Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

We eat orange cheese again. At least it’s cheese.

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From grass fed beef to raw, organic milk – I’ve had several requests to share my current real food grocery budget priorities. While I’m working on a comprehensive post that breaks it all down, I’ve discovered some important items to note.

First, I shared that I rarely buy Sucanat any more. I explained all my reasons and shared what we’re doing instead here.

Next, I will let you know that I’ve made some changes in the cheese department.

grated cheddar cheese with block

My extensive research tells me that dairy is best when it is:

  • organic
  • hormone free
  • raw
  • full fat

Our family continues to drink raw, organic milk because we have a fabulous source close-by for just $5.00/gallon. It is affordable and our family generally doesn’t drink much milk. But cheese? In this house, the people like their cheese. We eat it in many of our casseroles, on our pizza, in our tacos and quesadillas, and on our scrambled eggs. Plus, the boys like to eat it plain as a snack.

Solving My Cheese Dilemma

For years, I bought a case of Landmark Raw White Cheddar every couple of months from Azure Standard. I love everything about it – except for the price. It’s not at all unreasonable for its quality. But at $5.59/pound, I’ve recently stopped buying it. We eat at least twice as much as we used to, so this is one of the food choices that I compromise on now.

You know what this means right? This means that our cheese isn’t white anymore. Why manufacturers have decided to change the actual color of cheese is beyond me.

cheese

While it might be considered a compromise, I am okay with it because cheese is still real food. This kind isn’t organic. It isn’t raw. But the ingredient label doesn’t make me gag at the store (which I have been known to do on occasion while reading various labels) – so we’re going to stick with this for now. I pick it up in bulk when I find a good price-match. Cheese freezes well, so my freezer door is full-o-cheese.

If you’d like to read more about our Houseful of Teenage Boys Grocery Budget, you’ll find it here. It’s also worth mentioning that we have a son in college and are about to add a second teenage male driver to our monthly car insurance premium (I can’t talk about it). Good food is worth the investment, no doubt! I’m not trading home-cooked meals made with real food ingredients for boxes of poptarts. I’m simply switching some of our pricier real food choices for less expensive real food choices.

The moral of my cheese story:

Just because something works for you now doesn’t mean it will work for you always. Be willing to re-evaluate your family’s situation and needs. But if at all possible, keep your food real. Some things just aren’t worth the compromise.

Tell me about your cheese preferences. Are you forking it over for the good stuff? Or sitting happy with the less-than-perfect-but-still-real-food cheese?

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Three Meals on the Road – Thanks to Family Teamwork

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Basketball (or soccer) season has us on the road many weekends. Sometimes we eat out with the team, but if possible, we prefer to pack our food to take along.

Saturday was going to be a huge day – leave the house by 7:20 am, drive all the way to Iowa (about three hours), then either play or watch basketball games all day long before driving three hours back late at night. A look at the schedule told us that eating out wasn’t really a possibility, and while concessions were available, we really prefer our athletes to eat something more substantial. So on Thursday I asked the boys for input on meals to pack.

I’m sly so I decided to try and sneak salads onto the menu. I figured the boys would say things like, “Nah” or “That’s not going to fill me enough to play games.” But hey, it never hurts to ask, right?

chef_salad (1)

Me: A couple times last year, Dad and I packed chef salads to eat at lunch. They were amazing. I could make some good chicken to put in… {braces self for teenage salad rejection}

Elias (14): Hmm. Sounds good.

Justus (15): Great idea. It’s good food but not too heavy so we won’t get a side ache when we play after we eat.

Wow. Well I didn’t see any of that coming. Salads it is.

I asked their input on breakfast and dinner options too since we’d need to pack all three meals for the road. We made a plan, I offered to make them special coffees, and we checked our homemade Gatorade supply. Friday rolled around nice and busy. I got started on the chicken for the salads (chicken breasts cooked in a skillet with a honey-mustard-barbecue concoction). I made some granola bites. But I was coming down with a sinus infection, so my energy started to wane very quickly.

Around 4 in the afternoon, I called out for all hands on deck. I can’t tell you how thankful I am for my family. There was a lot of work to be done. I started handing out orders and between the five of us, we knocked out everything we would need for Saturday plus our dinner Friday night (Homemade Pizza).

bball food 1

That picture doesn’t show our completed food stash as we were still in the process of making burritos and sandwiches and salads when I snapped it. Everyone built their own chef salad according to their preferences. Everyone made their own sandwiches for dinner after the games. Justus and Elias tag-teamed making a huge breakfast burrito for each of us. I made coffees and gatorade. Matt sliced peppers and helped with pizza prep.

