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Least Expensive Burrito Recipe

May 25, 2022 by Laura 1 Comment

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

Is this the least expensive burrito recipe? Or is it a nifty trick teaching us how to use leftovers creatively? Hmmm….

I’ll give you a recipe. But I’m also going to give you a license. A license to use up what you have and stir it into a mixture and slap it into a tortilla. Roll it up and call it a burrito. It works deliciously every time!

This is what makes this recipe the “least expensive.” You’re using up leftovers that you’ve already prepared. You’re cleaning out your fridge and avoiding waste. You’re saving time and having fun and the best part is that you’re making something your family will love!

As an added bonus, you can make as many of these as you need and freeze them to warm them up as needed! My older kids love having these in the freezer so that they can pull some out for an easy lunch or a late night second-dinner. :)

Here’s the kind-of recipe. Later, I’ll give more of an actual recipe for those who would prefer more specifics!

Least Expensive Burritos – the Use Up Leftovers Recipe Version

  1. First, make a meal in which you offer cooked meat, rice, beans, salsa, cheese, corn, olives, tomatoes, lettuce, and sour cream.
  2. Let everyone build a burrito bowl, a burrito, or a taco dip to eat with chips.
  3. After your meal, stir all of your leftovers into a dish.
  4. Use this mixture to make burritos for an easy-to-grab meal.

See how great this is? How easy? It’s how I make frozen burritos every time we have a burrito bar at our house!

Least Expensive Burrito (Actual) RecipeYum

5.0 from 1 reviews
Least Expensive Burrito Recipe
 
Save Print
Author: Laura
Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • 1 can black beans
  • 1 can corn, drained
  • 2 cups cooked rice
  • 1 cup salsa
  • 2 cups leftover cooked chicken or beef (optional)
  • 1 cup shredded cheese
  • 12 soft tortillas
Instructions
  1. Mix together all burrito filling ingredients.
  2. Scoop mixture into tortillas and roll up.
  3. Serve right away or freeze and warm up later.
3.5.3251

 

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Easy Recipes and Tips to Help Keep Food Costs Down

April 3, 2022 by Laura Leave a Comment

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

With grocery prices going up, we can still keep food costs down. Here’s how!

For my own sake and for yours, I decided to do some digging. I wanted to put together a thorough list of recipes and meal/snack ideas to help us all keep our food costs down.

First, do not despair

Media wants us to panic. I feel that we really have no need to worry! Sure, grocery prices are up and may still climb. But we can make this work!

Next, some ways to save big bucks:

Here are some of my initial ideas for saving some money on groceries. None of these will likely work for everyone, but maybe you can find one or two that work for you.

  1. Garden if you can. Or purchase from a gardening friend.
  2. Raise your own meat and eggs if you can. This is a no-go for most of us, but perhaps you know some local farmers you can buy from.
  3. Take advantage of any and all offers of free or inexpensive food you might have available to you. We often have friends with extra garden produce to give away. We also have friends with fruit trees and they tell us to come “have at it!”
  4. Make food from scratch if you can. See lots of great and easy recipe ideas below!
  5. Avoid processed food if you can. Packaged convenience foods can really deplete our grocery budgets. Consider other easy-to-make meals (recipes below).
  6. Buy and eat “in season” produce. The prices of fresh fruits and vegetables are still very reasonable and one of the best ways to get nourishment! Don’t buy into the lie that fruits and veggies are too expensive.
  7. Frozen fruits and vegetables are very reasonable in cost! Take advantage of this as a way to keep buying and eating healthy foods.
  8. Don’t let food go to waste. If produce is going bad, freeze it to use in broth (veggies) or smoothies (fruit). Save leftovers and be creative in how you use them up.
  9. Take advantage of “loss leaders” at grocery stores. Our local stores are still offering great sale-priced items to get us into the stores, and I bet yours are too! Take advantage of these and stock up when you find a great sale.
  10. Look for items that have been marked down. I almost always check the meat section at our grocery stores to see what might be close to expiring and therefore marked down. I save a lot of money this way and have freezer space to keep the meat good until we need it.

