Heavenly Homemakers

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March 2023 Groceries and Meals We Ate (Big Family Food!)

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Here’s the big March 2023 groceries and meals we ate post we all love!

March 2023 Groceries

I had shopped late in February so we had a large stockpile of food heading into March. So we had a lot of groceries to work with as we headed into the month.

During the first half of March, I bought our girls’ WIC items (free to us, such a gift!) plus some meat that I found marked down. On my first trip, I found and bought two pork roasts that had been marked down to $1.79/pound. They were around $8.00 each and I plan to stretch them into 5 meals like this. AMAZING SAVINGS!

Another day when I went to get formula for Baby#11, I found ground beef for just $2.49/pound. That’s incredible right now! I bought 30 pounds, plus a few items of produce, spending $97 total that day. (I have a separate post coming soon to share what I did with all this ground beef!)

I got a Walmart pickup order somewhere in there, buying mostly fresh and frozen produce – but I forgot to take a picture!

Another day when I went to get more WIC items (we have four kids who qualify for WIC), I grabbed two pork loins marked down to just $4 each. It takes two of those to make one meal for us, but $8 for delicious meat!!

Because of the meat I’d bought in February plus the meat I picked up marked down early in March, I was able to mainly buy fruits and vegetables as needed and avoid the stores otherwise. It was kind of awesome! Toward the end of the month, I put in one more Walmart pickup order to get more fruits and veggies, plus cream, peanut butter, and apple juice.

I came in WAY under budget this month and we’ve been having a great time working our way through our pantries and freezers. But as always when I do this, I will likely go over budget next month when I make a Lincoln Costco trip to restock our staples. Look out April! OH, and we have an adoption party plus two graduation parties coming up, so April’s total is likely to be ridiculous, ha. At least I have some of March’s budget to work with!

A note about my grocery budget

I keep going back and forth about whether or not I can keep us at a $1,200/month budget for the 10 of us eating every day at home. This month gave me hope that I can make it happen!

There are some months that I go over, but then there are months like this one where I stay way under and make up the difference. Grabbing marked-down meat and focusing on fruit and veggie side dishes has really been a budget saver! Plus I’ve had plenty of ingredients on hand to make a variety of baked goods, which stretches our meals too.

So, for now, I’ll stick with my $1,200/month grocery budget goal. As the littles get bigger, I may need to adjust.

Ready to see all the meals we ate in March?

Meals we ate this month

Late February I put together three pans of lasagna. Two are in the freezer and we baked one early in March. We ate it with green beans and caesar salad (the big salad mix from Costco – so good!)

Around Thanksgiving last year, I picked up three huge turkeys for $0.98/pound. I thawed one early in March and baked it. We ate one meal from it that night and put away nine other bags of prepped turkey to use from the freezer as needed. Plus, the next day I made two and a half gallons of broth from the bones. Talk about a super good way to save money! From our $26 turkey, we’ll eat eleven meals! 

Matt gladly turned on an audiobook and deboned the turkey for me. :)

The night our turkey was fresh, I made mashed potatoes in the crock pot, roasted veggies, and turkey gravy, plus sliced fruit.

Last month at Costco I bought a huge bag of thin chicken breasts. I used these to make two pans of Crunchy Ranch Chicken Strips – one for dinner that night and one for the freezer. I put the rest of the bag of chicken into freezer bags and poured on some of the marinades I had in the fridge. Those went into the freezer for easy meals later.

For lunch one Sunday, I used some of the turkey broth and cooked turkey I’d made and made Turkey Noodle Soup. I prepped it on a Saturday and we warmed it and ate it the next day with salad and fruit.

The kids had spring break this month, so we bought a year pass to the Lincoln Children’s Museum so we could enjoy a special outing. (The amount it costs to pay for all of our kids to go just once almost covers an entire year’s family pass – so buying a membership was a no-brainer!). After we played and played, we met Asa, Eva, Justus, and Kelsey at a Hyvee grocery store. They have a large seating area there, which was a good spot for us to all eat (14 of us there that day). I had packed peanut butter and jelly sandwich fixings and applesauce, then I ran through the store and bought some treats like juice and chips to go with it. Meanwhile, the grown-ups grabbed sushi from the prepared food options the store had available. :)

 

One day for breakfast during spring break I scrambled 15 eggs, made sausage links, sliced some kiwi, washed blueberries, and threw out some Gogurts. The kids gobbled it all up!


Malachi was in a homeschool melodrama early in March. It was HYSTERICAL seeing Malachi play “Grandpa.” These kids are so talented!

The other drama-mamas gave me a lot of grace this year since we have so many littles at home, including a newborn! But I did try to help with food for the melodrama cast as much as I was able. A friend of mine and I tag-teamed making a “Breakfast for Dinner” meal for the cast, crew, and directors so they could eat before a show. We made Egg Casseroles, muffins, and yogurt parfaits. It was a hit!

I also volunteered to make brownies for the concession stand (I made these). We won’t talk about how I also signed up to make rice krispie treats and then FORGOT!!! :( Praise God for my friend Jenny who bailed me out of that one. :)

Here’s a picture of my brownies as I was packaging them up for concessions, along with a box of individually bagged chex mix I made to go with our breakfast for dinner meal. Plus kiwi, plus our coffee pot, plus baby bottles, plus my marker board where I attempt to write meal plans for each day. I promise that we had more than “Guac” that Tuesday, haha!

