Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Simple Baked Beans Recipe

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I love that Simple Baked Beans is such an easy side dish to put together and pair with so many great meats and veggies!

Truly, it is the simplest of foods that make our meals so much better! (Did you download our Simple Ingredients for Simple Meals list yet? It’s FREE! And oh so helpful!)

These Simple Baked Beans take little effort, and are just sweet enough to make us all fall in love. I love adding these as a side dish (along with other veggies and fruits) to a basic meaty main dish.

Consider these Simple Baked Beans when you decide what to serve with any of these Simple Meals recipes:

Phew, so many possibilities!!

If you haven’t joined Simple Meals yet, I encourage you to take the plunge! We do all the planning for you, then provide you each week with a beautifully laid out menu plan, grocery list, side dish ideas, bonus recipes, and so much more. Every week. For one dollar. Seriously.

Get a sample Simple Meals menu plan here.

As for these Simple Baked Beans, you’ll love having this recipe in your back pocket to add protein and goodness to your Simple Meals.

Ready for the super simple recipe? Soak and cook your own beans, or keep some canned beans on hand to throw these together at a moment’s notice.

Simple Baked Beans

Simple Baked Beans Recipe
 
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Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 32-ounces canned pork and beans (or soak and cook your own pintos or navy beans!)
  • ¼ cup ketchup (give or take)
  • 1 Tablespoon prepared yellow mustard
  • 3 Tablespoons dried minced onion
  • 1 Tablespoon honey or brown sugar (optional)
Instructions
  1. Stir ingredients together in a 8x8 inch baking dish.
  2. Bake uncovered in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or until bubbly.
  3. (In a hurry? Cook in a pot on the stove for 10-15 minutes in a pinch!)

I love that if I plan ahead, I can bake these in the oven. Or if I need to throw these together in less time (story of my life), I can simply stir this recipe into a pot and heat it to bubbly on the stove. So simple and good!

P.S. Make these beans into a main dish by adding leftover cooked hamburger and/or cooked bacon!

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Simple Strawberry Fluff (Real Food Ingredients!)

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I don’t mean to be a lazy cook. Truly I don’t. In fact, I really love making wonderful food as a way to bless people. Can I help it that this Simple Strawberry Fluff is super easy to make? No. I cannot help it. There’s nothing I can do to make it difficult. It’s simply, well, simple.

I’m sure you’re dying to know how this Simple Strawberry Fluff came into being.

I had decided to make these Strawberry Cheesecake Parfaits for 20 people at our local mission. (We take turns with one other family to make a meal to serve there once each month.) I planned to make The Best Grilled Chicken, my friend was providing a salad and veggie, so the Strawberry Parfaits would round off the meal to perfection.

However, I began to get low on time, my kids weren’t home to help (how dare they go off to church camp and leave me to do all the cooking), so I began to brainstorm ways to cut down my prep time. This is no easy feat when I already do everything possible to keep my meals simple.

But…aha! It occurred to me that instead of building individual parfait cups, I could make one big bowl with strawberries and cheesecake parfait filling and stir it together into a salad. It was then that I realized I would be creating a cross between the Strawberry Cheesecake Parfaits and this Pineapple Fluff.

Would it work? There was only one way to find out. Make it and insist that my husband give it a taste test (life is hard at the Coppinger house).

Matt had no idea where my brain had been storming. He only knew that I put a pretty blue bowl in front of him and handed him a spoon. “Oooh, that’s good!!”

Now that I’ve tried this, I may never go back to making parfaits again. Why would I when making it this way saves a precious eight seconds?

Simple Strawberry Fluff

5.0 from 2 reviews
Simple Strawberry Fluff (Real Food Ingredients!)
 
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Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 8 ounces softened cream cheese
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 Tablespoons lime juice
  • ¼ cup sugar or 3 Tablespoons real maple syrup or liquid stevia to taste
  • 1 pound fresh strawberries, washed and cut into bite-sized pieces
Instructions
  1. Wash and cut strawberries into a large mixing bowl.
  2. In a high-power blender mix cream cheese, whipping cream, vanilla, lime juice, and sweetener of choice until well combined and smooth.
  3. In a bowl, fold strawberries into the whipped mixture.
  4. Chill for at least one hour before serving.

