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Simple Crock Pot Taco Pasta

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After experimenting with the Simple 3-Cheese Crock Pot Pasta and discovering that we can dump uncooked pasta into a crock pot, then walk away and come back to a finished meal a few hours later, I’ve been on a mission to see what other varieties of pasta our crock pots can cook for us.

Not that cooking pasta is difficult, but if we can even skip that step in our real food culinary endeavors, we can consider all of life a vacation. The conversation can go something like this:

Person: What do you do all day?
You and Me: I spend a lot of time not cooking pasta.

We can expand the conversation by explaining that we also spend a lot of our time not thawing meat, and an additional portion of our day not soaking beans. We have become experts at all the kitchen tasks we don’t do while still managing to put amazing, real food meals on the table.

This Simple Meals life is beautiful, isn’t it?!

The Simple 3-Cheese Crock Pot Pasta really saved my neck one day recently when I had only three hours to make a meal for a table full of last minute company. I grabbed a package of pasta and two jars of sauce from my pantry, dumped it all in the crock pot and did not go back into the kitchen until time to serve the cooked meal along with some fresh fruit and fresh greens from our garden.

The Simple Crock Pot Pizza Casserole would have worked just as nicely. And today I will show you how to turn this Simple Skillet Taco Pasta recipe into an effortless crock pot recipe.

crock pot taco pasta1

The first time I made this was a day I had to have one kid out the door by 8:00, another kid and my husband out the door by 8:50, myself out the door by 10:00, and lunch on the table for my entire family plus a house guest by 12:30. I had some leftover taco meat in the fridge, so I dumped it into the crock pot with a package of dry pasta, stirred in two jars of salsa, and added some water. I sprinkled in some sea salt and left the house.

When I came home at 12:15, I stirred the delicious smelling meal, spread on some shredded cheese, and let the food sit while I got out grapes and salad. Lunch was served within minutes of me not being home to cook. I am so grateful for recipes like this!

Crock Pot Taco Pasta

If you don’t want to wait 2-3 hours for this casserole to cook itself in the crock pot, simply follow this Simple Skillet Taco Pasta version instead. It’ll be ready in about 20 minutes from start to finish. But for the I don’t have one minute to spare days...

Simple Crock Pot Taco Pasta

Simple Crock Pot Taco Pasta
 
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Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 1 pound ground taco meat (cooked)
  • 16-ounces whole grain pasta (uncooked)
  • 32-ounces salsa
  • 2 cups water
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • 2 cups shredded cheese
Instructions
  1. Stir all ingredients into a crock pot.
  2. Cook on low for 4 hours.
  3. Stir mixture.
  4. Top with cheese and let sit for 5-10 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Simple Crock Pot Taco Pasta

Obviously it helps to make this recipe easier if you have some leftover meat all cooked and ready to go. I love using seasoned hamburger meat, but leftover Shredded Ranch Chicken would work great too. Any time I’m making seasoned meat, I always make extra so I can use leftovers in salads or meals like this!

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Do you have any other great ideas for me as for sauces to cook pasta in the crock pot?

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Simple Tex-Mex Creamy Chicken

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I have made a decision. It is a big one and I appreciate your support. Thank you in advance.

As of now, until further notice, I shall not soak and cook my beans.

tex mex chicken1

Canned beans for the Simple Meals win.

I know. This news is big. But my beans and I have valid reasons for such a drastic change in our relationship.

Indeed I used to be a faithful bean soaker and cooker, but the demands of working full time while homeschooling teens, chauffeuring teens, feeding teens, supporting teens, and finding a tiny moment in my day to say hello to my husband have led me to kick bean-prep off my priority list. It’s either buy canned beans or become a beanless family. Long live the bean.

I am well aware that bean-cooking is not difficult. A child could do it. But I found that I almost never remember to soak beans ahead of time because I’m too often in my car running my kids to all of their social/church/work/sports/ministry outings. (And by the way, if one more person says something to me about homeschoolers not getting enough socialization I shall happily throw my van keys and event calendar at them and make them take my kids to all their social events so they can see the truth and laugh as they realize they most definitely never had a need to worry. Said person shall need a nap after this feat, but there’s no time for one – and this is why I don’t soak my beans.)

I can hear what some of you are saying. “Get an Instant Pot!” But we’ve been through all of this so I’ll have to ask that you cheerfully support my decision and let me open my cans of beans in peace.

