Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Easy Make-Ahead Meatloaf

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This recipe for Easy Make-Ahead Meatloaf is going to look incredibly similar to our Easy Meatballs recipe. That’s because it’s the same recipe. Shhhhh.

I grew up eating meatloaf every single week for eighteen years if I remember correctly. My mom made it with baked potatoes and probably green beans (because we didn’t eat a lot of veggie variety when I was growing up, hehe). This was one of my favorite meals. But just like I said in my Meatball post, Matt isn’t a huge fan of meatballs or meatloaf. So this recipe takes a backburner at our house.

I just got a fantastic deal on ground beef though, so I decided to go ahead and make a few meatloaves for the freezer. This is a great meat to serve kids and well, we have a lot of them!

How to make this meatloaf ahead of timeYum

Make this meatloaf and freeze it without the sauce. Then when you’re ready to bake it, thaw it, add the sauce, then bake. It freezes so well! I typically make mine in 9×13-inch dishes, but making it into an actual loaf – in a bread pan – works great. Fun fact: my mom always made ours in a casserole dish so I was a lot of many years old before I learned that meatloaf was supposed to look like a loaf.

If you don’t make your meatloaf ahead and freeze it, at the very least, I recommend making this quickly in the morning, refrigerating it, then baking it later at meal time. This makes dinner prep so fast and easy!

Easy Make-Ahead Meatloaf

Easy Make-Ahead Meatloaf
 
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Serves: 6-10 servings
Ingredients
  • 2-pounds ground beef
  • 3 Tablespoons minced onion
  • ½ teaspoons garlic powder
  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt
  • ½ cup milk
  • 2 eggs
  • 4 Tablespoons rolled oats
  • Sauce for Meatloaf
  • ¾ cup ketchup
  • 2 Tablespoons minced onion
  • ¼ teaspoons garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
  • 2 Tablespoons brown sugar, molasses or honey
Instructions
  1. Mix first seven ingredients together thoroughly.
  2. Press the mixture into a 9x13 inch glass casserole dish or a 9-inch loaf pan.
  3. Stir sauce ingredients together in a small bowl, then spread over the meatloaf.
  4. Bake uncovered in at 350 degrees for one hour.

 

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Easy Meatballs with Sweet Sauce (Freezer Friendly)

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Ready to make these Easy Meatballs with Sweet Sauce?

This is a favorite recipe from our newlywed days. I’d given up on making them for a couple of reasons:

  1. Meatballs aren’t Matt’s favorite.
  2. I don’t have time to scoop out cute balls of meat anymore.

So I’ve been cheating and buying frozen meatballs at Costco. The kids LOVE those. But Matt (who doesn’t love meatballs anyway) and I (one who does love meatballs but NOT the frozen packaged kind) couldn’t stand it anymore. We would either go meatball-less, or I’d find a few extra minutes to make them myself.

Ah, and I suppose there is a third reason I haven’t been making meatballs as of late:

3. Ground beef has gotten pretty expensive.

We’ve been opting for more chicken and pork and less beef these days. Meatballs weren’t making the cut when it came to inexpensive meals we could make for our large family.

But doggonit, I was hungry for meatballs. The real kind. The good kind. And after the packaged variety, even Matt welcomed the homemade variety.

I’d “splurged” on some of the good ground beef one day at Costco, and I decided to use all six pounds of it to make these meatballs. This gave us three wonderful meals!! I baked two pounds the night I made them, then I froze the remaining 4 pounds of pre-made (unbaked) meatballs to thaw and bake another day. Wonderful!

This meal is a huge hit with our family, and having these meatballs premade in the freezer is a huge time saver!

Easy Meatballs with Sweet SauceYum

Easy Meatballs with Sweet Sauce
 
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Ingredients
  • 2-pounds ground beef
  • 3 Tablespoons minced onion
  • ½ teaspoons garlic powder
  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt
  • ½ cup milk
  • 2 eggs
  • 4 Tablespoons rolled oats
  • Sauce for Meatballs
  • ¾ cup ketchup
  • 2 Tablespoons minced onion
  • ¼ teaspoons garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
  • 2 Tablespoons brown sugar, molasses or honey
Instructions
  1. Mix first seven ingredients together thoroughly.
  2. Form into 1½ inch balls and place side by side in a 9x13 inch glass casserole dish.
  3. Stir sauce ingredients together in a small bowl, then spread over each meatball.
  4. Bake uncovered in at 350 degrees for one hour.