The folks at the mission said lovely things about this salad. (One 12-year old girl at fourths. Her love for the salad made me happy but our sweet conversation gave me even more joy.)

I will now and forevermore go back and forth between these Strawberry Cheesecake Parfaits and this Simple Strawberry Fluff. They are both incredibly delicious, and they are both super easy to make.

Pack this fun salad/dessert into a jar to take in your lunch box and you’ve got one more to-go option!

Great lunch box additions to your Simple Strawberry Fluff

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Easy No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars (Low Sugar!)

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I originally created these Easy No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars as a fun option for all of us to include in a lunch box. How was I to know they would also be great to eat for breakfast?

Some things simply can’t be helped. Before I knew what was happening, I had my morning coffee in one hand and a plate with one of these bars in the other. I was in my recliner before I realized, “How did I get here? Who gave this to me? What am I supposed to do with this thing? Eat it? For breakfast?”

There was nothing I could do.

I had made them the night before and slid them into the fridge. I spotted them when I reached in for the half-n-half to embellish my coffee to perfection. I saw the bars. Oats, peanut butter, uh…chocolate. Yes, it did sound a lot like breakfast.

When in need, a person can justify just about anything, am I right?

Well, you look at those and tell me you could resist choosing to eat one with your morning coffee. Especially when trying to make such an important decision BEFORE drinking the said coffee. No one can make good decisions before drinking the coffee.

Though I decided rather quickly that eating these with my morning coffee was actually a brilliant idea. So apparently I can make good decisions before coffee when there is chocolate involved.

I have now made the decision for you. Go ahead. Eat these for breakfast with your coffee. It’s a perfect way to start the day.

Easy No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars

5.0 from 1 reviews
Easy No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars (Low Sugar!)
 
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Serves: 18
Ingredients
  • ½ cup butter (1 stick)
  • 2 Tablespoons brown sugar, sucanat, or honey
  • 3 cups whole rolled oats
  • 1 cup dark chocolate chips (semi sweet or milk chocolate is fine too, but will add to the sugar content)
  • ½ cup natural peanut butter
Instructions
  1. In a saucepan, melt butter and brown sugar together until smooth.
  2. Add rolled oats and stir over medium heat for about 30 seconds until oats are toasted in the butter/sugar mixture.
  3. Press half of the oat mixture into a 8x8 inch or 2-quart oblong baking dish.
  4. Set the remaining mixture aside.
  5. In another saucepan, stir the chocolate chips and peanut butter together over medium heat until melted and smooth.
  6. Spread chocolate mixture over the oat mixture in the pan.
  7. Sprinkle remaining oat mixture over the chocolate.
  8. Refrigerate for 2 or more hours.
  9. Cut into bars and serve.

After you eat these for breakfast, consider also packing one for lunch. That is, after all, the original reason I created these. Details, details.

More great additions to your lunch box:

Pssst! Want more recipes like this one that include only five or fewer ingredients? This is for you!

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Simple Summer Supper: Perfect Pasta Salad

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What makes this Perfect Pasta Salad perfect? You do, of course! You build it the way you like it, making it the perfect salad for you!

Perfect Pasta Salad Tips:

Except for the people who refuse to add any veggies to their pasta salad. I have kids at my house who try this. This makes the Pasta Salad not so perfect. Pasta and meat – what else do they need? VEGGIES. They need veggies. This is not difficult.

Perfect Pasta Salad Options:

  • Cooked and cooled whole wheat or brown rice pasta – any shape
  • Chopped sweet peppers
  • Chopped carrots
  • Chopped tomatoes
  • Cooked chicken, tuna, steak, roast beef, salmon or other meat that sounds good
  • Chickpeas or other cooked beans
  • Corn
  • Olives
  • Shredded cheese
  • Favorite salad dressings – we prefer homemade Italian Salad Dressing and Ranch Salad Dressing
  • Other delicious add-ins of your choosing!