This post has a point (thank goodness). And also a recipe. It will come as no surprise to you when you see that said recipe includes a can of black beans.

Substitute canned beans with those you have soaked/cooked yourself if you like. Best news of the day: I did the math and learned that when I buy canned black beans by the case it does not cost me anymore than if I were to buy dried beans and make them myself. I had no idea! You might also like learning that this dish I am about to share with you costs around $2.00/serving for my family. Not too shabby for a real food meal that sufficiently fills teenage boys.

Bet you’re hoping I’ll just go ahead and share the recipe already.

Simple Tex-Mex Creamy Chicken

Simple Tex-Mex Creamy Chicken
 
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Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 2 pounds boneless chicken thighs or breasts
  • 2 Tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 Tablespoon chili powder
  • Sea salt to taste
  • 16-ounces salsa
  • 15-ounces black beans
  • 2 cups corn
  • 2 cups sour cream
Instructions
  1. In a skillet, brown chicken pieces in olive oil, seasoning them with chili powder and salt.
  2. Once chicken is cooked through and through (about five minutes on each side) add salsa, black beans, and corn.
  3. Simmer for about two minutes.
  4. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream.
  5. Serve over brown rice, pasta, or tortilla chips

Simple Tex-Mex Creamy Chicken

Note that adding sour cream to this makes the chicken mixture thick and creamy without any effort to make a cream sauce. That’s what makes this recipe so simple!

A huge time and money saver for our family (and many others!) has been our great Simple Meals program. Join us and be amazed at how this simplifies your life – plus you’ll love the easy, healthy, real food you’ll be putting on the table so quickly each day. We’ll welcome all who soak their beans and all who don’t, because we’re all friends and no one shall be beanless. Check it out and join here!

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Simple Build-a-Spanish-Rice-Bowl

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Sometimes I think I have picky eaters at my house. Then I realize that my kids eat a huge variety of foods and I should be grateful.

I mean, when I was a little girl, I liked exactly two varieties of fruits and vegetables: green beans (canned) and apples (with the peeling off). Somehow this kept me alive, I made it to college, and learned to eat salads (to avoid the Freshman 15, of course). Later, I got married and found out about a thing called broccoli. Little by little through the years, I’ve tried and liked dozens of fruits and veggies, expanding my repertoire many times over.

Though I still don’t like jicama.

It’s okay though because I often sit in my recliner snacking on raw spinach, which isn’t even weird, not even a little bit, am I right? I can’t figure out why my teenagers tease me about this.

Well anyway, my kids aren’t really picky, I’m realizing, because they like and eat a big variety of fruits and veggies. But still, we all have our preferences. Some of us really like cheese and some of us think it’s fun to snack on spinach.

Because of our wide variety of preferences, sometimes, instead of making a meal that everyone has to eat whether they like it or not, it’s fun to instead set out a big buffet of choices and everyone can build their own plate or bowl.

I love this idea so much that I include a category for this every single week in our Simple Meals plans. Build-Your-Own buffets are a huge time saver and make for a really fun meal too!

Today’s idea is Build a Spanish Rice Bowl.

I used to make Spanish Rice all in one pot, but some people like corn and some don’t. Some like black beans and some don’t. Some want sour cream and some don’t. I have found it easiest to simply set out all the fixin’s and let everyone build their bowl the way they like.

We each pile in our favorites:

spanish rice bowl41

Then stir it up and dive in.

spanish rice bowl11

The bowl above has a lot of greens (bet you can guess which mom that belongs to), no rice (can we even still call it spanish rice?), a whole lotta ground beef and black beans, and a dollop of sour cream.

But this one got piled up with rice, meat, beans, corn, and salsa without the greens and sour cream.

spanish rice bowls21

So it got stirred up to look like this.

spanish rice bowls31

At the end of the meal, everyone was satisfied and happy because their bowl was filled with everything they wanted and nothing they didn’t want. Of course, many participants in this meal filled their bowl more than once, which is also fun because they could either choose to fill it the same way as the first time or create something new the second (or third) time around.

Build a Spanish Rice Bowl

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Simple Build-a-Spanish-Rice-Bowl
 
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Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 1 pound ground beef, seasoned with chili powder, garlic powder, and salt
  • 2 cups cooked brown rice
  • 1 can black beans
  • 1 can sliced olives
  • Shredded cheese
  • Sour cream
  • Salsa
  • Fresh greens
  • Cooked corn
Instructions
  1. Set out any or all of the ingredients listed above, along with anything else your family might like.
  2. Allow each person to fill their bowl the way they like.