NOTE: I estimated our meal cost a total of around $22.00, which fed 4 adults and 7 kids that night, plus we had some leftovers. So a little over $2.00/person, even with “expensive” ground beef. Not bad! :)

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Easy Chili Cheese Dip

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Have leftover chili? Make Easy Chili Cheese Dip!

One of my favorite things to do in the kitchen is to clear out leftovers by making something new with them. This Easy Chili Cheese Dip is a perfect example of how to do this.

On the other hand, this dip is delicious enough that you might want to make chili just so you can have leftovers to make this dip. Or make the chili, skip eating the chili, and make lots of dip. OR, cheat as needed and simply buy a can of chili to use in this recipe!

Easy Chili Cheese DipYum

Easy Chili Cheese Dip
 
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Ingredients
  • 2 cups leftover chili
  • 8-ounces softened cream cheese
  • 1 cup salsa
Instructions
  1. Blend all ingredients together until smooth.
  2. Serve hot or cold with tortilla chips.

What’s great about this recipe is that it’s more than a snack. This can be your entire meal along with fruits and veggies on the side.

Serve it hot or cold, whichever you like!

This recipe works great for my family because I blend everything up which makes a smooth dip without chunks. If you prefer a chunky dip, just stir ingredients together instead of blending.

Need some chili recipes? Use one of these:

  • You can keep your costs for this dip to a minimum when you make this Lentil Chili.
  • This Hearty Chili is meatless, but feel free to cook hamburger or ground turkey to add more protein.

Here are more dip recipes to look through and enjoy!

  1. Easy White Queso
  2. Simple Bean and Cheese Salsa Dip
  3. Creamy Chocolate Fruit Dip
  4. Creamy Italian Veggie Dip
  5. Cream Cheese Salsa Dip
  6. Bacon Ranch Chip Dip
  7. French Onion Dip
  8. Bacon Tomato Dip
  9. Black Bean Salsa
  10. Easy Veggie Dip
  11. Healthier Cheese Dip 
  12. Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip
  13. Nacho Cheese Pretzel Dip
  14. Easy Guacomole
  15. Easy Cheesy Bean Dip
  16. Hamburber Sauerkraut Dip
  17. Cream Cheese Fruit Dip
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How to Make 5 Meals with 1 Pork Roast

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Here’s how to make 5 meals with 1 pork roast!

Yum

This might be one of my favorite Dollar Dinner menu items – x5! If you take a look at our 30 Days of Dollar Dinners calendar, you’ll see that these pork roast meals break down into these:

  1. Pork Roast and Potatoes $3.74
  2. Shredded Pork Tacos $4.08
  3. Pork Roast Melts $3.90
  4. Cheesy Mac and Pork $4.05
  5. Pork Sandwiches $3.90

The recipes for these five meals feed four people, which as you can see, divides down to just over $1.00 or just under $1.00 per person!

In my case, I had a 5-pound pork roast in the freezer that I’d picked up marked down to just $1.79/pound. So my $8.95 purchase was divided into four full meals.

Wait, just four meals, Laura?

Yes indeed, we have way more than 4 people in our house. 10 to be exact. And for a couple of our pork roast meals, we had guests. So I most definitely made our pork roast stretch, as it fed a LOT of people four different meals! But I just couldn’t stretch it into five. ;)

First, I made the roast (recipe below) with cheesy potatoes, green beans, corn, pumpkin bread, and cookies. For this particular meal, we fed 6 adults and 6 kids.

Everyone ate until they were full, then we still had this much meat left over.

With these leftovers, we made Pork Roast Melts, Enchiladas like this (with leftover shredded pork roast instead of ground beef), and Cheesy Mac and Pork. The night we had enchiladas, we had company again so there were five adults and six kids. Fruit and veggie side dishes really help the meat stretch throughout a meal, which is a huge money saver!