Easy Recipes to Help Keep Food Costs Down

I’ve noticed that the cost of prepared baked goods has gone up. Instead of buying them, I’ve been making inexpensive recipes like this for my family:

Muffins

  • Use this Basic Muffin Recipe (easy and inexpensive!) then add in anything you found on sale or have on hand!
  • Banana Muffins
  • Breakfast Cake Muffins
  • Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins (omit the chocolate chips if that adds too much cost)
  • Chocolate Swirl Muffins
  • Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
  • Cornbread and Cornbread Muffins
  • Cream Cheese Pumpkin Muffins
  • Eggnog Muffins
  • Flourless Brownie Muffins (great way to get protein!)
  • Flourless Pumpkin Muffins
  • Honey Cinnamon Muffins
  • Lemon Muffins
  • Muffin Waffles
  • Orange Muffins
  • Peaches and Cream Muffins
  • Snickerdoodle Muffins
  • Stuffing Muffins
  • Sweet Potato Streusel Muffins
  • Whole Grain Lemon Muffins
  • Whole Grain Orange Poppyseed Muffins
  • Whole Wheat Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
  • Whole Wheat and Honey Zucchini Muffins
  • Whole Wheat Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins

Easy-to-Make Breakfast Breads and Bars

  • Applesauce Bread
  • Apricot Breakfast Bars
  • Banana Bread
  • Breakfast Cake
  • Chocolate Chocolate Chip Bread
  • Chocolate Swirl Bread
  • Cinnamon Swirl Bread
  • Honey Whole Wheat Bagels
  • Honey Whole Wheat Bread
  • Lemon Bread
  • Monkey Bread
  • No Knead Whole Wheat Bread
  • Oatmeal Breakfast Bars
  • One Hour Whole Wheat Yeast Rolls
  • Peanut Butter Breakfast Cake
  • Pita Bread
  • Poptarts
  • Pumpkin Breakfast Cake
  • Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
  • Strawberry Bread
  • Stir-n-Pour Bread – So Easy!
  • Whole Wheat and Honey Zucchini Bread
  • Whole Wheat Butterhorns
  • Whole Wheat Cinnamon Rolls
  • Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns
  • Whole Wheat Hot Dog Buns
  • Zucchini Carrot Bread

Cereal prices seem much higher than normal, so consider these fun ideas:

Homemade Cereal – Easier than you think!

  • Cracklin’ Oat Bran Cereal
  • Dark Chocolate Almond Granola
  • Granola
  • Granola ~ 5-Minute Stop-Top Version
  • Grape Nuts Cereal
  • Instant Oatmeal Packets

Inexpensive Meal Ideas:

  • Lentil Nachos
  • Tuna Patties
  • Banana Pancakes
  • Applesauce BBQ Chicken
  • Hashbrown and Egg Nests
  • Cornbread Waffles with Chili
  • Veggie Fritters
  • Lemon Garlic Chicken Legs
  • Simple Noodle Soup

Meals you can make instead of buy:

These meals are not necessarily the cheapest to make compared to those listed above. But these are less expensive to make from scratch compared to buying them premade or compared to eating out.

  • Lasagna
  • Pizza
  • Hot Pockets
  • Calzones
  • Chicken Burritos
  • Meat and Cheese Burritos
  • Chicken Nuggets and French Fries
  • Chicken Patty Sandwiches
  • Chicken Pot Pie
  • Chicken Salad
  • Corndogs
  • Homemade Tomato Soup
  • Pizza Pockets

Grocery Shopping Tips:

If you’re looking to save money, here are some foods you want to stock up on and some foods you might want to avoid.

Buy This:

  • Fruit that is in season and/or on sale
  • Chicken legs
  • Whole chicken
  • Boneless chicken thighs or breasts
  • Ground turkey or chicken
  • Ingredients for homemade baking: flour, sugar, honey, spices, oil, baking powder, salt
  • Oats
  • Rice
  • Potatoes
  • Pasta
  • Pasta sauce

Avoid This:

  • Fruit that is out of season
  • Ground beef (buy this when it’s on sale to use sparingly as it is significantly more than ground turkey)
  • Cheese and cream cheese (we eat a lot of cheese, but I’ve been trying to use it less in our meals overall to save a few bucks)
  • Premade baked goods (with the exception of bread and buns which are still reasonably priced)
  • Frozen meals

What are your go-to meals that are money savers?

