Heavenly Homemakers

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Easy Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

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Sure, banana bread is delicious. But why not take it a notch above and add some chocolate chips? I’m guessing that no one would argue if you made Chocolate Chip Banana Bread…

Even if you made it with whole grains, who’s gonna know? No one. You know why? Because it still tastes delicious. It’s still moist. And there are chocolate chips in it. It’s an amazing treat!

How many times have I said that I wished more food could be made from “spoiled” food. What I mean is – after bananas turn black, we can use them to make fantastic treats like this Chocolate Chip Banana Bread. Why can’t everything be made into something wonderful after it’s past its prime?

Everything should be like a banana.

By the way, this recipe is made millions of times better simply by adding sour cream. Mmm, always add sour cream. :)

Easy Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Banana BreadYum

Easy Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
 
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Serves: 1 loaf
Ingredients
  • 1½ cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground soft white wheat)
  • ½ cup sugar, brown sugar, or sucanat
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 cup mashed over-ripe bananas (about 2-3 bananas)
  • ½ cup sour cream or plain yogurt
  • ⅓ cup melted coconut oil or butter
  • 2 eggs
  • ⅓ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. In a large mixing bowl stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
  2. Add mashed bananas, oil, sour cream and eggs.
  3. Stir until ingredients are well combined.
  4. Fold in chocolate chips.1
  5. Pour mixture into a buttered bread pan.
  6. Bake in a 350 degree oven for one hour or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

 

Lately, Brayden and I have been making lots of loaves of this Chocolate Chip Banana Bread to share with friends. He’s becoming quite the chef and loves delivering treats to friends.

It sure is fun to share pictures of our son. Here are more photos of his big adoption day in case you missed it. :)

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Easiest Healthy Pancake Recipes

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Did you see our post sharing Easiest Whole Wheat Bread recipes? I thought it would be fun to follow that one with a post sharing Easiest Healthy Pancake recipes!

Easiest Healthy Pancake RecipesYum

We all love pancakes at our house – often for dinner even more than for breakfast! We’ve tried many recipes through the years, and these are our favorites. For the record, we find that pancakes made on a Cast Iron Griddle taste the best!

Simple Pancake Mix Pancakes

I used to make pancakes from scratch each time, which is quite easy and fast because pancakes aren’t hard to make in the least. But for the past couple of years, I’ve been making huge batches of Pancake and Waffle Mix from the recipe in the Simple Mixes to Save the Day eCookbook. Now making pancakes is even faster and easier than before. I love this mix!

—– > I just discounted the book so everyone can have access to it at a much lower cost. All of the mixes in that book are a huge time and money saver! < ——

Check out this book here.

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Whole Wheat Pancakes

This is my tried-and-true pancake recipe that inspired the Pancake Mix recipe above. This recipe is easy and quick, truly perfect for breakfast or dinner!

Peanut Butter Pancakes

Want a little protein in your pancakes? These are so delicious, and if you add chocolate chips to them? Well, we all know how good peanut butter and chocolate tastes together!

Pumpkin Pancakes

Pumpkin Pancakes taste perfect during crisp fall weather days.

Easy Whole Grain Chocolate Pancakes

It goes without saying that these taste great topped with berries. Or we can go with the chocolate/peanut butter idea from above and spread peanut butter all over these cakes.

Simple Banana Pancakes

Have over-ripe bananas but want to make something other than Banana Bread? Whisk them into these Banana Pancakes. So good!

Whole Wheat Applesauce Pancakes

Like the Pumpkin Pancakes mentioned above, these are wonderful in the fall!

Baked Apple Pancake

Speaking of fall and apples, if you have an abundance of apples and want to try something new, this is an amazing option!

Easy Pancake Muffins

Here’s a super fun variety to a traditional pancake. These work great to take on the go!

Whole Wheat Waffles

Not to be outdone, here’s our favorite easy waffle recipe!

If you give a friend a pancake recipe, you’ll need to give her some pancake toppings to go with them…

Here are our favorite pancake toppings:

I think it’s time for a pancake dinner!

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Easy Cheesecake Topped Treat Recipes

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After you read this list of Easy Cheesecake Topped Treat Recipes, you will most definitely need to stock up on cream cheese. Most of us would agree: cream cheese makes everything better. And usually, it is on sale this time of year.

