Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Inexpensive and Fun Valentine’s Day Treats

by Leave a Comment

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

You don’t have to spend much money to make this holiday special. Turn any of these recipes into Valentine’s Day Treats for your family!

Make Heart-Shaped Food

I’m not super artistic, but I can pull off most of these ideas when I use a heart-shaped cookie cutter. :)

  1. Simple Whole Wheat Pancakes
  2. Whole Wheat Waffles
  3. Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
  4. Quesadillas
  5. Pizza
  6. Whole Wheat Donuts
  7. Poptarts
  8. Quick Mix Biscuits
  9. Soft Pretzels
  10. Cream Cheese Cookie Cutouts
  11. The Easiest Chocolate Fudge
  12. Peanut Butter Honey Fudge
  13. Chocolate Chip Brownies
  14. Chocolate Chip Cookies
  15. Cheesecake Brownies
  16. Butterscotch Bars

To go with your Heart-Shaped Foods, here are some bonus Valentine’s Day food ideas, you’ll enjoy looking through these lists…

Naturally Red and Pink Treats

Sprinkles are fun, but not entirely necessary if you have naturally red and pink goodies like these:

  1. Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cookies
  2. Strawberry Cream Muffins
  3. Raspberry Oatmeal Bars
  4. Chocolate Whipped Cream on Strawberries
  5. Strawberry-Peach Slushies
  6. Strawberry-Kefir Smoothies
  7. Strawberry Yogurt
  8. Strawberry-Yogurt Fruit Dip
  9. Strawberry Christmas Salad (which obviously becomes Strawberry Valentine Salad on Feb. 14)
  10. Low Sugar Strawberry Cheesecake Parfait
  11. 7-Minute Strawberry Ice Cream
  12. Strawberry Creamsicles
  13. Strawberry Shortcake
  14. Strawberry Milkshakes
  15. Easy Raspberry Syrup (for your heart-shaped pancakes)
  16. Raspberry Lemon Cream Cups

Don’t forget obvious foods that are red – like tomatoes, sweet peppers, strawberries, grapes, cherries, or raspberries!

Chocolate Valentine’s Day Treats

Chocolate is always a hit on Valentine’s Day!

  1. Chocolate Waffles
  2. Warm Chocolate Soother
  3. Chocolate Whipped Cream on Strawberries
  4. No-Bake Chocolate Fudge Bites
  5. Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins
  6. Peanut Butter or Caramel Chocolate Truffles
  7. Low Sugar Chocolate Cake
  8. Low Sugar Chocolate Cheesecake
  9. Dark Chocolate Peppermint Mousse
  10. No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake
  11. Homemade Chocolate Frappe
  12. Chocolate Cheesecake Pie
  13. Homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

What are your favorite treats to make on Valentine’s Day?

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 which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

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!

Big Family Food: Using Leftovers Creatively

by 2 Comments

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

One of my favorite things to do is to clean out the fridge and put together a meal by using leftovers creatively!

With so many little ones now, I am finding that it is very easy to use up leftovers (if we have any at all). At lunch or dinner, we often pull out several containers filled with leftover peas, green beans, corn, or pasta from the day before. We warm them up and that’s our meal. Nothing is wasted and I haven’t had to spend extra time cooking.

Using Leftovers Creatively

But often, I find that I can create a brand new meal from leftovers found in the fridge. Here are some examples:

Cheesy Potatoes

One day, I dug two containers of cheese dips (variations of this recipe) from the fridge. Add added it to frozen hashbrowns and slow-cooked it all afternoon. It turned into a super delicious cheesy potato side dish! I served it with Sloppy Joes, green beans, and fruit.

Burritos

This is one of my favorite dishes to make with any Mexican food leftovers we have. No need to measure. No need to proportion. I simply mix together any meat, beans, rice, cheese, corn, guacamole, or sour cream and roll them into tortillas. (This is also a great way to use up small amounts from three open jar of salsa!) Usually, I freeze these to use for fast lunches that we warm up in our air fryer. This makes for super inexpensive burritos!

Apple Bread or Muffins

If I have apples that are starting to shrivel, I grind them up and make Applesauce Bread. Or Applesauce Cake!

Marinated Meat

We almost always have three or four almost-empty bottles of dressings or sauces in our refrigerator door. I love pulling all of these out and dumping them into a bag of chicken to marinate. This always makes for a fun-tasting smoked chicken dinner. And it clears out fridge space!

