Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

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

by 6 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Here’s a look at our February 2023 groceries and meals we ate that month!

February 2023 Groceries

We’ll start with a look at my grocery shopping trips this month. First, on the first Sunday of the month our entire family was able to worship together in Lincoln (where Asa, Justus, and their wives go to church). It was wonderful to be together, and we headed to Costco after church so we could eat lunch and shop. There are 16 of us now (including wives and a girlfriend) so lunch at Costco was slightly nuts. But cheap. How else can we feed 15 people for $32? (Baby opted for his bottle instead of a hotdog.)

I tried to capture a pic of all of us walking into Costco. Grown-up kids, little kids, Daddy – everyone holding a baby or a little hand…

I spend a solid $731 that day and got home with a great big haul of groceries. Sausage, chips, shredded cheese, frozen fruit and corn, maple syrup, honey, fresh greens and spinach, butter, rice, yogurt, cinnamon bread, creamer…

Coffee, applesauce pouches, yogurt pouches, peach cups, yogurt cups, half and half, cream, sour cream…

Chicken nuggets, carrots, apples, coconut oil, mozzarella, salad mix, frozen tilapia, cantaloupe, granola bites…

Many of the snack-sized items I got to help supplement our school kids’ lunches (even the splurges cost less than paying for a school lunch).

Four of our foster kids qualify for WIC benefits, which is a huge perk as it provides us with a small amount of fruits, vegetables, cheese, eggs, milk, cereal, juice beans, bread, and formula each month at no cost to us. I snapped this picture of the groceries I’d gotten with two of our WIC cards and wasn’t able to take pictures at home because all the babies wanted to be held at once since I’d been out. ;)

Mid-February we were in Grand Island for Malachi’s soccer games. I ran into Sam’s to get “just a few things” which for us means that I only filled one cart. :) :) :)

I spent $161 on food that day.

At the end of the month, I had a chance to go to Costco and Aldi. I came home with this after spending $304 on food. How did I get away with all these groceries for so little? Just before I went to Costco that day, I received an email that included my Costco Reward Certificate. It covered almost all my needs that day. SO THANKFUL!

At Aldi, I got strawberries, blueberries, clementines, bagels, pretzels, ketchup, sausage, grass-fed beef (on sale!), brown sugar, cottage cheese, and cases of:

  • Chicken broth
  • Salsa (2 cases!)
  • Pears in 100% juice
  • Peaches in 100% juice
  • Corn
  • Cream Cheese
  • Mac and Cheese ($0.50/box – a great convenience at a low price)

Since I stocked up so much at Aldi, I only needed one cartful at Costco. I got shredded cheese, applesauce, yogurt pouches and cups (on sale!), chicken (x3), butter, sour cream, broccoli, apples, greens, chicken nuggets, pizza, blackberries, guacamole cups, avocado cups, white queso, mandarin orange cups, half and half, red grapes, green grapes, caesar salad mix, and croissants.

After a Costco trip, the boxes are the best!

We are settling in with a new baby, I’ve had extra foster care meetings and appointments this month, and overall, we are pretty tired. Happy, healthy, joyful, thankful, and tired. So I decided this month to simply buy what we needed without overthinking and then get back to sticking to a budget later when I’m more rested and able to think/plan more frugally. :) These days sure are sweet though.

Keith loves his baby brother…

So. About that grocery budget.

I am realizing that I will soon need to increase our grocery budget.

I am having to rely on some convenience foods right now, and eventually, I can cook more from scratch and save more money. But even with that, I’m realizing that my budget may need to increase soon. Had it not been for our Costco Reward money, I would have gone FAR over budget this month. And there’s not much I feel I can do about it. The kids are only going to eat more as they continue to grow. Plus, for goodness sake, I am feeding 10 people three meals every day.

Stay tuned for an update on that once I have time to sit down and figure out what makes sense for our family. I’d love to hear your thoughts on what you feel is reasonable to spend per person per month on food. :)

Meals We Ate in February

Ready for the fun part?! Here’s a look at some of the meals we ate in February!

Someone gave us some Italian Bread loaves so I used them that night to make Pizza Boats. I served them with fruit and fresh spinach. (Some of my kids dip their spinach in ranch, some just eat it plain, and one of them dips it in ketchup, ha. Whatever gets the spinach down, I say.)

I hadn’t made this Cheeseburger Mac in a long time and it really hit the spot! I made it on a day when we were having trouble with our kitchen sinks draining properly. So I served our dinner on these disposable trays we had accumulated somehow.