Why make treats topped with cheesecake? Do I even need to explain this?

You see, the treats in and of themselves are wonderful. Muffins, cookie bars, you can’t go wrong. But then if you whip up a cheesecake mixture and bake it on top of the already wonderful treat? Well, this is where we all sing and dance and shout for joy. Cheesecake-topped muffins! Cheesecake-topped cookie bars! SERVED FOR BREAKFAST!!!! With a cup of coffee or a glass of milk. This is the most delicious.

So let’s get started, shall we?

Easy Cheesecake Topped Treat Recipes

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We just shared the latest and possibly the best, our Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars. These are a favorite because of the chocolate chips sprinkled over the cheesecake.

 

That recipe came about by tweaking our Whole Grain Raspberry Cheesecake Bars recipe. We simply switched the raspberry jam for chocolate chips. I personally like the raspberry variety better. AND, you can switch out the raspberry jam with any flavor you like!

Say yes to these Easy Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars and you’ll be happy you did. They are perfect for an autumn treat!

Of course, we tweaked the bar recipe and turned it into a pie. And then we added chocolate chips. It’s the same recipe, just “fancier” so we highly recommend this Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie.

Now it’s time to talk about muffins. All of these are basic, wholesome muffin recipes with the same cheesecake topping baked on to add amazingness!

Easy Blueberry Cheesecake Muffins


Easy Chocolate Cheesecake Muffins

Easy Banana Cheesecake Muffins

Easy Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins

Easy Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Muffins

Easy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Muffins

See? I told you that you were going to want to stock up on cream cheese after reading this post. Cheesecake baked on top of treats makes them incredible!

Here’s a quick bullet list of all the Cheesecake Topped Recipes:

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Easiest Whole Wheat Bread Recipes

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After sharing my thoughts about buying a Nutrimill and grinding fresh flour for homemade bread, I thought it would be fun to make a list of the easiest whole wheat bread recipes I love and recommend.

We’ll start from the “hardest” recipe to the easiest – but I put that in quotes because once you get the hang of making bread, it definitely isn’t difficult in the least. Still, you’ll see that the final recipe I share requires no kneading and is so easy that a three-year-old can make it. There’s video to prove it! So I suppose these recipes will go in order of more detailed to practically effortless. And with every recipe, the end result is amazing homemade bread!

Easiest Whole Wheat Bread RecipesYum

1. Honey Whole Wheat Bread

I first shared this recipe back when my 4th son was little enough to sit on the countertop. He’s taller than me now and has to shave once a week, so that tells you how far our family and this site has come.

Either way, this Honey Whole Wheat Bread recipe is wonderfully delicious, calls for only 6 simple ingredients, and is delightful when made with freshly ground hard white wheat. I highly recommend that you click over to read the recipe and the details as you will find:

  • A step-by-step guide for making homemade bread
  • A video showing how to knead bread dough
  • A video showing how to shape a nice loaf of bread

Get our Honey Whole Wheat Bread recipe here!

2. Monkey Bread

If you want to use the above mentioned Honey Whole Wheat Bread recipe to make cinnamon-sugar rolled Monkey Bread, you should click over to get all the details! Our older four boys were all so small then, helping me and making messes.

Get our Monkey Bread recipe here.

3. Whole Wheat Pita Bread

Want to know how much fun it is to make Pita Bread? You should try this easy recipe! Again, this one calls for just 6 basic ingredients, and it is deliciously fun to watch them puff up in the oven!

Get our Easy Whole Wheat Pita Bread recipe here.

4. Easy Overnight No-Knead Yeast Bread

This is a super fun way to enjoy homemade bread for breakfast without much effort! Mix it up the night before, bake it in the morning. It’s fantastic!

Get our Overnight No-Knead Whole Wheat Bread recipe here.

5. One-Hour Whole Wheat Yeast Rolls

You’re beginning to think I’m lazy, huh? Hey, when we can make homemade bread and rolls without having to break a sweat, who am I to argue? And when we can have homemade rolls in one entire hour without much work? Everyone wins.

Get our One Hour Whole Wheat No-Knead recipe here.