Those are just some of the foods you might want to set out for your Build a Spanish Rice Bowl buffet. I’d love to hear of any add-in ideas your family might like.

Build a Spanish Rice Bowl

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Simple Last-Minute Nacho Plate

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This Simple Last-Minute Nacho Plate comes together very quickly and is a huge crowd-pleaser at my house!

easy-nacho-plate

It’s almost embarrassing the amount of salsa we have been going through lately. Though I suppose our family goes through an embarrassing amount of pretty much everything, so never mind.

I was at Aldi a few weeks ago and put two cases of their organic salsa in my cart. Why get 1 jar when you can get 24, right? While in the check-out line, the lady behind me asked, “Oh! Did I miss a sale on salsa?” Nope. It’s a “we eat massive amounts of food at our house because of all the teenage boys” situation. That and I don’t live close to an Aldi and don’t get to shop there very often.

The great thing about any of the recipes I share that involve salsa is that you can use your favorite brand and your preferred mild-to-hot level.

Here are the latest Simple Recipes I’ve shared that involve salsa:

Other recipes you can find on my site that include salsa:

With all these recipes being so tasty and easy, it any wonder that I bought 24 jars of salsa at once?

This newest recipe idea, Simple Last-Minute Nacho Plate, is the result of what happened when I made a big batch of Meat and Cheese Burritos and had leftover filling. I didn’t have time (or desire) to make more tortillas, so I put the leftover meat/cheese/salsa mixture in the fridge. The next day we warmed up the mixture for lunch. We threw the delicious meaty goodness on top of tortilla chips with a few greens and whatever other toppings (olives, tomatoes, etc) that each person wanted.

It was then that I said to myself, “Why have I not done this before?” And a new Simple Recipe was born.

Now, take note that while this is called a “Last-Minute” recipe, you most certainly do not have to wait until the last minute to make it. Sure, it’s a recipe that can save your neck if you didn’t plan ahead and you need a meal on the fly. But the meat mixture stays good in the fridge for several days so you can make it ahead of time and pull it out to warm up as needed. It also freezes well, so you can make a double or triple batch and freeze it in meal-sized portions for your family to thaw and re-heat on busy days.

Simple Last-Minute Nacho PlateYum

Simple Last-Minute Nacho Plate
 
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Author:
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 1½ pounds ground beef
  • 15-ounces salsa
  • 1 cup shredded cheese
  • Tortilla chips and your favorite nacho fixin's
Instructions
  1. Brown hamburger meat until it is no longer pink.
  2. Stir in salsa and cheese.
  3. Serve on a plate of tortilla chips with your favorite nacho fixin's.

simple-last-minute-nacho-plate

Here are more Simple Recipes you will love:

Those simple recipes are just the beginning. We’re taking it all to the next level so that not only are our recipes easy and nourishing – you don’t even have to think about what to prepare or purchase! Jump in with all the others who have joined…

Simple Meals

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Here’s what Michelle said about Simple Meals: YAY. I love it. I am very thankful you are doing the “work” part of meals for me.

Hey, our pleasure. We love it too. :)

Question: How much do you love salsa at your house?

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Simple Taco Rice Dinner (with a dairy free option)

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You know the tried and true recipes you always fall back on? Those are the best, right? Those are the dishes you can make without even thinking. Those are the recipes you always have ingredients on hand for. Those are the recipes that keep us sane and our families fed.

Suddenly I’m finding that my list of such go-to recipes is growing! I love it that there are so many recipes that don’t require much thought or effort to put together. I love it that my family keeps raving about all of these.

And I love it that I’m not compromising one bit with these recipes when it comes to nutrition. I’m certainly not compromising on taste, and not even on the budget. These are happy, happy, happy simple recipes!