Set out any options you know your family or guests would enjoy. Set out bowls and forks. Slice a watermelon. Now you’ve got yourself a Simple Summer Supper in the form of a Perfect Pasta Salad!

Have you seen our other Simple Summer Suppers? Here’s a running list:

Don’t miss any of our new ideas we’ve got coming! Subscribe for free so all the latest can come directly to your inbox!

Have you become a Simple Meals member yet? You will LOVE how simple all the recipes are, and better yet, you’ll love that we do all the planning for you!

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

Simple Summer Supper: Grilled Salmon

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There’s nothing fancy about this Simple Grilled Salmon. But who needs “fancy” when “delicious” fills the plate?

I know there are more flavor-packed ways to grill salmon. The recipes for such are all over the internet and they look amazing.

But do you know what is also delicious? Salmon thrown on the grill with no preparation or prior thought. I hesitated to try this because I’d heard salmon didn’t grill well straight on the grates.

Lazy cook that I am (and by lazy, of course I mean clever), I decided one night to try grilling our salmon as-is. No prep. No seasoning. No cedar plank that had been soaked in newborn baby kisses (or whatever delightful options we read about that promise to present us with perfectly grilled salmon).

Would it be good? Would my family eat it? Would it be a waste of good salmon?

Or would it be yet another simple meal idea we could keep in our back pocket?

You guys! Why must we make real food cooking difficult? Just go get you some salmon fillets and throw them on the grill. My family devoured this deliciously simple grilled salmon. My 13 year old ate three fillets before I could stop him. There were no leftovers and I will be making this all summer long.

Might you want to squeeze a lemon over your grilled salmon? Absolutely. Should you consider making homemade tartar sauce (recipe below) to accompany this deliciously grilled meat? Certainly. Do we need to slave over and baby our salmon before we grill it? Not unless we want to.

For the record, I don’t want to. Because I’m lazy. I mean clever.

Simple Grilled Salmon with Homemade Tartar Sauce

Simple Summer Supper: Grilled Salmon
 
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Ingredients
  • Wild caught salmon fillets (1-2 per person)
  • Homemade Tartar Sauce:
  • 1 cup mayonnaise (I use Hain Safflower Mayo)
  • ¼ cup sweet pickle relish
Instructions
  1. Grill salmon on low heat for approximately 20 minutes, turning once or twice as needed.
  2. While the meat is grilling, mix mayo and pickle relish to serve with the salmon.
  3. This is so easy it barely qualifies as a recipe.

 

Serve this Simple Grilled Salmon with any fresh summer sides you have on hand: Fresh greens, corn on the cob, berries or other fruit, green beans or zucchini – what an amazing meal! Pineapple Fluff is a wonderful addition to this meal.

Have you seen our other Simple Summer Suppers? Here’s a running list:

Don’t miss any of our new ideas we’ve got coming! Subscribe for free so all the latest can come directly to your inbox!

Have you become a Simple Meals member yet? You will LOVE how simple all the recipes are, and better yet, you’ll love that we do all the planning for you!

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

Simple Summer Supper: BLT Chopped Salad

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Of all the salads in the world, this BLT Chopped Salad is my very favorite.

I shared this back in 2015 after I fell in love with a variety of this salad from the Cheesecake Factory. Just when you thought people went there for the cheesecake, I give a shout out about a salad. But for the record, their cheesecake is also delicious. :)

What I love about this salad is that every single bite is packed with flavor. Between the savory-ness and salty-ness offered by the bacon and feta cheese, the sweetness provided by the tomatoes and corn, the tartness of the lime juice – this salad packs an incredible flavor punch!

It is also filling, which makes it a great Simple Summer Supper. Some salads leave my family hungry and asking for more food. Not this one!

