Heavenly Homemakers

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7 Days of Low Cost Breakfast Ideas from Costco

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Here’s an entire week worth of low cost breakfast ideas from Costco!

Can you get the ingredients for these breakfasts at any grocery store? Sure. Do whatever works best for you! I have personally found that buying in bulk at Costco and enjoying their high quality mixed with great prices is a great combination to save lots of money on wonderful meals!

Download a free grocery list here.

Get ready to buy the few ingredients needed to make these breakfast ideas! Many of the ingredients can be mixed and matched so you’ll get great bang for your buck!

Download a free grocery list here.

7 Days of Low Cost Breakfast Ideas from Costco

First, take a look at the seven day menu. Doesn’t this all sound tasty?

  1. Oatmeal with Berries
  2. Homemade Granola with Yogurt
  3. Eggs and Smoothies
  4. Biscuits and Gravy
  5. Pancakes and Bacon
  6. Blueberry Muffins and Eggs
  7. Warm Vanilla Soother and Toast

Ready for the recipes and details? Take note as you make a grocery list that many of the ingredients needed in these breakfast recipes can be mixed and matched. So if you buy these ingredients, you can make multiple recipes and have a wonderful variety of breakfast meals!

1. Oatmeal with BerriesYum

What to buy at Costco:

  • Old Fashioned Oats
  • Your favorite Berries

Costco has awesome prices for both. Their oats comes in 10-pound packages so it will go a very long way. (I usually keep some in a canister in my kitchen for easy access, and then freeze the rest to keep it fresh longer.)

Make it easier:

Here are some fun oatmeal recipes that your family might love!

2. Homemade Granola with Yogurt

What to buy at Costco:

  • Old Fashioned Oats (maybe you’re buying it anyway for the above-mentioned oatmeal!)
  • Coconut Oil
  • Honey
  • Yogurt
  • Look through the recipes below to learn about any additional ingredients you’ll need for individual recipes. Remember when you see the ingredients at Costco – you’ll be able to make several recipes worth of granola or other goodies with these ingredients. This makes it worth paying for and saves money in the long run!

Recipes you’ll love:

3. Eggs and Smoothies

What to buy at Costco:

  • Eggs
  • Frozen Fruit
  • Milk
  • Fresh Spinach

Recipes you’ll love:

Scramble or fry eggs to enjoy while you sip your smoothies. You’ll be nourished well and ready to start your day!

4. Biscuits and Gravy

What to buy at Costco:

  • Flour
  • Butter
  • Sausage
  • Milk
  • Baking Powder
  • Salt

Recipes you’ll love:

It’s amazing how inexpensive it is to make biscuits and gravy at home compared to buying it at a restaurant. And it’s hard to beat homemade!

5. Pancakes and Bacon

What to buy at Costco:

  • Flour
  • Baking Powder
  • Milk
  • Butter
  • Eggs
  • Maple Syrup (a little goes a long way!)
  • Bacon

Recipes you’ll love:

6. Blueberry Muffins and Eggs

What to buy at Costco:

  • Flour
  • Coconut Oil
  • Brown Sugar
  • Baking Powder
  • Milk
  • Blueberries
  • Eggs

Recipes you’ll love:

7. Warm Vanilla Soother and Toast

What to buy at Costco:

  • Milk
  • Eggs
  • Cornstarch
  • Maple Syrup
  • Bread
  • Butter

Recipes you’ll love:

I love how simple these ingredients are and how you can use them in so many ways to make great meals. Enjoy these 7 breakfast ideas, and consider making them for dinner too. Breakfast for dinner is a favorite!

Get our free grocery list to make this easy!

Download your free grocery list here.

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Lunches I Packed September 11-15, 2023

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Here are the lunches I packed September 11-15 for my kids to take to school last week!

Monday: Cheese, crackers, grapes, pistachios, and pickles (Kiya) cucumbers (Brayden)

I’ve been buying Balanced Breaks, which I shared about on this “What I Buy at Costco for School Lunches” post. They are convenient and fun, but not frugal. (<—but I still keep them on hand because sometimes we need convenient more than we need frugal)

Since I had a few extra minutes to pack this day’s lunch, I left the convenient packs in the fridge and instead sliced some cheese and packaged up crackers for the kids. I put the crackers into plastic containers, otherwise they’d get smashed in baggies in their lunch boxes.

Tuesday: Cottage cheese, fruit cup, carrots/peanut butter and Spinach Cupcake (for Kiya), and cucumbers and peanut butter pretzels (for Brayden)

It’s cheaper to scoop peanut butter into a container for Kiya to use as dip with her carrots. But I keep the Jif Natural peanut butter cups on hand for a quick-to-grab option.

Wednesday: Turkey lunchmeat roll-ups, strawberries with Cheesecake Parfait, and Snickerdoodle Bites.

We had pounds and pounds of strawberries in our fridge from the super sale I took advantage of on Saturday. So it was fun to include those with parfait for the kids’ lunches.

Thursday: Tuna salad with crackers, applesauce cup, cucumbers and cheese stick for Brayden, pickles for Kiya 

I had an extra minute on Wednesday so I mixed up the kids’ tuna salad for lunch the next day. This was so nice the following morning as we were getting them ready to head out!

Fun Friday Lunch: For Brayden: his leftover Hamburger Helper, cucumbers, applesauce, and Pocky’s (that we were given as the Food Distribution when we were volunteering); For Kiya: PB&J, chips, applesauce, and Pocky’s.

This is the day I always give them a treat in their lunch, and often chips also. They love Fun Friday Lunch day! ;)

Feel free to leave a comment sharing more lunchbox ideas!

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Big Family Food and Fun: September 10-16, 2023

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Fall is in the air for sure, and we are loving it! Care to see take a look at the food and fun our big family enjoyed last week?

How did we go from 11 to 14?? Read about that here.

Big Family Food and Fun: September 10-16, 2023

In preparation for the new week, on Saturday afternoon during naptime I made a double batch of Banana Bread and quadruple batch of Zucchini Bread/Muffins.

Sunday morning, I packaged up three of the loaves of bread to give (along with a package of diapers) as gifts at a baby shower that was being hosted after church that day for three new babies. I then froze some of the Zucchini Muffins and put the additional loaf of Zucchini Bread and Muffins into our glass containers to enjoy for breakfasts this week.

There was a “young adult” lunch being hosted after church also, and we were asked to provide salad for the group.

Sunday evening, we smoked marinated Chicken Thighs, made Cheesecake Parfait to go with all the strawberries I’d picked up on sale, and steamed green beans. We’d been gifted a big bag of rolls after Sunday’s lunch at church, so we buttered and toasted them to round out our meal.