I made two dozen Bran Muffins one day and the kids ate them in two days. I was able to enjoy a couple of them with my coffee those mornings also. :)

One of our former foster sons was with us for a week in March. There are a lot of foods he doesn’t like, but he does love muffins! So in an attempt to get him to eat something with meat, I made an adapted version of these Corndog Muffins. It didn’t work, ha – he didn’t fall for my schemes. But the rest of us enjoyed them. Ack – do you see my bottled ranch in this picture? {Laura hangs her head} Alas, I’m in the survive life by buying ranch season of life. :) :) :)

We also ate carrots with peanut butter, peaches, and Cream Cheese Salsa Dip with chips.

Another day, I made a second double batch of Bran Muffins and served them as a side dish with one of the pans of Crunchy Ranch Chicken Strips I had made.

We go through these Mudballs like crazy for breakfast and snack options. One morning as I made this recipe x8 I took this picture of the peanut butter, honey, and chocolate chips melted together in a pan before I added the dry ingredients. That’s one big pot full of goodness there!

Last month I bought 8 pounds of grass fed hamburger meat from Aldi (this was before I found that awesome deal I mentioned above on the 30-pound of ground beef!). I pulled the 8-pounds of meat out of the freezer one day and browned it like this in my Instant Pot. This is one of my favorite fast Instant Pot tricks. (From frozen to cooked – 8 pounds of meat – 30 minutes!)

After it was cooked, I crumbled it and poured off some of the excess liquid.

I bagged up 5 freezer bags and saved the rest for a casserole as you’ll see below.

I used some of the cooked ground beef to make a huge Green Bean Casserole. Here’s a picture of the cooked green beans, cooked meat, prepared cheese sauce, and stick-of-butter rice (minus the butter, hahaha, because I wanted to save the $) that I made to add to the casserole to make it stretch extra far. (For the record, it took me the entire morning to get all of this done. I made pieces of the casserole bit by bit as I had a free moment to start something else cooking.)

After I assembled the huge Green Bean Casserole, I covered and froze it to bake the next time we offer a college student lunch.

One lunch with just a few of us home, I pulled some Chicken Burritos out of the freezer and baked them. I was out of fresh fruit so we ate mandarin orange cups as a side dish.

I used some of our cooked turkey to make a Turkey Hashbrown Casserole. It turned out delicious, and we ate it with roasted broccoli.

I often pick up a 4-pack of Beef Smoked Sausage from Sam’s. I cut it and put it into a small crock pot to heat all afternoon. We ate it that night with baked beans, cream cheese corn, and peaches or pears. The sausage with the corn was SUCH a delicious combo!

One Friday evening, I made a dozen hamburger patties with some of the beef I’d picked up that day, so we ate cheeseburgers with grapes and carrot sticks. It was a perfect Friday night dinner!

I had a few minutes one afternoon while our four littlest were napping, so I made a triple batch of Pumpkin Muffins/Bread. ACTUALLY, after they turned out weird, I realized I x3 some of the ingredients and x6 some of the ingredients because my brain no longer works correctly. :/ Good thing my muffin eaters liked them anyway!

One day for lunch, I sent Brayden and our Bonus Girl (age 7) to school with a cup of peanut butter, sliced apples, carrots, and a chocolate spinach cupcake. Bonus Girl came home from school and declared those carrots to be extra delicious (likely because she dipped them in peanut butter). I share this to tell you not to give up giving your kids veggies. She hated all veggies when she first moved in and now she’s finding ways that she actually likes them or even claims them to be “extra delicious.” So exciting!

One Sunday I made a pork roast and a huge amount of crock pot mashed potatoes. We had the leftovers later in the week along with steamed peas, strawberries with cheesecake parfait.

My niece baked rolls and dropped them off one day so we also had those with our pork roast leftover meal. I cut them, buttered them, then warmed them in the oven.

One morning before school (poor kids have to leave for the bus stop at 6:53), I made “eggs in a nest” for Brayden and Bonus Girl. They each have time to eat 1 1/2 of these plus a “circle toast” as they rush out the door.

One of my favorite dinners this month was Bbq Chicken Legs, cream cheese corn, baked beans, roasted asparagus and carrots, and sliced oranges. We all devoured this and maybe I was just extra hungry that night but it all tasted incredible to me!

For lunch one weekday, I got crusts out of the freezer and made pizza. There were only six of us eating that day so we all ate our fill and I saved the leftovers to send in Brayden and Bonus Girl’s lunches the next day.

I made Breakfast Sandwiches for us to eat one Saturday morning, so while I was at it, I made an extra 17 sandwiches for the freezer.

Our friend had given us some pulled rotisserie chicken, so I made a pan of Stick of Butter Rice and added salsa, beans, cheese, sour cream, chicken, and spices to make a bunch of Chicken Burritos for our freezer.

One afternoon while I was prepping dinner, I mixed together a triple batch of Peanut Butter Honey Rice Krispie Bars. These are so nice to have on hand for breakfast and snacks.

That night, I warmed up some of the above-mentioned rotisserie chicken (which the kids dipped in barbecue sauce) and served it with roasted broccoli, mac and cheese, strawberries, pears, and muffins.

We made breakfast for dinner one night with 18 eggs (with spinach), 20 hashbrown patties, sausage and bacon, clementines, and strawberries.

One morning, our big kids were at school, BabyBoy#11 was napping, and the three little girls were unusually calm. I decided to take advantage of the moment and see what I could get ahead on in the kitchen while they played. They eventually came in and helped (there’s no better help than a 3-yo and a 2-yo old who are eager to crack eggs, am I right?!). But the morning went much better than most so I was able to make not one but THREE breakfast/snack items to offer us some convenience!

My happy little helpers…

Remember those pork loins I had picked up on sale? We baked them one night and ate them with baked beans, corn, and green beans. SO GOOD. (And it might be apparent by now that we have a lot of corn and beans on hand because as we eat through the pantry, those keep showing up!!)

At the end of the month, I thawed the Crunchy Ranch Chicken Strips I had stashed in the freezer. We made it with rice, peas, corn, and peaches.

