Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Menu Plan for the Week

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We spent the weekend in Kansas at a home school basketball tournament for our oldest, Asa. We had a great time! My dad and his wife were able to come join us for the weekend. Asa’s team played very well and ended up taking first in their division! Very fun. More importantly, we were able to focus on and build relationships with wonderful families. We’re so thankful to be a part of this program.

After eating out several meals this weekend, we’re ready to get back into the routine of eating healthy, home cooked meals. Here’s what we’ll be eating this week:

Sunday, March 4
Oatmeal, pears
Tuna casserole, peas
High School Huddle – Italian pasta bake, tossed salad, corn, chocolate chip brownies

Monday, March 5
Whole wheat waffles, blueberries
Salmon patties, potato wedges, pineapple
Chicken enchiladas, tossed salad

Tuesday, March 6
Scrambled eggs, creamy orange cooler
Lamb burger patties, steamed broccoli and carrots, rice
Roasted chicken, potatoes, gravy, asparagus

Wednesday, March 7
Applesauce bread, bananas
Corn dog muffins, carrot sticks with homemade ranch, apple slices
Orange chicken and rice with carrots

Thursday, March 8
Turkey sausage, hashbrowns, fried eggs, clementines
Creamy mac and cheese, peas
Homemade pizza, tossed salad

Friday, March 9
Mini apple pies, bacon
Nachos, fruit
Bbq brisket, cream scalloped potatoes, green beans, buttermilk chocolate cake with chocolate fudge frosting and ice cream (celebrating a birthday!)

Saturday, March 10
Whole wheat donuts
Leftovers
Garlic butter shrimp, angel hair pasta, steamed broccoli

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Baked Three Cheese Chicken Pasta – a Make Ahead Meal

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This might be the best chicken pasta dish you’ll ever eat.

The chicken was on its last leg.

Well actually, the chicken no longer had legs, as it had already fulfilled its glorious life purpose and had been cooked and made into a rich broth and good healthy meat for my family.

Regardless, legless though he was, the last little bit of cooked chicken in my fridge was indeed on its last leg. It needed to be eaten. It could no longer be left alone…neglected, unused, and unwanted.

(It would appear that, apparently, I felt the need to create some chicken drama when all I really needed to say was:  “I had leftover chicken- so I used it.” I can’t just be normal. What fun would that be?)

So the chicken – it was begging to be used. I needed a quick lunch for the family. But I needed to make the meal in the morning and have the capability to reheat it quickly at lunch time. Therefore, I decided to play with my Three Cheese Garlic Chicken Pasta recipe and make it into a “Make Ahead Meal“. The chicken and I are happy to report that my idea worked, and the meal was delicious.

Actually, the chicken has nothing at all to report because not only is he not on his last leg anymore, he is officially gone.

Why? Why do I say these things? I’m going to just give you the recipe already before I say anything else ridiculous about the chicken.

Baked Three Cheese Chicken PastaYum

Baked Three Cheese Chicken Pasta - a Make Ahead Meal
 
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Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 2 cups cooked chicken, cut into bite sized pieces
  • 2½ cups whole wheat pasta
  • 3 cups whole milk
  • ½ teaspoon garlic powder (add more if you like)
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
  • 4 ounces softened cream cheese
  • 1-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Instructions
  1. In a large cooking pot, combine cooked chicken, uncooked pasta, milk, garlic powder, and sea salt.
  2. Cook and stir over medium-high heat until pasta is tender and the starch from the pasta has thickened the milk, creating a creamy sauce.
  3. Remove cooking pot from the heat.
  4. Stir in parmesan cheese and cream cheese until it is mixed throughout.
  5. Pour pasta mixture into a casserole dish. (A 9x13 inch pan works well, or any variety similar in size.)
  6. Sprinkle shredded cheese on top and bake in a 350° oven for about 15 minutes or until cheese is melted.

If you make this ahead of time, you may need to adjust the baking time so that the casserole will be heated through and through. Also, you can freeze this dish! Simply thaw and bake in a 350° oven for 30-40 minutes.