Basically we were stepping all over each other because while we have a pretty big kitchen, five people (four of them with adult-sized bodies) all working at the same time filled every last bit of counter space and had us running into each other from time to time. When it was all said and done, I was so relieved and thankful. If I had to do that all myself?? Just, no.

Food we packed for the road:

Friday night, I started feeling pretty crummy, slept terribly that night, and decided I better stay home Saturday while Matt took the boys to play. SAD!!!! Missing their games is a big bummer for me. Sure, they play hundreds of games in their life. Sure, I’ll see plenty more. But shucks I hate missing. :( Malachi stayed home with me, we ate the food we’d made for ourselves the day before, and Matt was great to text me updates on the games throughout the day.

One of my friends sent me this with a “Miss You Today!” text. That’s Justus and his great friend Jacob all dressed up before the varsity games.

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I rested, took a bath in salt and essential oils, watched netflix, played a couple games with Malachi, and went to bed early. I’m on the mend today!

Do you have fun travel food ideas? Please share!

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The Easiest, Healthiest Side Dishes

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After I finish detailing my favorite healthy side dishes to serve my family, you are going to be so unimpressed and bored that you will fall asleep on the spot. This post is like a lullaby, sung sweetly to you after you’ve had a warm bath and a mug of milk. Pin this post. You will want it to refer back to on the nights you’re anxious to relax and have a good night’s sleep.

See, the thing is that I’ve simplified my real food kitchen life so much during the past few years that I barely think about or plan ahead for side dishes anymore. Do I serve them? Absolutely! In fact, I serve at least 2 if not 4 side dish options at almost every lunch or dinner. But here’s my trick:

I set out a variety of fruits and vegetables based on what I have and what will offer healthy options for my family to choose from.

That’s it. I rarely mash a potato anymore. For me, side dishes are no longer something that require much work. There is no time!! The main dish gets my attention and the side dishes are a variety of fruits and veggies that make our plates pretty and offer oodles of nourishment.

side dishes1
Every once in a while I go all out and steam some broccoli and carrots. Phew. Big day. Otherwise, I do something like wash some berries, slice some pears, and throw some frozen peas in a pot to cook (which they do all by themselves in about 4 minutes).

side dishes4

More often than not, prepping the side dishes is the job I hand my boys. “Peel 6 clementines.” “Cook some green beans, please.” “Wash the raspberries.”

Do you see how easy this is? Side dishes at our house get pulled out of the fridge or freezer just a few minutes before the meal is served. They take very little prep, yet they are the most nourishing part of our meal. Side dishes are almost always served in the container they came in or the pot they were steamed in. In case you’re wondering why I ask a boy to peel clementines when we could all just peel our own (which we do sometimes) – it’s this.

You might also be interested in another post I wrote recently about How to Easily Add Fruits and Veggies to a Meal.

Easily Add Fruits and Veggies to Your Meal

Healthy, easy side dishes come down to these three rules at my house:

  1. Buy fresh fruits and vegetables that are in season and affordable. (You can’t serve ’em if you don’t buy ’em.)
  2. Keep frozen veggies in the freezer ready to steam quickly before a meal.
  3. Be intentional about offering a variety of these goodies with every meal.

Every week, I buy big containers of mixed greens and fresh baby spinach. Boom. We have salad.

I buy whatever berries are on sale, which we wash and plop on the table. I buy grape tomatoes in season (or grow them when it isn’t -3°). I buy apples and pears, which can be washed and sliced in 30 seconds. I buy heads of broccoli, big bags of carrots, and lovely cucumbers – all of which can be prepared for cooking or served raw in just a few minutes. I always have jars of homemade applesauce or homemade pickles to pull out.

Below are some pictures I came across that show the variety of easy side dishes I serve. Notice how little prep these took:

multitasking6

alfredo leftovers 2

Cream Cheese Chicken

beef15

food week may 96

colorful plate

And there you have it. Nothing terribly exciting – just simple side dishes that our family eats regularly. We get a variety, we get plenty of nourishment, we don’t wear ourselves out making the prep work tedious. That works for me!

So what works for you? What are your favorite side dishes?

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The Real Food Ingredient I’ve Mostly Stopped Buying

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It was one of the first real food ingredients I wrote about when I started this blog. It made the top of the list on this post. I recommended it highly and always stocked up to keep it on hand. This goes to show that we can never stop learning and never stop changing what works best for our families.

The Real Food Ingredient I've Mostly Stopped Buying

Is it butter? Did I stop buying butter?