6. Stir-and-Pour Whole Wheat Bread

This is the one I was telling you about earlier – it’s so easy a 3-year old can make it!

I’ve started making this recipe almost exclusively now simply because I don’t have to do any work to have homemade bread for my family! Mix the ingredients, pour it into a baking pan, bake it, and have homemade bread. What could be better or easier?

Get our Stir-and-Pour Whole Wheat Bread recipe here.

As fall approaches, I’m getting pretty excited to start baking again. My family probably won’t mind. ;)

What are your favorite easy bread recipes?

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Simple Recipes We’re Using to Help Our 5-Year Old Learn Kitchen Skills

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We’re starting over at our house! Just like we did with our “first set of kids” we are teaching our new 5-year old Bonus Boy how to cook. Here are the favorite simple recipes we are using to help him learn kitchen skills!

Hopefully, you won’t get too tired of hearing me encourage you to teach your kids to cook. :) Obviously, it’s more important that you teach them to love the Lord and love people. Focus on that first.

But also, eating is something we must all do every day of our lives. Your kids need to know how to prepare simple foods (or complicated foods, if you are my 19-year old). It’s a much-needed skill, and guess what?

After putting in hours of effort, making lots of messes, and having a blessed mixture of frustration and fun with my oldest four kids – they can all cook. It is fantastic. The work involved was entirely worth it. And when all is said and done, we made a lot of awesome memories (and Monkey Bread).

Sometimes now, they feed me. Often they feed themselves. They will someday feed their wives and children. This is beautiful!

Now, we’re starting all over again. This little one moved in with us when he was four. He has become the 5th Coppinger Boy! If I have the audacity to make food without him, he can’t possibly understand why. “But I wanted to help you!” Well, who am I to argue with that?

He cracks eggs, makes messes, helps measure ingredients, makes messes, stirs carefully, makes messes – well, he’s also learning how to use a broom and dustpan. ;)

Teaching Kids to Cook is MessyYum

So what? I like a clean kitchen, but now that I have teen and adult kids who can cook, I realize more than ever that the messes from when they were little are just part of the teaching process. If I expect a mess from the little one in training, then I’m less frustrated when a mess inevitably happens. If we happen to crack, pour, and stir correctly so as to avoid a mess, well, that’s a bonus.

Ready for some kid-friendly recipes?

Simple Recipes to Help Kids Learn Kitchen Skills

Here are some of our favorite simple recipes we are using right now to help teach our 5-year old basic kitchen skills. He helps measure, pour, and stir. As we work, I talk through everything we are doing so that he learns the vocabulary of cooking and the reasons we do what we do.

In addition, he helps:

  • Crack eggs for Scrambled Cheese Eggs (he cracks it, then hands it to me to open it into a bowl).
  • Put frozen fruit and mixed greens into the blender for Smoothies.
  • Do whatever he can with whatever I’m making because he really wants to be a part of all of it! So if possible, I always try to find him a job while I’m cooking or baking.

Looking for more help and recipes as you pull your kids into the kitchen with you?

If you really want to go all in and teach your kids to cook this summer, I encourage you to invest in Katie Kimball’s Kids Cook Real Food eCourse. I used this course with Malachi and plan to use it with Bonus Boy too. It is FANTASTIC!!! Get the details here. And pick up her awesome FREEBIE —>

What are your favorite foods to make with your kids?

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Summer Activities for Kids: Make Ice Cream in 10 Minutes!

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Looking for some fun activities to do with your kids this summer? I’ve enjoyed 22 summers with kids (and counting!), so I certainly have a few ideas to share! Stay tuned during the next few weeks as we provide all kinds of suggestions for making your summer with your kids meaningful. (Subscribe here so you won’t miss out!) Today’s idea: Make Ice Cream in 10 Minutes!

Yum

As I was remembering this fun summer activity idea, I decided it would be much more fun to do if we invited friends over to join us! So we sent out the invitation, got our supplies ready, and had a little Ice Cream Making Party!

By the way, we are SO CLOSE to final adoption day for Bonus Boy that I almost waited to post this so that I could show you his precious face. Soon and very soon he will officially be a Coppinger and then all stickers come off!