Baked Three Cheese Chicken Pasta

All this talk about chickens and legs kind of has me hungry for fried chicken legs, which pretty much makes no sense – unless you are in my brain and then it does make sense. Oh people. Be glad you are not in my brain. It is not pretty.

So tell me, what do you do when your chicken is on its last leg? (Yes, I think I am actually talking about leftovers here.)

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Easy Homemade Granola

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I didn’t really plan it this way, but what better way to follow up a post about not soaking grains than by giving you a recipe which includes unsoaked grains. Do with this what you wish. :)

This recipe works great as a snack or for a quick breakfast, especially if you’ve made it ahead of time. We like to put it in a bowl and add dried fruit and milk or cream. A friend of mine even adds applesauce to this granola for a sort of “apple crisp” taste. Her kids love it that way!

Easy Homemade GranolaYum

4 cups rolled oats
1 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut
1 cup slivered almonds
1 cup sunflower nuts
1/2 cup sesame seeds
3/4 cup honey
1 cup coconut oil

In a small sauce pan, melt together coconut oil and honey. Stir all remaining ingredients together in a large bowl. Drizzle on the honey/coconut oil mixture and stir well. Pour mixture onto a large, parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake at 300° for 35 minutes, stirring after the first 20 minutes. Store granola in an air tight container.

granola_2

Are you granola eaters at your house?

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Real Food – Low Cost Challenge Link-Up!

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As we reach the end of this Real Food – Low Cost Challenge, I have concluded that if you are ever wondering if you’re spending too much on healthy food – do a price break down. It’s a bit of a headache. It might make you a little crazy (or maybe that was just me having issues). But the effort is worth it. To learn that most of my real food recipes can be prepared for an average of $1.00 per person – that was very encouraging to me!

To finish up the cost break down on the remaining items on the challenge list, I’ll let you know that Italian Pasta Bake costs about $8.85 to make, breaking down to $1.48/person in my family.

Cheddar Ranch Burgers came in at $11.93 for eight burgers – $1.49 per burger. Not super cheap, but made with the finest ingredients and very filling. Throw some veggies in and we’ve got a complete meal for around $2.00 a person.

But enough about my recipes and the costs that come with them. I’ve been very anxious for today to come so that you would have an opportunity to share some of your favorite real food recipes that are low in cost. Help me prove that eating healthy does not have to be expensive!!!

If you have a blog, and have some Real Food – Low Cost recipes to share with us, link them up with us here. Be sure to link back to this post so that your readers know where to find more healthy recipes! If you don’t have a blog, please feel free to post your recipes in the comments section of this post. If you care to share the cost break down of your recipes – even better!

Let the Real Food – Low Cost Challenge Recipe Sharing begin!

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Real Food – Low Cost Challenge: Warm Vanilla Soother and Homemade Poptarts

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Beware – while reading this post, you will notice that I jump all over the place without making my paragraphs flow together and really without pausing to take a breath in between thoughts. All this exercise I’m doing is either giving me a crazy amount of extra energy, or perhaps it is just simply making me crazy. Or maybe it’s a little bit of both.

While breaking down the cost of my real food recipes, I have definitely learned that our breakfast time meals tend to be very, very inexpensive. We can often eat for around $0.50 per person at breakfast, making it easier to spend a little more for our lunches and dinners.

It is kind of funny to me that I break the food cost down per person in my household, when clearly, we don’t actually all eat the same amount of food. I would have to say that Malachi (our youngest at age seven) and I (the oldest at age 38) eat the smallest portions of food these days. Therefore, maybe Malachi and I can eat breakfast for $0.20 and everyone else eats for $0.70? Eh, never mind. I don’t feel like getting that technical. We’ll just keep it at an average $0.50/person for breakfast. I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know how much it costs to feed my soccer playing, basketball playing teenager right now. ;)

So check it out – my Homemade Poptarts cost $3.13 for one batch. I figured that if one batch of homemade poptarts makes about 20 poptarts, that means the cost is around $0.16 per poptart. I haven’t purchased poptarts at the store for a long time, but I’m pretty sure I’m not only feeding my family a much healthier poptart, but I’m saving money too. Sixteen cents for a poptart made with real food ingredients? How about that?

