink for themselves before a workout. Matt drinks Flex before a hard day’s work to help with shoulder pain. All the boys and I drink Defend for an immune system boost. I drink Fiber every day to help with digestion, and surprisingly, it has helped keep me from needing to eat so often!

javita products snapshot2

Eggs

I cringe a little if we start getting low on eggs! We go through several dozen each week when we scramble or fry them for breakfast, and when we are baking. Of course, now that I have an Instant Pot, I’ve been boiling them quickly too.

eggs

Butter

Oh wait. Did I already mention butter in the freezer section of this post? Well, can I help it that I always have a nice supply in both my freezer and my fridge? This ingredient is very necessary. Very. :)

butter

What are your fridge and freezer staples?

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