Soup

If I have any fresh veggies that are starting to get wilted, I’ll make broth or soup with them. Here’s how I add a lot of veggies to make broth.

Fried Potatoes

Any time I have leftover baked potatoes, I cut them and fry them in butter. If I want to make it a meal instead of a side dish, I add any leftover cooked meat we have in the fridge.

taco potato skillet 3

Pizza

Have random odds and ends of meat, cheese, or veggies in the fridge? Throw them on a pizza. Once, I was putting together pizzas for dinner and found two leftover grilled hamburgers from a few days prior. I cut them up and added them to two of our pizzas. See that spinach I “sneak” on there too? My kids eat it without question!

Spaghetti Bake

I had a big bowl of leftover spaghetti, so I stirred in cottage cheese along with shredded mozzarella and Colby jack cheese. It turned spaghetti into a “fancy dinner” that we all loved!

We save so much money this way!

I love how we can prevent waste when we use our leftovers creatively like this. I find it fun to see what meal I can put together with whatever we already have in our fridge!

What’s your favorite meal to make with leftovers?

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

Does it Save Money to Pack Lunch for School?

by 1 Comment

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

School lunches are very reasonably priced. So does it actually save money to pack lunch for school?

I’ve found that it does! Here’s how.

Our kids’ school lunch costs $3.20. Not bad, except that our picky first grader would only eat a fourth of what was on her tray, mostly the sweet parts and the bread. ;) Meanwhile, our not-so-picky third grader would eat most of his meal and still be hungry. So we decided this year that for the sake of saving money and feeding our kids the nourishment they need, we’d pack and send their lunches to school.

Even when I buy a few pre-packaged convenience food items to save time, I am still saving money every day on their lunches.

How much am I saving?

I calculated that I’m saving an average of $1.40 per lunch, per kid, for much more nourishing meals that I know they like and will eat. I’ll share examples from our not-picky-big-eater kiddo so you can see how packing a very filling lunch still saves money.

Note: I make a big batch of these spinach cupcakes, individually bag them, and freeze them to throw into almost every lunchbox for a treat with added nutrition! I did the math. They cost $0.14 each and they are beautifully full of spinach. :) :) :)

Does it Save Money to Pack Lunch for School?

Here are nine sample lunches I might pack for my kids and their cost breakdown. The most expensive was $2.58. The least expensive is just $1.34. Lots of savings!

1. Meat and cheese sandwich, fruit cup, cheese stick, spinach cupcake (no frosting) = $2.00

2. Cheese and crackers, summer sausage, grapes, spinach cupcake (no frosting), cottage cheese and pineapple = $2.49

3. Pumpkin muffin, cottage cheese and pineapple, clementine, almonds = $1.43

4. Tuna salad with crackers, fruit cup, cheese stick, spinach cupcake (no frosting) = $1.83

5. Chips with cheesy bean dip, grapes, spinach cupcake (no frosting)  = $1.43

6. Leftover pizza slices (with spinach “hidden” on top), clementine, banana = $1.34

7. Bagel with cream cheese “sandwich”, ham, apple = $1.72

8. Bean and cheese quesadillas, carrots, strawberries $1.78

9. On Friday, we do a “Fun Friday” lunchbox which includes a baggie of chips and a yogurt squeezie, plus whatever else I have on hand that I think the kids will enjoy. Cost for the special lunch you see below: $2.58.

What do you pack in your kids’ lunches?

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

Pssst! Heavenly Homemakers Club Members can enjoy this great eBook along with all of our other amazing eBooks, eCourses, printables, packets, and more! Join us here.

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

Our $0.99 Per Plate Costco Meal!

by 1 Comment

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

Check out our $0.99 per plate Costco Meal!

Once again, I’m so happy to share another meal that costs such a small amount to feed an entire family!

The Backstory

Our six-year-old has been trying to lose her two front teeth and she thought eating chicken legs would help!! I wish you could see her beautiful face, but for now, here she is in the yellow dress:

Per her suggestion, the next time we went to Costco, I picked up a package of chicken legs. I have got to remember to buy these more often!! It only cost $8.60 for 30 chicken legs!!!

I marinated and smoked half of the package of chicken for this meal and was amazed that I could make 15 chicken legs for only $4.30. They were incredibly delicious! With baked potatoes, steamed broccoli, and chilled watermelon, we had a feast!

Our $0.99 Per Plate Costco Meal

Total cost for 10 of us (four adults and six littles ages eight and under):

  • Chicken Legs
  • Baked Potatoes
  • Broccoli
  • Watermelon

$9.89

Which breaks down to just $0.99/plate.