Girl, are you crazy? I did not stop buying butter.

But I have realized that I’m buying less and less sucanat.

Why am I buying less sucanat?

There are several reasons. Allow me to share:

1. Our grocery bill is a killer. Some things had to go.

As the boys have gotten older – our grocery bill has more than doubled with their teenage appetites. I’ve found that I had to make some compromises on what I consider to be “less important” items in order to make sure we’re still eating plenty of nourishing foods. It doesn’t make sense to me for hold out on the fruits and vegetables so that we can afford to buy sucanat for our brownies.

2. Sucanat is better for us, but it is still sugar.

While sucanat does have some nutritional value, our bodies still recognize it for exactly what it is: sugar.

There is a clear difference in sucanat and regular white sugar. I love that sucanat has many nutrients still intact – so when we eat sucanat, our bodies can utilize its nutrients. Great. But I’m not relying on sucanat as a main source of nourishment. Our primary sources of nourishment come from our meals, not our desserts. If we don’t eat sucanat, our bodies won’t be deprived of important vitamins and minerals. We’re getting those from other food sources.

Any sugar – even the natural sugars like sucanat, honey, and maple syrup – can effect our bodies negatively even if they do offer some nutrients here and there. Thus, making sucanat less of a priority only makes sense for our family right now.

3. We’re eating less sugar overall.

Well, at least I am. And Matt is. The kids…well. They still like their sweets and you can read more of my thoughts on this matter here.

Overall, I’m baking fewer sweet treats to have on hand. Also, I’ve learned to cut down the sugar in the treats I do make. In summary, we go through less sucanat because I’m not stirring two cups of it into a batch of brownies every other day. Good grief, I used to. I was such a sugaraholic!!

I love only using 1/2 cup of sugar in a recipe that originally called for 2 cups – and turning out a product that still tastes amazing. Why, Betty Crocker? Why??

Low Sugar Super Moist Chocolate Cake

What I Am Using Instead of Sucanat

More and more, I’m learning to use Stevia to sweeten our treats. It has taken some trial and error to find the correct amount to use so that our smoothies, frostings, and custards will be sweet enough but not bitter. We’ve gotten the hang of it now. I love it!

I’ve tried my hand at making Homemade Stevia Extract, but I’m not confident enough in my efforts to share the recipe with you yet. I stick with NuNaturals brand, which I have found to be the best tasting with ingredients I trust.

For baked goods, I frequently use regular ol’ brown sugar from the store. It saves us money, and that is important right now.

I also still use real maple syrup and our wonderful local raw honey. But I’ve cut back on the quantity of those too now that I’ve learned that I can still turn out delicious treats with a lesser amount of sweetener!

sucanat

I Haven’t Stopped Buying Sucanat Completely

I really like the taste of sucanat in certain items. I haven’t stopped buying it altogether. I’ve just stopped making it a grocery priority. I watch for online sales on sucanat at Olive Nation or Amazon and I grab it if the price is right. But I’ve definitely stopped buying 25 pound bags every few months. Whoa, Nellie. The grocery budget says “no way” right now.

So how about you?

Are you a fan of sucanat? Have you found a good source to keep the cost down? Have you found that you compromise on certain items in order to stay within your real food grocery budget?

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This Week in Food ~ the I Soaked My Beans and Forgot the Carcass Edition

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Yes, it’s true. I promised you pictures of this week’s chicken carcass and I’m sorry to say – I have let you all down. I took no less than two dozen pictures of our food this week, but the day I cooked chicken and made broth, I took zero pictures. What can I say? Cooking chicken and deboning chicken and making broth – it’s all rather intense (not really). It’s also ugly. Picking up the camera slipped my mind.

Let’s just forget about the carcass, okay?

I’m not sure how you’ll deal with this let down since I know you’ve been looking forward to seeing my scrawny chicken bones for the past seven days. Hopefully I can make it up to you by showing you my beans.

food188

As you all know, it is an amazing event worth celebrating when I actually remember to soak beans. I’m pleased to share that I remembered on Thursday, soaked the beans overnight, then cooked them Friday to make a huge pot of Chili to have ready to eat after church on Sunday. It had to be done. Saturday was completely full with a basketball tournament, and Sunday the college kids (including my son) would be home from the York College Choir Tour they’d been on for a week. I wanted to be prepared.

In case you are wondering, pictured to the left of my soaking beans is a jar of Low-Sugar Lemon Melt-Away Cookies. Speaking of jars, I’ve been meaning to show you the tea towel my mother-in-law found and sent to me:

food185

They may as well have printed “said Laura” at the bottom. I love it so much that I don’t want to use it. Apparently, cute tea towels are made to be stared at, not used.