Other Simple Recipes I’ve Shared Recently:

Today’s Simple Recipe is Taco Rice Dinner. This goes together very quickly, can be tweaked according to your preferences and food sensitivities. Plus it is absolutely yummy. (My kids don’t care much about the rest of it, as long as it tastes great!) We all love the flavor of this dish.

taco-rice-dinner

Simple Taco Rice DinnerYum

Simple Taco Rice Dinner
 
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Author:
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 1 cup brown rice
  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • ½ teaspoon garlic powder
  • Sea salt to taste
  • 15-ounces (give or take) salsa
  • 15-ounces cooked black beans
  • 1-2 cups shredded cheddar or Colby jack cheese
Instructions
  1. Boil two cups of water, add rice, turn down to very low heat, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes until rice is cooked.
  2. In the meantime, brown ground beef in a separate skillet until no longer pink.
  3. Add chili powder, garlic powder, and salt.
  4. Stir together cooked rice, cooked meat, salsa, and black beans.
  5. Serve as-is if you need to avoid dairy. Or sprinkle cheese on top and serve!

simple-taco-rice-dinner

Just like with all the other Simple Recipes, all you have to do is throw out salad fixin’s and some fruit to go with this dish.

TIP: If you didn’t plan ahead to thaw hamburger meat (story of my life!) just do this. It’ll quickly thaw you’re meat and you’ll be on your way!

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Tips for Making a Gluten Free Diet (or Any Diet) EASY!

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If you eat a gluten free diet, or even if you don’t, you’ll want to check out these tips for making your meal prep easier!

You may recall that a few weeks ago I shared that my husband, Matt, was experimenting with a vegan diet to see if that helped some minor health issues he was having. I personally found that trying to cut meat, dairy, and eggs from his meals was pretty challenging! But that’s probably because I’m such a meat-loving, dairy-loving girl! So I was only able to come up with a few ideas for meat free, dairy free, egg free meals.

The results? That particular diet experiment didn’t really help, but it did boost our vegetable and fruit intake! So we’ve held onto that and been even more determined than we already were to be sure we’re all eating plenty of fruits and veggies!

Meanwhile, we visited our wholistic doctor in Lincoln to see what she might have to offer Matt. We are so thankful to have this resource closeby, and her remedies have been making a difference, praise God! Along with her remedies and treatments, she also recommended that Matt try cutting gluten for the short term to at least give his digestive system a break as it heals.

So our pendulum swung! Matt didn’t necessarily go back to eating lots of meat, dairy, and eggs, but it would be pretty tough to cut out gluten and not at least eat some meat and eggs! So he went cold turkey on gluten (without a complaint, because it truly wasn’t very hard – oh except for that one day someone took hundreds of fresh donuts to his work!) and added back in some meat and eggs, with the occasional dairy product.

My personal opinion is that eating gluten-free is MUCH EASIER than eating vegan. I didn’t have the least bit of difficulty making gluten free meals for Matt, and most of the time, the entire family eats what he’s eating because most gluten free meals are just…normal. Rice dishes, meat and potato meals, tacos made with corn tortilla shells? Normal. Easy. Tasty.

So that I could easily stay on top of our gluten free meal needs, I started making a few naturally gluten free foods in any spare moment so I could put meals together at night without much effort.

You guys, this isn’t just about eating gluten free. I do this any day, any time, and that’s where all these Simple Real Food Recipes  came from. If we all – GF or not! – spend a few minutes here and there getting ahead when we can? We can make are meal prep so much easier!

So you’ll notice that while these are the naturally gluten free foods I have been prepping ahead, these are also the normal foods I prep ahead. These just happen to be normal and gluten free at the same time. (Is it ok that I’m using the word “normal” here?! It’s just that many, many foods we normally eat are naturally gluten free. We don’t have to make this difficult! Let’s just eat normally! And also gluten free. Ok.)

Tips for Making a Gluten Free Diet (or Any Diet) EASY!

1. Make rice ahead of time

I make a batch or two of this Amazing Stick-of-Butter Rice, store it in the fridge, then pull out spoonfuls to make:

This make meal prep incredibly easy, especially if I:

2. Make hamburger meat ahead of time

You know that for years I’ve been cooking hamburger meat ahead of time and storing it in meal-size portions to pull out for easy meal prep. But now that I’ve learned how to make it in my Instant Pot? Wow, is it easy! And such a time saver!

I often have several pounds of cooked hamburger meat ready to grab and use. I can stir it in with the cooked rice as mentioned above, and we can have a meal ready in just 5 minutes! I love this!!

Here are some naturally gluten free meals I can make with my cooked hamburger meat:

3. Put meat in the crock pot early in the day

Then I can just add some fruit and veggie side dishes at meal time and we can quickly sit down and eat! Some of our favorite naturally gluten free meaty main dishes are:

Now, I didn’t tackle gluten free breads or pancakes. Those take special-ish ingredients and I didn’t feel the need to “go there” because Matt was fine with all that we’ve had to offer. I did purchas some gluten free pasta to have on hand and I purchased a gluten free pizza crust for him to eat on days we were making pizza for ourselves. I’m thankful these are readily available to buy!