This “make ice cream in a bag” idea is one of those we always WANT to do, but never seem to get around to ACTUALLY doing. Somehow inviting friends to do it with us made it much more doable, you know? Afterward, the kids played and the moms visited. Bliss! And also, there was ice cream to eat, so double win!

Make Ice Cream in 10 Minutes!

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Summer Activities for Kids: Make Ice Cream in 10 Minutes!
 
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Serves: 2 servings
Ingredients
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 3 droppers full of liquid stevia, or 3-4 Tablespoons real maple syrup, or 3-4 Tablespoons sugar
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ cup rock salt or coarse sea salt
  • Ice
  • quart and gallon sized freezer bags
Instructions
  1. Measure cream, sweetener, and vanilla into a quart-sized freezer bag and seal.
  2. Fill a gallon-sized freezer bag half-full of ice.
  3. Add ½ cup rock salt to the ice.
  4. Place the sealed quart-sized bag filled with ice cream ingredients into the bag of ice and salt. Seal.
  5. Toss the bag back and forth, shaking and tossing for 5 minutes or until the mixture thickens to ice cream.
  6. Remove the quart-sized bag and rinse the salt off.
  7. Open the bag, scoop out the ice cream, and enjoy!

We moms found that the ice cream shakers needed a little bit of help to get the mixture shaken vigorously enough to turn into ice cream! Also: be sure to do this activity outside!! The bags tend to get drippy. :)

Here are some of our other Simple Ice Cream Recipes.

Use any of these with the above Freezer Bag Toss idea!

Here’s to a great summer of fun with our kids! Here are other ideas we’ve shared so far:

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30 No-Bake Treat Recipes

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Avoiding the oven this summer? Me too! To help us out, here are some awesome No-Bake Treat Recipes for us to make!

Allow me to highlight some of my favorites for you. As you can imagine, I had a hard time narrowing it down. Ah, the difficulty of choosing ones favorite treats…

As far as “cookie bars” go, this Easy No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars recipe is my current favorite. Can you blame me?

As for drinks, you already know that this Chocolate Frappe is my very favorite in the summer.

When strawberries are in season, I feast on these Strawberry Cheesecake Parfaits. It’s like heaven in a bowl.

Or I mix things up a bit and make Chocolate Whipped Cream to put on my strawberries.

I super love that I have figured out how to make No-Churn Ice Cream varieties! These recipes only take 5 minutes to prepare, and they are so good! See #26-#29 below for all the recipes, but here’s the Low Sugar Chocolate Ice Cream recipe to get you started!

These Peanut Butter Honey Rice Krispie Treats are so very simple, and I love the sweetness with the crunch!

Last but not least (because I have an entire list of No-Bake Treat Recipes below!), I must highlight my two favorite “jello salad” knock-offs. Spoiler: There is no jello involved in the making of these recipes. Simple real food ingredients, plus delicious fresh fruit make these awesome salad treats!

Here’s my Pineapple Fluff Salad…

And my Strawberry Fluff Salad…

Ready for the entire huge list? Here you go!

30 No-Bake Treat RecipesYum

  1. Easy No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars
  2. Simple No-Bake Granola Bar Bites
  3. Honey Sweetened No-Bake Cookies
  4. Chewy Granola Bars
  5. Chocolate Frappe
  6. Coconut Fudge Bars
  7. Stevia Sweetened Fat Bombs or Honey Sweetened Fat Bombs
  8. Frozen Yogurt Cups
  9. Honey Peanut Bars
  10. Mudballs
  11. Nectarine Cream Cups
  12. No-Bake Chocolate Fudge Bites
  13. No-Bake Peanut Butter Cookie Bites
  14. No-Bake Snickerdoodle Bites
  15. Pineapple Fluff Salad
  16. Raspberry Lemon Cream Cups
  17. Strawberry Cheesecake Parfait
  18. Chocolate Strawberry Cheesecake Parfait
  19. Americana Cheesecake Parfait
  20. Chocolate Whipped Cream for Coffee or Fruit
  21. Strawberry Milkshake
  22. Strawberry Peach Slushie
  23. Pineapple Mango Smoothies
  24. No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake
  25. Peanut Butter Honey Rice Krispie Treats
  26. Low Sugar Vanilla Ice Cream
  27. Low Sugar Chocolate Ice Cream
  28. Low Sugar Strawberry Ice Cream
  29. Low Sugar Peanut Butter Ice Cream
  30. Strawberry Fluff Salad

Have fun making these great No-Bake Treat!