What does our kitchen look like when our sink drains are messed up and I can’t wash dishes??

The sippies and other bowls and cups you see above are actually clean. I had taken them upstairs to our bathtub and washed them because running out of clean sippy cups isn’t an option. Matt worked all afternoon and solved the drain problem. It’s always good to be reminded to be thankful for the opportunity to wash dishes!

There was a box of free zucchini when I went to a WIC appointment for our girls, so I brought some home and made a double batch of this Whole Wheat Zucchini Bread. I shared two of the loaves with a family going through intense health issues. The other two loaves got eaten in two days at our house.

Here’s a little peek at our 2-year-old and 1-year-old sitting at a little table that we’ve had since our big boys were little. They were eating a breakfast of banana, yogurt, and zucchini bread bites.

I had a roast in the freezer so I slow-cooked it one day with potatoes and carrots.

I made 6 pounds of meatballs one day (recipe coming soon). I froze 4 pounds of them and baked 2 pounds for dinner that night with mac and cheese and steamed broccoli.

Here’s a look at six of our littles around the table eating meatballs. :) :) :)

When Baby#11 was born, someone gifted us an amazing pizza gift card. We took advantage of this one night when the pizza place was offering a special! That was a great night off of cooking for me!

I had picked up some Uncured Beef Smokies from Costco, and the kids were super excited. I poured barbecue sauce on them and slow-cooked them all afternoon. They were…so-so. :) It was a nice, convenient dinner but none of us gobbled these right up.

The day I made those smokies, the kids had the day off of school. One of our daughters-in-law was at our house helping for the day so we made a huge batch of Cream Cheese Cut-Out Cookies for Valentine’s Day.

One day in February it got up to 60 degrees, which is crazy for us in Nebraska! I took advantage of the weather and smoked a bunch of brats and hotdogs for dinner.

We took some to share with another family who had just had a loss in their family, then we enjoyed these with baked beans and carrot sticks.

One night I made a big batch of Cheeseburger Soup, but added noodles instead of potatoes. We ate our fill that night, then I added sour cream and cheese to the leftovers to create a casserole to eat another night.

For our school kids’ Valentine’s Day lunch, I made and packed them a heart-shaped quesadilla. :)

For dinner on Valentine’s night, I made Chicken Pizza Bake and took a few minutes to cut the pepperoni into hearts. :)

Here’s a look at a Saturday morning breakfast for all the littles that they enjoyed after watching a show (so I could wake up slowly with our baby). Sausage links, apple slices with peanut butter, yogurt, pumpkin muffins, and cinnamon toast.

I don’t remember what we ate for our main dish this meal, but I snapped a picture of Brayden and Keith eating pear slices and spinach with ranch while they waited on the rest of their meal. This is often how I feed the kids: give them their fruit and veggie to eat first before filling up on the rest of the meal. We have fewer food fights this way.

I put White Chicken Chili in the crock pot one morning and we enjoyed it that evening with Applesauce Bread. If you haven’t tried this easy chili recipe before, you must. It’s delicious, and it also takes no effort to make!

On another day, I made regular chili. We didn’t eat it, but instead, I filled two gallon-sized freezer bags with it and froze them both. I had browned several pounds of ground beef so it made sense to create something with the cooked meat before stashing it away. Chili it was! Now we have two meals ready to thaw and eat at any time! OR, I can use some to make this amazing Chili Cheese Dip.

Lunchtime each day can be a bit of a “thing” for our 4-3-2-and 1-year olds. They are all so little, and lunchtime is almost naptime, so we’re all a little bit tired at this point in the day. So, I’ve taken a break from giving them leftovers (Matt, Elias, Malachi, and I eat those up at lunchtime though!) and I’ve started giving them more “snacky” items. Here’s an example of a day I fixed their plates with pepperoni, cheese cubes, avocado cups, crackers, and applesauce. It was a hit!

After my final Costco run of the month, we enjoyed their croissants with chicken salad, grapes, and strawberries.

The older boys weren’t home for lunch that day so we actually had leftovers. I turned them into Chicken Salad Melts with cheese and ranch, which we baked the next day after church and ate with tomato soup, smoothies, and chips and salsa.