Would you believe, on the actual day I posted My New Year’s Resolution to Stop Making Breakfast, I found time to make breakfast? It’s true. I had made bread the day before, baking plenty of extra that could be used for French toast. (Don’t get me started on the whole French thing.) I used my big griddle, which allowed me to have a huge amount of French toast made up in no time, with several pieces to spare that the boys can warm up and eat another day.

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Not to worry though. That’s the only breakfast I made this week. The boys have been cooking up eggs and meat and making breakfast burritos, or using homemade bread to make toast.

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The Stir-and-Pour Bread is a complete life saver for me right now. We plowed through four loaves this week and I never once broke a sweat baking it. It’s seriously quicker and easier to make this bread than it is to go to the store to buy bread. (Except for when you are feeding part of the basketball spur of the moment and did not plan ahead accordingly. This will all make sense to you in a few minutes.)

food1811

As I mentioned before, Saturday we had basketball games all day long, held right here in town (hooray for no travel for us this weekend!). Knowing I had a loaf and a half of homemade bread and plenty of cheese and tomato soup, I told the boys to invite anyone they wanted to run over to our house for lunch between games. Several took us up on the offer, which made my day. Two other moms ran to Wendy’s and picked up a couple tubs of chili. I filled my van with boys, Matt filled his truck with boys, and all headed for our house.

Then I realized – what am I thinking? My loaf and a half of bread will not stretch far enough to feed all these teenagers who have been and will continue to run up and down a court all day. I took a detour to the store where I grabbed a bunch of sliced bread and sliced cheese. I then proceeded to stand at my griddle and make a mountain of grilled cheese sandwiches while Matt and the boys pulled out veggies and fruit and chips. The other moms came in the with chili. Boom. Lunch.

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I actually stopped long enough to take some pictures. These are the kinds of get-togethers I love! Unplanned and perfectly put together anyway.

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So back to other food pictures from our week…

In case you were wondering (and I’m pretty sure you were), when I make peanut butter, I make peanut butter. It doesn’t make sense for me to make just one jar at a time. If I’m going to dirty up my food processor (and go to all the trouble of walking to my freezer for peanuts), I might as well make five batches at once. We’d been out of peanut butter for a couple weeks, so all the guys (minus Malachi, who hates peanut butter) were super happy to make Peanut Butter Honey Toast for breakfast a couple days in a row.

food1810

I store the jars of peanut butter in our extra refrigerator and just grab them as needed.

One of the days we had fresh bread, I had a couple of our boys stir together some tuna salad. We set it all out with fresh pineapple, spinach (that I force the boys to add to their sandwiches), chips, and homemade (ugly but delicious) guacamole.

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I personally skipped the bread that day and made a huge plate of salad with my tuna.

food183
I’ve been on a bit of a Tapioca Pudding kick lately. Matt and I are the only ones who eat it because our boys think tapioca pearls are weird. This means that when Matt and I eat Tapioca Pudding, everyone leaves the kitchen and Matt and I are suddenly on a date. Hmm. No wonder I’ve been on a Tapioca Pudding kick. What else can I make that the boys don’t like?

 food186

We like to look at 5th grade grammar books together when we’re on dates.

Last, I’ll show you a picture of my big grocery store run this week. My cart was so full I could barely push it. God bless the man behind me in the check-out line who had exactly one item in his cart. Why he got behind me, I do not know. While he most certainly saw my overflowing cart, perhaps he didn’t know that I also had a stack of coupons and a list full of price-matching items that would make my enormous amount of food take even longer to ring up.

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By now, I’m sure I’ve distracted you enough that you’ve forgotten all about the lack of chicken carcass pictures. Sweet.

I wanted to remind you to sign up for the free Knife Skills Training for Kids lesson if you haven’t already! There are only a few days remaining on this. Malachi and I are really enjoying going through these together! (I mentioned it was free, right?)

Before I sign off, I wanted to let you know that our weekend was completely packed full of people and events. Tomorrow I need to go out of town with one of my sons for a doctor appointment. Then we have a basketball game when we get back. I’m planning to take a Sabbath rest on Tuesday because I need it! All that to say – I have some fun posts in the works, but have not completely written any of them. (How to Clean Cast Iron, Our Favorite Easy Side Dishes, and The Real Food Ingredient I’ve Mostly Stopped Buying) If you don’t see anything new from me here in the next few days, don’t be alarmed. But feel free to cast your vote in the comments section to let me know which of those three topics you’d like me to hit first!