How to Make 5 Meals with 1 Pork Roast

Here’s how to make a Pork Roast:

How to Make 5 Meals with 1 Pork Roast
 
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Ingredients
  • 5-pound pork roast
  • 1 chopped onion
  • Sea salt to taste
  • 2 teaspoons garlic powder
Instructions
  1. Put all ingredients into a slow cooker and cook on low for 10 hours or until met shreds easily.
  2. Shred cooked meat and divide it into five equal portions.
  3. Serve one portion over baked potatoes.
  4. Save the remaining portions for four additional meals: Pork Roast Melts, Shredded Pork Tacos, Pork Sandwiches, and Cheesy Mac and Pork.

 

To make it stretch to last through five meals, you’ll eat one portion the night you cook it. Then you’ll save four portions to make other meals as detailed in our 30 Days of Dollar Dinners eCookbook. And hey, guess what?

The eCookbook is READY!!

We finished the cook a few weeks ahead of schedule, so we’re ready to offer it to you now!

This book contains all 30 days worth of recipes so you can make all of our delicious dollar meals! Here are the meals and recipes you’ll find in the book, as well as the dollar amount it takes to make each recipe for 4 people:

  1. Chili = $3.80
  2. Chili on Baked Potatoes $2.82
  3. Broth Rice with Veggies $3.77
  4. Grilled Cheese and Soup $4.59
  5. Pork Roast and Potatoes $3.74
  6. Shredded Pork Tacos $4.08
  7. Pork Roast Melts $3.90
  8. Cheesy Mac $3.09
  9. Cheesy Mac and Pork $4.05
  10. Pork Sandwiches $3.90
  11. Italian Honey’d Chicken Thighs $4.02
  12. Cottage Cheese and Pineapple Bowls with Toast $3.20
  13. Egg in a Nest $3.54
  14. Whole Chicken with Potato Wedges $3.99
  15. Parmesan Chicken and Rice $4.02
  16. Creamy Potato Soup $3.98
  17. Personal Cheese Pizzas $3.99
  18. Cheese Calzones $3.99
  19. Italian Chicken Legs $4.01
  20. Amazing Fried Chicken $4.32
  21. Crepes $3.44
  22. Biscuits and Gravy $3.32
  23. Lemon Garlic Chicken Thighs with Biscuits $4.19
  24. Seasoned Pork Loin with Roasted Broccoli $3.56
  25. Pork Loin Sandwiches $4.02
  26. Scrambled Egg Sandwiches $3.08
  27. Baked Spaghetti Nests $3.10
  28. Pancakes and Eggs $3.48
  29. Bean and Cheese Burritos $3.98
  30. Tex Mex Casserole $3.45

Amazing, right?!

Here’s how to get our 30 Days of Dollar Dinners eCookbook:

If you are a Heavenly Homemakers Club Member, simply log in and head to the eBook section. You’ll find it there so you can use and enjoy it right away!

Not a member? Please join us here so you can have access to all of our eBook, printables, eCurriculum, menu planning resources, and so much more!

Not interested in becoming a member of our club? Head to our shop here to buy the 30 Days of Dollar Dinners eCookbook independently.

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Quick Crock Pot Spicy Pasta Dinner

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This Quick Crock Pot Spicy Pasta Dinner came about on a day I was cleaning out leftovers. Therefore, this recipe is a winner that happened by accident!

Have you made my Cream Cheese Salsa Dip? It’s incredible, super easy, and our entire family loves it!

However, one of the recent times I made the dip, it somehow got shoved to the back of the fridge and forgotten. I’d just gotten back from a big grocery run, so I was in major “make lunch with whatever food I find tucked away” so that I could make room for all the fresh food.

And there I found Cream Cheese Salsa Dip.

Aha, thought I. This is going to somehow turn into our lunch.

I was just about ready to take our littles out for a long walk, so I dumped some pasta and this dip into the crock pot to see what would happen while we were gone. Sure enough, the results were just like I’d imagined. The pasta was soft and ready to eat in just three hours without any effort from me! I added a shot of cream and stirred in some cooked meat, and we had our meal!