Here’s a peek at a marker board I moved into the kitchen. I’ve been writing down meals as I plan them for each day so that our 7 and 9-year-olds can read it instead of asking me over and over what we’re eating. It’s served as an added blessing that Matt knows what I’m planning and starts helping with prep without asking what needs to be done. :)

Completely unrelated to food, but worth sharing is the picture of our silverware drawer after our four year old cleaned out that part of the dishwasher. We are starting to get our 4-7-9 year-olds more involved with household needs and he is very capable of this task. Who cares that the silverware is all messy in the drawer? Not me!

We made breakfast for dinner that included biscuits, sausage/cheese eggs, pears, and blackberries. It was simple and the kids loved it!

I made three lasagnas one afternoon, freezing two and saving one to eat during the week. You’ll see that meal in March!! :)

How’s your budget looking? Care to share how much you spend per person per month? (I’m currently at $120/person/month but need to consider increasing and would love some input!)

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

January 2023 Groceries and Meals We Ate

by 4 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Here’s a look at our groceries and meals we ate in January!

The first part of January is a bit of a blur and I didn’t cook much because our church family brought meals to us for over a week. Why? Because this happened:

We were blessed to welcome home a baby sibling to some of our current foster/adopted kids. This little guy is so sweet and gets at least 4,000 kisses every day.

January 2023 Groceries and Meals We Ate

With a newborn in the house, it didn’t work for me to make my normal monthly trip to Lincoln for a big grocery haul from Costco and Sam’s. So instead, I opted for two big pick-ups from Walmart. The first one was the largest I’ve ever ordered!

This order cost $750.
I got chicken, hamburger meat, ham, lunch meat, frozen hashbrowns, $150+ worth of fresh and frozen fruits and veggies, shredded cheese, cheese slices, sausage patties, salad kits for Elias and Malachi, cream, butter, sour cream, bread, buns, bagels, and chips.

I also splurged on some convenience items since Matt and I aren’t getting quite enough sleep at night right now. This has been well worth it so that when our hands are full we can have Malachi bake some pizzas or throw nuggets into the air fryer.

When I got home from the store that day, none of our big kids were available and Daddy was holding Baby, but all six of our other littles pitched in to bring in groceries and put food away. It was so cool to see them all so eager to help! Even our 1-year-old got in on the action. (I couldn’t get a good picture of all of them helping because they were all moving around and trying not to trip over bags!)

It took over an hour to put all the food away, but we sure were stocked up again!

Instead of putting away all the meat I had bought, I decided to make a few meals to try and get ahead for the next couple of weeks.

I put an entire package of chicken thighs into a big casserole dish and made Pizza Chicken (forgetting the cheese before placing the pepperoni, oops!). I put this into the fridge to bake that week. That made dinner so easy that night!

My 7-year-old helped me crack about 2 dozen eggs into baking dishes. I whipped them, then baked them in the oven for half an hour. I put cheese on top right away, which melted. Then I built 23 egg, cheese, and sausage breakfast sandwiches for our freezer. This has been awesome for early before-school breakfasts for five of our kids!

Meanwhile, instead of freezing the 5-pounds of ground beef I had brought home, I cooked it in a big pot. I packaged it up in separate containers, one for tacos later in the week, one for whatever I needed in the future (which I froze), then I added chili ingredients to the rest of the meat in the pot. We ate the Chili with grapes and strawberries for lunch after church the next day. SO EASY and nice to come home to a hot meal ready to eat.

A few nights later we baked our Pizza Chicken, which I served with broccoli, corn, strawberries, and oranges. While waiting for their plates to be fixed, six of our littles stood at the counter and finished off an entire 5-pound bag of oranges! I couldn’t keep up with slicing them! :)

One morning for breakfast, I toasted some bagels and served them with Warm Chocolate Soother. I forgot to take a picture until the kids had almost finished eating everything.

I spent a few minutes one morning slicing 3 pounds of cheese for easy snacks.

A super easy meal one night was BBQ Chicken Legs, baked potatoes, and peas. This tasted soooooo good!

All month long our family passed around a lovely variety of illnesses. One night when Malachi finally had an appetite again, I made him a plate with warmed pumpkin muffins with melted butter, a sliced apple, and a peach cup. Best thing he ever tasted, so he said. :)

I invested in a handy gadget to make our own healthier and much less-expensive Uncrustables. My daughter-in-law, Eva, spent some time helping me make a bunch for the freezer so I can pull them out for kids’ lunchboxes.

She threw all the scraps into a pyrex dish and I used them to make Easy Bread Pudding. This was so great because nothing went to waste and then I had breakfast ready to bake the next morning!