I thawed another bag of cooked turkey (we’re enjoying that bird so much!) and made Turkey Ranch Cheese Melts with Smoothies.

Toward the end of the month, we enjoyed several guests one evening. There were 13 of us eating that night. I made a big batch of spaghetti and sauce, which we ate with roasted broccoli and carrots, corn, strawberries, grapes, and a few clementines that needed to get finished off.

We made it through the month easily with our big store of food, but it won’t be long before I’ll need a big Costco and Sam’s run. You can look forward to those details in May!

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December Groceries and Meals We Ate

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I took a few pictures of our December groceries and meals we ate to share with you!

I didn’t go grocery shopping in December until part-way through the month, so we had run out of almost all of our staples and then some! :) Therefore, my shopping day in Lincoln that month was a big one!

I loaded my extra large cart so full at Sam’s I could hardly push it. Silly me, I should have gone through check-out, unloaded, then started over.

See those Corn Dogs? That was Malachi’s birthday meal request, haha.

This particular shopping day, I also picked up several cases of fun items for the kids to put together gifts to hand out to friends at church. Since Christmas was on a Sunday this year, we wanted to be sure all the people at church who didn’t have family in town felt loved and cared for. Here, I snuck in a couple of pictures of the kids working on this project plus a picture of our wagon full of gifts to share at church Christmas morning.

Now back to my shopping day:

After Sam’s, I loaded two carts at Costco. My second cart looked like this after I filled it with produce, then it got buried by frozen food. Note to Self: Shop the other way around next time so that the produce doesn’t get smashed and bruised. Silly girl.

Next stop: Aldi.

I hadn’t been to Aldi for a few months, and now I’m regretting that I don’t shop there more often. I found so many good prices there and got several flats of canned fruit, beans, salsa, and corn. I got an entire case of cream cheese because the price there is the best. I got bagels, butter, applesauce, raisins, and all kinds of odds and ends. So much fun and such great savings!

Total cost for groceries that day was $1,125. Our van was completely full, and that’s saying something because our van is very big. :)

When I got home, everyone helped unload the van, even most of our littles. Our house was covered in groceries and it was pretty much chaos for about an hour and a half as we tried to get food put away.

The day after my huge shopping trip, here are some of the meals we ate:

I slow cooked a pork roast for us to eat after church on a Sunday. I served it with Crock Pot Party Potatoes, green beans, corn, pumpkin bread, and cookies.

We fed 6 adults and 6 kids that day and still had this much meat leftover. Hopefully you’ve already signed up to join us for our 30 Days of Dollar Dinners series so you can learn how to stretch one pork roast into 5 meals!

Malachi is in our local homeschool melodrama this winter, and parents get to send “snacks” for the kids after rehearsals. I say “snacks” because as it turns out, these kids are starving teens and eat heartily after a three-hour rehearsal! When it was my turn to send food in December, I sent a crock pot full of chip dip loosely based off this burrito filling mixture, chips, fruit, pickles, olives, and rice krispie treats.

One day I made a double batch of White Chicken Chili. We ate half one day and reheated leftovers another day. I love getting a two-for-one on my meal prep!

One evening, I used some of the leftover shredded pork roast to make this Creamy Salsa Enchiliada recipe. It was super good!

I found some pork loins marked down to $3.75 each when I hit our local grocery store so I baked one and served it with Honey’d Carrots, Baked Beans, fresh spinach, and Pumpkin Muffins. We all got full since I’d made so many side dishes, but all of us wished there was a second pork loin that night because it was so good!

We celebrated Malachi’s 18th birthday in December. I decided to be normal that day and NOT put spinach in his birthday cake. You’re welcome, Malachi.

After that, I kind of fell apart when it came to taking pictures of our meals. All six of our littles somehow got head lice just a few days before Christmas. UGH. So we spent hours of our days working on heads and doing about a thousand loads of laundry trying to knock out the problem. It was kind of awful, ha, even while we tried to keep a healthy perspective on the situation.

Somehow we survived. :) :) :) I took exactly one picture of our food on Christmas day, our breakfast of Easy Breakfast Casserole and Pumpkin French Toast Casserole.

After Christmas, I found myself playing catch-up on everything I had to put on hold during our lice debacle. Hopefully, I’ll get more pictures of our meals during the month of January!!

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Food I Often Buy at Costco

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Curious about what I usually buy at Costco? Here’s the list!

Perhaps I should start with the hotdog?

There it is, the monthly Costco-trip hotdog. As I’ve shared, shopping at Costco is a big deal for me, simply because I can only get there once each month and we have a lot of mouths to feed! I burn a lot of calories while shopping, and that hotdog keeps me on my feet. True story.

Here’s a refresher on how I shop Costco:

  1. Walk into the store, take a deep breath, and shop for all non-perishables. Clothing, paper products, canned goods, boxed snacks and chips, baking products, applesauce, and whatever else doesn’t require refrigeration or extra care.
  2. Check-out, load the van, then go back in.
  3. Take a bathroom break.
  4. Eat a hotdog and drink a big cup of water. This job makes a person need some major sustenance and $1.50 for the big dog/drink combo is pretty rockin’.
  5. Grab an empty cart again and fill it with all the fresh produce, frozen foods, refrigerated foods, and bread products that we need.
  6. Check out again, load the van again, open the box of Kombucha I just bought, and drink a bottle for refreshment and survival.

Indeed, I’ve found that I have to fill my cart twice when I shop at Costco. I’d take one of my big kids with me so that they could help me get the job done in one trip, but actually? My Costco shopping trips also involves “a day off for Mom.” Once each month, we make arrangements for me to head to Lincoln (about an hour from home) to have a day to myself. I take my laptop and work at Panera for hours. I shop at Sam’s, Costco, and any other place that has items our family needs. I come home refreshed and with a van filled with groceries!