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My New Year’s Resolution to Stop Making Breakfast

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egg_casserole_meal
For all of my (18+) parenting years I have been making breakfast for our family. Cereal has been a rarity, saved only for the “I can’t even” mornings. Big breakfasts for our family have been necessary and good for the following reasons:

  • Our growing boys need to eat something substantial to keep them full until lunchtime.
  • Fixing one big breakfast for everyone has been easiest up until now.
  • Eating our meal together has been a special time as we begin our days together with yummy food and Bible time.

I’ve always been a careful planner, adding a breakfast plan into our overall meal plans for the week. I’ve worked to make breakfast foods the night before to make the mornings simpler. This has all been working well for years and years. It’s been working so well, in fact, that it has been a part of our nightly routine for the boys to ask in anticipation, “What’s for breakfast tomorrow?!”

The past few months, however, I’ve been growing a bit burned-out on breakfast prep. Our days are constantly full, our evenings are super busy, and lately when the boys have asked the nightly question, “What’s for breakfast tomorrow?” I’ve had an unseemly urge to grunt loudly and throw a pillow at them. Sweet, huh? Bet you wish I was your mom.

Breakfast? I am so over it. Ask me again in a few years when my daily life-with-teenagers schedule demands aren’t so…demanding. Of course, by then there will be fewer people here to feed in the mornings and I’ll not know how to make less than a triple batch of waffles. So basically I’ll be having breakfast issues for the rest of my life.

It’s Time for a ChangeYum

I am giving in to a new way of doing breakfast around here. My morning God time before all the boys get up is so dear to me and basically necessary to my family’s survival – even more than food. This mom needs her quiet chair time in which she spends time seeking Jesus while drinking coffee and soaking in the Word. My sanity depends on it, so I think we can all agree that staying in the chair for as long as possible each morning is much more important than baking muffins.

Instead of cutting into my sleep (no, no, no, no, no!) or my God time (we’ve been through this already) I’m checking breakfast off my to-do list. I’m not done eating this meal, mind you. We will all continue to eat breakfast. I’m just done regularly cooking big breakfasts for everyone on a regular basis. Deciding this has been a pleasantly nice relief. I didn’t even know it was bothering me that much. (The urge to throw pillows woke me up to the truth.)

The New Breakfast Plan

We still need to eat breakfast. We still want to eat this meal as a family. We still want to have our family Bible time together first thing in the mornings. But from now on, the boys will figure out their own breakfasts (except for the rare occasion I find my sanity at an earlier hour and surprise them with French toast).

Remember how I told you that teaching your kids to cook when they are young (or old) comes back to bless you one hundred fold when they are older? This is one of those glorious times. My boys are so capable! They can all prepare a simple breakfast for themselves each morning. Then we can all sit down together as normal and instead of starting my day overwhelmed, I’ll sit down with everyone and enjoy our morning devotional.

Breakfast Food Options

There will almost always be eggs and fruit for the boys to start with as they figure out their breakfast plan each morning. They can all scramble or fry eggs. Here are other options that will be available (though not always at the same time):

  • Stir-n-Pour Bread

    Because this bread is so easy to make, we frequently have some hanging out and ready to eat. It toasts up nicely and makes a tasty part of breakfast.stir and pour bread loaf 5
  • Granola ~ 5-Minute Stove-Top Version
    I can easily whip up a batch of this or have one of the boys do it. It keeps for quite a while too, so making huge batches is a good idea – then we have it for breakfast options for a few weeks.5-Minute Stove-Top Granola
  • Muffins or Bars (loads of recipes here!)If one of us finds ourselves with time the afternoon or night before, we can prep some baked goods to go with breakfast the next day. It is so helpful to have these on hand IF we can squeeze it in.raspberry_bars_8
  • Homemade Instant Oatmeal
    I always have a big jarful of instant oatmeal ready for the boys to make for themselves. It is a life-changing recipe. Make some of this if you haven’t already.Instant Oatmeal in a Jar
  • Giant Breakfast CookiesOne of the boys can mix these up and bake them. Then we can keep them in the freezer to pull out as needed.
    breakfast_cookies

Those basic options, along with eggs and fruit will take care of our breakfasts just fine. When I do have time to make pancakes or waffles, I’ll be sure to make extra for the freezer for additional options.

So there you have it. My new breakfast plan for our family. I no longer feel like throwing pillows. Now to figure out a new and improved laundry system…

How do you do breakfast at your house?

