Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Foods to Purchase and Have on Hand for Busy Days

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Here are some of my best tips for foods to purchase and have on hand for busy days!

If you haven’t already, go check out all these amazing ideas for ways to get ahead in the kitchen!

Beyond homemade food, which of course we all love best, it’s nice to have some healthy convenience items on hand for busy days.

Foods to Purchase and Have on Hand for Busy Days

You know I’m going to start with this one:

1. Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

Just do it. These are so easy to purchase and so easy to serve and eat! Eating lots of fruits and veggies is the biggest, best way to be sure we’re getting lots of nourishment. And when we’re talking about busy days and maybe eating on the fly, we can feel good about what we’re eating or serving our families if we are making sure we’re/they’re eating an apple with their frozen pizza (or whatever). ;)

Great fresh fruit and veggie ideas that can be easily eaten on the run:

  • Apples
  • Bananas
  • Berries
  • Oranges or Clementines
  • Carrots
  • Mini-Sweet Peppers
  • Sugar Snap Peas
  • Pears
  • Peaches
  • Grapes
  • Grape Tomatoes
  • Cucumber Slices
  • Prepared mixed greens for quick salads

Regarding fresh veggies? I’m all about the dips. If ranch dip helps you or your kids eat the veggies? SERVE THE DIP. Veggies with dip is better than no veggies at all, am I right?

Need some dip ideas and recipes?

2. Frozen or Packaged Fruits and Veggies

These are great because they can be eaten or prepared quickly!

3. Whole Grain Breads

I prefer to make this Simple Stir-and-Pour Bread. But lately, since I haven’t had time to bake, I find that having 100% whole grain breads and bagels on hand has been very helpful.

These give us breakfast, lunch, and snack options from simple bread and butter to peanut butter sandwiches or lunch meat sandwiches.

Sometimes, on my busiest days, all I have time to serve is a peanut butter sandwich with one of the fruits or veggies listed above. It fills their bellies and offers nourishment too. I call it a win!

4. Boneless Chicken or Chicken Legs

My favorite is boneless chicken thighs. My second favorite is a package of chicken legs. If I have these in the freezer and I don’t have time for anything else, I can easily dump some sauce on some chicken and put it into the crockpot, into the oven, or onto the grill.

I serve the chicken with a steamed veggie (from the frozen veggies mentioned above) and a fresh fruit and we have a fantastic, healthy meal that hardly took any time to prepare!

5. Potatoes

I am not a fan of russets, but we love Yukon Gold or Red Potatoes! We can make so many fast meals with potatoes, specifically:

Baked Potatoes in the Crock Pot – which can be topped with anything we have in the fridge! Ham, leftover chicken or hamburger or taco meat, cheese, sour cream, broccoli, peas…

Baked potatoes make quick meals or side dishes.

6. Frozen Hashbrowns

This Mr. Dell’s brand of hashbrowns contains only potatoes, which I love! I buy them in 5-pound bags and use them to make so many of these recipes. Fast, easy, good for us!

7. Packaged Convenience Foods??!

Yep, I just said it. This is where I’m at now that we have so many kids and so much going on. Loving people is more important than standing in the kitchen. So some days, we eat the packaged nuggets and the frozen pizza. I feel no guilt about this. We eat salad with our pizza, we still have energy to smile at each other. It’s a win!

What do you purchase to help you get through busy days?

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Tips and Tools to Make Menu Planning EASY

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It really is possible to make menu planning easy, even if it’s a task you’ve never enjoyed. Here are my best tips and recommended resources to help. :)

Tips and Tools to Make Menu Planning EASY

Let’s just dive right in, shall we? Here are some of the tips I’ve found that are really helpful for simple menu planning. After I share these, then I will present you with some really great tools. :)

When it comes to figuring out food for your family…

1. Decide to have a good attitude about menu planning.

If you’ve always hated figuring out what to feed your family every day, keeping a good attitude about it can be tough. Even if you don’t mind or even actually enjoy menu planning, the daily grind of it can sometimes get old and tiresome. But the truth is that we all need to eat every day; therefore we do need some sort of plan so that we don’t become stressed out over food.