Mid-month, our kids had two snow days home from school. We took advantage by making some extra fun foods. I had some pre-made pizza crusts in the freezer, so one day I let all the kids make their own mini-pizzas.

The next day we made these Snowflake Quesadillas.

When the four littlest were napping, I trudged outside and got a big bowl full of clean snow. We made Snow Ice Cream, which was sooooo much fun because Grandma was there to join us for a few days! The littles had never tried Snow Ice Cream, and they loved it. I made a bowl for Elias and Malachi also, which was extra fun because it reminded them of their childhood days. :)

Matt and I were blessed to have a night away at a church retreat (we took Baby with us) while Grandma and big brothers/sisters-in-law and a few others came to help hold down the fort. It took a lot of effort to prepare for our get-away so I was thankful for the bag of Chili in the freezer which I thawed and warmed for a meal the night before we left.


I also put in a second Walmart pickup order for the month so everyone would have easy food to eat while we were gone.

The retreat was wonderful and everyone back home had a great time with their caretakers. We brought home a huge bag of miniature candy bars (leftover from the snack table at the retreat), so I used them up one Sunday when we served a meal to young adults at church. Candy Bar Cheesecake anyone?

Prepping for the meal was made easier because one of our daughters-in-law has been coming once a week to help me. She helped me prep three huge cheesecakes on the Friday before the Sunday meal. So thankful!

Sunday meal and fellowship, a fantastic time!

I’ve been using my crock pot more since Baby came, and Spicy Ham and Potato Soup is one of my favorite easy meals to make in the morning. It cooks itself all day and is ready to eat at night.

I had picked up a 7.5-pound pork roast that had been marked down to $1.69/pound. So I put it in the crock pot to cook one day and then shredded it to pull out and use for these meals. Have you tried this yet: Make 5 Meals with 1 Pork Roast?? I love this inexpensive meal deal!

I had also found a great mark down on ground beef so I cooked it all and made a big batch of Sloppy Joes.

Maybe I’ll never pay full price for meat again?? It’s pretty great to find these deals!

Another markdown I found was these 1/2 pound burger patties. Even with the markdown, it still felt like a splurge to buy these. So I used them to make Hamburger Steak one night with mashed potatoes and veggies. It was a higher maintenance meal (with toddlers tugging on my legs) so by the time I had the meal completed, I didn’t remember to take pictures and I was reminded why I stick to Simple Meals right now. :) :) :)

On the last Saturday of the month, I made a huge pile of pancakes and scrambled a dozen and a half eggs. I don’t make pancakes much anymore so the kids (and the hubby) were thrilled!

The Uncrustables Eva had earlier in the month made were such a hit (and so nice to have in the freezer!) that I made twenty more at the end of the month.

Therefore I had a lot of crusts again and made another Easy Bread Pudding to bake on a Sunday morning for everyone to eat before church.

It was a great month with great eats!

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

Food I Made for the Freezer to Get Ahead

by Leave a Comment

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Slowly but surely, I have socked away some great items to pull out and feed my family as needed. Here is a list of the food I made for the freezer to get ahead!

Food I Made for the Freezer to Get Ahead

  • Pizza Crust – I made a quadruple batch, then made some into personal-sized crusts and some into regular family-sized crusts. The kids have fun putting toppings on their own crusts and think this is extra special!
  • Instant Oatmeal – This recipe makes 12 cups of instant oatmeal, which is awesome for a fast and warm breakfast option!
  • Hot Cocoa Oatmeal Mix – This recipe also makes 12 cups of instant oatmeal, but of the chocolate variety. We make this in mugs to make it like hot cocoa. I love having these instant oatmeal options on hand for fast meals and snacks!
  • Chili – I made two gallons. We ate one gallon then I froze the rest in a ziplock bag to thaw and reheat when we need it.
  • Ham and Potato Casserole – I made a triple batch in an extra large pan so we can share with company some Sunday after church.
  • Applesauce Bread – I didn’t go to extra trouble on this. I simply made a quadruple batch one day to share with friends at Christmas time, then I froze some for us to pull out and serve later.
  • Burritos – I made 16 of these, which will give us 2-3 lunches depending on who is eating those meals.
  • Poppyseed Bread – This bread is a favorite but I don’t tend to make it very often for some reason. I made a quadruple batch so we could eat one and freeze three.
  • Pumpkin Muffins – I doubled this so we could eat some and freeze the rest. Having muffins on hand for all the little ones is a must!