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Easy Recipes for the Grill

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Need some easy recipes for the grill? Keep your summer food simple, and make it taste great too! Here are some great recipes for you!

We fire up our grill multiple times per week during the summer! I love how easy the grill makes lunch and dinner, all without heating up the house.

TIP: To put a super simple, healthy meal on the table during the summer:

  1. Cook your meat on the grill
  2. Toss a salad
  3. Slice fresh fruit
  4. Serve and enjoy

There is nothing easier and nothing more nutritious or delicious! The side-dish possibilities are endless during the summer since the garden fresh produce is plentiful!

Ready for our favorite summer recipes?

11 Easy Recipes for the GrillYum

  1. Simple Grilled Tortilla Pizza
  2. Simple Grilled Salmon
  3. The Perfect Grilled Chicken
  4. Grilled Barbeque Chicken Legs
  5. Pizza Boats in the Grill
  6. Simple Make-Ahead Parmesan Burgers
  7. Simple Lemon Garlic Chicken Legs
  8. Simple Cheese Stuffed Burgers
  9. Cheddar Ranch Burgers
  10. Cheeseburger Zucchini Boats
  11. Easy Bacon and Potato Foil Packets

I can’t stress how easy and delicious this Perfect Grilled Chicken is! Simply throw on some sauce and grill. SO GOOD! So simple!

Great Sauce and Dressing Ideas to Marinate The Simplest and Best Grilled Chicken

bbq_sauce

These are our favorite sauces to marinate our chicken in prior to grilling. But just about any of your favorite sauces will work!

How to Make Perfect Grilled Chicken

Here’s my best and favorite tip for making perfect grilled chicken!

  1. Use boneless chicken thighs instead of breasts. This makes all the difference.
  2. Marinate the thighs in something delicious before grilling (suggestions above)
  3. As you can see from the picture below, I blackened the chicken more than I meant to – and the meat still turned out juicy and flavorful! This is because chicken thighs have more fat than chicken breasts so they are much harder to ruin.
  4. We usually cook boneless thighs for 10-15 minutes on each side, turning it from time to time.

TIP: Chop your leftover Grilled Chicken into a fantastic Chef Salad for lunch!

Yum, grilled chicken in a tossed salad makes an awesome meal!

Here are our favorite Homemade Salad Dressing Recipes:

What to serve with your grilled food:

Need some side dish ideas? Here are our favorites…

Oh how I love summer food! What are your favorite foods to grill?

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Easy Recipes for Fourth of July

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I shared this post two years ago, and wanted to re-share as we all get ready for this fun holiday! Here are our favorite easy recipes for Fourth of July! Plus some tips for keeping your holiday prep simple!

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The thing about making special food for any holiday is that too often the cooking and the clean up take away from our holiday fun. Here’s what I suggest you do this Fourth of July and every special day:

  • Choose simple recipes.
  • Make everything you can ahead of time so you can enjoy the day.
  • Stick with basic sides like watermelon and other fresh fruit, corn on the cob, and tossed salad (all easy to prep!).
  • Get your family involved in helping with prep and clean up.
  • Embrace the paper plate. (Do whatever you want with this piece of advice. Most of the time I avoid disposables, but to everything there is a season. So if I really want to enjoy my people and not stand at the sink rinsing a bunch of dishes, I pull out the paper products.)

watermelon

Now let’s talk about the simple recipes. Of course we will choose simple recipes. We love Simple. This is how we survive each day and also how we make holidays special. We keep it simple. We stick with basics. We go with what we know everyone likes. The beauty of all of this is that our food tastes amazing even without extra effort! (Real food is cool like that. It tastes great because it’s real and it can’t help but taste wonderful!)

13 of my favorite simple recipes for the Fourth of July!

Along with the typical grilled burgers and hot dogs, there are so many simple recipes for fun treats and side dishes that are perfect to enjoy on this special day. All of these recipes allow me to make them ahead of time and serve at mealtime. They taste amazing and are festive too!