It’s possible you hate menu planning because you don’t plan your menus. (Eh?) What I mean is, if you don’t decide on a simple meal plan before it is mealtime, you’ll find yourself trying to figure out food for your family at the point in which they are all hungry, you are too hungry to think of good ideas, and you’re trying to make plans AND make food in the middle of ALL THE HUNGER.

This is no fun. It does not work. And it gives our brains the message that meal planning is hard and awful.

Take a deep breath. Pray. Choose joy over stress and angst. Menu planning can become easier. Learn what works for you (lots of ideas below), and decide to believe the truth that YOU CAN DO THIS.

2. Recognize that there are many ways to plan – so figure out what works for you!

Some people make a menu plan for an entire month. Some for each weeknight. Some for every single meal and snack of the day. Some subscribe to a menu planning subscription. Some make a plan each morning to carry out through the day. Some write down all the specifics on meal planners. Some make plans on a marker board. Some don’t write anything down at all.

These are only some of the methods and options – which proves that there are many ways to plan and that no one way fits the needs and preferences of every person or family.

If I was a once-a-month menu planner (which I am not, but if I was), and I told you “you should do it just like I do it!!” and then you tried it and it didn’t work for you, you might decide that menu planning isn’t for you. But the truth is that while once-a-month menu planning (and all the other methods) works for some, it doesn’t work for everyone. Menu planning is definitely not a one-size-fits-all thing. Toy with ideas, use resources that are available – and there are many! – and find a method that works for you.

3. Keep it simple.

Unless you really love gourmet cooking and creating elaborate meal plans, there is no reason to make menu planning and cooking for a family more difficult than it needs to be.

Discover simple recipes that you know your family will enjoy and that will not take long to prepare. Keep them in your back pocket (literally, if it helps; see below for details!). Jot down meal choices in a notebook, in your daily planner or calendar, or on pretty printable menu planning pages to keep on your fridge.

Think about and decide on your main dish, then consider simple fruit and veggie side dishes to round out your meal with nourishment.

We’ve all gotta eat. But we do not all gotta spend hours every day to make this happen!

Now I’m going to show you some wonderful tools that can make menu planning much easier.

Tools to Make Menu Planning Easier

We’re going to look at some tools that:

  • Show you how to budget when grocery shopping
  • Provide kid-friendly menu and snack planning ideas
  • Give you hundreds of recipes that are both easy and healthy
  • Walk you through how to get started with menu planning
  • Offer printables and planners to make the job easier
  • Teach you about basic nutrition, weight loss options, and special dietary needs
  • Help you get organized, actually, easily :)

I have somewhere around 60 resources to tell you about, but first, take a look at one of my new favorite menu planning tools!

The Easiest Recipes, in a Flipbook!

A few weeks ago, I took the recipes from my High Five Recipes eCookbook (recipes that all call for only 5 or fewer real-food ingredients!) and I turned them into a super handy Recipe FlipBook. Man, I am loving this – and this is what I was referring to when I said, “Keep simple recipes in your back pocket!”

I formatted each recipe to fit onto a  color-coded 4×6 card – then I sent them all to Walgreens to be printed. Just a few dollars later, I had all 86 recipes printed onto cards. I punched a hole through them, put a ring in the corner to hold them together, and tada! A High Five Recipes Flipbook!

This little tool is really handy (and fun!) because I can just grab it and start flipping through it for easy meal or snack ideas. Each section is color-coded to make it easier to go directly to the section I need: Breakfast Ideas, Main Dish Ideas, or Snacks and Treats Ideas.

The cards make it easy to see at a quick glance which few ingredients I’d need if I chose that recipe. Annnnnd since all of the recipes call for just 5 or fewer basic ingredients, I likely have most of the ingredients on hand and I know that the recipes will all go together quickly too!

I just added this new resource to my shop, so be sure to check it out!

And look what else!

We just added our brand new 52-Week Simple Meals Planning Packets Collection 2!