What do you like to keep in your freezer for busy days?

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

4 Meals You Can Make for $1/Person

by Leave a Comment

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

This 30 Days of Dollar Dinners series has been FUN!! Here are 4 more meals you can make for $1/person!

I love that the meals shared in this series are not simple beans and rice meals. Beans and rice make a great meal too!! But so does pizza. Chicken and potatoes. Creamy soup. Biscuits and gravy.

Wait. We can make biscuits and gravy for $1/person?? Actually, I figured out how to make it for just $0.83/person. Cool, right? (How much does this meal cost at a restaurant, actually? More than $0.83? Pretty sure.) :)

Our Biscuits and Gravy meal and the others I mentioned above are featured in our 30 Days of Dollar Dinners series. Have you been following along with this? Did you get all of our free resources? This will give you such great savings at the grocery store!

Just think, even if you just make a few of these meals each month, you will be saving a lot of money on groceries. The variety these meals provide, the nourishment, the delicious-ness?? It’s all very encouraging and fun!

Sign up here to get all of these free resources to walk you through making 30 meals that just cost $1/person!

Throughout this series, we already shared how you can make:

And now, 4 more meals you can make for $1/person:

4 Meals You Can Make for $1/Person

  1. Personal Cheese Pizzas $0.99/person
  2. Italian Honey’d Chicken Thighs $1.00/person
  3. Biscuits and Gravy $0.83/person
  4. Creamy Potato Soup $0.99/person

These delightful meal ideas happen to already be featured here at Heavenly Homemakers. So allow me to point you to those recipes now so you can start making them and saving right away!

Want our newly released 30 days of Dollar Dinners eCookbook so you can have all 30 recipes in your hands at all times?

Here’s how to get our 30 Days of Dollar Dinners eCookbook:

If you are a Heavenly Homemakers Club Member, simply log in and head to the eBook section. You’ll find it there so you can use and enjoy it right away!

Not a member? Please join us here so you can have access to all of our eBook, printables, eCurriculum, menu planning resources, and so much more!

Not interested in becoming a member of our club? Head to our shop here to buy the 30 Days of Dollar Dinners eCookbook independently.

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

How to Make 5 Meals with 1 Pork Roast

by 2 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Here’s how to make 5 meals with 1 pork roast!

Yum

This might be one of my favorite Dollar Dinner menu items – x5! If you take a look at our 30 Days of Dollar Dinners calendar, you’ll see that these pork roast meals break down into these:

  1. Pork Roast and Potatoes $3.74
  2. Shredded Pork Tacos $4.08
  3. Pork Roast Melts $3.90
  4. Cheesy Mac and Pork $4.05
  5. Pork Sandwiches $3.90

The recipes for these five meals feed four people, which as you can see, divides down to just over $1.00 or just under $1.00 per person!

In my case, I had a 5-pound pork roast in the freezer that I’d picked up marked down to just $1.79/pound. So my $8.95 purchase was divided into four full meals.

Wait, just four meals, Laura?

Yes indeed, we have way more than 4 people in our house. 10 to be exact. And for a couple of our pork roast meals, we had guests. So I most definitely made our pork roast stretch, as it fed a LOT of people four different meals! But I just couldn’t stretch it into five. ;)

First, I made the roast (recipe below) with cheesy potatoes, green beans, corn, pumpkin bread, and cookies. For this particular meal, we fed 6 adults and 6 kids.

Everyone ate until they were full, then we still had this much meat left over.

With these leftovers, we made Pork Roast Melts, Enchiladas like this (with leftover shredded pork roast instead of ground beef), and Cheesy Mac and Pork. The night we had enchiladas, we had company again so there were five adults and six kids. Fruit and veggie side dishes really help the meat stretch throughout a meal, which is a huge money saver!

How to Make 5 Meals with 1 Pork Roast

Here’s how to make a Pork Roast:

How to Make 5 Meals with 1 Pork Roast
 
Save Print
Author:
Ingredients
  • 5-pound pork roast
  • 1 chopped onion
  • Sea salt to taste
  • 2 teaspoons garlic powder
Instructions
  1. Put all ingredients into a slow cooker and cook on low for 10 hours or until met shreds easily.
  2. Shred cooked meat and divide it into five equal portions.
  3. Serve one portion over baked potatoes.
  4. Save the remaining portions for four additional meals: Pork Roast Melts, Shredded Pork Tacos, Pork Sandwiches, and Cheesy Mac and Pork.