Food I Often Buy at Costco

Beyond the hotdog, here’s a rundown of what I almost always grab when I’m at Costco.

1. Lots of fresh produce

  • apples
  • bananas
  • clementines
  • blueberries
  • strawberries
  • raspberries
  • blackberries
  • carrots
  • mixed greens
  • spinach
  • broccoli
  • potatoes
  • pears
  • grapes
  • melons
  • whatever else is in season

2. Frozen Food

I usually pick up frozen:

  • Vegetables
  • Fruit
  • Hamburger patties
  • Pizza
  • Chicken nuggets
  • Sweet potato fries
  • Bacon
  • Tilapia

3. Refrigerated Food

  • Shredded cheese
  • Turkey and ham for sandwiches
  • Sliced cheese
  • White queso
  • Tortellonni
  • Cream cheese
  • Sour cream
  • Cottage cheese
  • Butter
  • Boneless chicken thighs
  • Kombucha
  • Avocado mash (our little girls love these!)

4. Snack Food

  • Applesauce squeezies
  • Tortilla chips
  • Granola bars
  • Occasional other individually packaged snacks to grab for the kids to eat at soccer games or on walks

5. Breads

6. Baking

  • Peanut butter
  • Almond butter
  • Honey
  • Brown sugar
  • Raw sugar
  • Baking powder
  • Baking soda
  • Pancake mix

7. Other

  • Coffee
  • Canned tuna
  • Canned chicken
  • Pasta
  • Baked beans
  • Refried beans
  • Canned corn
  • Rotel
  • Canned olives
  • Spices
  • Mac and cheese

What do you like to buy at Costco?

P.S. I also shop at Sam’s, and my list there is similar. Which do I like better, Costco or Sam’s?? You can read my answer here.

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Big Family Food: March 2022 Costco Trip

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I think I’m getting the hang of how to “do Costco” for my family. Here’s a look at my March 2022 Costco Trip!

Did you read My Big Costco Experiment? That is when I figured out how to shop Costco effectively for my family. It looks something like this:

My New Costco Plan

  1. Walk into the store, take a deep breath, and shop for all non-perishables. Clothing, paper products, canned goods, boxed snacks and chips, baking products, applesauce, and whatever else doesn’t require refrigeration or extra care.
  2. Check-out, load the van, then go back in.
  3. Take a bathroom break.
  4. Eat a hotdog and drink a big cup of water.
  5. I’m not even kidding. This job makes a person need some major sustenance and $1.50 for the big dog/drink combo is pretty rockin’.
  6. Grab an empty cart again and fill it with all the fresh produce, frozen foods, refrigerated foods, and bread products that we need.
  7. Check out again, load the van again, open the box of Kombucha I just bought, and drink a bottle for refreshment and survival.

Anyone else shop at Costco like this?

So, March 2022 Costco Trip Round 1:

  • 2 bags tortilla chips
  • 2 loaves bread
  • hot dog buns
  • hamburger buns
  • bag of veggie straws
  • bag of granola
  • case of tuna
  • box of granola bars (x2)
  • jars of peanut butter
  • quinoa and rice packets
  • case of canned chicken
  • bag of brown sugar
  • case of mac and cheese
  • a bunch of clothes and a bridal shower gift :)

Total for the food: $149

The much-needed hotdog (in case you thought I was kidding):

Then Back for Round Two:

  • bag of frozen meatballs
  • bag of frozen hamburger patties
  • bag of frozen corn
  • bag of frozen green beans
  • bag of frozen peas
  • goat milk cheese
  • 2 gallons milk
  • tortellini
  • heavy cream
  • white queso
  • naked smoothies (x2)
  • avocado mash (x2)
  • shredded mozzarella cheese
  • shredded colby jack cheese
  • polish sausage
  • container of croissants
  • red grapes
  • blueberries
  • blackberries
  • raspberries
  • strawberries
  • spring mix
  • fresh spinach
  • pink lady apples
  • gala apples

Total: $265

Total Costco Trip (for groceries): $414

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Stay tuned for more Big Family Food posts, where I share all about how I make food for our big family! And read here to catch up on other posts in this series you may have missed. :)

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Big Family Food: My Recent Walmart Pick-up Orders

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This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

To supplement my once-a-month Costco or Sam’s trips, I put in Wal-Mart pick-up orders every ten days or so. Here are a couple of pictures from recent orders!

Sometimes when I talk about how much I enjoy taking advantage of Walmart Pick-Up, I hear how some of your experiences with it have been less than positive. Shucks, I’m sorry! For me, it has been a lifesaver. Like, I think it has actually saved my life. Or at least it has saved hours and hours of my life and much of my sanity (which is actually already gone, doggonit).

Apparently our local Wal-Mart rocks in the Walmart Pick-Up department. On the flip side, ours has gone to almost entirely self-checkout which I reallllly struggle to do when I have a huge full cart and babies with me. Thus, my Walmart Pick-Up life-saving claim.

My Recent Walmart Pick-up Orders

I love that I can add all my needed groceries into my online cart in just a few minutes. Then I select a time to pick up that works for me. I take a kid or two with me for an outing when I go pick up, or I send a friend or one of my older boys. And then boom, my groceries walk themselves out to my van (with a little help from an awesome associate), put themselves into the back, TELL ME THANK YOU, and I go home. This is beautiful.