Asa ad Eva joined us, plus we caught our neighbor John working in his flower garden and he came over and ate with us too. :)

Monday morning after we got Brayden and Kiya off to school, Keith and I headed to the Food Distribution site I shared about here. He and I had a lovely time working together with the other volunteers to set up food for the Tuesday distribution day.

We got home around 11 and had an early lunch/snack outside before Keith and Anna got picked up by the bus for pre-school. We finished off this Bean and Cheese Salsa Dip from the fridge with some chips and grapes.

Monday afternoon during naptime I made a triple batch of Snickerdoodle Bites to have on hand for snacks as needed. It is so helpful to have these available to give to the littles when they need something to hold them over until mealtime.

For dinner that night, we made a huge pile of pancakes with sausage, eggs, strawberries, applesauce, syrup, and whipped cream. This kind of meal always goes over well and it tastes so good at dinnertime! However, I don’t make it often because it’s a bit of a high maintenance meal when fixing plates of firsts, seconds, and thirds according to preference for each kid. (Some want peanut butter, applesauce, syrup and whipped cream on their pancakes. Some want just butter and syrup. And oh yeah, whipped cream please. Some want…) :)

For breakfast on Tuesday, I made 8-cups worth of oatmeal and set out berries to add to bowls if desired.

The problem with having bathrooms in every bedroom

As some of the kids were eating, I began to wonder where Anna and Josie had gone. Suddenly water started pouring through this kitchen light. Ohmygoodness. The two missing girls were running the water in their sink and flooding the bathroom, which came through to the kitchen. Ack.

Matt took care of the water mess in their bathroom while I took care of the water mess in the kitchen (I needed to mop anyway. Heh.)

Look how sweet and innocent she looks just minutes later as she reads a Bible to her baby. :)

We’ve stopped being surprised by the insanity that happens regularly at our house. We are surviving. The kids are learning (hopefully). And seriously, I got my floor mopped (and cabinets wiped down).

We walked Brayden and Kiya to school, then loaded up the other five and went to Menards. Sometimes they run in four different directions in the parking lot. Sometimes they do this:

Like little angel babies.
People in the parking lot were all like, “awwww, aren’t your kids so sweet?
Are they always so well behaved???”
Matt and I start to sob.
Just kidding. I held it together and handed Matt a tissue.
Just kidding. There was no time to cry or hand out tissues. The kids had started to run amok.

We did Matt’s Menards thing, then loaded up again to burn off some energy at a park before Keith and Anna got picked up at home by the bus for preschool. We snacked on cheese, crackers, and grapes while we were there.

Keith had packed his scooter and helmet into the van to enjoy at the park because he’s practically an adult now.

That afternoon after school, Brayden, Kiya, and I went to the Food Distribution to help hand out food to people in the community. This was only our second week doing this and we still have a lot to learn about how it all works. But we are being kindly trained, and aside from knowing how this helps people, the best thing I’m seeing is how good this is for Brayden and Kiya.

A little side encouragement: Find ways for your kids to serve, to look beyond themselves, and to care for others. Serve with them. Let them serve with you. Make this a high priority.

At the end of the day, we came home with many wonderful items that will help stretch our food budget. (As I shared here, I learned last week that volunteers are able to take food home also, as long as there is plenty.) We got several packages of greens, apples, milk, breads and buns, and mineral water.

We didn’t get home until 5:40 and Matt, Elias, and Malachi had been holding down the fort with the rest of the gang. I’d put Creamy Layered Enchiladas into the crock pot before leaving for the afternoon so that dinner would be ready when I got home. I’m not sure where I went wrong, but they only turned out sort of so-so. We ate them, but we didn’t give them a high rating this time like we usually do.

It’s possible that we didn’t really care about dinner anyway because there was too much excitement going on outside! Our neighbor, John, grows an incredible flower garden in his yard that we all get to enjoy. He was honored that night to be featured by an organization showcasing his flowers, so dozens of people were coming over and walking through.

Not only that, but John is very talented with his harmonica and voice, so he was offering musical entertainment while people enjoyed his flowers. We didn’t need an outing that night. The “outing” was right across the street!

John insisted that we all come over for the treats he had laid out, but we waited until the event was almost over so that we didn’t add chaos to his big night. The kids were spoiled with sweets and juice while we listened to more of John’s music and visited with more of our neighbors. We are finding that God landed us in a fantastic neighborhood and we continue to be grateful.

Wednesday morning, I cut some of the huge loves of wheat bread we’d received from the Food Distribution, toasted it, and smothered it with peanut butter and honey. I cut it into chunks and we enjoyed it with applesauce.

Of the 16-pounds of strawberries I bought on Saturday, we were down to 6-pounds and they were getting a bit squishy. So I cut them onto cookie sheets and froze them for smoothies.

Later, after they were frozen, I transferred them to gallon-sized freezer bags.

Wednesday’s big Azure Standard pick-up

As you know, I’ve been involved with Azure Standard in York for years. This is the first month I put in an order for the Lincoln drop. We came home with a very large supply of food because I hadn’t ordered for many months and needed to stock up on several Azure favorites. (Here’s a list of what I like to order from Azure.) I was blessed to have some referral credit to help pay for this haul (thank you!).

We got organic whole wheat pastry flour, yogurt, frozen corn, green beans, and peas, frozen hashbrowns, several varieties of canned fruit, and some boxes of Einkorn cookies as a special treat.

The hashbrowns came in a huge frozen brick so I transferred them to gallon-sized freezer bags – 8 in all! Our freezers are full and we are well stocked up. Very thankful!

For dinner that night we made a bunch of burgers on our smoker. Keith helped me load the smoker with pellets, taking his job very seriously.

Then we packed up our burgers and took them to one of our favorite parks for a picnic with grapes, pineapple, and yep, a salad like this. As good as this meal was, no one cared much about eating because they were too excited to ride their bikes and scooters on the trails. :)

Even little Josie got in on the action. She was the only one I could snap a photo of because everyone else took off so fast!

Thursday morning we made a bunch of Breakfast Sandwiches like this. We warmed them in our air fryer to enjoy then froze the few leftovers.

After we took the kids to school, Matt and I loaded up the five littles and headed to Walmart to pick up some WIC items, pull-ups, and diapers. We got home in time for a meeting with our Case Worker for BabyBoy#11. Then the bus came to pick up Keith and Anna. Phew, it was quite a morning!

I was excited to find cases of tomato sauce on clearance at Walmart. They were so cheap I bought five cases! It’s almost Chili season after all. :)

Matt had made plans with Elias and Malachi to stay with the remaining three little ones so that he could take me to lunch. So sweet! Here’s the most (un)impressive picture of our meal.

For dinner that night, we had Crock Pot Taco Pasta with salad, pineapple, and watermelon. We ate outside, then went for a walk before bedtime.

For breakfast on Friday morning, we ate Yogurt with Granola and berries.