 

To make it stretch to last through five meals, you’ll eat one portion the night you cook it. Then you’ll save four portions to make other meals as detailed in our 30 Days of Dollar Dinners eCookbook. And hey, guess what?

The eCookbook is READY!!

We finished the cook a few weeks ahead of schedule, so we’re ready to offer it to you now!

This book contains all 30 days worth of recipes so you can make all of our delicious dollar meals! Here are the meals and recipes you’ll find in the book, as well as the dollar amount it takes to make each recipe for 4 people:

  1. Chili = $3.80
  2. Chili on Baked Potatoes $2.82
  3. Broth Rice with Veggies $3.77
  4. Grilled Cheese and Soup $4.59
  5. Pork Roast and Potatoes $3.74
  6. Shredded Pork Tacos $4.08
  7. Pork Roast Melts $3.90
  8. Cheesy Mac $3.09
  9. Cheesy Mac and Pork $4.05
  10. Pork Sandwiches $3.90
  11. Italian Honey’d Chicken Thighs $4.02
  12. Cottage Cheese and Pineapple Bowls with Toast $3.20
  13. Egg in a Nest $3.54
  14. Whole Chicken with Potato Wedges $3.99
  15. Parmesan Chicken and Rice $4.02
  16. Creamy Potato Soup $3.98
  17. Personal Cheese Pizzas $3.99
  18. Cheese Calzones $3.99
  19. Italian Chicken Legs $4.01
  20. Amazing Fried Chicken $4.32
  21. Crepes $3.44
  22. Biscuits and Gravy $3.32
  23. Lemon Garlic Chicken Thighs with Biscuits $4.19
  24. Seasoned Pork Loin with Roasted Broccoli $3.56
  25. Pork Loin Sandwiches $4.02
  26. Scrambled Egg Sandwiches $3.08
  27. Baked Spaghetti Nests $3.10
  28. Pancakes and Eggs $3.48
  29. Bean and Cheese Burritos $3.98
  30. Tex Mex Casserole $3.45

Amazing, right?!

Here’s how to get our 30 Days of Dollar Dinners eCookbook:

If you are a Heavenly Homemakers Club Member, simply log in and head to the eBook section. You’ll find it there so you can use and enjoy it right away!

Not a member? Please join us here so you can have access to all of our eBook, printables, eCurriculum, menu planning resources, and so much more!

Not interested in becoming a member of our club? Head to our shop here to buy the 30 Days of Dollar Dinners eCookbook independently.

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

Parmesan Chicken and Rice Recipe – $1.00/person!

by Leave a Comment

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

You are going to love this Parmesan Chicken and Rice recipe. It’s so easy and flavorful, and can be made for just $1.00 per person!

You realize that this means that your entire dinner for four people only costs $4.00? Throw in a steamed veggie and a salad and you’re up to maybe $6.00, total, for a super-amazing, delicious, wholesome meal that nourishes.

My intent with this series is to encourage all of us. Grocery prices can look discouraging right now, but I’m finding that it really is possible to keep our costs low while still eating well.

This meal idea comes on the tail of this Whole Chicken Recipe in which we cooked a chicken with the goal of making three meals with it.

  1. Whole Chicken with Potato Wedges
  2. Parmesan Chicken and Rice
  3. Creamy Potato Soup (made with broth from the chicken we cooked as described here)

Today, we’ll share how you can take the “leftovers” from the Whole Chicken you made that you saved for this meal. You’ll make rice as detailed below, then you’ll stir in the leftover chicken. This is so delicious and easy.

 Parmesan Chicken and Rice Recipe

Parmesan Chicken and Rice Recipe - $1.00/person!
 
Save Print
Author:
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1 cup brown rice
  • 2 cups chicken or beef broth
  • 2 Tablespoons dried minced onion
  • Sea salt to taste
  • Leftover baked chicken cut into bites
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder (or fresh garlic)
  • ⅓ cup grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
  1. Stir rice, broth, onion, and salt into a 9x13 inch baking dish.
  2. Cover and bake for one hour in a 350 degree oven.
  3. Stir in cooked chicken and garlic and bake for 10 minutes more.
  4. Remove from oven, sprinkle parmesan cheese over the top and serve.

The rice cooked in broth with onion and salt makes this taste extra good. Now use those bones from the chicken to make broth. Then you can make Creamy Potato Soup too!