Here’s what I got from this particular pick-up order:

  • 4 pounds strawberries
  • 2 pounds spring mix
  • 5 ounces fresh spinach
  • 6 ounce raspberries (x4)
  • 4 crowns broccoli
  • 8 bananas
  • 2 pounds grapes
  • 18 ounces blueberries
  • bag of avocados
  • 2 packages hot dog buns
  • family size caesar salad kit
  • 5 pounds frozen tator tots
  • 4 pounds frozen hashbrowns
  • 3 pounds frozen strawberries/bananas
  • 4 pounds frozen fruit mix
  • wheat germ
  • cocoa powder

Total cost for all this: $99.

I know grocery prices are on the rise, but truly when I see all I got for a hundred bucks, I’m very thankful.

Another trip I got:

  • 2 gallons milk
  • 2 packages hamburger buns
  • 2 packages hotdog buns
  • 3 pounds clementines
  • 5 pounds shredded Colby Jack cheese
  • 2 pounds shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 2 boxes lasagna noodles
  • 6 jars pasta sauce
  • 2 quarts heavy whipping cream
  • 2 quarts half&half
  • coffee creamers
  • 2 cans pears
  • 1 can peaches
  • 2 bags petite baby carrots
  • 1 pound mixed greens
  • 2 containers cottage cheese
  • 3 pounds gala apples
  • 2 pounds pink lady apples
  • 4 boxes frozen hashbrowns
  • Totinos (ha, gross right? I get these for Malachi sometimes as they are his fav.)
  • 3 bags tortilla chips
  • 4 pounds strawberries
  • large tub sour cream
  • bag of meatballs
  • 2 16-packs of beef hotdogs

Total cost: $168

Do you do Walmart Pick-Up? What has been your experience?

Stay tuned for more Big Family Food posts, where I share all about how I make food for our big family! And read here to catch up on other posts in this series you may have missed. :)

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

Big Family Food: Snacks I’ve Made Recently

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Did you see my post about Meals I’ve Made and Served Recently? Today I’m sharing some snacks I’ve made recently. These fly out of the kitchen at this house, that’s for sure!

Lately, I’ve been feeling a little desperate for more good foods for my kids to snack on. The problem is that I really want them to eat mostly healthy, homemade snacks (instead of foods like purchased crackers or granola bars), but I don’t have much time to make the good stuff. And when I do have time to make them, we go through them really quickly!

This is all a very good problem to have, of course. And I give my kids lots of fresh fruit for snacks (which is nourishing and super quick and easy!). But I’ve needed other snack options, and I need them in large volume. So I’ve tried to put together one or two snack options each day recently, and of course, I make a huge batch so I can freeze extras or simply in hopes that they will last us at least two days, ha!

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One day, I had several dozen eggs so I decided to see if the babies would eat boiled eggs for snacks.

This was a no-go all the way around. But bless them for trying (and smearing boiled egg all over the high chair tray and table). Never fear, I used all the remaining eggs to make Angeled Eggs – a rare treat around here (you know, because it takes like three entire steps to make this luxurious, gourmet food). :)

The above picture shows you part of our lunch the day I tried the boiled egg snack. We had Angeled Eggs, strawberries, apples, carrots with ranch, and good ol’ beef hotdogs.

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I made a quadruple batch of Mudballs one morning. These turned out to be very popular with every kid and adult too.

Friends came over to play that afternoon. By evening, the container looked like this:

And by the next day, they were all gone. :) Looks like I need to make these more often!

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I made a huge pot of Tapioca Pudding one day, which is delicious and great for snacks and even breakfast. But I don’t really have time to stand at the stove and stir the pudding for as long as it takes to make such a huge batch, so I won’t likely be making this very often. (I used over a half-gallon of milk in this batch so it took quite a bit longer to cook.)

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Since the Mudballs were such a hit (and also gone quickly), a few days later I quickly stirred together a double batch of No-Bake Snickerdoodle Bites. This recipe makes up for the extra time it took to make the above pictured Tapioca Pudding. The cookie dough bites are ridiculously fast to make and I don’t have to stand at a stove to make them. Truly, get yourself the ingredients for these No-Bake Snickerdoodle Bites. They are so tasty, filling, nourishing, and easy.

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Another day I made a batch of these Peanut Butter Muffins. These are different from regular muffins in that they are grain and dairy-free. We don’t have any grain/dairy allergies at our house, thankfully. I make them because they are full of protein!

The best thing about these muffins is that they are very filling. So they last a little bit longer than other batches of muffins I make!

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We are provided a lot of free cereal because three of our little ones are a part of the WIC program. So I used some Chex cereal to make a big container of Chex Mix. The kids love this!

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Banana Bread is always a hit around here! And while we do eat a lot of bananas, somehow we still often have over-ripe bananas too. So this is perfect.

I love how all of these snacks that I’ve been making double as great breakfast food too!

Stay tuned for more Big Family Food posts, where I share all about how I make food for our big family! And read here to catch up on other posts in this series you may have missed. :)

 

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Big Family Food: How to Use Produce Before it Goes Bad

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Here are some suggestions for how to use produce before it goes bad!

Obviously, my biggest tip is: EAT IT.

Great post. See ya next time.

But I actually have a few other tips too, simply because I realized that as I regularly buy my big family such a large amount of fresh produce, I also have a system for how we eat it all up to avoid anything going bad. If only everything could be turned into banana bread like over-ripe bananas!