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

March 13, 2022 by Laura 2 Comments

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

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

Obviously, my biggest tip is: EAT IT.

Great post. See ya next time.

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

First, a look at my produce selections

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

Typically, I load my carts with:

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

How to Use Produce Before it Goes Bad

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

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

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

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

What about other veggies?

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

What do you do to keep produce from going bad?

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Clean Out the Fridge, Freezer, and Pantry: What to Make

January 5, 2022 by Laura 2 Comments

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

Is it time to clean out your fridge, freezer, and pantry? Here are some ideas for what to make!

I super love to grocery shop. Scratch that. I love to have a grocery store in my own house. I’m not actually such a huge fan of going into the store and buying all the food. After all, one cart is usually not big enough for my family anymore. And the new self-checkout at Walmart with a heaping cart of groceries? IT IS JUST TOO MUCH.

Here’s a picture of the final time I shopped and bagged my own groceries before finding some different/better options!

My current favorite ways to buy groceries are:

  • Load up at Costco (their carts are Coppinger-sized and I only go there once each month)
  • Enjoy Walmart Pickup (the most amazing invention since Walmart was invented)
  • Order groceries from Amazon to be delivered to my door

I said something about having a grocery store in my house?

What I mean is, I try, if possible, to have just about every common grocery item in my house at all times. This means I can make just about any meal or snack food we need or want without having to run out to the store. I can just go to my store room and grab what we need. Or I can look around my food storage and plan meals and snacks based on what we have.

I don’t take it for granted that I can do this. I am incredibly thankful for storage space, extra fridge and freezers, and the financial ability to stock up regularly.

I almost never let our food supply get depleted as this actually costs more money and takes more work in the long run. Every few months though, I feel like I should challenge myself to use up some of the forgotten and neglected food that has been stuffed into the back of our pantry and freezers.

You know what I’m talking about, right? Those random half-packages of pasta. The meat that was on sale and sounded good at the time but is now almost freezer-burned. The jars of peaches we canned two summers ago and are somehow saving for a rainy day?? Just eat ’em already, right?

If you need some motivation to clear out some of your hidden and neglected food, I thought I’d share what I did recently in an effort to use up some miscellaneous groceries that I didn’t want to go bad.

Clean Out the Fridge, Freezer, and Pantry: What to Make

1. Creative Casserole

Listen, you may never make a casserole like this again, so hopefully, your family doesn’t love it so much that they ask you to duplicate it every week. But when cleaning out the fridge, if you take some kind of pasta or rice, some kind of meat, and some kind of sauce and mix it together, it’ll probably taste pretty good. And you can call it “Creative Casserole.” These are truly a favorite around here.

If you have a half tub of cottage cheese or sour cream in the fridge to stir in, that’ll probably be good too. Shredded cheese? Yes, please.

And just like that, you’ve used up a few neglected food items, saved some money, and fed your family a tasty meal!

2. Trail Mix

If you have any assortment of nuts and dried fruit, you can dump them all into a bag or bowl and voila. You have trail mix. It’s a great snack for everyone to enjoy – even for breakfast!

3. Omelets, Breakfast Casseroles, or Scrambles

And speaking of breakfast, or even lunch or dinner – why not grab out the tidbits of this veggie and that meat to scramble with eggs? Or if you’re feeling fancy, make omelets! If you have frozen meats, cheeses, and veggies to use up, omelets or scrambles are a fun way to use them up! Or stir them into a Breakfast Casserole like this.

4. Saucy Meat in the Crockpot

This is one of my favorite ways to use up two items: Sauce and Meat.

You can hardly go wrong, and you should trust me on this because I am the queen of grabbing the tail end of three different kinds of sauces from my fridge, pouring them all on a roast or package of chicken, and slow cooking it in my crockpot. It always turns out good – no matter what combination of sauce I use.

Then the shelves on the door of my fridge that hold our sauces become less cluttered. The meat in my freezer has been put to good use. And my family has a great meal!

5. Smoothies

I often have several bags of frozen fruit in my freezers, and using them up really frees up space! I’ve found that you really can’t go wrong by throwing any combination of fruits into a blender for a smoothie. So go ahead. Dump in the oranges with the grapes with the blueberries with the bananas. It’ll be great and your freezer will be less cluttered!