Everyone was especially hungry that night so even the littlest babes put away a fairly nice amount of food!

Isn’t it exciting? Even with rising grocery prices, we can still enjoy wonderful, healthy meals for less than $1.00!

More money-saving posts you might like:

Did our girl lose her teeth?

Well yes. But not because of the chicken legs. It was a good try though, huh?!

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

Back when I made everything from scratch…

by 9 Comments

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

As I look over my list of recipes shared here, I am cracking up a bit about all I used to make back when I made everything from scratch.

There was (mostly) nothing wrong with what I did. But I will say that my focus was a little more on doing than being. I felt so accomplished when I made all these foods. But what was I missing out on by taking so much time on what wasn’t actually necessary??

Peace. Calm. Joy. Time. Energy. Love.

I became known as the mom who made all her food from scratch. I found that the title stung just a little. I didn’t want to be known for that. I wanted to be known for how I loved and cared for people. Thank God He continues to show me better ways and lean me more toward focusing on what is more important.

Is it ok to make everything from scratch?

Of course, if that is what God has called you to do. If food allergies make it necessary for your family. If you serve people because of it. There are all kinds of good and healthy reasons to make food from scratch.

But I don’t believe that I had healthy reasons. I think my reasons were prideful, and that’s the truth. Here’s part of a former “make it from scratch” list that now has me in shock:

You really should click on some of those and see what goes into making these. Some aren’t hard, and I actually might make some of them again, someday. But Tater Tots?? No. (They weren’t worth the effort.) Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns and Whole Wheat Hot Dog Buns? No. (They weren’t that good, ha.) And Homemade Peanut Butter Captain Crunch?? Why did I actually try that one?

What we miss

Our older boys talk about our homemade tortilla days. Now those were worth making and I hope I can make them again someday!

These Pretzels are amazing and I WILL make them again when my hands aren’t so full.

We love this Ranch Dressing and it isn’t even hard to make. But I can’t keep up with it right now. Maybe again in a few years.

This Peanut Butter!!! Wow it is hard to beat!

It’ll be interesting to see, won’t it? What God will do a few years from now. What He has planned. What will matter and what will go by the wayside.

How grateful I am that we can all grow and change and that God stays the same while He grows and changes us!

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

What to Add to Meat to Make it Stretch

by 2 Comments

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

Looking for more ways to save money? Here are some ideas for what to add to meat to make it stretch.

I recently shared How to Save Money on Meat. These ideas have been working very well for me lately and I’ve been saving quite a bit on our grocery budget!

With these in mind, I’ve been considering more ways I can save.

What to Add to Meat to Make it Stretch

I had mentioned that we’re eating less beef. When we do eat beef, I’ve found that I can use much less ground or shredded beef in a recipe if I add any of these to the meat:

  1. Rice
  2. Beans
  3. Corn
  4. Tomatoes
  5. Extra veggies

Now, most of these are a no-brainer. We’ve been taught these tricks forever, right? Right. But I still feel like it’s worth a mention as I share a few specific ways we can stretch our ground beef (and shredded beef too!)

Recently I cooked three pounds of meat for tacos. I then put only about two cups of cooked meat into a bowl with a can of black beans, a can of corn, and a can of rotel. This was a delicious combination in our tacos that night, leaving all kinds of cooked meat left over for me to use in several meals in the future.

I used to employ these tricks a lot when our first set of kids was younger. Now that we have more mouths to feed, I’m implementing them again. And note this: while we are currently feeding a lot of small children again and I can get away with stretching meat because they are little, we are also still feeding at least 4 adults at every meal. These meat-stretching ideas are working just as well for the Bigs as they are for the Littles. No one is complaining about “mom holding back on meat.” Why? Because no one has noticed!

Make Meat Secondary

Typically, we think of meat as our main dish, then our carbs, veggies, and fruit as side dishes. But what if we change our thinking just a little bit and serve meat as a “side dish.” Or as an “add-in.”

I’m not willing to compromise our health and add a bunch of fillers or empty carbs to our diets in an effort to fill us but not nourish us. I’m simply looking for ways to stretch our meat into providing more meals! So adding nourishing add-ins like beans, rice, corn, and extra veggies to our meals really makes sense!

And don’t forget what I learned when I did the math here: Fruits and vegetables are actually not expensive. We can eat a lot of them and easily! stay within budget!!