First, a look at my produce selections

I frequently buy a large quantity of fresh fruits and veggies each time I go to the store. My hauls look something like:

Typically, I load my carts with:

  • Berries
  • Apples
  • Bananas
  • Clementines
  • Pears
  • Grapes
  • Mixed Greens
  • Nectarines
  • Kiwi
  • Carrots
  • Broccoli
  • Potatoes
  • Onions
  • Cucumbers
  • Whatever is in season and for sale at a good price

How to Use Produce Before it Goes Bad

We usually go through what you see in each of those pictures in about a week or a week and a half. Here’s my system to eat it before it goes bad:

  1. We eat the berries first. These are the most sensitive and tend to go bad quickly. We try to eat all of our berries within just two days, and usually, it’s not a problem because we love berries! If they do begin to go bad, I freeze them for smoothies so that they don’t go to waste.
  2. We start on the grapes next. They’ve stayed good in the fridge while we’ve worked our way through the berries. If they begin to get squishy, I freeze them for smoothies.
  3. Mixed greens get eaten within a week, otherwise they get slimy. We go through two pounds every week by eating them in these smoothies and these. So they almost never have a chance to go bad at our house.
  4. We’ve been eating on the bananas all along, but we never feel urgency to eat them quickly because we love over-ripe bananas in smoothies and muffins. Sometimes I buy extras just so we’ll have enough to use in these recipes. ;)
  5. Clementines are also being served all throughout the week after the berries are finished off. We find that they taste best if eaten within one week, but sometimes they last longer. If they start to get hard (or mushy), I peel and freeze them for smoothies like this.
  6.  Meanwhile, the pears, kiwi, and nectarines have ripened and are ready to eat. We start slicing these to put on our plates at every meal. If we can’t get through all the nectarines before they turn mushy, I slice and freeze them for smoothies.
  7. The potatoes, broccoli, carrots, onions, and cucumbers have kept just fine, so we just use these as needed without much worry.
  8. The apples are usually just fine too, although we have found that if we haven’t eaten them in a few days, they stay crispier if we refrigerate them. If we do happen to have any grainy apples, I blend them and make Applesauce Bread.

What do we do when the produce has run out and we haven’t made it back to the store?

We open cans of fruit (in 100% juice) like pears, peaches, and pineapple. This gets us through until we can make a run to the store.

What about other veggies?

We keep frozen green beans and peas in the freezer at all times. That way, if I’m out of fresh vegetables, I can quickly steam something from the freezer.

What do you do to keep produce from going bad?

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Big Family Food: What I Feed Our Babies

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Curious what I feed our babies? While they don’t eat large quantities like our big kids, I still felt like this would be fun to talk about within our Big Family Food series! After all, there are a lot of babies at our house. :)

We currently have six kids ages 8 and under. Four of our kids are 3 and under. (Five kids 3 and under three days each week – I’ll explain below.) We have 3 exclusively in diapers, 1 who still sleeps in diapers, and 1 who comes over three days a week and is still in diapers. Five in diapers, you ask? Yep. We just line-em-up and change diapers (or run to the potty). All day long.

Our little ones’ ages are currently 8, 6, 3, 3, 2, 17 months, and 7 months. Here are five of the kids huddled around Daddy as he reads Brayden’s birthday card out loud.

The fella on the left (below) was our foster son for 18 months. He is reunited with his dad now, praise God! But because he is a relative of our current foster/adopted kids, his dad lets him come for frequent visits each week. THIS IS SUCH A GIFT. For all of us. :) :) :)

The picture below shows two of our little girls. Girlie on the left is 17 months old and not yet walking due to foot and leg issues we’re working on. She gets around though – up and down the stairs, into the cupboards and trashcans, and has the best belly laugh on the planet. :) Girlie on the right just turned 2 and has come so far since she moved in last summer! She is as sweet as she is stubborn and helps me be a “mommy” to all the babies in our house.

Aww, there they are again, busy as ever.

Matt, Malachi (age 17, but remember when he used to be my baby?!), and I took the kids to a Historic Farm for a fun fall festival they were hosting last October. I’m pictured here, holding our littlest girlie who just turned 7 months old. Her smile is as big as her face and she is pretty chill most of the time. I think she knows she has to be since she is the youngest of ten!

Never a dull moment?! That would be correct. Here’s Daddy holding our 2yo and Keith chugging down some juice while Brayden and Bonus Sister act out a play.

What’s more fun to look at? Kids or food?

Kids. Obviously. But let’s move on now to show you what our littlest kids eat. (And big kids too, just in larger quantities.)

Here’s a sample of breakfast plates I fixed for Keith (age 3) and two of our girls (ages 2 and 1). A breakfast cookie (plain, no dried fruit or chocolate chips), rewarmed Breakfast Casserole, and blueberries.

Another day, this was what their breakfast looked like. Bananas, pears, and sourdough toast (a special treat from a friend!)…

I buy applesauce squeezies, pear cups, peach cups, and mandarin orange cups in bulk. I keep a tray stocked with them at all times so I can open them up and hand them to babies and kids as needed for side dishes or snacks between meals.

I try occasionally to take one or two kids to the store with me. It’s a fun outing for them and gives us one-on-one time together, which is rare and precious since we have so many kids now. Here, Keith went with me to get fresh produce. It was fun to talk to him about all the fun fruit and veggies choices we were making, what Daddy loves, what sisters loved, and so on. :)

I recently told you about my favorite way to eat an apple. Turns out, it’s one of the kids’ favorites too! Often, I’ll cut really thin slices of apples onto a plate with this cheese. We go through half a bag of apples this way as the kids just keep reaching in for more. So good!

I use my Blendtec like crazy when feeding my family. This Orange Julius recipe makes a fun snack or “side dish” with our meals.

We go through a lot of eggs at our house! Keith loves to help me crack them as we prep for breakfast.

How sick are you of me talking about these smoothies? Yes, Laura, we know. You like to make these smoothies with greens in them so that your kids can drink salad and be happy about being so nourished. So I guess I’ve mentioned these before then?