Matt went to work in York that day so Malachi helped me get the kids to school, then we took the youngest five to the zoo.

I loved seeing how Acacia was looking up at her bigger brother here. :)

We stopped for a snack/lunch before loading everyone up to get home in time to meet Keith and Anna’s school bus.

For dinner that night, we pulled everything random out of the fridge to clear it out. No one really ate a balanced meal, but at least we didn’t waste food.

After dinner, I mixed up a double batch of these Pumpkin Donuts. I brought the kids in one at time (well, I tried – it was hard for all the little ones to wait their turn) to help me cut out the donuts as I rolled out the dough. We cut them into apple shapes to celebrate the coming of Fall.

While my hands were covered in flour, Acacia grabbed my phone from my back pocket and snapped dozens of pictures of our kitchen floor. But she also go this burry photo of me cleaning up after our donut mess. Ha!

Saturday morning, we fried the Pumpkin Donuts in coconut oil on the griddle then drizzled a little bit of glaze over each one.

We ate them with scrambled eggs and blueberries.

Then we headed out for what ended up being three full hours of fun.

First, we went to a library story time that was a special “Sensory Story Time.” It had been recommended to us by a specialist because several of our kids have sensory issues and can become overstimulated. We were VERY impressed with the program and hope to go regularly. (Those are weighted puppies the kids are holding.)

When that ended, we headed outside to a Community Garden Party (which happened to be just outside this very library). There were several tables set out with activities and everyone got to choose an apple.

They got to watch some fun plant-themed science experiments.

Then we got to tour the garden with scavenger hunt papers where the kids tried to locate various veggies, flowers, and insects. It was all SO MUCH FUN. We couldn’t believe that they all lasted the entire morning, but we didn’t load up to head home until well past lunchtime.

The apples had only held them off for a short while so we had some very hungry children when we got home. Therefore, there are no pictures to prove my ridiculous lunch. But the minute we got home, I simply grabbed every last leftover from the fridge to fill their hungry bellies. We ate a very weird combination of buttered pancakes, green beans, grapes, and chips with white queso. :) :) :) No one complained – they were all too hungry!

We spent the afternoon getting our final third floor room ready for the renter who was planning to move in that evening. So I took the night off for dinner, baking several frozen pizzas. We ate it with salad and clementines.

Just for fun: The floor in this suite was a gross mess when we moved in. Matt took from nasty to this…

Then this…

Then this…

And the final look is this:

There’s another space in the room large enough for a queen sized bed and night stand. Plus there’s a full bathroom attached to the room (as there is with all of the rooms we’ve rented out). I explained a bit more about our plans for renting out our third floor suites here. As of Saturday night, the rooms are full of wonderful people and we are thankful!

We are only just beginning to learn what God has planned for this Castle He gave us. We thank Him constantly for His provision.

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Lunches I Packed September 5-8, 2023

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Here’s a look at the lunches I packed for my kids to take to school last week. :)

Lunches I Packed September 5-8, 2023

There was no school on Monday because of Labor Day, so lunch at home looked like this, plus grapes and spoonfuls of peanut butter to fill their bellies.

Tuesday I packed Simple Bean and Cheese Salsa Dip with chips and a pear cup. This is a great way to sneak in protein because there are beans blended into the dip.

We’d been given two big containers of croissants, so I used them on Wednesday to make the kids Tuna Salad Croissant-wiches for lunch. I sent their favorite banana applesauce squeezie, plus cucumbers for Brayden and carrots with peanut butter for Kiya.

Thursday I woke up and realized I hadn’t done anything the day before to prep the kids’ school lunches. So I grabbed food from our freezer that I’d prepared for grab-and-go lunches. This was so helpful that now I’m trying to figure out what else I can make, baggie up, and freeze for quick lunches so it can be this easy more often!

The last time I made pizza, I froze leftover slices in baggies, so the kids got pizza in their lunch Thursday. I had also frozen Peanut Butter Snack Bars so those went into the lunchbox too, plus carrots and peanut butter for Kiya and cucumbers for Brayden, and a pear cup for each.

Our Fun Friday lunch looked a little bit different this week…

Brayden’s Hamburger Helper

I shared here how Brayden, Kiya, Keith, and I helped with a FoodNet Food Distribution on Monday and Tuesday of last week. (And how we hope to do it every week!) Volunteers get to take food also if there is enough, which is a bonus I wasn’t expecting.

The “Jr Volunteers” were given the opportunity to choose any two items from the table that they wanted and while I gave a half-effort to steer the kids in a healthy choice direction, I also wanted this to be fun for them. So I let them pick whatever they wanted.

I expected them to choose something sweet. But Brayden discovered one lonely box of Hamburger Helper and he couldn’t stop his excitement over it. “Mom!!! It’s that pasta I used to always eat before I came to live with you! I love that pasta! Can I get that please??”

As I’m typing this, I’m suddenly crying over the Hamburger Helper. My sweet, precious son. Where there was intense trauma and loss during Brayden’s first years of life, that box of pasta holds happy memories for him. He just wanted a taste of it again.

This was not the time for me to lecture him about the dangers of MSG.

“Yes, Brayden. That is a perfect choice for you today after you did such a good job helping give people food.”

All week he kept looking at that box of pasta in the pantry, making sure it was still there, asking when I would make it for him. Fun Friday, Buddy. Fun Friday.

Brayden on Friday morning:

I packed his thermos full of his beloved Hamburger Helper, and he asked if he could eat a bite with breakfast. Sure, why not?

He loved his bite, but was then the taste of it suddenly triggered a heavy load of sadness (that manifested in defiance because he doesn’t know how to process all the extreme feelings he experiences).

Sometimes we feel like we just can’t win. Always we remember that God already won.

So that’s the story of how Brayden took Hamburger Helper to school in his Friday lunch and of how much we constantly have to seek Jesus as we care for the needs of our trauma babies. In case you’re wondering, we made it through our rough morning and he did love his lunch later that day.

Kiya requested PB&J with chips for her Fun Friday lunch, plus I gave them each a peach cup and a packaged cake we’d received from the food distribution.

Phew, what a week! (I think we can all say that every week, ha.)

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124 Brunch Food Ideas and Recipes

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Need some brunch food ideas? Here are 124 to look through and choose from!

Recently I decided to host a simple brunch for our Sunday Lunch guests. I had so much fun brainstorming different food ideas that I decided to share them here for easy access.

My initial Brunch Food Ideas list looked like this:

  • Egg Casserole
  • French Toast Casserole
  • Muffins
  • Yogurt-Granola Parfait
  • Omelet Muffins
  • Fritatas
  • Quiche
  • Homemade Poptarts
  • Raspberry Bars
  • Iced Coffee – coffee bar
  • Fruit Tray with dips
  • Veggie Tray with dips
  • Cheesecake Parfait
  • Smoothie Station
  • Bagels and cream cheese spreads

Then I decided to be more detailed and make big lists of recipes in each category. All said and done, I compiled 124 recipe options for you to work with. These are all simple and good. Enjoy!