Did you get these yet?

All month long we are working our way through 30 Days of Dollar Dinners. Get the calendar filled with 30 dollar meal ideas, plus all these resources too. They are free and will hopefully save you a lot of money at the store!

Sign up here to enjoy these!

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

How to Beat Inflation at the Grocery Store

by 3 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

I’m here to offer some encouragement today. While prices are going up, we can still beat inflation at the grocery store.

As you know, my grocery budget for our Big Family is large. We need to spend $1,200/month to feed all of us, and with prices on the rise, I’ve wondered if I could keep it that “low.”

Currently, we feed four adults and six kids – three meals every day. At $1200/month, the breakdown equals $4/day per person for all meals and snacks. I feel great about this! But I’ve been contemplating if I’d need to bump my budget up to keep up with rising prices.

I may need to, but for now, I’m challenging myself to see if I can focus on more low-cost meals to keep from having to spend more. This personal challenge led me to put this 30 Days of Dollar Dinners packet together, and I’m really encouraged. As it turns out, we really can keep food costs low, even now.

We can buy one big pork roast and make it stretch into 5 different meal!
Join our free 30 Days of Dollar Dinners series so I can show you how!

Let’s talk about meat and cheese.

As I’ve been shopping, I’ve found that meat and cheese tend to be grocery budget killers. So I’ve changed a few things about how I shop and cook.

I’m adding less than half the cheese I used to add to dishes, and they still taste just as good. And as it turns out, I’m able to still feed us a lot of meat – I’m simply choosing cheaper meat options:

  • We’re eating less beef overall, as I’ve found that it’s much pricier than chicken or pork.
  • We’re eating more chicken legs, chicken thighs, and pork roasts.
  • If I need it for a recipe, I’m using more ground turkey instead of ground beef.

No one is complaining. No one has even noticed, actually. Our meals have been delicious and some have cost us less than I was spending before inflation. True story!

NOTE: This decision I’ve made to cut meat costs has meant that I am compromising on buying all grass-fed, free-range meats. God is bigger and I’m choosing to trust him in this decision even though I know that more sustainable meats are better for our bodies. The meat I’m buying is still a healthy, real food choice, and I’m saving hundreds of dollars each month this way. :)

I’m also trying to make time to make more of our food from scratch again. This is still a bit of a challenge with so many littles to care for right now. But I’ve been able to bake more than I used to, so this is wonderful for breakfasts and snacks. (See this great list for 111 Baking Recipes.)

Our 4-year-old likes to help me bake while his three younger sisters are napping.

30 Days of Dollar Dinners

I hope you’ve already signed up to follow along with our 30 Days of Dollar Dinners series. I’ll be posting inexpensive meal ideas and recipes here during the next few weeks. Meanwhile, get all these free resources! We’ve come up with 30 dinners we can make for $1/person (sometimes less!) And we’ve put it all – along with a grocery list and other money-saving resources – into this free printable packet.

Are we stuck with chicken legs and meatless meals forever now?

Goodness no. We can still buy and eat whatever we want. But the 30 Days of Dollar Dinners recipes and ideas packet gives us thirty meal ideas that cost $1/person. We can use this as a forever reference any time we want to find ways to cut back at the grocery store. And we can be encouraged that there are 30 great meals we can make that won’t break the bank. It’s fun and encouraging to know this!

What ways have you found to cut back on spending at the grocery store?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sign up here so we can send you our
30 Days of Dollar Dinners freebies.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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

December Groceries and Meals We Ate

by 7 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

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!!

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

Whole Chicken with Potato Wedges Recipe – $0.99/person!

by 2 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

It seems like a good idea to kick off our 30 Days of Dollar Dinners series with this Whole Chicken with Potato Wedges recipe. Check out this amazing meal for just $0.99 per person!

Did you sign up for our 30 Days of Dollar Dinners series yet? We have these freebies for you, detailing how to make 30 entire meals for just $1.00 per person! Sign up here and we’ll send these to you.

One chicken makes three meals

Here’s what makes this Whole Chicken recipe so great – well besides the fact that it’s easy and tastes really good. :) Your effort to bake a chicken is going to produce three meals!

  1. Whole Chicken with Potato Wedges
  2. Parmesan Chicken and Rice
  3. Creamy Potato Soup (made with broth from the chicken bones we’ll save after de-boning this chicken)

Intentionally only serve half the meat from this baked chicken at your first meal. Save the leftover meat to make the Parmesan Chicken and Rice (recipe coming soon!). Once the meat has been removed, use the bones from this chicken to make broth like this. You’ll save that to make Creamy Potato Soup!