Here’s a fun parent hack if you aren’t already doing this! Whenever we make Mac and Cheese for the kids, we dump frozen peas into the bottom of each bowl, like this:

Then, we put the hot mac and cheese on top of the frozen peas. Stir it together, and boom. The peas are cooked, the mac and cheese is instantly cooled, and the combo of mac and cheese with peas tastes really good!

While we most often blend our greens into smoothies like I shared above, our kids will also eat fresh spinach on a plate with a dab of ranch for dipping. They eat the spinach just like they dip carrots in ranch. And on this particular day, Keith also tried dipping his strawberry in ranch. Hmmm… Looks like a silly goose to me.

Muffins!!!! Oh my goodness, the muffins. We eat them and then we eat some more. It is my goal to bake and keep muffins on hand, even if I don’t ever get any other baking done. All the kids love them and they help to stretch our meals or to provide an easy-to-grab snack at all times. (Here are 40 muffin recipes I reference frequently.)

I’ll keep taking pictures of our kids’ plates during the next few weeks so I can share more!

What are your favorite meals for itty-bitties?

Stay tuned for more Big Family Food posts, where I share all about how I make food for our big family!

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Big Family Food: Grocery Shopping for $110

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Have you been following along on our Big Family Food Journey? Today I’m going to share a picture of a recent Walmart pickup order for our family.

First, a brief grocery budget breakdown

I’ll detail our grocery budget more in another post. But it’s mostly divided up this way each month:

Costco $600
Walmart Pick-Up $250
Azure Standard $60
Amazon Subscribe and Save $100
Local Farm Meat, Eggs, and Milk $170

I’ll likely need to reevaluate this soon, so stay tuned!

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I have a GREAT BIG SHOPPING WEEK post that I’m working on. But here’s a small shopping day to give you an idea of what some of our groceries look like.

On this particular grocery shopping trip, I put in a Walmart Pick-Up order. I love doing this because it is such a simple way to shop for my family. I grab my computer and put everything into the cart that I need. I select a time to go pick it up, and that’s that. Walmart employees do my shopping, checkout, and bagging for me – for free! They even put it into my van. This saves me at least two hours of time and energy. It is a life-saver for me!

Here’s what I got this particular trip:

I mostly needed fruits and veggies so I got carrots, broccoli, premade salads (for my college kid), greens, bananas, pears, and blueberries. I also got a few jars of spaghetti sauce, frozen fruit for smoothies, frozen corn, canned pineapple, cream, lime juice, frozen sweet potato fries, and Fritos (to go with upcoming meals of chili and taco soup).

We go through a huge amount of fresh and frozen produce, so I often need to make purchases like this often. But something to consider:

Look how much good food we got for $110!

This grocery haul provided awesome side dishes for our family. Fantastic snacks for all of our littles (and bigs). Smoothies to nourish us on the run. And it made life easier because it meant that for several days, I had easy-to-grab food to feed the kids quickly.

During a big Costco trip, I’ll bring home sometimes 6x this amount of food (oh yes I will). When I order food online, our living room is filled with cases of staples. But the picture you see above is a very typical Walmart Pickup order for us – one that I put in every 1-2 weeks as needed.

I can’t wait to show you more! Stay tuned for more Big Family Food posts, where I share all about how I make food for our big family! And read here to catch up on other posts in this series you may have missed. :)

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Big Family Food Shopping Trip: I Spent HOW MUCH?!

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If you’ve been following our Big Family Food series, you’ve only just begun to see how food works at our house right now. I am having so much fun sharing and can’t wait to keep adding to this series. Today I’m going to tell you about a big food shopping trip I had in January!

Where I shop for groceries:

First, let me detail a little bit for you where we buy food for our family.

  • I try to sneak away to Lincoln (about an hour away from home) once each month for a big grocery shopping day. At the very least I hit Costco. Sometimes I’ll also go to Aldi. And I just signed up for a Sam’s membership (which I’ll talk about below).
  • I usually place 2-3 local Walmart pick-up orders each month. This fills in the gaps before I can go to Costco again, and keeps us supplied with fresh produce. As you’ll see below, WE GO THROUGH A LOT OF FRESH PRODUCE. Oy!
  • We get two gallons of fresh milk from a local farm once each week. Of course, that isn’t enough for our family, so I also grab a few gallons each month from the store too.
  • This leads me to share that we get WIC benefits for our foster babes, which is a huge blessing because it provides milk, eggs, cheese, cereal, and my favorite: FRESH PRODUCE! ;) Typically, I go pick up our WIC food items at a local grocery store that is close to our house.
  • I order several staples every couple of months from Azure Standard, which is a food co-op that delivers groceries right into town for us to pick up! My favorites from them are big bags of frozen veggies, cases of tortillas, and either fresh flour or grain to grind into flour. (Currently, I’m just buying flour because I don’t have time to grind it right now.) You can read here to learn more about the items I often buy from Azure.

The day I spent HOW MUCH?!

So now let me tell you about my great big food shopping trip day back in January. I needed to take our littlest babe to Lincoln for an appointment, so she and I headed out with cooler bags and boxes to get our groceries stocked up! It’s not often I get one-on-one time with our kids, so this was special, even if it was ridiculously cold outside that day!

Oh wait – this first!

Since I was going to be shopping by myself with a six-month-old, and I know that I usually need at least two big Costco carts, which isn’t possible with a baby in tow, I tried out a new idea and I super love it!

I sat down at my computer one day and ordered all of the dry-good staples I like to pick up at Costco. I tell you what, I am going to do this every time from now on! There’s no way all of these items plus all of the fresh and frozen items would have fit into one cart (which you’ll see below). So in just a few days after ordering, and with free shipping right to my porch, here’s my online Costco order:

I know it’s hard to see everything in these boxes, but here’s the rundown:

  • 2 Cases of applesauce pouches
  • Box of peach cups
  • Box of mandarin orange cups
  • Box of packs of nuts
  • Case of olives
  • Case of black beans
  • Case of baked beans
  • Box of quinoa and rice mix (such a wonderful convenience food to have on hand!)
  • Bag of coffee
  • Several big containers of spices we use regularly
  • Brown sugar
  • Pack of canned chicken
  • Bag of dried blueberries
  • French fried onions

January Costco Online Order $267

Then, I went into Costco with the babe and filled our cart with everything else we needed!