BLT Chopped Salad

Simple Summer Supper: BLT Chopped Salad
 
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Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 6 cups chopped mixed greens, lettuce, or spinach (any combination you like)
  • 2 chopped tomatoes
  • ½ pound bacon, cut into bites, cooked, and drained
  • 1-2 cups sweet corn, cooked and cooled
  • 1-2 chopped avocado
  • 4 ounces feta cheese crumbles
  • Dressing:
  • 2 Tablespoons olive oil
  • Juice of one lime (about 2 Tablespoons)
  • salt and pepper to taste (I put in a few shakes of each)
Instructions
  1. Toss salad ingredients into a large bowl.
  2. In a small jar, shake together dressing ingredients.
  3. Pour over salad and toss.
  4. Serve right away!

 

Have you seen our other Simple Summer Suppers? Here’s a running list:

Don’t miss any of our new ideas we’ve got coming! Subscribe for free so all the latest can come directly to your inbox!

Have you become a Simple Meals member yet? You will LOVE how simple all the recipes are, and better yet, you’ll love that we do all the planning for you!

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

Simple Summer Suppers: Perfect Grilled Chicken

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I have the secret to creating the Perfect Grilled Chicken. You can make this even if you own a pitiful grill like we do. :)

Someday we’ll invest in a grill that isn’t duct taped together. I kid. Our grill isn’t really duct taped together. It’s just on the cheap side and doesn’t always light the way it’s supposed to or heat evenly. Through the years we’ve considered putting some money into a better one, but you know what? Ours still works. So we’ll continue to make do until it dies.

In the meantime, our grill still turns out chicken that is incredible. We can’t get enough. It’s always juicy and perfect and you’ll be happy to know the prep time on said chicken is about thirty seconds.

What’s the secret? I’ve shared it before and I must share it again: We use boneless chicken thighs. Skip the dry, chewy chicken breasts. It’s thighs all the way. They have more fat in them, so they turn out a deliciously juicy grilled chicken.

How to make Perfect Grilled Chicken

Simple Summer Suppers: Perfect Grilled Chicken
 
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Ingredients
  • 6-12 boneless chicken thighs
  • 1 cup sauce (bbq, teriyaki, sweet and sour, Italian dressing, any of your favorites!)
Instructions
  1. Place chicken and sauce in a ziploc bag or casserole dish to marinate in the fridge. (This takes 30 seconds, but you'll feel like a brilliant chef.)
  2. Marinate for 1-24 hours. (Because sometimes we plan ahead and sometimes we can't handle basic organizational skills for the day.)
  3. Grill on low heat for 25-40 minutes, turning a time or two until your chicken is perfect.
  4. Serve with salad and veggies.

We love making extra chicken to chop into chef salads on another day. It’s kind of like killing two birds with one stone, or rather two chickens with one grill. This is a rather violent way to say “Here’s a great way to get ahead on meals for your family!”

Our favorite homemade marinades for Perfect Grilled Chicken

Have you seen our other Simple Summer Suppers? Here’s a running list:

Don’t miss any of our new ideas we’ve got coming! Subscribe for free so all the latest can come directly to your inbox!

Have you become a Simple Meals member yet? You will LOVE how simple all the recipes are, and better yet, you’ll love that we do all the planning for you!

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

Simple Summer Suppers: Tuna Salad Wraps

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I find these Tuna Salad Wraps to be so refreshing on a hot summer day!

Tuna is a food I consider to be a life saver when I don’t feel like cooking, when I don’t have much time to throw a meal together, and when I’ve failed to thaw meat for dinner.

We eat tuna salad with crackers, in a sandwich, on a bed of lettuce, or in these Tuna Salad Wraps. We set out raw veggies and fresh fruit to eat alongside our tuna. So our meals is nourishing and full of variety!


I love asking my kids to mix up several cans of tuna because it’s something they can make easily. Then we keep it in the fridge to use for upcoming fast meals that don’t heat up the kitchen!

The recipe below is a typical ratio we use to make one can of tuna. Double, or triple, or octuple as necessary for your family!