Who is it that said that eating healthy food is expensive??? (Oh yes, that was me a few years ago.)

I should have become a real food calculating geek years ago. This is fun!!

(Pausing for breath. Does reading this post make anyone else tired, or is it just me? And here we go again…)

My Warm Vanilla Soother recipe breaks down to $2.87 per batch. This really only makes about four servings though, so the cost per person is $0.72. Not bad at all for a mug of hot, steamy, delicious, nourishing comfort. I mean really, can you put a price on comfort? No I don’t think so. But just think about the cost of a hot drink of non-nourishment at your local coffee shop. Pretty sure you can’t get that for $0.72, am I right?

And speaking of coffee – because it does appear that all the exercise I’m getting these days is indeed giving me extra energy – I believe it is wise for me to stay away from drinking coffee very often, even if I did enjoy my one cup of coffee with real Chocolate Caramel Cream. I don’t think giving me additional energy from caffeine is really a good idea right now? What do you think?!

Make plans to join us tomorrow for a Real Food – Low Cost Link-Up! Get ready to share your real food, low cost recipes. Cant’ wait to learn about your tried and true family favorites that are easy on the budget!

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Real Food – Low Cost Challenge: Easy Noodle Stir Fry, Chicken Noodle Soup, And My Heart-Felt Free Range Chicken Speech

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It is high time someone stood up and said a word on behalf of the free range chickens. I mean, if I don’t say something, who will? The birds can’t speak for themselves, you know? Bless their little chicken hearts.

Ok, real quick – I’ll interrupt this crazy chicken rant to let you know that it would seem that the Real Food – Low Cost Challenge has sent me over the edge to the land of insanity. You know me well enough to have guessed that this was likely to happen some day soon, and probably saw that the end was near when I was struggling so much last week in my effort to figure out the cost of a (stinkin’) cup of whole wheat flour.

But back to the speechless chickens, and my determination to see that they are no longer misunderstood.

I currently pay $12.50 for one free range chicken. Twelve dollars and 50 cents. Many people think that’s a crazy amount to spend on a chicken when I could instead go the store and grab a whole chicken for $3-$5.

But, I hold firm to the belief that my chickens are not expensive. The chickens I buy are very large – usually around five or six pounds each. In fact, I always, without skimping, get at least four meals out of my chickens, if not six. Read here about how I can stretch a chicken to get six meals. Therefore, my one $12.50 investment in chicken costs me, at the most, only $3.13 for a nice amount of meat/broth per meal.

Based on this figure, and on the fact that making homemade whole wheat noodles is also very low in cost, I was thrilled to learn today that I can make a big pot of Chicken Noodle Soup for only $4.03. Four dollars and three cents!!!!! This, for one of the most nutritious meals on the face of the earth. That is $0.67 per family member at my house. Doesn’t that just make you want to stand up and do the chicken dance?

Well, doesn’t it?!

Okay, me neither. But still, I’m pretty excited. In addition, I learned that a batch of Easy Noodle Stir Fry costs about $8.53, which breaks down to $1.42 per person.

I’m thinking that I need to make chicken meals more often since I’m able to pull them together for such a low cost. It is amazing what all I’ve been learning as I’ve broken down the cost of our favorite, real food meals.

So, tell me about the chickens where you’re from. Have you found a good price for a good chicken? Are you able to find free range chickens where you live? How big are your chickens?

I tell you what, nothing beats a good discussion about poultry. ;)

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Menu Plan for the Week

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We got a bunch of snow dumped on us this weekend. I see lots of snow forts in our future. We’ll definitely be making Snow Ice Cream this week as well.