Egg Dish RecipesYum

Is it even a brunch if you don’t have an Egg Casserole of some kind? :) These are some great options to choose from:

French Toast and Bread Pudding

These are great because you can make them ahead of time:

Muffin Recipes

It might be fun to make several varieties of muffins to set out along with a beautiful, colorful fruit arrangement, quiche, and drinks!

Breads and Rolls

Make a variety of these to slice and serve with an egg dish and fruit:

Other Fun Baked Goods

These recipes will make your brunch extra special:

Cheesecake or Yogurt Parfaits

These are as beautiful as they are delicious!

Fruit with Dips

Prepare a tray filled with any variety of these fruits to go with your fruit dips: strawberries, blueberries, green grapes, red grapes, pineapple, cantaloupe, watermelon, honey dew melon, orange wedges, apple slices

Chips or Veggies with Dips

Veggie platters are beautiful because they add color variety to your buffet. These dips make veggies more fun to eat:

Salads

Here are some ideas for making your salad special:

Smoothie Station

Borrow blenders from a couple of friends, then set out a variety of frozen fruits for people to choose from:

  • Pineapple
  • Strawberries
  • Blueberries
  • Bananas
  • Mango

Along with liquid choices:

  • Whole milk
  • Almond milk
  • Coconut milk
  • Orange juice
  • Yogurt

And some extras like whipped cream and fun straws. Let everyone make a smoothie just the way they like!

Coffee

Your guests will love it if you serve coffee in any of these fun ways!

Hot or Iced Tea Options

These look pretty in glass serving dispensers…

Hot and Cold Drink Treats

These ideas are unique and always go over well:

Share your favorite brunch menus!

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Big Family Food and Fun: September 3-9, 2023

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We added a few extras to our home this week. What?!?! Yep, our Big Family Food and Fun just got bigger. (And “funner.”)

Our household grew this week

I mentioned here that Matt was getting the suites in our third floor ready to rent out. We thought these rooms wouldn’t be filled yet for several months, but God had other, better plans. We thought we’d just rent out two of the rooms and keep the other one open. But God had other, better plans.

He worked out the details and all of a sudden, all three rooms are full! (Well, one person hasn’t moved in yet but she’s got her spot reserved and will move in next week.) We are so thankful for who God brought into our home. It’s all working out to be a win-win!

UPDATE as of 9-17-23: We currently have two of the rooms occupied by sweet single gals and one room filled with a mama and her two young children. :)

Our arrangement with our renters is that they have no obligation to eat meals with us but that they are more than welcome to eat with us if they would like. We love having our table full, and now extra full. :)

So there’s our household update. :) Now on to our Food and Fun from last week:

Food and Fun September 3-9, 2023

Sunday morning I set out three varieties of bagels I had picked up at Aldi. We toasted them in our air fryer and spread on cream cheese, enjoying bowls of applesauce on the side.

When I had breakfast set out and went in to see what kind of bagels each kid wanted toasted, I found Kiya reading a book to Anna and BabyBoy#11. Kiya LOVES to read and is becoming very good at it. :)

On our way home from church I ran into Sam’s and grabbed two rotisserie chickens for our lunch. Of course, I can’t just run in and get chicken. I grabbed a few other things we needed: applesauce, peanut butter, yogurt, spring mix, and tortilla chips. I threw them all into the messy back of our van and we headed home for lunch.

While I was putting together the sides to go with our chicken, we set out the Peanut Butter Cup Whipped Cream and animal crackers I had made for dessert. The littles saw it and started treating it like an appetizer. Good grief. ;)

To go with our rotisserie chickens, I had made baked potatoes in the crock pot, Caesar salad (mixes from Aldi), watermelon, cantaloupe, and Hawaiian rolls. It was such a simple but delicious lunch!

We invested in an espresso machine a few weeks ago and Elias is our local barista. He made us all iced lattes to enjoy once we got all the littles down for naps/rest time. BLISS.

That evening, we were blessed to go back to our friends’ house to enjoy their pool. Of course, we were so busy having fun (and keeping children safe in the water) that I didn’t get many pictures. Here are the girls when we “made them” get out of the water to eat.

Ms. Barbara and Mr. Steven had put together a most wonderful dinner of BLT Salad, grapes, peanut butter and jelly sandwich makings, chips, and cookies. We felt so loved and spoiled. Then back into the water we all went!

They sent us home with a huge bag of homemade waffles which we enjoyed for breakfast the next morning with applesauce, syrup, and peanut butter.

We had been given a lot of garden tomatoes, zucchini, onions, and squash and I needed to cook them before they went bad. I washed and chopped everything and put it into a pot to cook into a sauce.

Mid-morning Brayden, Kiya, Keith, and I went to help at a church that offers a weekly food distribution. They did a great helping Ms. Kathleen with any job she gave us to do. (More details about this below.)

We got home and pulled leftover rotisserie chicken out of the fridge for lunch. The kids sat at the picnic table outside and ate chicken with dips plus oranges slices, carrots, and cucumbers. Then I got out cold grapes and spoonfuls of peanut butter to finish off our meal.

We kept the kids outside after lunch to wear them out before naptime. It got hot so I pulled out frozen Go-gurts for a treat to cool them off.

It was too hot to bake, but I needed some extra fillers for lunchboxes, so during naptime I baked a double batch of these Peanut Butter Snack Bars to individually wrap, freeze, and add to lunches as needed.

That afternoon I finished simmering the sauce I had started that morning and blended it up. I chopped up a few grilled burgers we had leftover from last week and added it to the sauce to make it meaty.

Meanwhile, I prepped two garden fresh spaghetti squash we’d received and cooked them in our Instant Pot. I also boiled a pound of regular spaghetti noodles and warmed up some leftover Cream Cheese Corn from last week. I wasn’t sure how the kids would do with this meal because the sauce was different than they are used to. But they all gobbled this up – and the littlest kids loved the spaghetti squash!

I had promised the kids that they could have leftover Peanut Butter Cup Whipped Cream and crackers if they ate a good dinner (again, because I didn’t know if they’d eat the veggie-filled sauce and spaghetti squash) and indeed, they all ate a good dinner and were rewarded with their special treat!

Since it was a hot night, we set up the sprinkler for the kids to play in before bedtime.

Justus and Kelsey had come over to do their laundry so it was extra great to have them for a few hours that evening.

Tuesday morning we ate toasted bagels with fruit and got Brayden and Kiya off to school. Then Matt and I loaded up the five littlest and headed to a library story hour that was featuring a special Heavy Equipment Experience. The parking lot was full of all kinds of trucks and “worker vehicles.” It was Keith’s dream come true!