Tuna Salad Wraps

Simple Summer Suppers: Tuna Salad Wraps
 
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Serves: 2-3
Ingredients
  • 6-ounce can tuna in water, drained
  • 3 Tablespoons mayonnaise (I use Hain Safflower mayo)
  • 2 teaspoons sweet pickle relish
  • Dash of sea salt
  • Whole grain wraps
  • Lettuce and tomatoes
Instructions
  1. Mix tuna, mayo, pickle relish, and salt until well combined.
  2. Wrap tuna salad into whole grain wraps with lettuce and tomato.

Our Favorites to use in Tuna Salad Wraps:

Have you seen our other Simple Summer Suppers? Here’s a running list:

Don’t miss any of our new ideas we’ve got coming! Subscribe for free so all the latest can come directly to your inbox!

What’s your favorite way to eat tuna?

Some of these links are my affiliate links.

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

Simple Summer Supper: Grilled Tortilla Pizzas

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These Grilled Tortilla Pizzas are so simple and fast, you’ll hardly know what to do with yourself!

I suggest letting each person build their own Tortilla Pizzas to their liking. Put them on the grill until the cheese is melted, which takes just a couple minutes.

Just like that, your meal is ready! Grab the greens and other salad fixin’s out of the fridge (or out of the garden – even better!). Slice some fresh peaches or strawberries. Truly, your Simple Summer Supper doesn’t get any easier than this!

Grilled Tortilla Pizzas

Simple Summer Supper: Grilled Tortilla Pizzas
 
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Ingredients
  • Whole grain tortillas
  • Pizza sauce
  • Shredded cheese
  • Your favorite pizza toppings (meats, peppers, olives, onions, pineapple, mushrooms, etc)
Instructions
  1. Top a tortilla with all your favorite pizza toppings.
  2. Grill on low heat for about 2 minutes or until cheese has melted.
  3. Serve with fresh fruits and veggies.

You can use flour or corn tortillas (corn if you need to eat gluten free). You can add sauce or no sauce. Perhaps my only caution is that you don’t over-cheese your Grilled Pizza Tortillas; otherwise your cheese might overflow onto the grill grates and create a mess!

Have you seen our other Simple Summer Suppers? Here’s a running list:

Don’t miss any of our new ideas we’ve got coming! Subscribe for free so all the latest can come directly to your inbox!

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

Simple Summer Suppers: Taco Salad

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This Simple Taco Salad ranks right up there as one of the most refreshing and tasty meals to serve in the summertime!

I can’t get enough of this salad. And interestingly enough, while my kids typically just serve themselves a small amount of greens for a salad on a normal day, they eat huge bowls of this Simple Taco Salad! Maybe we should always put chips in our salad – ha!

Simple Summer Suppers: Taco Salad

Simple Summer Suppers: Taco Salad
 
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Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 1 pound hamburger
  • 2 Tablespoons taco seasoning mix
  • 1 head lettuce, any variety (we prefer red leaf, green leaf or romaine)
  • 1 cup shredded cheddar or Colby jack cheese
  • 15 ounces (or 2 cups) of pinto, chili, or black beans
  • 1 cup diced fresh tomatoes
  • 1-2 cups crushed tortilla chips
  • 1 cup French Dressing (give or take; recipe link below)
Instructions
  1. Brown hamburger meat and season with taco seasoning mix (recipe link below)
  2. Chop or tear lettuce into a large serving bowl.
  3. Add cooked meat (cooled), shredded cheese, beans, tomatoes, and chips.
  4. Toss with French Dressing.
  5. Serve.

Make a batch of this French Dressing to serve in this salad. You won’t be sorry!

I recommend making this Taco Seasoning Mix to have on hand for recipes like this. Easy and delicious! Also, I find it helpful to make several pounds of taco meat at once, then I use the leftovers to make this salad!

Have you seen our other Simple Summer Suppers? Here’s a running list:

Don’t miss any of our new ideas we’ve got coming! Subscribe for free so all the latest can come directly to your inbox!

Have you become a Simple Meals member yet? You will LOVE how simple all the recipes are, and better yet, you’ll love that we do all the planning for you!

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