Gluten Free Snacks and TreatsYum

Oh, and for years I’ve kept Coconut Flour on hand because it’s nourishing and fun to work with! Since it’s naturally gluten free and I have fun recipes we like to make with it, I have tried to keep any variety of these fun treats made and in the fridge:

Tapioca Pudding (which, for the record, makes a great breakfast!) is easy and we love it! So I made a big batch to grab from our fridge to eat as needed…

These Super Moist Flourless Brownies and Super Moist Flourless Peanut Butter Brownies are a favorite of ours also! They are completely grain free and I’ve made them for a couple of years now just because they are delicious and nourishing!

Muffins!

While I’m writing this, I am remembering that I have a fantastic Coconut Flour Muffin recipe that has been on my site since 2011! Time to dust that one off and make it again. They are so good!!

Ha! And I just remembered I have this recipe also for Coconut Flour Chocolate Cupcakes. How have I forgotten about these??!

See, this is why I started a Club Membership Site!! All these fantastic recipes and resources get buried and forgotten. Shucks, if I’ve forgotten them I’m quite sure you probably have. The Club Membership site makes it SO MUCH EASIER to access all of these recipes! Check it out and join us!

What are your favorite tips to get ahead to make meal prep (gluten free or not) easier?

 

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My Top 3 Small Kitchen Appliances That Save Hours of Time and Energy

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If my house started on fire, I would grab my family and my Blendtec and get out as fast as I could. Just kidding. I’m not that tied to material possessions. But I felt it was worth a post to share my top 3 small kitchen appliances I feel I can hardly live without.

I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that these gadgets save me hours of time and energy every week. As I’ve worked to simplify my real food kitchen, I have been amazed at how I’ve come to rely on 3 very important appliances.

Could I do without them? Well yes. Grandma survived all her many years of cooking for a large family without any one of the items I’m sharing with you today. But Grandma also didn’t have indoor plumbing for a good many years, and then welcomed it gladly when it became available. I’m pretty sure if she was raising her family now, she would very much enjoy the appliances I love having access to!

My Top 3 Small Kitchen Appliances

If you’ve been reading here long, you can probably guess my top three small kitchen appliances. Just for fun, I added two runners up in my “if I had to choose to keep only 3 small appliances, which ones would I keep?” contest. :)

1. Blendtec

Indeed. If I could only keep one appliance in my kitchen, it would be the Blendtec. I use this multiple times each week, and sometimes multiple times each day.

I mix batter in it, whip cream in it, make smoothies in it, whip mini cheesecake filling in it, the list goes on and on. From cakes to muffins to pancakes – the Blendtec takes away my need to stir and mix. Cream goes from liquid to perfectly whipped in less than 30 seconds. Recently I dumped in all the ingredients for these Mini Crustless Cheesecakes and had them in the oven within a grand total 5 minutes. Beautiful!

In so many ways, my Blendtec makes my cooking and baking effortless. It is extremely high powered, which is reflected in the price. A $25 blender gives only $25 of effort (and in my experience, lasts less than one year in my kitchen). The Blendtec, though much higher in price, comes with a warranty and is so high powered it turns frozen fruit into liquid in just seconds. Unbelievable!

I highly recommend saving up and investing in a Blendtec. Oh the time and energy you’ll save!

Recipes you’ll need for your Blendtec:

2. Instant Pot

I stubbornly refused to get an Instant Pot for several years after they became popular (silly me), and now I am one of the biggest advocates for them! This gem saves so much time and keeps us eating healthy too!

I love that it makes wholesome, rich beef or chicken broth with so little effort on my part. I LOVE that I can cook 7 pounds of frozen hamburger meat in it in just 30 minutes!! And I love the many meals and side dishes I can make in it within just a few minutes.

If you can swing it, get yourself an Instant Pot. I have the 8-quart variety for my large family. Here’s the 6-quart Instant Pot if that fits your needs more!

Recipes you’ll need for your Instant Pot:

Psst: I highly recommend that you bookmark our Instant Pot Recipes page for easy access as we continue to update it!