That afternoon, I went to Walmart to pick up formula and baby food for BabyBoy#11. Then right after school, Brayden, Kiya, and I went back to the church food distribution.

Community Food Distribution

Allow me to explain more about what I learned this week and what this is. A few weeks ago while we were at a fun Literacy Festival with our kids, we stopped at a booth and I learned about FoodNet. This is an organization in Lincoln that receives donations from local grocery stores, bakeries, and restaurants who give food that they can’t sell but don’t want to throw away. There are multiple distribution sites all through the city all week long who give this food to people in the community.

After hearing about it, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Matt and I have such little spare time, yet this was something I felt God leading me to check into more. (I’m not sure if you know this about me, ha, but I love food and feeding people.) I researched it and prayed about it and God prompted me to involve our kids in this. This was a way we could serve with them and help them look beyond themselves.

I called one of the distribution sites and we arranged for the kids and I to go there on Monday since they had the day off of school. (Bless Matt and the boys for keeping the littlest four at home while we did this.) Monday is the day they receive a lot of the food and get it sorted and bagged. The kids loved helping with this, and so did I!

Then on Tuesday, right after school we went back to help distribute the food. Brayden and Kiya were put in charge of handing out treats to people as they came through the line. I was put in charge of handing out bunches of bananas, melons, and grapes. We loved every minute of it! Hopefully we can make this a part of our weekly routine if we can make arrangements for everyone at home. (Tuesday, Malachi was Matt’s side kick to help make it happen.)

What we didn’t know is that volunteers get to take food too, as long as there is plenty. The goal is that no food gets wasted and thrown away! So we ended up coming home with a huge box plus two bags full of food. We got a variety of breads, croissants, bagels, and English muffins plus bananas that I can turn into smoothies or banana bread. You can see some of it below. We also got broccoli, apples, peaches, a sweet pepper, and some salad fixins. Oh, and some sweet treats that the other volunteers were happy to give Brayden and Kiya. :) What a fun and unexpected bonus to help us feed our family and others!

We arrived home with our goodies around 5:30 and it was a bit nuts in our kitchen. ;) Before I left, I had put Cheesy Hashbrown Casserole into the crock pot (using the rest of the leftover rotisserie chicken from Sunday) so it was hot and ready to eat when we got home. We’d received a Caesar salad pack at the food distribution so I threw it together and that was dinner that night. (Along with a treat of some frosted cookies the kids were given as a “thank you” for helping that they shared with everyone at home.)

Phew. What a crazy lot of fun that day was. :)

Wednesday morning we took advantage of the croissants we’d been given the day before. I scrambled eggs with cheese and cooked bacon to make Croissant-wiches. Wow, they were good!

I had tuna salad in the fridge so I used more croissants to make tuna sandwiches for the kids to take to school for lunch.

Then I took a few minutes to open and break the over-ripe bananas we’d been given. I put them into freezer bags and into the freezer to use later for smoothies.

Dinner that night was in part compliments of one of our newest “tenants.” Everyone renting from us is a wonderful fit and some are even willing to make us a huge pot of the best mac and cheese!

We enjoyed the mac and cheese with smoked sausage and stir-fried veggies before heading to the zoo for about an hour before bedtime. We saw the red panda (he’s not always out so it’s always super exciting when we see him!), giraffes, and a few other animal friends. Then we enjoyed the free cookies they were handing out to zoo members before heading home for the night. :)

I have a confession

I wanted to make oatmeal on Thursday morning…and I couldn’t remember how. :) :) :) :) :)

I mean, I knew to boil water and then add oats, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember the ratio of water to oats. And I didn’t know how long it would take to cook. Has it been a full summer much, Laura?? Why yes, thank you. It has.

Anyway, on Thursday I googled how to make oatmeal. (Yes I know there are directions on the package but I buy in bulk and had transferred my oats from my package.) In case you need to know this: 2:1. Two cups of water for every one cup of oats. You are very welcome.

So we had our oatmeal and I stirred in baby fruit puree (that I have in abundance because we get it from WIC thanks to BabyBoy#11). And the kids gobbled it up!

Our morning outing after we got the two older littles to school was to walk to a park we hadn’t checked out yet. It was a perfect toddler/preschool sized park.

It was all good except that there are no potties there and someone (it wasn’t me) peed on the slide.

We decided to head home, but we did go ahead and eat the snack I’d packed so that those in our crowd with wet pants didn’t also become hangry.

We had juice, cheese/crackers, and applesauce. Aside from the pee, it was a lovely outing.

Lunch was leftovers. For dinner that night I went to a bit more “trouble” than I usually do because I had a bunch of over-shredded-weird-texture chicken in the freezer that I didn’t know what to do with (but couldn’t stand to waste). It had been in our freezer for many months and I needed to use it!

This week, I remembered this Chicken Patty Sandwich recipe, which calls for ground chicken. My weird chicken wasn’t exactly what the recipe calls for, but whatever. This is how we adapt recipes, use what we have, and avoid wasting food.

I made four pounds worth of these sandwiches, plus a blender full of these smoothies.

This was a very high maintenance meal, plus it made a huge mess, so I won’t likely make these very often. But the sandwiches did taste very good and we have leftovers so we’re getting two meals from one mess. :)

After we cleaned up, we loaded kids into the van and headed to one of our favorite parks to get the last of the ants out of our pants before bedtime.

Friday morning, Matt headed to York to work so Malachi was my side-kick for the first few hours of the day and then Elias took his spot when Malachi had to leave. Malachi and I decided to see if we could manage walking to “The Mill,” a coffee shop that is 0.8 miles from our house.

It turned out to be a lovely walk, and we were all very proud of ourselves for making it happen. (Keith especially, because he did great on his bike.) I stayed outside the shop with the babes while Malachi and Keith went in for a coffee. Then I took the girls in to potty before heading home. Because guess what?

This big 3-year-old is learning how to use a big girl potty. She is very proud, as she should be!

Lunch was leftovers – which is becoming pretty normal around here.

For dinner we had French Fry Friday! We used the rest of the croissants we’d been given earlier in the week to make delicious BLTs. I air fried our French fries, and sliced up oranges. It was a great way to wrap up our school week!

Saturday morning we ate scrambled cheesy eggs with yogurt, granola, and blueberries.

Impromptu Shopping Trip

Mid-morning we dropped Brayden, Kiya, and Keith at a park for a birthday party. Knowing we needed to pick them up an hour and a half later, we decided to take the youngest four to pick up a few groceries.

Ha, “a few groceries.”

I filled a cart at Costco, because I picked up some staples and then saw that berries were SUPER on sale. Strawberries were just $2.89 for 2 pounds!! Organic raspberries were only $2.29 for 12-ounces. I got four packs of raspberries and 8 packs (two flats) of strawberries. So now we have 16-pounds of strawberries, hahaha. The price and quality was too good to pass up!