I’m all about grocery shopping, but one of my favorite things about Costco is the clothing they offer! I found really nice coats for three of our kids for just $7 each. Our littlest just moved up a size in clothing, so I found a few outfits and jammies for her. I grabbed a case of diapers. And what about food? Oh joy, all the good food!

  • Strawberries
  • Blueberries
  • Boneless Chicken Thighs
  • Flautas (we love these for a quick meal in our Air Fryer!)
  • Tilapia
  • Grapes
  • Mixed Greens
  • Sparkling Water (a fun treat for all the bigs at our house, including me) ;)
  • Tortilla Chips
  • French Fries
  • Chicken Nuggets
  • Pizzas
  • 2 cases of Naked (because it never gets old to say “I got Naked at Costco.”)
  • Ham
  • Turkey
  • Croissants
  • Bananas
  • Apples
  • Blackberries
  • Pears

January In-Store Costco Trip $256

Sam’s too?

Well, shucks if I didn’t get sucked into an offer for “Spend $45, get a $45 eGiftCard.” But a free Sam’s membership, just to try and see if I like it for a year? Why not?

—- > Pssst, here’s a link for you to take advantage of this also if you want!) Spend $45, get a $45 eGiftCard. Online only. <——

The biggest pull for me is that there is a Sam’s in Grand Island (45 minutes west of us) but not a Costco (which is in Lincoln, an hour to the east). So I think it will be nice to have this Sams membership when I am in GI. Plus, I wanted to compare Sam’s to Costco and see what might meet our needs better.

So after our Costco shopping was complete, Baby and I headed to Sam’s to check it out before her appointment.

I like it!

I feel like I’m going to like Costco better, but at the same time, Sam’s had some fun sales and clearance that I really appreciated! I got a couple of birthday gifts for our littles for super cheap since it was right after Christmas. Awesome fun! Plus they had some really neat food clearance items too.

I filled my cart here too, which I wasn’t expecting to do. But it doesn’t take much to fill a cart when you’re buying in bulk!

  • Frozen fruit for smoothies
  • Pepperoni
  • Rice Cake snacks (for one of our college kids to take to his apartment)
  • Clementines
  • Salad Mix
  • Cheese Slices (x2)
  • Canned Pineapple
  • Fresh Pineapple
  • Instant Oatmeal Pouches (for a special treat for the kids)
  • Box of Spaghetti Noodles
  • Tub of Whole Milk Yogurt
  • Whatever else is buried under there that I can see. I lost my receipt. :)

January Sams Food Purchase $117

Then we had to take it all in and put it all away. :/

This is a huge job, not just because of the big food shopping trip and how it filled the back of our van, but also because there are so many babies who need to be held, especially after Mommy has been gone all day! So while I juggled baby snuggles, Matt, Malachi, Brayden, and our 6yo Girlie trudged in and out bringing everything in. :)

Food piled up all over the living room and kitchen, and we slowly got it put away.

Hmmm. I need to show you my freezers and food storage spaces huh?! Sounds like a good upcoming post in our Big Family Food series!

Big Family Food Shopping Trip: I Spent HOW MUCH?!

Between my online Costco order, my in-store Costco purchase, and my Sams purchase, my total was $640. I was expecting it to be much more, actually. (It was more with the clothes, coats, toys, paper towels, and diapers. But I only count actual food in our food budget.)

I feel like $640 isn’t bad for a great big, once-a-month Costco and Sam’s shopping trip. But here’s something that I am both giggling at and trying to re-evaluate:

Much of this food was gone after a week and a half.

A WEEK AND A HALF!

We still have plenty of pasta, rice, beans, fries, and fruit cups left. There’s a little chicken left in the freezer plus half the flautas. We haven’t finished all of the ‘Pellegrinos, ha.

But did you see all the fresh produce in those pictures? I’m talking six pounds of grapes, eight pounds of strawberries, two tubs of blueberries, seven pounds of apples, five pounds of clementines, eight pounds of pears, two containers of greens, a tub of pineapple, and whatever else I missed. Ten days later, we were left with 3 apples and a small bowl of shriveled grapes. Whoa, baby. Where does it all go?

Truly, feeding this tribe and watching the food disappear fills me with joy!! My college-age niece, who drops by frequently, opened my fridge just after the ten days had passed since my shopping trip and was like, “Whoa, your fridge is so empty!” Hahaha, I know, Kailey. I know.

Not to worry, because we really do have plenty of food in the house at all times. It’s the fresh food that’s hard to keep up with.

I’m chewing on this:

I think it’s time to re-think our grocery budget and my shopping practices. The budget might need to increase or shift in some places. Also, I don’t know how I’d make it happen (because I have to move a few mountains to be able to go out of town for these big shopping trips), but I might need more than a once-a-month Costco or Sam’s trip.

So stay tuned to our Big Family Food series. I’ll share as I figure all of this out. I hope you’re having as much fun with this series as I am!

Where are your favorite places to grocery shop?

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P.S. I finished this post and scheduled it. Then I went back to Sam’s a few days later because I was in Lincoln for an event and there was a Sam’s a mile away. I spent another $250 on produce and meat. Yes. It’s time to take another look at our grocery budget. Oy! But hey, at least I’m getting the most out of my free Sam’s membership!

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