Sometimes you just need someone to make the plan and tell you what to get at the grocery store, you know? We’ve been offering our Simple Meals Subscriptions here for several years to help with this – and they are awesome and well-loved! This collection includes 52-weeks worth of these Simple Meals planning packets – categorized in Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall sections to make your job even easier. They tell you what to make, what to buy at the store, and how to make the food in the easiest ways possible.

If you prefer the entire collection of 52-weeks worth of menu plans, you can grab those here!

How to get these fun resources for FREE!

For two days only (January 26-27) they’ve brought back the Healthy Meal Planning Bundle I love so much. Many of you took advantage of this offer in August. But if you missed it, you can get it again if you hurry!

It includes 60 amazing resources to help you easily plan meals for your family. And then after you purchase, email me your receipt and I’ll send you the High Five Recipes Flipbook file (worth $15) and 52-Week Simple Meals Planning Packets Collection 2 (worth $52) for FREE!!

  1. Get your Healthy Meal Planning Bundle here before midnight, January 27.
  2. Email me your receipt and I’ll send you the High Five Recipes Flipbook and 52-Week Simple Meals Planning Packets Collection 2! (These are both digital so you’ll get them right away!)
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Last Day for Real Moms Cooking Community Freebies!

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

If you haven’t already, please come join our Real Moms Cooking Community!

Real Moms Cooking Community Goals:

  • Add new quick and simple recipes to your regular rotation that your family will love
  • Find ways to save time in the kitchen
  • Discover great tips for saving money on groceries
  • Learn simple ways to eat out less
  • Add more fruits and veggies into your meals
  • Gain tips for making menu planning easier
  • Support one another!

There is absolutely no cost to join this community. In fact, we’re practically paying you to be a part of this! If you sign up to join the Real Moms Cooking Community by today (July 8), we’ll give you:

  • A special 2 week series of emails highlighting topics like grocery budgets, family-friendly recipes, saving time in the kitchen, simple menu planning, and how to make vegetables actually taste good. :)
  • Exclusive access to our brand new Real Moms Cooking Community Facebook Group – so we can all share ideas, tips, and recipes!
  • 1-month FREE subscription to Simple Meals
  • This incredible packet of resources, for FREE —->

Ready to join us?

We’ll hang out via email and Facebook. Sign up here and we’ll start sending you freebies and connect you with the Real Moms Cooking Community.

Click here to sign up!

BONUS! If you share this post on your favorite social media sites so that your friends can join too – you can enter you our giveaway for a copy of our beautiful Simple Real Food Recipes Cookbook! Everyone needs this cookbook!!!!

Be sure to let them know that if they sign up by July 8, they’ll also receive the $49 worth of freebies we’re handing out!

Join the Real Moms Cooking Community here

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

My Current Favorite Cheat Meal – and How I Make it Healthier

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I have a new favorite cheat meal, and I don’t even feel bad about it.

It was about this time last year that I wrote my Beyond the Free Range Chicken post. In that post, I expressed that while I still love and desire to feed my family as healthy as possible, I’ve learned that it is more important to focus my time and energy outside the kitchen loving people. What’s more important?

  • Raw milk and organic produce? OR
  • Loving God and loving our neighbors?

I’m going to go with The Greatest Commandment.

Learning to Love

Little did I know what God was doing in our lives as He was teaching us to take hold of His commands and the promises of joy that came with them! He’s helping us learn to love better, to see people, and to share the hope He constantly provides. Meanwhile, He moved a 4-year old Bonus Boy into our house. He’s the son of one of the “neighbors we were loving on.” The 4-year old turned 5, and after a few months, it was decided that our family would adopt him.

The busy lives we had been living became much, much busier – but no matter because God has been in every part, perfectly providing everything we need. He’s been showing us during all of this how to let go of what isn’t important for His Kingdom and to fix our eyes more firmly on what He has to offer.

I could share thousands of words about all we are learning. But today, regarding food? Here’s a biggie I’ve learned: Who cares if you sometimes need to eat a less-than-perfect meal if the tradeoff is having more time to share Jesus’ love with others? Pray over the food, throw out the mixed greens or easy veggie to go with it, and trust that God is still providing His best for you.

This leads me to share my current favorite cheat meal. Don’t get too excited. It’s not even something to pass out over.