Here’s the easy recipe:

Quick Crock Pot Spicy Pasta DinnerYum

Quick Crock Pot Spicy Pasta Dinner
 
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Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 10-ounces uncooked pasta, any variety
  • 8-ounces softened cream cheese
  • 32-ounces salsa
  • ½ cup heavy whipping cream
  • 1 pound cubed ham or cooked hamburger meat (optional)
Instructions
  1. Empty package of uncooked pasta into a crock pot.
  2. In a blender, whip together cream cheese and salsa until smooth.
  3. Pour salsa mixture over the pasta in the crock pot.
  4. Cook on low heat for 3 hours.
  5. Stir in heavy whipping cream and meat if desired.
  6. Serve.

Using up leftovers to create new meals is one of my favorite ways to be efficient in the kitchen!

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Least Expensive Burrito Recipe

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Is this the least expensive burrito recipe? Or is it a nifty trick teaching us how to use leftovers creatively? Hmmm….

I’ll give you a recipe. But I’m also going to give you a license. A license to use up what you have and stir it into a mixture and slap it into a tortilla. Roll it up and call it a burrito. It works deliciously every time!

This is what makes this recipe the “least expensive.” You’re using up leftovers that you’ve already prepared. You’re cleaning out your fridge and avoiding waste. You’re saving time and having fun and the best part is that you’re making something your family will love!

As an added bonus, you can make as many of these as you need and freeze them to warm them up as needed! My older kids love having these in the freezer so that they can pull some out for an easy lunch or a late night second-dinner. :)

Here’s the kind-of recipe. Later, I’ll give more of an actual recipe for those who would prefer more specifics!

Least Expensive Burritos – the Use Up Leftovers Recipe Version

  1. First, make a meal in which you offer cooked meat, rice, beans, salsa, cheese, corn, olives, tomatoes, lettuce, and sour cream.
  2. Let everyone build a burrito bowl, a burrito, or a taco dip to eat with chips.
  3. After your meal, stir all of your leftovers into a dish.
  4. Use this mixture to make burritos for an easy-to-grab meal.

See how great this is? How easy? It’s how I make frozen burritos every time we have a burrito bar at our house!

Least Expensive Burrito (Actual) RecipeYum

5.0 from 1 reviews
Least Expensive Burrito Recipe
 
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Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • 1 can black beans
  • 1 can corn, drained
  • 2 cups cooked rice
  • 1 cup salsa
  • 2 cups leftover cooked chicken or beef (optional)
  • 1 cup shredded cheese
  • 12 soft tortillas
Instructions
  1. Mix together all burrito filling ingredients.
  2. Scoop mixture into tortillas and roll up.
  3. Serve right away or freeze and warm up later.

 

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The Easiest Way to Make Hamburgers

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This really is the easiest way to make hamburgers. I’ll grill them in the summertime, otherwise I will forevermore do this!

The Easiest Way to Make HamburgersYum

Short answer: Bake them.

Not because we’re afraid to fry them. But because we don’t want to stand at the stove to fry them. It’s messy. It takes maintenance. We don’t have time to maintain our patties, am I right? The patties must maintain themselves.

I love buying a package of hamburger patties at Costco. I set them out all afternoon and they are semi-thawed by 4ish. I cover two cookie sheets with parchment paper and place the partially thawed patties on the pan.

I bake them at 350 for about an hour. If I remember, I flip them all over halfway through their baking time. But if I don’t, I don’t. Why? Because we don’t have time to maintain our patties. Our patties must maintain themselves.

Now. My pictures are ugly. These patties do not look done, but they are done and you’ll be able to tell that your patties are done with they are sizzly and brown.

Right out of the oven, I put some sliced cheese on the hot patties for those who prefer cheeseburgers. Some in my family like Colby jack. Some like pepper jack. I like mine cheeseless.

Dinner is served with burger fixins, fries in our air fryer, carrot sticks, pickles, and baked beans.

Leftover patties (if there are any) warm up quickly for lunches, and I’ve been known to pull one out of the fridge and eat it cold when I simply need sustenance. Apparently, not only do I have time to maintain my patties, but I barely have time to maintain myself. So a cold leftover burger patty fills my belly. With a glass of this, of course. :)

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The Easiest Spicy Ham and Potato Soup (Crock Pot Recipe)

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I wanted to call this easy Spicy Ham and Potato Soup “Dump Soup.” But that didn’t sound appealing. So I took out the “dump” – good call, right? Still, you should know that all we have to do to make this soup is “dump” the ingredients into the crockpot. SO EASY.