1. Americana Cheesecake Parfaits

The cheesecake part of this recipe (white) whips together in just a few seconds. Add strawberries (red) and blueberries (blue) and you’ve got a beautiful and super delicious treat for the 4th!

Americana Cheesecake Parfaits

2. Raspberry Sweet or Unsweet Tea

Making fruit teas like this is super simple, and this Raspberry Tea turns a pretty shade of red. I’m thinking we could throw some frozen blueberries into the glass to make it a perfect Fourth of July drink. You might also want to try Peach Sweet (or Unsweet) Tea or Mango Sweet (or Unsweet) Tea so that you can set out a variety of good choices.

How to Make Raspberry Sweet or Unsweet Tea

3. Strawberry-Blueberry Shortcake

Strawberries and Blueberries appear to be the real food MVP of the Fourth of July. Raspberries too. Make this simple Shortcake Recipe, then set out blue and red berries along with whipped cream.

Strawberry Shortcake with Whole Wheat and Honey

4. Strawberry-Blueberry Shortcake Waffles

This is the same idea, but you can make your shortcake in the waffle iron for a pretty and fun twist on this favorite dessert. Might as well serve it for breakfast, because why not?

shortcake waffle4

5. Strawberry-Blueberry Shortcake Muffins

Okay fine. One more Shortcake variation and then I’ll move on. Sometimes it’s fun to make your shortcake batter in muffin tins and serve them as individual cakes with fruit and whipped cream on the side!

strawberry_shortcake_muffins_2

6. Very Berry Brownie Cups

Phew, this recipe has been on my site since before I had an actual camera. But the recipe is as good as ever and fun for people to build their own brownie cup!

verberrybrowniesm.JPG

7. Pineapple Cream Dessert

Orange you glad I didn’t say strawberries and blueberries again? This recipe is so refreshing on a hot summer day that it makes its way onto this list even though it’s not red, white, or blue. (But far be it for me to say that you can’t add strawberries and blueberries as a garnish.)

pineapple dessert 3

8. No Flour Monster Bars

This recipe makes the list because everyone loves them. Also, they are easy to make ahead of time and set out for grab-and-go snacking. If you want, you could stir in some red, white, and blue M&M’s, but you never heard that from me. Food coloring is bad. Avoid it at all costs. ;)

Real Food Monster Cookie Bars

9. Cream Cheese Fruit Dip

Here I go again with the red and blue berries. Serve them with this simple dip and it will be a big hit!

strawberry_dip_2

10. Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

See if you can find some 4th of Julyish mini-muffin paper liners. Make these super simple cookies with stars in the middle!

Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Star Cookies

11. Brownie Sundae Bar

This is super fun if you’re feeding a crowd, so everyone can build their brownie sundae however they like!

Build a Brownie Sundae Bar

12. Grilled Chicken

There is NOTHING better than this chicken on the grill. Click over to read how easy this is and read how to keep your chicken from drying out on the grill. This is a hit every time we make it!

13. Cream Cheese Corn

I’m not sure there is a side dish more perfect than this one for the 4th of July. Wow is it delicious! And it’s easy, and includes only 4 ingredients!

Creating this list has made me want to make every single one of these recipes for the 4th! I think I just might.

What are your Fourth of July plans? What are your favorite foods to make for the 4th?

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Quick Meals I’m Making for My BIG Family This Summer

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Who needs quick meals for summer? I do, and you probably do too! Today, I’m happy to share several of the quick meals I’m making for my big family this summer!

For what may be the last summer ever, ALL of us are under one roof. Asa graduated from college and moved home to earn and save money before moving on. Justus completed his first year of college and moved home to earn and save money before heading back to school in the fall. Elias and Malachi are in and out between work, activities, and summer camps. We’ve got two littles again (one soon-to-be-adopted boy and one foster babe). There are eight of us in all, and seven of them are male. (Fine, one of them is just now starting solids, but still.) :)

We need food. We need a lot of it. And it needs to be quick and easy!

I’ve been amazed at how much food comes and goes in this house! Asa and Justus are our biggest eaters, so having them back in the house has been FUN because they love all the good food they get to enjoy! Just adding the two of them back into the mix has meant that I’m back to doubling and tripling recipes again. Here’s how I’m keeping us all fed – for three meals every day!