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This Week in Food…

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Several mentioned that they’d like to read more about and see more pictures of our day-to-day food life. I thought this would be fun, so I started taking notes right away.

  • Forgot to thaw chicken
  • Warmed up leftovers
  • Kid #3 complained about the casserole
  • Spinach got slimy

As you can see, this is going to be really exciting and we should make this a regular blog feature.

This was our second week of Christmas break. I made it till Thursday afternoon before I said to Matt, “Take them all away from this house as soon as possible.” The lack of routine and the downtime has been so wonderful, but at a certain point the people need a routine. Seeing the desperation in my eyes, Matt whisked them all away to his current work spot where he wore them out hauling off lath and plaster and got them very dirty. Best dad ever.

But this post is supposed to be about food.

I invented a most delicious new recipe for Cream Cheese Chili. I loved it so much that I ate it for lunch the day I made it, at 9:45 that night before bed because I was hungry, and again for lunch the next day. I will make this again and again. The recipe definitely made the cut to be a part of the newest Eat Right Away Packet series. I’m currently trying to finish the Soup Edition, Meatless Edition, and Breakfast Edition. There will be a lot of taste testing going on around here.

cream cheese chili

Thursday I made a plate of veggies with Homemade Ranch Dip, along with a plate of Low Sugar Lemon Melt-Away Cookies to take to our church’s New Year’s Eve gathering because I am the life of the party. Everyone loves to ring in the new year with cucumbers.

veggies and dip

lemon cookies

Friday we headed out of town for a New Year’s Basketball tournament for Justus and Elias. It was our last full day with Asa home (he’s heading out to go on the York College Choir Tour for a week). We stopped into Walmart on our way out of town so I could grab blueberries and blackberries. I was planning to price-match them because I found such a great deal, plus I thought they’d be great travel food. Alas, there was not one blueberry to be found in all of Walmart. Boo. Therefore, instead of showing you a picture of my blueberries, here is a picture of Elias (#32) jumping for the ball at a recent game. I take amazing pictures with my phone.

elias bball

As we get back into a school routine next week, I’m hoping to also get into the swing of taking more food pictures to show you. Make plans now to see pictures of next week’s chicken carcass.

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I’m finally getting around to drawing giveaway winners from the week of Christmas!

The winner of our 227 Healthy Snacks eBook is: Julie C: zoeblessing4u@

The winner of our  Learn Your Letters (and Numbers), Learn to Serve Complete Curriculum Kit is: Donna: dkonvalin@

Winners, email me and I’ll send you your gifts!

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Here’s to a great first week of 2016!

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

My Grocery Store Dilemma and Our New Pet (Yes. Really.)

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I’m not sure how you think about grocery shopping but here are the three main things I focus on:

  1. Price
  2. Nutrition
  3. Time

But not in that order.

Except for sometimes.

See, all of those are important to me when planning a menu and grocery shopping. We eat a ton of food at our house now, so cost is definitely a biggie to watch so that I can put the best possible food on the table without going over our already enormous grocery budget.

But I don’t want to compromise on nourishment just for the sake of keeping the cost down. And then there’s the time factor. Time to prepare the food and time to shop for the food. I find my schedule is so full now that I don’t have as much time as I used to for comparing prices, clipping coupons, price-matching, etc. I still do all of these as much as I can, but it sure does take time!

You know what else? I’m finding that price-matching has almost ruined me for buying produce full price. So guess what has started happening? Sometimes I don’t buy enough produce. Me. The one who preaches to everyone about eating lots of fruits and veggies eighteen times a day.

All of this blabbing to say – yesterday when I was grocery shopping, my “eat nourishing foods” won out over my “keep the cost low” arguments in my head. There are actual conversations going on in spite of me up there in my head. They go on and on (“whoa that’s expensive” vs. “dude, you need broccoli”); meanwhile I’m walking up and down the grocery store aisles thinking of our Christmas menu and making a mental note to reply to an urgent email when I get home and also I am wondering if I can make it home or if I should pee at the store before I leave.

No one. No one wants to be inside my head.

Seeing as my “eat nourishing foods” voice won out over my “keep the cost low” voice, today I decided to price-match the few produce items that were a great deal, and then buy a bunch more fruits and vegetables whether they were on sale or not. I did draw the line at strawberries. They were $5/pound and looked like they would taste like red Styrofoam. No thanks.

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I got four bags of Halo’s for a super low price match (plus I had a coupon!). I got three pineapple for just $1.29 each because of price-matching. That’s where my savings ended. I’m over it though. My countertop looked so happy with all the fresh produce that my “eat nourishing foods” voice gave my “keep the cost low” voice a haughty little smack down. My “keep the cost low” voice gave a little shrug, but not before reminding the “eat nourishing foods” voice that ultimately she would be keeping our doctor bills lower so she wasn’t the ultimate loser here, thankyouverymuch.