6. Stir-Fry

Collect all of the miscellaneous fresh vegetables in your fridge that have started to shrivel up: broccoli, carrots, squash, mushrooms, sweet peppers, etc. Rinse them, chop them, and make your family a delicious stir-fry side dish. Bonus points if you chop up some leftover cooked meat like steak, roast, or chicken to stir in to make this a main dish!

7. Pie, Crisp, or Cobbler

If you had great intentions during a fall harvest and froze fruit like apples, peaches, or berries – dig them out now and make a special dessert! Since it IS fruit and it MIGHT be topped with oats, you could MAYBE even make it for a special breakfast. :) Here’s my cobbler recipe. Here’s my fruit pie recipe. Here’s my fruit crisp recipe. Use them with any fruit you have!

 

What other great ideas do you have to share?!

 

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How to Pack Snacks and Meals to Take on the Road

May 12, 2021 by Laura Leave a Comment

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

Are you planning to travel this summer? Here are some great tips for how to pack snacks and meals to take on the road!

Yes, sometimes we eat out when we’re traveling. But here are some great ideas that we’ve used through the years to save lots of travel money. It goes without saying that we feel a lot better when we do this because we’re eating more wholesome foods!

How to Pack Snacks and Meals to Take on the Road

tourney food4

This picture shows an example of food we packed for a road trip a few years ago. Here are the specifics. We used jars, baggies, and lidded containers to keep our food safe:

  • Strawberry Cheesecake Parfaits
  • Turkey Sandwiches
  • Chef Salads with Homemade Ranch and cooked shredded chicken
  • Homemade Pizzas (that we ate cold)
  • Breakfast Sandwiches that we heated and ate during our first stretch of the trip
  • Sliced cucumbers, sweet peppers, and kiwi
  • Summer Sausage and Sliced Cheese (protein in case hotel breakfasts are all empty carbs)
  • Peanuts, Cashews, Crackers, Blueberries, Applesauce, Peach Cups, Pear Cups, Clementines

Here’s another example from a different road trip:

bball food 1

This trip included:

  • Breakfast Burritos
  • Chef Salads
  • Sandwiches
  • Homemade Applesauce Cups
  • Peach/Pear cups
  • Carrots
  • Sliced Sweet Peppers
  • Apples
  • Clementines
  • Blueberry Muffins
  • Granola Bites (I’m working on this recipe for you)
  • A Jar of Homemade Ranch for the Salads
  • A Jar of Pineapple Fluff for Mom
  • Coffee Mocha (it pays to save bottles to reuse for fun drinks!)
  • Homemade Gatorade
  • Chips
  • Peanuts and Cashews

And how about these fun ideas:

  • Burritos (either breakfast, meat and cheese or bean and cheese)
  • Quesadillas (just cheese or cheese with chicken)
  • Pasta Salad
  • Tuna Salad with Crackers
  • Muffins like Corn Dog Muffins or Sloppy Corn Bread Muffins

Always fruits and veggies!

Apples, carrots, clementines, and containers of berries travel well. These are so refreshing to snack on in the car!

travel food 1

What are your favorite meals and snacks to take on the road when you travel?

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10 Easy Food Items You Didn’t Know You Could Make at Home (Save $$!)

February 24, 2021 by Laura 2 Comments

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

I bet you didn’t know you could make these food items at home! (Actually, if you’ve been reading here long, you probably do know about most of these, but act surprised anyway.) ;)

The old me used to make EVERYTHING from scratch. Some of you probably remember that girl. I made homemade ketchup, homemade tortillas, homemade grape nuts cereal, homemade hashbrowns, homemade tator tots… Wait. Homemade Tator Tots?? Yes. It was a reader request and I figured out how to do it! I was what one might call “an overachiever.” (Or “that really crazy heavenly homemaker lady.”)

Now I’m in a different season in life with a big houseful of littles and have decided that there are some food items that aren’t worth my time to make at home. Loving my people is more important than making Homemade Peanut Butter Captain Crunch. Oh my goodness yes. I even tried that too.

But today I want to share 10 food items that are easy to make at home, will save a lot of money, and are worth your time!