I’ve been doing more figuring and calculating for our Real Food – Low Cost Challenge over the weekend, the results of which I will share in the next few days. I have really enjoyed learning how much our meals cost! I wanted to let you know that Kacie at Sense to Save has a handy Recipe Cost Calculator that may help you as you calculate the costs of your real food recipes.

Here’s what our menu looks like for this week:

Sunday, February 5
Oatmeal, fruit
Hamburgers, spicy avocado dip, fruit salad, green beans
Healthier cheese dip, corn chips, apples

Monday, February 6
Simple soaked pancakes, applesauce
Salmon patties, creamy mac and cheese, peas
Lasagna, tossed salad, corn, honey whole wheat bread

Tuesday, February 7
Fried eggs on toast, oranges
Homemade beef balogna, crispy cheese crackers, cheddar cheese, apples
Crunchy ranch chicken, rice and veggie stir fry

Wednesday, February 8
Honey whole wheat bagels, clementines
Cheesy rice, steamed carrots and broccoli
Roasted chicken, potatoes, carrots, gravy

Thursday, February 9
Easy breakfast casserole, creamy orange cooler
Veggie soup, homemade soft pretzels
Italian pasta bake, green beans

Friday, February 10
Peanut butter honey toast, bananas
Beef and cheese burritos, applesauce, carrot sticks
Popcorn chicken, ranch potato wedges, peas

Saturday, February 11
Whole wheat donuts
Leftovers
Lamb chops, baked potatoes, fried okra, green beans

Did you get any snow at your house this weekend?

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Join the Real Food – Low Cost Challenge!

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I’ve decided to do things just a little bit differently during the next few days, just for kicks. :)  Since most of last week’s posts were discussing the expense of eating healthy, whole foods – let’s do a little experimenting, putting some healthy recipes to the test. An “expense test”.

Instead of planning a full menu for this week, I have instead made a list of a few of our family’s favorite recipes – recipes that you’ll find regularly on our weekly menu plans. Throughout the next several days, I will be making each of these recipes. Then, I’ll pull out the calculator and do a price break-down to determine just how much it costs to make these healthy foods. I will post frequent updates, sharing the results I’ve found. I’m excited to see which of my recipes might be most costly to make, and which ones might be less expensive. This is not something I’ve ever done before, so I’m pretty excited about this experiment!

Now of course, I can’t help but want to challenge you to get involved in this experiment too. You knew that was coming, right? :)

I’d love for you to also take some of your family’s favorite healthy, real food recipes and do a little cost break-down on them. You might just be surprised at what you discover! Keep on the look-out, because throughout this challenge, I have a few fun surprises in store as we put these recipes to the test. Then mark your calendar, because on Thursday, February 9, we’ll all come together with a special Real Food – Low Cost Link-Up, so that you can also share with us some of your family’s favorite real food, low cost recipes.

Here are the recipes I plan to do a price break-down on during this experiment:

~ Applesauce Bread

~ Simple Soaked Pancakes

~ Homemade Poptarts

~ Warm Vanilla Soother

~ Chicken And Noodles

~ Homemade Pizza

~ Italian Pasta Bake

~ Cheddar Ranch Burgers

~ Taco Potatoes

~ Easy Noodle Stir Fry

Be watching for lots of fun updates detailing what I’ve discovered about the specific costs of our food. You can, at any time during those posts, share some of your discoveries too.

Sound like fun? Let the challenge begin!

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Homemade Chocolate Caramel Creamer

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Disclaimer:  No one actually passed out while the following event took place.

Chocolate Caramel Coffee Creamer

Yum

I absolutely do not like coffee. Can’t stand the stuff. Never have liked it, no matter how I’ve tried to doctor it up. However, as I’ve mentioned before, I’ve always loved the way it smells, which is why, when a friend was over one morning earlier this week, I was excited to brew her some coffee. She actually likes how it tastes – and making some for her gave me an excuse to smell it. I know. I’m weird.