So now would you like to hear about our new pet? (I know. It’s hard to keep up here. Voices in my head, produce on my counter, goldfish in my living room. Welcome to my world.)

I did not ask for a fish. Of course, I didn’t ask for a cat either. I never wanted any pets. But now there’s Wiggams, the cat, who has won us over with her catness – so much so that sometimes we take play-by-play pictures of her catly activities. For instance:

Malachi went out to feed her one morning, but dropped the bag. (I write fascinating stories to keep you on the edge of your seat.)

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Wiggams considered that perhaps she didn’t need food scooped into a dish this time.

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Indeed. Step back everyone. She’d take it from here.

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Ah Wiggams. Just wipe your mouth when you’re finished.

So now. About the fish. It happened like this:

Last Thursday, Matt needed to go to basketball practice with Justus and Elias. I had Bunco with the ladies. This left Malachi, our 10-year old, without plans and all alone for several hours. I texted Asa (our college-age son) to see if perhaps Malachi could hang out with him on campus for the night. Asa said sure, except that he had a Christmas party to attend. No problem. Malachi would just go with him to the party. As a matter of fact, it was decided that Malachi would be Asa’s white elephant gift.

Therefore, while other college students were wrapping up odds and ends of candy and ugly sweaters for a gift exchange, Asa put a bow on the head of his 10-year old brother. Malachi was thrilled.

malachi white elephant

He was, as expected, a huge hit at the party! Everyone loved him and fought over him like all nice college students do during a gift exchange. Later that night, I got home from Bunco and let Asa know that I was available whenever the party was over. An hour later, he texted back that Brittany would be running Malachi home. I eagerly welcomed them when they arrived. But wait. What was this?

Brittany breezed into the house with Malachi and sat a small fish tank on my kitchen counter. “Merry Christmas!” said she. Um. Thank you?

finnley

Well, my friends. Meet Finley. (name brilliantly chosen by Justus)

Apparently Asa wasn’t the only college kid to take a living gift to the white elephant party. White elephant; gold fish. It all makes sense I guess.

So now we have a cat…and a fish. (But not in the same location.) This pet accumulation thing has got to stop.

We began our fish care adventure by putting too much food in his tank and completely polluting his water. I take all the blame. I am, after all, used to feeding teenagers in bulk quantities. We quickly learned how to most efficiently change water in a fish tank without killing a fish. Later that day, Malachi eagerly reported that “Finnley is pooping!!” So we all got to watch. Whatever did we do with our time before we started having pets?

Have any fish? Have any cats? How many voices do you hear in your head while grocery shopping (cost low! save time! eat well!)? 

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What is Up With the Price of Butter?

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Remember that one time I almost ran out of butter, and I was like, “eh, no biggie” and then I took a nap?

Yeah, nobody remembers that – because butter, buttttttter, BUTTER, but-ter. Laura loves butter. Running out is not okay. (Also, I rarely have time for naps.)

butter_cake

I love butter so much that once for my birthday,
my boys made and decorated me a cake shaped like a big stick of butter.
Best birthday cake ever.
Also, those Cake Boys sure were precious.

I have always watched for sales on butter and stock up when I find one. I almost always have 10-20 pounds in my freezer and about 8 sticks in my fridge. When I need more in my fridge, I send a boy to the freezer to get a couple of pounds for me. My butter needs are always met.

But the rising cost of butter is messing up my bulk purchase, never run out, always have plenty, butter is never a problem, there will always be butter situation.

This favorite of mine hasn’t been on sale for way too long around these parts. Wait – I take that back. It was sort of on sale three weeks ago, but when I went to the store to stock up, they only had three pounds left, which is like a 4-day supply for me when I’m baking and inviting people over to eat. Apparently everyone else in town had already been there and stocked up, thinking nothing of my needs. There was plenty of margarine on the shelves but absolutely not, I don’t think so, no way.

Much ado about butter

So is this what it has come to? Is this what it’s going to be from here on out? Is the cost going to continue to hover at $3.50-$5.00 a pound, or worse, keep rising from here? Ouch.

I can’t find any recent information about dairy prices. An article written about a year ago said that prices were up, but expected to go down. Ironically, the “up” referred to in that article was lower than the prices I’m seeing a year later. That article did make me a little bit more sympathetic to the farmer, helping me recognize that I should probably never complain about food prices because farmers work really hard. God bless the farmer. But also God bless my grocery budget. God bless us everyone. Please pass the butter.