10 Easy Food Items You Didn’t Know You Could Make at Home

1. Vanilla Extract

We’ll start with my favorite! This saves a lot of money and is amazing to make in your very own kitchen!

2. Peanut Butter (super creamy – spreadable, like Skippy or Jif)

This tastes so much better than any store brand and is so much fun to make. Watch peanuts turn into peanut butter! So cool.

3. Gatorade

This costs pennies and is so much better for us!

4. Chicken Wings

I always thought this was restaurant food. Turns out, it’s super cheap Friday night dinner at home.

5. Whipped Cream

No, it isn’t cool whip. It’s 1,000 times better.

6. Ranch Salad Dressing

Hidden Valley who?

7. Poptarts

These taste so incredibly good and are easy to make in bulk amounts to freeze and pull out for easy breakfasts!

8. Graham Crackers

The kind from a box will never taste as good as these gems. You can even make them chocolate!

9. Instant Oatmeal Packets

Make a bunch of packets or make a big batch in a jar for easy, inexpensive breakfasts!

10. Frappe

Because why pay $5 at a coffee shop when you can make it for much less at home?

Stevia Sweetened Chocolate Frappe

Which of these have you tried? Ready to try something new?!

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The Surprising (Money-Saving) Ways I Use an Air Fryer

November 18, 2020 by Laura 1 Comment

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

You might be surprised about the ways I use an Air Fryer, but hey, it’s tasty and saves money. Let me fill you in on all my secrets…

Matt and the boys surprised me with an Air Fryer last Christmas. But the truth is, I’m pretty sure they all wanted it for themselves and well, it was for sure a win-win Christmas gift!

I’ve made delicious Garlic Butter Shrimp in it and will never turn back. I love roasting green beans in it and will share those simple instructions soon. But can I confess how we mostly use the Air Fryer at our house?

French. Fries.

From a bag. At the store. The good kind. As in, the name brand fries because our store brand doesn’t taste nearly as good.

Wait, but Laura, don’t you make homemade fries?

Yes, I did. Past tense, at least for now. I barely have time to scrub a potato, so I do not have time (or arms) to cut potatoes into fries.

Ore Ida fries in the Air Fryer – the crinkle kind because THOSE ARE THE BEST – are so delicious and fun. We have them every Friday night and have obviously dubbed it “French Fry Friday.” We eat chicken strips and fries and watch a movie to celebrate the week. And about those chicken strips?

Those come out of a bag too. I don’t even feel guilty about this. We throw those into the air fryer with our fries. On Fridays. Before our movie night.

If I have a few extra minutes and two or even one arm to work with, I’ll steam a veggie to go with our meal. Otherwise we all grab some fruit and call it a night.

This saves money, how?

Well, how much money do you spend when you’re too tired to cook and you go through the drive-through for chicken strips and fries for your crew?

We almost never eat out, but a few weeks ago we went through a fast-food drive-through because they were giving a percentage of sales to our local school for a fundraiser. We headed that way to show our support and to give me a night off, but shucks if we didn’t sink $30 into that meal – and the receipt was only that low because only half of us were home that night.

What I throw into my air fryer – which tastes just as good and is slightly healthier than fast-food restaurants – costs around $10 for six of us to eat our fill.

What if your Air Fryer took the place of eating out?

Sure, my Ore Ida fries and Dino Nuggets or Bagged Chicken Strips are not the healthiest things I put on our table. But it’s still a step healthier than regular-fried food at fast-food restaurants.

And the money-saving aspect is huge!

Beyond that, the fun food we cook in our Air Fryer gives us that “we just had a treat” feeling that we can get when we go out to eat.

So now you know. I keep some frozen treats like fries and nuggets on hand to throw in my Air Fryer to help me survive this busy season in life. It saves big bucks compared to eating out and it’s a lot of fun too!

Thought you’d like to know, just in case you want to put an Air Fryer on your Christmas wish-list this year. :)

P.S. I have this Air Fryer and we’ve been very happy with it!

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Join our Real Moms Cooking Community!

July 1, 2020 by Laura 4 Comments

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This is for all the moms (and aunts, friends, sisters, and grandmas) behind and in front and in the middle of all the daily grind beauty of every day. Introducing the Real Moms Cooking Community!