Yum

This Spicy Ham and Potato Soup is basically this soup remade. I cut out some steps and made it in the crockpot. You’ll love how much easier the revisions make this recipe!

Also, you should know that I’m obsessed with this soup. I almost never eat seconds of any meal. But when I make this soup, I eat thirds. Aren’t you proud?

The Easiest Spicy Ham and Potato Soup (Crock Pot Recipe)

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The Easiest Spicy Ham and Potato Soup (Crock Pot Recipe)
 
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Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 8-ounces cream cheese
  • 16-ounces pepper jack cheese
  • ¾ cup sour cream
  • 1 cup half-and-half or whole milk
  • 10-ounce can Rotel (diced tomatoes and green chilies)
  • 1 pound ham, diced or cut into small bites
  • 3-4 cups frozen hashbrown potatoes
  • 32-ounces chicken, beef, or vegetable broth
Instructions
  1. Put all ingredients into a crock pot.
  2. Cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours.
  3. Occasionally, stir the soup to help distribute the cheeses.
  4. Just before serving, use a whisk to smooth the melted cheese.

I love eating this soup just as it is. Some in my family love to added shredded cheese and fritos. The pepper jack cheese in this soup gives it a nice, spicy kick that is so amazing!

If you make this soup with frozen hashbrowns (I like Mr. Dells brand as it contains only potatoes) it is extra easy to put together!

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EASIEST Bean and Cheese Quesadillas Our Family Loves

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Our family loves these Bean and Cheese Quesadillas even though they thought they wouldn’t!

This idea is not new or innovative. No one will actually be very impressed. But it is still worth sharing because we all need to be reminded from time to time of the best and easiest lunch or snack ideas!

We’ve always been a simple cheese quesadilla family.

Cheese quesadillas are no-brainers. Tortillas. Cheese. Melted together. In a skillet. That is all. Cut them into triangles. Dip them in salsa. Serve them with fruit. This is lunch.

But in an effort to figure out:

  • how to get my toddlers to eat more protein
  • what other soft foods our barely-has-any-teeth- 1-year-old baby can gum
  • more ideas for easy lunches, suppers, or snacks our whole family will like
  • inexpensive ways to feed our army of children

I decided to open a can of refried beans to smear on our tortillas when I made quesadillas one evening.

Yeah. Wow. I opened a can. It’s so easy I’m wondering why this hasn’t always been my go-to meal idea?? We can always wonder about this.

How my kids first respondedYum

When my kids asked what we were eating for dinner and I said “Bean and Cheese Quesadillas” my 6-year-old said, “Ok, but can you make mine with just cheese and no beans please?” And then my 17-year-old asked the very same thing. Because change is hard? Beans are hard? We don’t know. The bean version just didn’t sound good to them.

Fair enough. But I told them that I wanted to eat the bean version first and then if they really didn’t like it, I’d make them a plain cheese version.

Man, this story is not that exciting. Laura told her kids she was putting beans in their quesadillas. They were nervous. She made them try anyway. Thank you for sharing.

How my kids liked the Bean and Cheese Quesadillas after trying them

Well, I couldn’t keep up. I stood at the skillet and kept making quesadillas until the entire package of tortillas was gone. I cut the quesadillas into triangles and kept throwing them onto plates. I cut the babys’ quesadillas into tiny bites and kept throwing them onto the high chairs.

The 6-year-old forgot about the beans. She just ate her first quesadilla triangle and asked for another. And then another. And then another. So there you have it.

The 17-year-old? Same story. He ate his fair share and was like, “Wow Mom. These are actually good.”

Meanwhile, the 8-year-old, the 2-year-old, the 1.5-year-old, and the nearly-toothless 1-year-old ate and ate and ate.

I served the quesadillas with these smoothies, therefore we also loaded up on greens and fruit:

Bean and Cheese Quesadillas are a WINNER!

But you probably already knew that. This is old news. Everyone already makes these. Laura is 24 years behind.

Just in case, here’s how to make these:

5.0 from 1 reviews
EASIEST Bean and Cheese Quesadillas Our Family Loves
 
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Ingredients
  • Whole Grain Tortillas
  • Shredded Cheese
  • Can of Refried Beans
Instructions
  1. Smear beans on a tortilla.
  2. Sprinkle shredded cheese on top.
  3. Top it with another tortilla to make a "sandwich."
  4. Heat it on low in a skillet until the cheese is melted, turning from time to time to heat both sides.
  5. Cut the quesadilla into trianges and serve as-is or with salsa, sour cream, and/or guacamole.