So spoiled American here, working to feed her family well, while appreciating the farmer and staying within budget, and trying not to gasp in fear that there is only one pound of butter left in my house. Apparently I’m going to have to go to the store and pay full price. Wha?!

I am very interested to know what you are paying for butter these days. Has the price gone up here, there, and everywhere? Any dairy farmers among us who can shed some light? How many pounds of freezer do you usually have in your house on a regular basis? 

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Easy Ways to Cook Once – Eat Twice (Some Pictures of My Kitchen Last Week)

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I have taken it upon myself to write what I consider to be insightful kitchen proverbs worth living by. I highly recommend that you pick your favorite and immediately begin to stitch it into a needlepoint creation for your wall.

Life is full. Cook extra chicken.

Life is Full. Cook Extra Chicken.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 You Cook Some. You Cook Some More.

You Cook Some. You Cook Some More.

Ain’t that the truth?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And my personal favorite:

Why dirty up more dishes tomorrow
when tomorrow will have enough
dirty dishes of its own?

Dirty Dishes Proverb. So profound, yes

This is so beautiful. We all want this in our homes. 

None of what I am about to tell you or show you is all that impressive. (I’m pretty sure my stitched proverbs have the impressive part of this post covered.) The following tips are simply how I survive in the kitchen. It is what makes sense to me.

When preparing any food, I always think to myself, “Self? If I cooked at least twice as much of this particular food, how might that make my work load lighter?”

It was in asking myself this question that I came up with several ways I find myself working half as hard for twice the outcome. (Perhaps we should stitch that one also.)

seriously

Cooking Once, Eating Twice (or More) Ideas

Cooking once and eating twice or more is my most productive way to multitask. Here are a few tricks that worked in my kitchen last week when cooking for my family:

1. On Saturday, I cooked three pounds of hamburger meat with two pounds of chopped bacon and a bunch of onion. I put 1/3 of this cooked mixture away to make Calico Beans another day. I stirred the remaining mixture into two huge Bacon Cheeseburger Casseroles (from {Healthy} Make-Ahead Meals & Snacks eBook) to serve to guests on Sunday.

bacon_cheeseburger_casserole

2. A few days later, I soaked enough beans for two big meals (plus a few leftovers). I cooked all the beans the next morning. That night we had Calico Beans. While that dish was cooking, I put the remaining beans in a large pot and made a huge batch of Chili.

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3. For lunch that day, I cooked several plain, boring chicken breasts. I chopped a couple of them up for a chef salad bar to eat immediately. Then I chopped up the rest and made a big bowl of Chicken Salad for the following day’s lunch. 

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Boring.

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But perfect for a chef salad.

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And Chicken Salad.

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4. I made a batch of Whole Wheat Stir-and-Pour Bread on the night I served Calico Beans. While we could have eaten both loaves in that one meal, I intentionally set one aside to use for the following day’s Chicken Salad lunch.

The thing about bread is that if I let us go crazy with it, we will go crazy with it (I feel a cross-stitch coming on). I want us eating more fruits and veggies than bread, so I’ve found that putting out a limited amount is best for us.

5. Friday morning we scrubbed and baked about 15 pounds of potatoes. We ate some for lunch that day (see #6 below), then put the rest in the fridge to eat in a variety of ways during the next week. This will save so much time and offer so many meal options!

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6. On Friday, I also I made a triple batch of Real Food “Velveeta” and Rotel Dip. We ate one round of it on our baked potatoes for lunch that day (see #5 above). I set aside the second round for an easy nacho meal. Then I’ll use the third round for Spicy Mac and Cheese. I love how versatile this dip is…and how delicious.

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7. Last but not least, I made three rounds of Gatorade. We had quite a few weekend soccer games and plenty of bottles to fill. I’ve started making at least two if not three or four batches of Gatorade at once just to get on top of our needs. Plus, just like everything else, if I’m already getting out the ingredients and I’m already dirtying a few dishes, I might as well save myself time and energy later by tripling up now!

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If you have any athletes in your house, I very much recommend you make this Gatorade. We have gone through many gallons already and have saved sooo much money since I learned to make it. This recipe incredible. (We also learned that it’s very nice to have this on hand if you have a stomach bug going around your house. It’s so much better to replenish electrolytes with than the sugary variety!)

Are you a “Cook Once, Eat Twice” kind of cook? What are your favorite ways to get ahead in the kitchen? Which of the above proverbs is your fav?

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