3. Crock Pot(s)

Yes indeed. I have two large crock pots and I often use them both at the same time. My favorite is this 8-Quart Programmable Crock Pot, but I also have this Basic 7-Quart Crock Pot, which works great too!

I’ve learned many tricks through the years that help me throw VERY quick meals into the crock pot so that later in the day, our meal has cooked itself. (See recipe links below.) What a great way to continue putting real, delicious food on the table on busy days!

Recipes you’ll need for your Crock Pot:

Top Small Kitchen Appliances, My 2 Runners Up

Just for fun, I thought it would be fun to add a couple others to my list of appliances I love and use often!

4. Nutrimill

Could I live without my Nutrimill? I guess. Does it save me time in the kitchen? Not really. But do I love having such a great appliance to help me grind fresh grain for our baked goods? Oh my goodness, YES!

I frequently grind hard and soft white wheat in my Nutrimill, which turns out the most delicious flour, which then turns out the most delicious breads, muffins, cakes, cookies, pancakes, and waffles. Now that I’m so used to baking with freshly ground flour, I’d have a hard time turning back. We’re pretty spoiled! ;)

Details about using flour ground in a Nutrimill:

5. Coffee Maker

Last Mother’s Day, at the recommendation of several who frequently drink coffee at our house and help with our babies, we treated our family to this Bunn coffee maker. It is amazing!!!!!! I’ll never go back.

Recipes to go with your coffee:

I’d love to hear what your favorite small kitchen appliances are. Which ones do you feel you can’t live without?

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Stick of Butter Rice – AMAZING!

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Now that I have discovered how to make this Stick of Butter Rice, I will never go back to making it “the regular way.” Wow, wow, and then some. It’s because of the butter, of course. Wait until you try this!

Some people be like, “Go easy on this rice because it’s so high in fat because of the butter!” But Laura be like, “What a great and delicious way to add good fat to a whole grain carb dish!”

I’m not a huge fan of empty carbs, which turn to sugar in our bodies, which offer little if any nourishment, and therefore can turn to fat in our bodies as they try to serve some sort of purpose for us. So if there’s any reason to go easy on this rice, it is because our bodies don’t need loads of carbohydrates or grains for nourishment (unless we are avid athletes with rigorous daily workouts).

As for me? I enjoy this wonderfully flavored, high fat rice in small quantities with a large side of veggies and a delightful portion of meat.

The flavor of this rice, though!!! Wow, you must try it. Between the broth, the onion, and the butter (the obvious MVP of this dish), I think you’ll be like me and decide to never go back to making plain rice again!

See how simple this Stick of Butter Rice is?

Measure uncooked rice and minced onion into a baking dish. Cut butter into pats and add to rice.

Add salt and chicken broth and stir.

Cover and bake in a 350 degree oven for one hour. Your job here is done.

We love serving some sort of shredded meat with this rice, such as:

Those are our favorites, though this Stick of Butter Rice makes a great side dish with just about any meal!

Enjoy the simplicity of this wonderful dish! Once you try it you’ll never go back!

Stick of Butter Rice

5.0 from 4 reviews
Stick of Butter Rice - AMAZING!
 
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Author:
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 2 cups brown rice (uncooked)
  • 4 cups beef or chicken broth
  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt
  • 2 Tablespoons dry minced onions
  • 1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)
Instructions
  1. Measure rice, broth, salt, and onions into a 9x13 inch baking dish and stir.
  2. Cut a stick of butter into 8ish "pats" and spread over the dish.
  3. Cover dish and bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour.

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Big Family Food and Fun: July 19-25, 2026

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Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: July 19-25, 2026 post!

Big Family Food and Fun: July 19-25, 2026

Before diving into this week, I had to share this fun hug from the end of the day last Saturday. Arrow had hung out with us all day and he was very excited to see Auggie after he work up from his nap!

Ok, now onto Sunday!

We ate our Breakfast Cookie Bars while getting ready for church. These are such a life saver – no brainer breakfast – as we get so many kids out the door!

Lunch that day was SO.MUCH.FUN.

There were 37 of us that gathered for a fun Mexican Themed Feast. We had smothered Shredded Beef Burritos, Layered Chicken Enchiladas, Spanish Rice (<– new recipe!), Mexican Corn (<– new recipe!), Chips and Salsa or Pico, Oranges, Watermelon, and desserts.

And THEN it was time for the World Cup Final Game where we all gathered in the living room to experience this special time. None of us really cared who won. We just hoped for a good game and fun together. Hosting events like this are a dream come true for me. A good meal, coffee, desserts, friends, family, babies, laughter – it’s the best!