Add Bean and Cheese Quesadillas to your go-to fast meal idea list!

 

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Don’t Have Time to Cook Dinner? Make This!

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Laura’s note: Enjoy this fantastic, helpful post from Bethany!!

Don’t have time to cook? Eyeing the fast food line? Wanting to eat at home, but don’t have the time for lots of prep work? Here is what I make when I’m in survival mode.

Don't have time to cook dinner? Here's a list of easy recipes to make at home within minutes!

Yum

I used to cook and bake for fun. Before I had kids (barely remember those days!) I’d spend all morning on Saturdays leisurely whipping up cinnamon rolls, soups, muffins, and pastas. I remember those easy breezy mornings: listening to my podcasts, humming away, stopping to leisurely sip my hot coffee in silence.

Fast forward to present time: I now have three kids, ages four, two, and four months old. Gone are the leisurely baking hours. Now I’m just desperately trying to get something—anything—in the oven with two toddlers clinging to my legs, and one baby in the baby carrier on my chest. If the something I get in the oven is healthy than I feel like I officially deserve a gold star. 

It’s called survival mode, and I for sure am in it these days. The first few months after having my third, we had a wonderful meal train and lots of help. But now that baby girl is a bit older, we are self-sufficient, and I’ve had to figure out how to feed us all (three times a day!) without hitting up the fast food line too often. 

Here are the dishes I turn to again, and again when I just need to throw something quick into the oven or crockpot to get food on the table, and into bellies without a lot of chopping or prep.

Simple Cheesy Salsa Chicken

This is one of the most incredible main dishes, if you ask me. It takes TWO MINUTES to prep this. Just throw three ingredients in your crock pot or Instant Pot, turn it on, and walk away. The most laborious thing you might have to do is shred the cheese, but you can even skip that step if you purchase shredded cheese. It couldn’t get any easier!

I use this to make soft or hard tacos, burrito bowls, nachos, or for soups! It’s the best!!

Beanie Weanies

Is it glamorous? Probably not. Is it easy and does it fill tummies, and make my toddlers happy? Yes, yes, and absolutely yes.

Easy Noodle Stirfry

My husband LOVES Chinese food, but none of us like how we feel after getting food from the restaurant. When I tried this Easy Noodle Stirfry, I was blown away by how good it was! Now, it does require some vegetable chopping (which is stressful if you’ve got a bunch of littles around) so I like to prep the veggies early in the week, so it takes just minutes to throw this together. I chop up a bunch of veg on Sundays and then use it throughout the week to make easy, nutritious meals!

Simple Hawaiian Crock Pot Chicken

This one’s right up there with the Cheesy Salsa Chicken in the easy category. You guys, it is SO simple to throw together, and incredibly delicious! I like to quickly get some rice simmering as a side, and then set out fresh fruit and we’ve got an entire, nutritious meal that took minutes to prep!

20-Minute Taco Soup

Here’s what I do when I make this soup: toss the ground beef in the skillet, and walk away. Stir it now and then. Pour in the salsa and broth. Stir in the cheese. And done. It has only four ingredients, and doesn’t require anything of me except perhaps opening the salsa jar. It’s delicious, nutritious and a crowd pleaser!

Simple Barbecue Beef RoastIs there anything better than coming home to a roast in the crock pot?

Here is what Laura says to do to make this recipe:

  • Walk to the freezer and get out a roast. (30 seconds)
  • Open the package and put it into a crock pot. (20 seconds)
  • Get out some barbecue sauce and dump it on the roast. (20 seconds)
  • Grab an onion, pull off the outer layer, rinse it, and quarter it, then threw it in with the meat. (40 seconds)
  • Plug in the crock pot, turned it on low, walked away. (10 seconds)

Now that’s my kind of recipe! The fact that it tastes AMAZING is a bonus.

Those are my favorite recipes to make when I don’t have the time to cook. Try them and be amazed at how much easier they make your life!

Your turn to share! What’s your favorite easy-peasy recipe to make when you are in survival mode?

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