Oh, and never fear! All the big boys are playing a huge role in getting these meals on the table. Eating well is a team effort around here!

Quick Meals I’m Making for My BIG Family This Summer

Here are some of the meals that our table sees regularly!

1. Pancakes and Eggs, with fresh fruit and lots of bacon

How to make this meal quick and easy:

2. Grilled Chicken, with mixed greens, veggies, and fresh fruit

How to make this meal quick and easy:

3. Tuna Salad, with fresh fruit, grape tomatoes, and lettuce

How to make this meal quick and easy:

  • I almost always have my kids grab 4-6 cans of tuna and mix it up for the family while I’m doing something else that needs to be done.
  • We serve our Tuna Salad on whatever odds and ends of bread, tortillas, or crackers we have around. (Or if I’m in a hurry, I just grab a fork and eat it as-is!)

4. Baked Potatoes in the Crock Pot or Instant Pot, with whatever toppings we have available

How to make this meal quick and easy:

  • I have each of my kids scrub a few potatoes early in the day so they can cook in the crock pot and be ready for lunch or dinner.
  • We grab leftover ham, taco meat, or roast beef from the fridge and warm it up to serve on our potatoes along with butter, sour cream, and cheese.
  • I almost always steam frozen peas to serve with Baked Potatoes, which takes about 2 minutes.

5. Grilled Hamburgers or Hotdogs

How to make this meal quick and easy:

  • I like to make patties ahead of time, then throw them on the grill for a quick lunch or dinner. Our favorite recipes are Make-Ahead Parmesan Burgers or Cheddar Ranch Burgers.
  • I buy several packages of Nitrite-Free Beef Hotdogs at the store to keep in the freezer so I can grab them out and grill them quickly for summer lunches.
  • I set out fixin’s and everyone builds their burger or dog the way they like!

6. Beanie Weanies

How to make this meal quick and easy:

  • I have a supply of Nitrite-Free Beef Hotdogs in the freezer so I can grab them out and thaw them in hot water when we need a quick meal.
  • I have a supply of Organic Baked Beans in my pantry so that if I don’t have to make Simple Baked Beans from scratch, I can grab a few cans and make a meal!
  • I slice fruit and get out carrot sticks to complete this simple meal.

7. Tacos

How to make this meal quick and easy:

8. Instant Pot Meals

Take a look through all the Instant Pot Recipes we’ve posted so far! I have been amazed at how much time my Instant Pot has saved me. Whatever I make in my Instant Pot, I serve with a quick salad and veggie and food is on the table so quickly! During the summer, I especially love that using my IP keeps from heating up the kitchen!

Our favorite Instant Pot Recipes so far:

9. Special Salads

Salads are great because we get so much nourishment from them, we can use garden fresh veggies, and we avoid heating up the house! But salads are only great as meals if they are hearty and filling.

Here are our favorite Hearty Salad Recipes:

How to make this meal quick and easy:

  • I try to have Homemade Bacon Bits cooked and in the freezer to grab out for easy salads.
  • During all the months of the year that fresh lettuce is not growing in our garden, I keep a package of Organic Mixed Greens in the fridge. Then, when we want to make a salad, we just grab the greens and add whatever we want!

10. Stir Fry

How to make this meal quick and easy:

  • I make a large batch of this Stick of Butter Rice so we can stir it into our fried veggies. (We often serve our stir-fried veggies with whole wheat spaghetti noodles, but we love rice with them too!)
  • I use whatever veggies we’ve picked from our garden, received from Bountiful Baskets, or purchased at the farmer’s market to make super flavorful, nourishing Stir Fry! And I usually throw in a big handful of fresh spinach too. :)

11. Grilled Salmon

How to make this meal quick and easy:

  • If I haven’t thawed our salmon ahead of time, I dunk the package into hot water and they thaw super quickly!
  • I serve a simple salad and whatever fresh veggies and fruit we have on hand to complete this simple meal.

12. Pizza on the Grill

Cooking pizza outside on the grill keeps the oven off and the house cool!

So we’re eating well and we’re eating a lot! How about you? What are you feeding your family this summer?

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