My Current Favorite Cheat Meal

It’s homemade-ish pizza.

Sure, I can make homemade pizza crust. Here’s the recipe for the days you have time. It’s fabulous. I recommend it. But you know what else I recommend for the days you don’t have time (because you’ve been sharing God’s love with people)?

Pre-made Pizza Crust. Organic…or not. Whole grain…or not. God is bigger, my friends. It’s just a pizza crust. This should not make us lose sleep. God’s purposes for our lives are bigger than the occasional serving of white flour.

I now regularly buy pre-made pizza crusts to keep in my freezer. About once every week, between foster care meetings and court dates and diapers and bottles and therapy appointments, I ask my big boys pull some out and top them as they please. This is our lunch or our dinner and it is so easy!

How do I make it healthier?

First, I don’t stress over it. A peaceful heart is great for one’s health. Second, we pull out mixed greens and eat salad with it. Often fresh fruit too. Again – SO EASY. It’s also fun and tasty, an added bonus.

And there you have it: My favorite cheat meal.

In the tug of war for all that demands our attention, loving people should win every time!

 

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Why Eating Three Meals a Day is Hard (and What You Can Do to Make it Easier)

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Actually, it’s not very difficult to eat three meals a day. But cooking and serving and cleaning up after three meals a day? Every day? For an entire lifetime? For our family and family’s friends and our family’s friend’s friends? Well now, that is a lot of meals and a lot of food.

Food is a constant need and a never ending item on the to-do list. It’s kind of like the never ending laundry, only a bit more challenging because at least the hungry people can wear the same dirty socks. They cannot very well go without food.

I actually love to cook, and sometimes the three meals a day thing is still hard for me. So for all of you who don’t like to cook? I can’t even imagine how stressful it must feel to try to figure out dinner night after night when cooking is not fun for you.

So let’s talk about the challenge of feeding a family three meals a day. Then let’s talk about what to do to make it easier!

Why Eating Three Meals a Day is Hard

1. Because we make it harder than it has to be.

If you don’t like to cook and you spend a lot of time preparing difficult dishes and meals, you need to learn to pare down your work load and keep your meals simple. I love to cook, but I only love it when the food is simple to prepare and easy to clean up after. Complicated meals are for gourmet cooks, not for people who have to feed a family three meals a day, every day, forever and ever, amen.

How to make it easier: 

Choose recipes that are super easy, but still made with real food. I have been learning to make real food main dishes that take about 5 or 10 minutes of prep, and it has been amazing! Look through this huge list of over 60 Simple Recipe links. These recipes have saved my family dinner time and again! The simpler I keep our meals, the easier it is to keep my family fed well. (Pssst, we’ve got a FREE eBook offer below, which provides you with 40 super simple recipes. Keep reading!)

2. Because we’ve taken the joy out of food.

Seeerrrriously we have so many delicious foods available to us. Either we have forgotten to appreciate it or we haven’t tried anything new for a while. We’ve gotten stuck in a rut, eating the same boring foods over and over.

How to make it easier: Go to the store when you’re hungry and pick up a few awesome (real) foods that you haven’t eaten in a long time. A fresh peach, a pack of blueberries, a bag of shrimp…whatever real food you love that you can afford and haven’t eaten in a while. Make a simple meal or snack out of these delicious foods and be reminded of all the incredible food God provides for us!

3. Because we think we have to do it ourselves and we don’t ask our family for help.

I fight all kinds of bitterness and grouchiness when I’m running like a mad woman to keep up with all the responsibilities of the day and my family is lounging around playing games on their phones. For the love, this is terrible for us and terrible for our kids. Cooking (and all household responsibilities) should be a team effort.

How to make it easier: Establish a new normal in which everyone who is available and capable helps with meal prep and clean up. Hand out jobs, delegate, and teach your family to work as a team with you in the kitchen. Imagine never having to grate cheese or load a dishwasher again. Glory hallelujah.

4. Because our attitudes are bad.

We are a blessed people who have been blessed with many blessings! We’ve got to remember this truth and choose to appreciate the food that keeps us healthy.