Bonus

I’m finding that these meat-saving tricks are also simplifying my kitchen life. How? Well, I don’t have to cook as much meat. This means that I don’t have to plan ahead as much. It’s easier and faster to open a can of beans than to thaw and cook meat, right? Like, much easier and faster!

Keep sharing the ways you are saving too. I learn so much from you!

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

We’d love to connect with you :)
Join our fun community here!

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

How to Save Money on Coffee

by 3 Comments

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

It’s a necessity, right? I mean, I thank God for it every morning as I sip my steamy mug and talk with Him. Sooooo good, and my time with Him is rich. Here’s how to save money on coffee.

Perhaps you read about the day I spent $7 on a coffee. It was tasty and fun, and then it made me do some calculating. I couldn’t help myself. :)

Turns out, at home I spend about $1.00 to brew an entire pot of high-quality coffee. How?

I recently spent $10.48 on this bag of coffee at Sam’s. I didn’t take the time to measure each scoop to see how many pots of coffee this one bag would make, but I’m making a conservative estimate that it gives us at least 10 pots of coffee. Likely more! But to keep it simple, let’s say 10+ pots, which means that one pot full of coffee costs $1.00.

A dollar.

For an entire pot. This, without having to buy a “cheaper coffee variety” that doesn’t taste as good (sorry Folgers).

We use big mugs at our house. :) :) So one pot fills 4 mugs. $0.25 for a cup of coffee!

Now, we all add a little something to our cup of coffee. I just add half&half. Matt and the big boys add a shot of creamer. So should we then estimate that our cup of coffee costs a total of $0.35-$0.45??

How to Save Money on Coffee

Well, it seems that the best way to save money on coffee is to make it at home. It’s crazy cheap!!!! And oh so good.

To make it even more fun for our teen/adult sons and their friends who come over, we keep a variety of creamers (just don’t read the ingredient list and all is well) and sometimes a can of whipped cream for them to spray on top. Even with those splurges, the savings are huge compared to buying at a coffee shop.

Ever tried making this Chocolate Whipped Cream and scooping some into your coffee? Oh, it’s good! Here are more fun homemade coffee additions you might want to try.

What do you like to put in your coffee at home?

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

We’d love to connect with you :)
Join our fun community here!

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

How to Save Money on Meat

by 3 Comments

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

Want to save money on meat? Here’s what I’m figuring out!

How to Save Money on Meat

1. Look for meat mark-downs.

We’ve been doing this all along right? But now it seems more important than ever! I avoid marked-down meat if the color looks “off.” But otherwise, I’ve found that waiting for meat to be marked down for quick sale has saved me all kinds of money!

When I bring it home, I freeze it right away or cook it to eat that night.

Recently, I found pork roasts marked down to $1.79/pound! I bought two and put them into the freezer for a night we host a large crowd. This is a GREAT price per pound of meat. My $13 roasts will either feed my big family several meals or it will feed Matt’s entire soccer team during pre-season. :)

2. Eat less beef.

This one is tough for me as I’m a beef-loving girl! But in my neck of the woods, pork and chicken are significantly less expensive per pound compared to beef. Quality ground beef is over $6.00/pound while chicken legs can be found under $2.00/pound. The pork roast I mentioned above was marked down to $1.79/pound. I got pork chops that same day for $1.59/pound – while there sat the beef for $7.00/pound. Long live the cow.

3. Eat less meat overall.

This one is also tough for me. The men in our family do love their meat too. However, I’ve been skipping meat in some meals lately, and no one has noticed or said anything. I’ve been able to get away with making burritos with just black beans, rice, salsa, and corn (skipping the meat) and an entire meal based on these bean and cheese quesadillas. We’re all satisfied and our grocery budget has been saved.

4. Buy directly from farmers.

We’ve done this for years, buying a quarter to a half a cow at a time. We’ll likely do this again in the future, as it does save money on high-quality meat. But for now, I’m finding that buying discounted meat at the store is saving me more overall since we have so many mouths to feed.

5. Buy chicken from Costco or Sam’s.

The last time I priced boneless chicken thighs at our local grocery store, they were over $7.00/pound – ouch! But when I picked up a big package of boneless thights at Costco, I got them for just over $3.00/pound – much better! I also got some marked down at Sam’s, which was a fun find!

Have you found some ways to save money on meat?

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

We’d love to connect with you :)
Join our fun community here!

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

Least Expensive Burrito Recipe

by 2 Comments

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:
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.

 

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