Cooking for the family…
While trying to keep up with the family?

What actually is most important?

When it comes to food, so many of us are seeking to:

  • Feed our families well
  • Save money on groceries
  • Stop eating out so much
  • Figure out menu planning
  • Spend less time in the kitchen

AND, we want to keep God first. This is vital.

Ummm, balance??

It almost seems impossible to do them all at the same time, right? There’s so much to learn and you and I can’t possibly know or do everything.

Is it possible that this is the missing link? —>

We need each other.

If the 2020 quarantine has taught me anything, it’s that community is so very necessary. So we created an opportunity to find the support, resources, and togetherness that we all need as we ask questions about what is most important as we strive to feed our families.

We want to do it well, and we want to figure out how to balance it all. I don’t have all the answers. Neither do you. But I do know what has worked for me through my 23 years of raising a family so far. And you know what has worked for you during your time raising a family. So I decided:

Why not form a Real Moms Cooking Community where we can work together and share all the recipes, tips, and ideas we’ve learned!

Our Real Moms Cooking Community Package includes:

  • A special 2 week series of emails highlighting topics like grocery budgets, family-friendly recipes, saving time in the kitchen, how to eat out less, 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!
  • This incredible packet of fun and practical resources —>

Yep, throughout this series, among all the wonderful tips, links, and information we’ll also send you these fantastic bonus resources:

  • 30-Minute Meals eCookbook – Filled with our favorite real food, family fun recipes that can be on your table within just 30 minutes or less!
  • Simple Kitchen eBook – Loaded with fantastically simple ideas, recipes, and tips to help make your real food kitchen life so easy! Make your own ranch dressing mix, make bacon bits, make and freeze muffin batter – so many wonderful ideas!
  • Real Tips eBook – Here’s where you’ll learn how you really can eat out less, but still have SO MUCH FUN. This eBook will help you save lots of money. Oh, and you’ll learn tips about helping your family eat more fruits and veggies too!
  • Budget-Friendly eGuidebook – Want to save money while living a real food lifestyle? This guidebook is just what you need. You can do this!
  • Printable Recipe Cards – All the recipes in the eBooks can be printed as super cute recipe cards! The fun never ends!

Who is this for?

This community is for everyone. Some of us are stay-at-home moms, some of us work outside the home, some of us work from home, some of us are empty nesters, some of us are new moms, some of us are veteran moms. Some of us carry more than one of those labels, and some of us have both adult children and babies (Laura raises her hand). :)

What do we all have in common? We want to do the best that we can to care for our families!

Certainly, all women are welcome, moms or not. Shucks, men can even join! But this community and its contents are geared toward guiding women who are regularly cooking for a family. It’s a big job and we can work together to do it well!

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!

Ok, ready to join us?

Purchase your package below and let’s get started! We’ll hang out via email and Facebook. We’ll share the best of the best tips and ideas, recipes, and encouragement! You’ll love every email and all the bonuses that are included!

Let’s join this community and learn and share together!

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Ways Eating Healthy Foods Actually Saves Us Money

March 5, 2020 by Laura 1 Comment

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

I’m very serious. Never buy into the lie that eating healthy is expensive. And in fact, I am coming to realize more and more that eating healthy foods actually saves us money.

I’ve been working at this nourishing food thing for 14+ years now, and while our food budget has increased substantially during these years, I’m certain the blame goes to growing appetites and an increased number of family members, not to the cost of apples.

Today I am here to present a few simple ways eating healthy foods saves us money:

1. Eating Out is a Budget Buster

When our family of nine (or seven or however many of our crew is around at the time) goes out to eat after church, even fast food costs a minimum of $40, but usually somewhere around $60. I don’t even want to talk about how much it costs to eat at a sit-down restaurant.

Meanwhile, I can take 5-minutes to throw together a Crock Pot Pizza Casserole before church. It’s ready when we get home, we can get out salad stuff and a bowl of grapes, and when it’s all said and done, the cost of our meal was around $15. The cost difference is enormous, the workload is minimal, and the taste? Well, have you tried making this pizza casserole? It’s incredible.

So except for when we’re traveling or for the very occasional splurge, we eat at home. It’s obviously healthier and saves thousands of dollars for our big family.