And speaking of babies…

We had turned a movie on for the kids downstairs so we grown-ups could enjoy the game. That meant that Phoebe could come out of her tucked-away-protected spot in Eva’s carrier and Lolli could have a turn loving on her. I liked watching the game. But I LOVED snuggling Phoebe!

Overall, it was an amazing day and we ended the night tired and grateful. Elias and Malorie headed to Kansas that evening to stay with family on their way back to Texas for a couple of weeks before they come back to Nebraska for the school year. We loved our week with them!

Monday morning, Emma came over to stay with kids. Auggie’s ABA therapist came, and we loaded up four kids to take to Day Camp. Acacia got right to work playing with Emma’s dog, Buddy.

Matt and I dropped off the camp kids, then we headed to Holmes Lake to enjoy our kid-free time! It was already getting hot, but we were able to fully enjoy a walk around the lake, then time in the shade on a bench to rest and visit.

We all stayed inside all afternoon at home because the heat was a bit on the dangerous side. Brayden had an early ABA therapy session that afternoon so that he could go to a fun laser tag event that night with Heartlands Youth Ministry. Josie fell asleep and Acacia and Auggie spent some time painting with some dot paints I had picked up last week.

Dinner that night was simple. I browned hamburger meat and stirred in Sunday’s leftover Spanish Rice. I also warmed up leftover corn on the cob and let the kids make cheesy tortillas.

This turned into a nice calming project as they cut tortillas however they liked, sprinkled cheese on top, then melted the cheese.

It was not a good day to bake! And yet, I did it anyway, because I needed to. :) I made a batch of Crustless Cheesecake and a Spinach Cake in an attempt to have more ready-to-grab foods available.

I made Whipped Cream to go on the cake, and Bonus Buddy declared with amazement that it tasted like “actual whipped cream!” Haha, that’s because it is actual whipped cream, my dude!

Tuesday morning, my dear friend, Amy, came to visit from Kansas! We haven’t seen each other in a few years (since before Auggie was born) so spending time catching up with her was incredible! After Auggie’s ABA therapy session, she went with me to take Acacia, Josie, and Auggie to the zoo for a couple of hours. See Acacia there behind that tall grass? No? Well, there she is, leading Amy to our zoo picnic spot.

Taking three kids to the zoo is super easy when you’re used to taking eight kids to the zoo. We had a lunch of Bean and Cheese Salsa Dip, Avocado Cups, Chips, Grapes, and Peanut Butter Brownies.

Then it was water play time! Amy and I were able to sit and visit while the kids played. I ran into my friend, Kimmie, while there, plus my friend, Nancy! What a great zoo trip with lots of bonus hugs from friends!

Before we left the zoo, we knew we had to show Amy our flamingos. Then it was time to head home and transition into our afternoon/evening of ABA therapy and Tuesday Food Distribution.

Brayden, Kiya, and Acacia went with me this time and they all did great!

After we’d handed out all the food, Acacia helped me drag all the rugs to the hallway where they are stored. This girl loves to be a hard worker!

Back at home, I had experimented with putting Cheese Tortellini into a crock pot with cooked ground sausage and sauce. I’d picked up the Tortellini on super clearance at Wal-Mart last week so this was a super cheap meal! We had green beans on the side and it was simple and delicious!

I captured this scene on our way up the stairs to get ready for bed that night. It’s a poor quality photo but I hope you can see the sweetness. Acacia got an ouchie and Auggie was comforting her and helping her up the stairs. This three year old baby brother has come so very far in the past year – in so many ways!

Wednesday morning, I baked an Egg and Hashbrown Casserole that I’d put together the night before. We’d run out of Smoothie, so I made a blender full!

Since the oven was already hot because of baking the casserole, I made a double batch of Bran Muffins to bake also.

Amy came over again that morning to hang out. Arrow was with us and the kids had such a fun time playing together!

He was all kinds of sweetness as I tucked him in upstairs for his afternoon nap at Lolli’s house.

It was rainy that afternoon, so we needed to find some ways to stay quiet and entertained for a few hours in the house. Amy had brought the kids some fun craft projects that I planned to save for a rainy day. Turns out, this very day was that rainy day. These were perfect!