We loaded the littles back into the van and headed to Aldi where I grabbed milk, salsa, cottage cheese, and salad kits for a lunch after church the next day. I also bought 6-pounds of grass-fed ground beef, breaking my meat price point. (It costs 4.99/pound.) I decided that I’ll stock up on “regular” ground beef if I find a sale, but when I can afford it, I’ll buy the good stuff. There’s a very big difference in quality for just $1.50/pound difference. We eat less beef overall now, so I can mostly buy meat at this price point and “allow” myself to buy better hamburger meat when I can.

Besides strawberries and raspberries, salad, meat, and milk, we also came home with potatoes, almond butter, avocado mash, olives, peach cups for lunches, chips, sausage, frozen fruit for smoothies, bananas brats, tuna, grapes, pancake mix, hotdogs, tea, and a few other goodies. I’m wondering if this will be our final watermelon of the season?? Sniff.

So far in September, I’ve spent $419. We are very well stocked up on everything we need and I am thankful for the abundance.

For dinner that night we ate leftovers from the fridge before rushing out the door so we wouldn’t miss Art in the Garden, a special feature that day at Sunken Gardens. We got there just as it was ending so we were thankful we could still see what it was like, with all kinds of art booths set up throughout the garden.

When we got home, I had promised the kids we would enjoy a special treat with some of our fresh strawberries. We had been given an angel food cake at the Food Distribution on Tuesday so I cut up strawbrries, whipped some cream, and it was all so delicious after our walk!

Keith wanted to help and took his job of adding strawberries to each plate very seriously.

And that’s a wrap!

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The Coppinger Castle Kitchen

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Would you like to take a look around our “Coppinger Castle Kitchen” to see how we are using it for our family?

Welcome to the Coppinger Castle

First, this is why we are calling it a Castle. It’s really just a house, but it’s very large and it is God’s gift to us to meet our needs for our family.

When we looked online as we were searching for a house before we moved, we were amazed by all this house offered for the price. And then we saw photos of the kitchen:

This house – and its kitchen – meet our needs and then some. Truly, we are so grateful and amazed by all God provided with this house. (By the way, most of the other rooms in our house hold onto their 1914 beauty. This kitchen was updated just a few years ago.)

Two days after we moved in, our kitchen looked like this:

After about a week of making the kitchen a priority, we figured out where we wanted everything so that we could be efficient and make the most of this beautiful space. We got everything unpacked into its new home, and would you believe there are still some cabinets left empty?! That’s how vast this kitchen is. Amazing!

The Coppinger Castle Kitchen

We decided to organize our new kitchen in a way that best meets the needs of all of us. We need efficiency because there are so many of us and so many little ones. So first, we decided that instead of putting cups, plates, and bowls into high cabinets that the kids couldn’t reach, we would put them in drawers at their level. This way, Brayden and Kiya (and the others as they get older) can help unload the dishwasher and reach their own cups when they need a drink.

It’s worth noting that we’ve also been using lots of plastic instead of breakable dishes. This has been a lovely game changer!!! A few months ago, I bought about 20 large, sturdy plastic plates at Wal-Mart for $0.50 each. I did the same with small, kid-sized, plastic plates. Then I found large and small plastic bowls – all fun colors – all $0.50 each.

Using these frees us to let the little ones help more. These also clean up easily in the dishwasher. So we find that we use them even when we have company. We are saving a lot of money on paper plates this way!

The Dishwashers

And speaking of the dishwasher – um, dishwasher(s) – plural… Having two dishwashers in our kitchen is so beyond incredible with this many people in our home!! At any given time, you’ll see something like this in which they are both full.

We can fill one and start to run it, then turn to the other one and begin to fill it. We can keep up with dishes so much better this way! And I can turn the unloading of the dishwashers over to Brayden and Kiya now if the timing is right (if they are home and not in school at the moment).

The Silverware

I decided to try something with our silverware, and I 100% love it. Before, when we had silverware dividers in our drawer, whoever unloaded the dishwasher had to touch every piece to put it into its proper spot. Then, because we had so much silverware, it wouldn’t stay in its place anyway. It was always a mess.

Friends, I give you my “dump all the silverware into the drawer directly from the dishwasher basket” drawer:

I love this so much! We grab the full, clean basket of silverware from the dishwasher and put away all the baby spoons, sharp knives, and serving spoons. Then DUMP. The rest goes into this drawer. It’s fantastic.

My Baking Area

This is probably my favorite section, though of course, I love all the others too. But looooook! I put all my baking items over in one corner of the kitchen – ingredients, measuring cups and spoons, baking pans – everything. This is SO EFFICIENT and makes it so very easy for me to mix up muffins, cakes, cookies, and bars.

You can see oats, flour, and sugars on the counter. The cabinet right above my mixer holds baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder, vanilla, etc.

Here are the large drawers in my Baking Area. The top holds small measuring cups, muffin liners, measuring spoons, and cookie scoops. The middle drawer holds all my baking pans from muffin pans to cookie sheets. The bottom drawer contains large glass measuring cups, funnels, and big scoops.

I quickly mix up whatever I need, then I can slip it right into the oven which is directly to the right of my Baking Area.

Our Cooking Area

And then on the other side of the stove/oven? That’s where I have items to meet our cooking needs. Pots, pans, lids, skillets, and utensils are in the drawers to the right of the stove. This makes everything easily accessible as we prepare our meals.

The Stove

This thing is a beast. It has six large gas burners with a griddle in between. There is one large oven with a smaller oven to the side. We are making the most of all that this offers. We love it!

The Coffee/Tea Area

There’s a small countertop and cabinet section behind the Cooking Area that is perfect for making coffee and tea. We keep our coffee pot and electric water kettle there, plus a sugar bowl. Somehow the straws ended up there too – I guess because that’s where we do “all things drinks.”

Here’s a peek inside the cabinet where we house our coffee, tea, and mugs. There are a few random items in there too, plus spices that I can access easily when I’m cooking at the stove.

Baked Goods Area

Last but not least, we have a section in our kitchen where we put all of our ready-to-eat breads and muffins. The cookie jar is there – sometimes filled with cookies, but often filled with muffins. I don’t always have a vase of flowers there, haha. Those were from my birthday in August. (See how I started writing this post a month ago and am finally getting around to finishing it?!)

And there you have it, the Castle Kitchen.

The initial photo of the sparkly kitchen really sold us on this house. But this is what we prefer our kitchen to look like:

Full of food and people we love.

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Lunches I Packed August 28-September 1, 2023

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Here are the school lunches I packed last week for my kids!

Your school lunch questions answered:

I try to pack a variety, only packing sandwiches on Fridays for what we call “Fun Friday” lunches with sandwich, chips, and a sweet treat. The kids have a lot of fun knowing that every day’s lunch will be different each time!