And yeah, I know we all know that, but it seemed worth mentioning again and comparing the cost! ;)

2. Nourishing food satisfies; junk food…doesn’t

Your honor, may I present as evidence the bag of potato chips?

I will admit that chips are my junk food of choice and I splurge on them sometimes. But when I do, we plow through them in about five minutes and are then ready for an actual meal. Why? Because chips only fill a hole; they do not nourish. So while our bodies are craving substance, we fill it with the nothing that chips provide, then we go in search of something to satisfy our bodies’ needs (protein, vitamins, minerals, etc).

So in essence, chips are tasty but kind of a money waster. The dollars I spend on chips could be used to buy actual food that leaves us satisfied.

The only exception to this, in my experience, has been corn chips. We almost never eat corn chips by themselves but instead use them as vehicles to eat nourishing dips. Long live the corn chips. They help us eat avocados. :)

Here are our favorite corn chip dips:

  • Black Bean Salsa
  • Easiest and Best Guacamole
  • Cream Cheese Salsa Dip
  • Simple Bean and Cheese Salsa Dip
  • Easy Cheesy Bean Dip
  • Real Food “Velveeta” and Rotel Dip

3. Real food ingredients cost much less than pre-made boxed foods.

This is a fact. As we’ve added foster children to our lives, I’ll admit it: I’ve splurged more on processed foods than I used to. I’ve needed it for survival some days, and I have no guilt over it.

But goodness do those boxed foods cost more!! And they almost always include ingredients I don’t feel great about. (I just don’t read the box. If I don’t know there’s MSG in there, it can’t hurt us, right? Heh.)

Most of the time, while taking care of all the kids, I try to fall back on all of our Simple Real Food Recipes that are just as convenient but made completely with real food ingredients.

When I fill my grocery cart with ingredients – yes – the cost adds up. It takes a lot to feed a large family with big appetites! But the cost is still lower – much lower – than filling my cart with corndogs and pizza rolls. It goes without saying that the real food ingredients I buy nourish us as opposed to whatever it is those pizza rolls do. Yikes.

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Want to easily learn more about healthy eating, saving money, and more? Our brand new Healthy Eating Jumpstart Class is fun, practical, and simple. Work through it on your own or work through it as a family.

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So there you have it. These are the most basic ways that eating healthy foods saves money. These are no brainers, but I think it’s good to be reminded and encouraged that eating healthy and saving money is easier than we often think!

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Is it Worth the Money to Buy an Instant Pot?

February 27, 2020 by Laura 5 Comments

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

What do you think? Is it worth the money to buy an Instant Pot? Here’s what I think…

Is it worth the money to buy an Instant Pot?

I stubbornly refused to get an Instant Pot for several years after they became popular (silly me), and now I am one of the biggest advocates for them! This gem saves so much time and keeps us eating healthy too!

I love that it makes wholesome, rich beef or chicken broth with so little effort on my part. I LOVE that I can cook 7 pounds of frozen hamburger meat in it in just 30 minutes!! And I love the many meals and side dishes I can make in it within just a few minutes.

So in my opinion, yes, it is worth the money to buy an Instant Pot. Not only has mine saved me time, it truly saves me money! So your investment in this appliance can be paid back and earning money for you in no time!

How? Well, think of all the convenience foods or fast food options one might fall back on when time is limited at mealtime! This money-saving perk alone makes the Instant Pot worth it.

In addition, the Instant Pot allows you to make wonderful, rich broth for soups that offer super nourishment and costs very, very little!

If you can swing it, get yourself an Instant Pot. I have the 8-quart variety for my large family. Here’s the 6-quart Instant Pot if that fits your needs more!

Recipes you’ll need for your Instant Pot:

Here are our favorites so far!

  • Bone Broth
  • Simple Creamy Chicken Soup
  • Simple 10-Minute Mac and Cheese
  • Simple One Dish Chicken Florentine
  • Mashed Potatoes
  • Beef Roast
  • Simple Chili Mac
  • Simple Lasagna Casserole
  • How to Cook 5 lbs of Frozen Hamburger Meat in 30 minutes
  • Simple Hashbrown Casserole

Psst: I highly recommend that you bookmark our Instant Pot Recipes page for easy access as we continue to update it!

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