A little perspective: I have a friend fighting for her life against cancer right now. I guarantee that she would much rather “struggle through the challenge” of figuring out how to feed her family three meals every day instead of enduring the suffering and pain and illness she is currently experiencing. Let’s keep perspective and know that our normal, daily grind is actually a beautiful thing and nothing to complain about!

How to make it easier: Pray for God to change your attitude and perspective on feeding yourself and your family. Praise Him for taking care of you and for providing. After all, He always does! Take that attitude with you into the kitchen. Is it really so hard to do normal tasks on a normal day to keep our families healthy? It really and truly is not so hard.

We CAN put three meals on the table every day and it DOESN’T have to be difficult or stressful. Let’s continue learning ways we can pare down our real food kitchen work load so we can enjoy our families and our food too!

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

Tuesday’s Meal Times – And Why I’m Getting Really Excited

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I hope you’ve been enjoying the play-by-play of our meals this week. :)  Today’s menu plan was:

Tuesday, January 29
Scrambled egg sandwiches, oranges
Tuna casserole, peas
Sloppy joes, green beans

When I got up this morning, I decided to change things up a bit. Between scrambled egg sandwiches this morning and sloppy joes tonight – that would have been a lot of bread. Somehow I didn’t think of that when I was planning our original menu. Therefore, I decided to instead use our eggs to make Crepes with jelly this morning. I rarely think to make these, and the family loves them. Fifteen eggs later, along with oranges, bananas, and clementines – we were finished with breakfast. (My crepe recipe is in this eBook.)

crepes

A little while after breakfast, I had a phone call from my friend and web designer, Char. I am sooooo excited because she’s almost finished formatting my newest book, which we are planning to launch in February!! She and I worked out some details on the book and the layout, then I got back to doing school work with the kids. (I love that they can work independently on several subjects and that they were busy checking work off their lists while I was on the phone.)

Unfortunately, even though everyone had eaten lots and lots of crepes – breakfast didn’t seem to stick with anyone very long. About an hour and a half after breakfast, the boys were looking for snacks already. Cheese to the rescue.

I made a big pot of Tuna Casserole and peas for lunch. Most of the boys went back for seconds and thirds, leaving no leftovers. Yay! I read our latest Ralph Moody book, Mary Emma and Company while the boys were eating. We can’t get enough of the Ralph Moody books! 

tuna_casserole

Side note:  I want to be Ralph’s mother when I grow up. She was the picture of hard work and patience. But anyway, back to the tuna casserole…

tuna_casserole_2

Late in the afternoon, I was very excited because Kate, a college student who is a great photographer, came over to help me get a few last minute pictures for my new book. She did such a good job, it makes me want to have her come over so we can redo all of the other pictures! What a gift!

Who knew Turkey Sausage Seasoning Mix could look so good?

turkey_sausage_mix_1

Kate is special to us because she’s on the York College soccer team that Matt helps coach. To have her photography in my book is a huge blessing!

turkey_sausage_mix_2

Our dinner was Sloppy Joes with green beans, carrots, and applesauce. Kate took this picture for me too. So pretty!

sloppy_joe_1

So let’s see…did I stick with my menu plan today? Not entirely. I adapted the menu just a little at breakfast, and everyone was thrilled with the treat. Then, I added to our dinner menu plan – which is something I often do. I’ve found that if I plan something simple like “Sloppy joes with green beans” – then add to it depending on what sounds good and what we have on hand (or what needs to be eaten before it goes bad!) – I’m able to be organized and flexible at the same time.

Not only did I add carrots and applesauce to our dinner menu, I made Chocolate Milkshakes too. Nobody argued that idea. :)

milkshakes

Tonight, while the boys were having a snack right before bed (Granola), I mixed up the dry ingredients for our breakfast muffins tomorrow. We have to be out the door soon after breakfast for our home school P.E. morning, so anything I can do to get ahead the night before helps us to actually be on time. ;)

breakfast_tomorrow

I’m anxious to share more about my soon-to-be-released book (which will be available in eBook form, print, and hopefully Kindle too!). Stay tuned for more details.

How well are you able to “go with the flow” or change things up on your menu plan as needed?

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