School Lunches I Packed August 28-September 1, 2023

1. Monday: Pizza, peaches, pickles, pineapple, and pistachios

The kids and I had a fun time choosing foods that all started with the letter P. It started with pizza and peaches, then we just went with it. ;)

2. Tuesday: Yogurt, granola bites, banana, and a “Spinach Muffin“

This was a fun change – to pack more of a breakfast-y type of lunch. There was a little banana mess smooshed into the bottoms of both lunch bags when they got home. But there’s almost always some sort of mess at the end of each school day. :)

3. Wednesday: Hotdog in a thermos, ketchup, veggies with dips, applesauce, oatmeal bar

I had never tried this before, but it worked well!

I cut four hotdogs into bites and cooked them in water. I put the steaming hotdog bites into their thermoses and instructed them to pour them into the lid of their thermos for easy access at lunchtime. They said it worked great!

4. Thursday: Cottage cheese, pineapple (Brayden), peaches (Kiya), cucumbers (Brayden), Spinach Muffin (Kiya), and Banana Muffin (Brayden)

This one took a tiny bit more time to pack simply because I was putting together different items based on their preferences. But the muffins were already in the freezer so all I had to do was grab them out and put them into containers (to keep them from becoming squished in the lunch bag).

5. Fun Friday: PB&J or Turkey and Cheese sandwich, chips of their choice, grapes, wafer cookie

I had picked up several bags of chips on big discount at Aldi last week so the kids had fun choosing what kind they wanted in their Friday lunch.

Have you packed anything fun in your kids’ lunchboxes recently? Share your ideas!

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Big Family Food and Fun: August 27-September 2, 2023

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Our Big Family Food and Fun this week included weekend company, a birthday celebration, and a church party…

Big Family Food and Fun: August 27-September 2, 2023

Sunday morning as I was getting the three little girls dressed, they suddenly started to be twirly and dancy and huggy. I started snapping pictures and they started posing and I got so many cute and giggly photos!

Breakfast that morning – before they were dressed so that we didn’t destroy clean outfits – was leftover goodies I’d made last week: Banana Bread and Chewy Granola Bars.

We planned to stay at church for lunch that day, so I packed up grapes, nacho dip/chips, and brownies to share. (I also took a loaf of banana bread I’d made in hopes that our friend who just had a new baby might be there. She was there! New Baby is precious, and I stuck the loaf of bread into her stroller for her to take home and enjoy.)

Lunch that day was a crazy fun Parking Lot Party after church. There were 150+ who stuck around after church to eat, visit, and play.

We’d taken our Shaved Ice Machine and Elias filled cup after cup for everyone at the party. Take a look below at the precious baby in the yellow dress standing by her brother’s leg. She stood there for the longest time, just being with him while he worked. Josie sure does love her brother. :)

That evening we met up with friends at a park. I packed a picnic (cheese, crackers, mandarin oranges, pistachios, and juice) but only got one picture the entire night! We were having too much fun visiting and playing.

Monday morning we ate more of the same (I had made a HUGE batch of the granola bars), plus apples with this special cheese.

Lunch was leftover 3-Cheese Spaghetti. Dinner was a dish I’d made ahead of time here. I dumped it into the crock pot at lunch time, turned it on low, and it was bubbly at dinnertime. We ate it as a chip dip with watermelon.

Tuesday morning Brayden had tests at school so he informed me that he needed “good sleep and a good breakfast.” I made cheese eggs and sausage (while an unnamed toddler was tantruming on the floor – part of her typical morning routine as we try to help her learn to regulate her emotions).

I got out strawberries and Orange Muffins that I had frozen and thawed.

After we walked Brayden and Kiya to school, we came home and did some cleaning. Anna and Josie “helped” by getting a hand broom and dust pan. The effectively spread around everything I’d swept up and made me do the work twice. ;) But I love that they want to help and that they are learning.

Meanwhile, Matt was upstairs using a power sander in one of our third floor suites that we are getting ready to rent out.

Elias and Malachi helped me with the five littlest all morning since Matt was upstairs working. I actually got quite a bit done in the kitchen that morning since the two guys were chasing kids for me. I made these 3-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies (multiplying the recipe x6) so that we can eat some now and have cookies in the freezer to use as needed later.

At lunchtime, I cleaned leftovers out of the fridge for all of us to eat. Unfortunately, I left the corn cooking too long and all the water steamed off so the bottoms got blackened. The kids were not impressed. ;)

I had to take BabyBoy#11 to a doctor appointment that afternoon, so before we left I put everything for this recipe into a crock pot (I even managed to plug it in AND turn it on. Go me.)

That evening I plated and bagged all the cookies I had made so now we have four bags of frozen 3-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies ready to pull out and use as needed.

Wednesday was a bit of a blur. But for dinner that night I made two griddles full of grilled ham and cheese sandwiches with an air fryer full of French fries. I also made a bowl full of Strawberry Fluff which the kids loved.

After we got the kitchen cleaned up that night, we drove to the zoo and walked around the garden they feature just outside the zoo. We hadn’t had a chance to do that yet so it was extra special to do this just before bedtime.

Thursday morning after we walked Brayden and Kiya to school, we loaded up the youngest five kids and headed to Aldi. Phew, we filled two carts and that was just with children, ha. Somehow we managed to also put food into our carts, getting our Aldi favorites: whole milk yogurt, whole milk cottage cheese, whole milk, three varieties of bagels, hoagie buns, apple juice, pear cups in 100% juice, and three varieties of cheese slices.

I don’t always like to buy produce at Aldi, but they had really good prices that day and the quality looked better than usual. I bought bananas, cantaloupe, watermelon, pears, two varieties of organic apples, grapes, blueberries, and four bags of salad mixes. I also found a 5-pound roast for $1.99/pound so I grabbed it. Chips were on sale for $0.99/bag so I got six bags.

This is what it looks like when the Coppingers “run into Aldi for a few things.”

I ended August with a whopping $1,780 grocery spending total – more than I’ve ever spent that I can remember. I’d feel bad about it except that I don’t – not even a little bit. We went under budget for several months in a row before this month and we had a lot of extra food needs this month. God provides, we make the wisest choices that we can, and we feed a lot of people. Praise God for His provision!

—> This is the grocery budget number I shoot for, but as always, I realize that I may need to make adjustments and increase the number. Stay tuned. <—

It felt so good to have so much fresh fruit on hand again!

I snapped this photo of the third floor room Matt’s been working on all week. Here’s the floor, half-way finished. So gorgeous!

Thursday afternoon our sweet friends, Steven and Barbara, dropped off two lovely loaves of banana bread for us – all sliced and ready to eat!

It was Acacia’s birthday so I put 12 burgers on the grill plus 14 brats.