I made a monster-sized batch of Mudballs that afternoon. We got all the kids home early from their Day Camp so we could start ABA therapy sessions by 3:30. Dinner was leftovers – whatever sounded good – as we had a fridge full of food to choose from.

Then we headed off for Popsicles in the Park with our Heartlands church family. It was a chilly evening so the crowd was very small that night. But we had a good visit with our friends and it was good for the kids to run around outside before bedtime.

On Thursday morning, I made some Eggs in a Nest for the kids who like those. Other kids ate Mudballs.

The day was pretty chill with a morning ABA therapy session for Brayden, me getting to have a little writing time at Panera after dropping four kids off at day camp, and the little girls having playtime at home. The weather had cooled off and was lovely! So that afternoon, Acacia and Auggie played with vehicles outside for a long time.

I’d asked kids to each scrub a few potatoes that morning, so for dinner that night we had Baked Potatoes in a Crock Pot with bacon bits, cheese, butter, and sour cream, plus Peas and Fried Zucchini.

During all the kids’ ABA therapy sessions that evening, I had time to make a double recipe of Breakfast Cookie Bars to get us through the next two Sundays.

One of our former neighbors stopped by to say hello and to see if there was any food available out in the Little Free Pantry on our corner. Our conversation helped us learn that he was pretty hungry, so Keith helped me make our friend two sandwiches and fill a sack with other food for him like fruit cups, applesauce, a granola bar, and some chips. I loved to see Keith’s eagerness to help our friend.

At bedtime that night, Auggie climbed up onto Kiya’s lap for a story. Did he need to wear his rainboots so that he could sleep better? Most definitely.

Friday was full and wonderful! It was drizzly outside so we decided to take the kids who weren’t at camp to the Children’s Museum to play. We picked up Arrow on our way so he could play too!

We went home and ate leftovers for lunch. Then we put Arrow down for a nap and I took four kids to Culver’s to meet up with some longtime dear friends. They live in Arkansas now and were on their way to York for a Choir reunion. It was incredible to see them and catch up for a while!

We made it back home just in time to open our front door for more dear friends who were also on their way to York. This Choir Reunion was big, and with all of our kids, I wasn’t able to go. But how wonderful that friends made time to come see us before their big weekend! We had years of life to catch up on, and we shared all we could in the two hours that we had. What a gift this afternoon was!

As our friends loaded up and made their way to York, I started baking pans of bacon for BLTs for our dinner. One of our neighbors had given us fresh tomatoes from their garden, so BLTs were a must!

We all ate our fill and I continued baking bacon until I had lots extra to freeze for future meals.

Saturday was a super full and great day. We started by going to our Sensory Storytime at the library.

From there, we went to Holmes Lake where Big Gumdrop Outdoors hosted a fishing event for families called Cops and Bobbers. There were police officers there to help as well as a lot of Big Gumdrop Outdoor folks. This would have not been possible for our family without so many amazing people out there helping. First, we all practiced using fishing poles in the grass with fake fish.

Then we headed to the water! All eight kids fished for well over an hour, and most of the kids caught at least one fish.

The officers helped untangle fishing lines, put worms on hooks, keep everyone safe, and take fish off hooks once they got caught. There were lots of families there and it was truly a most awesome event!

Lunch was provided, so we washed up and ate hotdogs and fruit cups (or lunch that I had packed for our kids who don’t eat hotdogs).

We loaded up hot, sweaty kids into the van and ate a snack with a cold Capri Sun while I ran into Aldi to grab a bunch of fresh produce plus a few other things for friends.

Back at home, I got to work in the kitchen with a couple of awesome helpers! Two families we love are going through some tough life situations so while prepping for Sunday Lunch the next day, we tripled our efforts to take dinner to them that night. Kiya and I got four loaves of Stir and Pour Bread started, then she took off with Nutella Oat Breakfast Bars on her own.

While she did that, I made Flourless Chocolate Banana Muffins and a pan of Brownies.

While all this was baking, I was also making Smoked Chicken outside. Brayden helped make Spaghetti and Salad for dinner – and our house smelled amazing!

We made some trays of fresh fruit to deliver to our friends along with Smoked Chicken, Baked Beans, Homemade Bread, Brownies, Muffins, and Salad.

We fed the kids dinner, then loaded up all the kids and the food and delivered it to our friend along with hugs.

Back at home, we gave the kids baths, did a lot of dishes, and put all the extra prepped food into the fridge for Sunday Lunch the next day. And that was our week!

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