How much does a whole chicken cost?

You can buy a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken for $5 at Sam’s or Costco. If you want to skip the baking part of this recipe idea, buy the cooked chicken for $5, divide the meat into two portions – one for this meal and one for the Parmesan Chicken and Rice. Then, make broth with the bones. This gives you three meals from one $5 chicken, making each chicken portion cost only $1.67. AMAZING!!!

OR, if you want to follow this recipe and bake a chicken at home, a whole chicken at Walmart is around $7. Then you can season it the way you like!

Here’s the recipe:

Whole Chicken with Potato Wedges

Whole Chicken with Potato Wedges Recipe - $0.99/person!
 
Save Print
Author:
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1 whole chicken with the innards removed
  • 2 Tablespoons melted butter
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt
  • ⅛ teaspoon ground pepper
  • 3 large yukon gold potatoes
  • 2 Tablespoons olive oil
  • Sea salt
Instructions
  1. Place chicken in a 9x13 inch baking dish.
  2. Remove gizzards from the cavity. (Save them to make broth later!)
  3. Spread or brush butter over the chicken.
  4. Mix spices in a bowl, then rub them all over the chicken.
  5. Bake, uncovered, in a 300 degree oven for 2½ hours.
  6. Scrub potatoes and slice into eight wedges each.
  7. Toss them in a bowl large bowl with olive oil until they are evenly coated.
  8. Lay wedges singularly on a cookie sheet.
  9. Sprinkle with salt.
  10. Bake at 400 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

Be sure to save half the meat for our Parmesan Chicken and Rice and save the bones to make broth.

Can’t wait to share more in this 30 Days of Dollar Dinners series. We’re working hard to complete our cookbook that goes along with all the freebies, so be watching for that!

 

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

30 Days of Dollar Dinners!

by 2 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Is it possible? Can we make dinner for a dollar after all the price increases we’re seeing in grocery stores? Indeed, all the inflation has challenged me to see what I can do to win at the grocery store. I have come up with 30 Days of Dollar Dinners!

Here’s what we’re getting ready to do:

  1. First, we’re going to give you a 30-Day Dollar Dinner printable so you can see all the meals we can all make for $1/person. We’re also going to give you a complete grocery list plus several other money-saving resources. See them here and get signed up. IT’S FREE!
  2. Then, we’re going to start posting the simple recipes that go along with all the Dollar Dinner suggestions on that printable.
  3. At the end of our series, we’ll have all of our 30 Days of Dollar Dinners recipes compiled into a beautiful new eBook. We’ll offer it at a discount to everyone who sticks with us through this series. Or BETTER YET, we’ll put it into our Club Membership site so that all of our members have access to it for no additional cost.

You’re going to want to be a part of this with us!

Why? Because we want to feed our families well, and we want to see ways we can cut costs without cutting nutrition. Here’s another perk to this packet: While prices have gone up, our time for cooking each day remains the same. Our 30 Days of Dollar Dinners promises to provide you with excellent and delicious real food ideas that don’t take much time to prepare.

This is like a win-win-win-win-win.

Happy New Year!!

30 Days of Dollar Dinners

Ready to get started? First, you’ll need our printables packet. (This is all free – did I mention that?)

Amazing meals we make with $1.00!

Wow, adulting is fun, am I right?

Who is so excited about all of this right now? You know you’re a grown-up when you can’t wait to download an Inexpensive Side Dish List and a calendar that offers 30 Days of Dollar Dinners suggestions.

But for real:

Sign me up!!

Then stay tuned for the recipes we’ll be posting that go along with our 30 Days of Dollar Dinners Calendar. It’s fun, it’s inexpensive, and it’s so delicious!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NOTE:

The above freebies are for everyone and we are so happy to share them with you! Beyond these resources, in a few weeks will be complete and offer you our brand new 30 Days of Dollar Dinners eCookbook to make creating these meals much easier from here on out. We’ll put it in our shop for purchase ($20) but we think you should do this instead:

Become a Heavenly Homemakers Club Member. You’ll get our new 30 Days of Dollar Dinners eCookbook plus thousands of dollars of other eBooks, eCurriculum, eCourses, printables, menu planning guides and much more. Get more details here and sign up here!

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