I made a birthday cake, poking holes into it and pouring pudding into the holes, then topping it with whipped cream. The only thing I made from scratch was the whipped cream. Boxed cake mix and pudding mix for the win this time. :)

She may have turned three, but she’s already mother hen to this baby chick as we try to help him gain strength to sit on his own.

Some of our big kids were able to join us for dinner so I set out a spread of brats and burgers, chips, and fruit.

She figured out how to blow out the candles. :)

Keith was so excited to hand Acacia her gift – a little purse I’d found on clearance for $3.00. She loved it and has been carrying it around everywhere!

Friday morning we enjoyed Ms. Barbara’s banana bread with yogurt and blueberries.

After we got the kids off to school, Matt and Elias headed to York to work and Malachi helped me take the kids to Costco. I didn’t need to shop, I just needed customer service as I had noticed that the last time I was there they rang up four cases of diapers when, in fact, I had only purchased three. Since it was a $45 discrepancy, I felt it was worth getting credit back. Thus, going to Costco became our morning outing. :)

The boys started to get restless so Malachi walked around with Keith and BabyBoy#11 while I got the bill figured out with Customer Service.

Then we had a special treat of Costco Pizza. It was mostly a mess (like, a 12-15 wet wipes to clean up the pizza sauce mess). But it was fun for everyone and $6 took care of that day’s lunch!

As we were loading everyone back into the cart to head out to the van, Little-Mama-Acacia started to rub BabyBoy#11’s back. Goodness, the sweetness.

That night Malachi threw Sam’s Orange Chicken into the air fryer, and I got out cold watermelon and two bags of salad mix from Aldi. It was easy and hit the spot!

When Matt and Elias arrived back at home, they had our former foster son, age 4, with them to spend the weekend. Everyone was overjoyed to be back together!

The kids played and played outside that evening. I thought they might need a little something to eat to fill their bellies before bed, so I took grapes and cheese outside. They all thought that was a good plan. :)

Some dear friends arrived Friday night to visit for the weekend! For breakfast on Saturday, I set out banana bread and muffins, yogurt, blueberries, bananas, and made sausage and tator tots. Brayden had requested hashbrowns but I was out so we decided that tator tots were the same thing. ;)

The kids asked to play cards that morning, and this was the result. Ugh.

We packed up a big picnic for lunch and headed out to the Splash Park for one last hoorah before it closed for the season.

I wasn’t sure I had enough lunch meat left in my packages, so I threw together a container of tuna salad real quickly.

I smoked two pork loin for dinner that evening and served them with green beans, watermelon, buttered and toasted hoagies leftover from lunch, and Cream Cheese Corn. Meals like these are my favorite!!

After dinner, we took our friends on a walk to our beloved Sunken Gardens. Aww, there’s our Kellie with her baby boy. We became friends with Kellie and Ben while they were students at YU. They spent a lot of time at our house during those days and became a part of our family. Now here they are with a baby of their own. It was amazing to have a weekend with them!

Here we are in September, heading from summer into fall. We’re going to soak up every last bit of nice weather while it’s here!

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3 Big Fat Costco Essentials

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During one of my last grocery shopping trips, I realized that I rely on 3 big fat Costco essentials. I can’t ever run out of these!

Indeed, I’m talking about actual fat. Healthy fats that cost less at Costco and are essentials at my house.

My 3 Big Fat Costco Essentials

Here they are, in no particular order. Ah, phooey. Who am I kidding? Of course they are in order. Butter is my favorite, hands down.

1. Butter

Now that we have such a large household, I find that we go through butter very quickly. We bake with it often and spread it on all of our muffins and breads.

Costco butter comes in a 4-pound-pack and currently costs just $2.87/pound. I haven’t found it for this low anywhere else I’ve shopped. I usually buy two 4-packs each time I shop (once or twice each month) so that I always have a couple pounds in my fridge and extras to grab from my freezer.

What do I make with butter?

Well, how long do you have?! These are some of our very favorites:

  1. Homemade Graham Crackers
  2. Sweet and Simple Butter Cookies
  3. Garlic Butter Shrimp
  4. Stick-of-Butter Rice is incredible and worth a huge mention (though I have recently admitted that I sometimes skip the butter in this recipe in an effort to save money, ha)
  5. Easy {Low} Sugar Cookies
  6. Low Sugar Lemon Melt-Away Cookies
  7. Low Sugar Almond Melt-Away Cookies
  8. Low Sugar Orange Melt-Away Cookies
  9. Low Sugar Lime Melt-Away Cookies
  10. Easy Butterscotch Bars
  11. And then slather butter over any of these muffins and bread recipes

2. Coconut Oil

Coconut oil has been a staple at our house since I discovered its wonderful health benefits in 2005. We use it on our skin and in our recipes.

I love this 2.48 L tub from Costco for just $14.89. What an inexpensive way to get a lot of healthy fat into our diet!

What do I make with Coconut Oil?

These recipes are such good treats and made with this wonderful, healthy fat.

  1. Pumpkin Breakfast Cake
  2. Carrot Cake
  3. Easy Applesauce Cake
  4. Blueberry Shortcake with Cream Topping
  5. Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins
  6. Dark Chocolate Almond Granola
  7. Granola ~ 5-Minute Stop-Top Version
  8. Lemon Bread
  9. Whole Wheat Waffles
  10. Dark Chocolate Almond Granola
  11. Coconut Flour Muffins
  12. Coconut Fudge Bars
  13. Chewy Granola Bars
  14. Low Sugar Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake
  15. Low Sugar Carrot Cake
  16. Low Sugar Super Moist Chocolate Cake
  17. No Bake Cookie Cups 
  18. Fat Bombs
  19. Honey Sweetened No-Bake Cookies
  20. Just about all 40 of these awesome Muffin Recipes

3. Olive Oil

I use olive oil for cooking more than I do for baking, and this Organic Kirkland Olive Oil from Costco is my favorite. It is only $14.79 for a 2 Liter bottle and it lasts a long time, even at my house!

What do I make with Olive Oil?

Here are some of our olive oil favorites:

  1. Cake in a Crock Pot (you can hide spinach in this!)
  2. Seasoned Potato Wedges
  3. Bacon Chicken Pasta
  4. Easy Veggie Stir-Fry
  5. Homemade Pita Bread
  6. Roasted Asparagus
  7. BLT Chopped Salad
  8. Simple Three Cheese Spaghetti
  9. Crock Pot Shredded Ranch Chicken
  10. Simple Cheesy Baked Chicken
  11. Homemade Italian Salad Dressing

Extra Fats

Beyond these healthy cooking and baking fats, we love full fat sour cream, cottage cheese, whole milk, 4% milk fat yogurt, meat, avocados, nuts, nut butters, and cheese.

What are your favorite healthy fats?

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