This is why I can hardly believe I’m about to say the following words:  I drank a cup of coffee on Tuesday. And I liked it.

Yes, my husband passed out when he heard the news. As did my children. Thankfully, they have all recovered nicely from the shock. I’m not sure I’m over it though. Seriously. I can’t believe I drank a cup of coffee and liked it.

Here’s how it all went down:  When I asked my friend what she would like for her coffee, she told me that she would usually add a shot of “Chocolate Caramel Creamer”. Since she and I are good at talking smack to each other, I said something very gentle and kind like, “Oh gag, are you serious? Do you know what’s in that stuff?”

(Partially hydrogenated oils, plus a bunch of weird stuff I can’t pronounce – in case you were wondering.)

Well, it just so happened that we had hosted a birthday party for Elias last week. And it just so happened that we had offered an ice cream sundae bar during the party. And it just so happened that I had leftover homemade hot fudge sauce, leftover homemade caramel sauce, and fresh cream in my fridge.

So I said to my friend, “You want REAL chocolate caramel creamer in your coffee? I’ll give you chocolate caramel creamer.” And so, I heated some hot fudge and hot caramel on my stove, drizzled them into her coffee, then poured in some fresh cream.

She took one drink and passed out from the deliciousness. Not really. But she loved it and said something like, “You have got to try this!” To which I reminded her, “Um no. I don’t like coffee”.

(It’s just like you’re a fly on my wall, huh? You’ve gotta love a play-by-play of my first coffee drinking experience.)

I finally gave in to the peer pressure, because shucks, it did smell really good, and I took a tiny, little sip. That was when it was my turn to pass out. Wow, it tasted good. I couldn’t believe it, so I took one more small sip just to see if I had completely lost my mind. I think the question of me losing my mind is definitely up for debate, but yeah – that stuff was good. I therefore made myself my very own cup of coffee with hot fudge, hot caramel, and cream. I sat down at the table with my friend, and together, we drank coffee.

Well now, I can’t say I’ve ever been able to write that sentence before.

The reason I share this with you is not ultimately because I have discovered a super healthy new recipe. I can’t say that this beverage is a must-have because of its stellar nutritional content. However, many of you have asked for an alternative to non-dairy creamers, which are really full of some not-so-good-for-you ingredients. If in fact you are looking for a better option for your coffee, I believe this might be just the thing you’re looking for.

Ingredients:  One cup of hot coffee that smells really good, one teaspoon hot fudge sauce, one teaspoon hot caramel sauce, and a few teaspoons of cream.

Make it. Smell it. Try it. And then, we will all pass out together.

Are you a coffee drinker? Have you found any great alternatives to purchased creamers you’d like to share?

UPDATE:  I love coffee now. Who knew?

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Menu Plan for the Week

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Here’s our menu plan for the week. If you’re interested in knowing more about how I plan our menus, I’d love for you to read this post!

Sunday, January 22
Oatmeal, fruit
Pasta alfredo, steamed broccoli and carrots, tossed salad
High School Huddle – Nacho Bar with chips, taco meat, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, olives, sour cream, and salsa; chocolate chip brownies

Monday, January 23
Whole wheat waffles, blueberries
Pigs in a blanket, carrots with ranch, apples
Beef and veggie soup, cornbread

Tuesday, January 24
Coconut flour banana muffins, applesauce
Tuna salad on crackers, pears, carrots
Creamy chicken and rice casserole, tossed salad

Wednesday, January 25
Zucchini bread, bananas
Spicy avocado dip with chips, fruit salad
Teriyaki chicken and veggies with rice

Thursday, January 26
Easy breakfast casserole, clementines
Meat and cheese burritos, pineapple
Taco salad

Friday, January 27
Peanut butter honey toast, fruit
Creamy mac and cheese, carrots, apples
Lamb-burgers, homemade fries, green beans

Saturday, January 28
Cereal
Leftovers
Cheesy beef and rice, steamed veggies, tossed salad

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