simple meals Archives | Page 18 of 21

Today I Give a FREE New Simple Meals Plan to Everyone!

February 5, 2017 by Laura 67 Comments

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This week is going to be a fun one, and here’s why:

I’m giving everyone this week’s Simple Meals plan for FREE!

(Also, I’m going to blog this week about how I’m using the plan. Stay tuned!)

Why am I giving this week’s plan to you? Simple. I want you to see how great it is.

My biggest goal with Simple Meals is to help you save money, time, and energy so you can enjoy spending more time with your family. Did you catch that? It’s not just about spending more time with your family. It’s to help you ENJOY spending that time with your family.

Sometimes we get to the end of the day and we’re so exhausted that even if there is time to spend, we’re too tired to enjoy it. Been there, done that? Me too.

Each week Simple Meals plans show up in your inbox as if to say, “Here you go. Your thinking, planning, and list making have been done. Also, here are some bonus recipes and time-saving tips. You will love this week’s recipes. Now go enjoy your family.”

I'm giving everyone this week's Simple Meals plan for FREE!

I’m giving you all this week’s Simple Meals Planning Packet because want everyone to see why being a part of Simple Meals is worth it! Also, I love you and it’s fun to give you free stuff. :)

So here you go.

Download this week’s Simple Meals Planning Packet.

I’ve been cooking with this particular plan and taking pictures to show you during the next few days to detail how this plan works for our family. I don’t know what I would do without it, seeing as in the past eight nights in a row, we have been on the run – from meetings to Bible studies to basketball games to church activities. Plus, we spent a day helping our disabled friend move across town, I had appointments out of town one day, and our church hosted 150 kids for a youth rally all weekend, 13 of which stayed in our home for two nights.

This mama needs Simple Meals. (and a nap.)

The days with our children at home are long, but the years are short. I’m staring that reality straight in the face as my kids so suddenly have been turning into men, one right after the other. I want to enjoy putting food on the table for them, but more than that, I want to enjoy laughing at their jokes and listening/watching/cheering/praying for their work and activities and life journeys.

No matter your season in life, whether you have little bitties who require a lot of attention and care, or you have big kids you’re trying to keep up with, or you work full time, or you homeschool, or you are involved with ministries, or all of the above and more than the above – let’s do what we can to enjoy what God has given us. I believe much of this begins with keep our real food meals as simple as possible.

And that, my friends, is why I created Simple Meals.

Try it for free this week! Utilize it for YOUR specific family’s needs. That’s one of the best features of Simple Meals. The planning is done, but you can quickly organize it to suit your family’s needs for each week.

Download this week’s Simple Meals Planning Packet.

Today I’m also giving away a One Year Simple Meals Subscription!

Sign up to win in the Rafflecopter below. I’ll draw a random winner on Wednesday, February 8. Watch for an email sharing who the winner is!

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Simple 3-Cheese Crock Pot Pasta

February 2, 2017 by Laura 12 Comments

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

I’m a big believer in this: If my kids are capable of doing it, I ask them do it.

How else will they learn to clean, cook, think, be responsible, work hard, and take care of me in my old age?

That’s why I asked Malachi, our 12-year old, to put this meal together one morning. Knowing it was as easy as “dump these ingredients into the crock pot, stir it up, turn it on, then run do your math lesson” it seemed like the right thing to do. He’s learning that cooking is simple, I’m getting help around the house, and it’s amazing how cooking a meal by himself makes him stand a few inches taller while everyone eats it up with many, “Wow, this is so good” compliments.

Or maybe the kid is literally growing taller. Well yeah. But we already knew that.

crock pot pasta2

Here’s my little issue with crock pot meals that include pasta: If I have to cook the pasta ahead of time before adding it to the crock pot, what even is the point in using the crock pot? How does that save any time? It certainly dirties up more dishes. I am not okay with this.

Therefore I never make pasta dishes in the crock pot. (Nor do I have my children make them.)

But recently I did a little looking online to see how it might work to dump uncooked pasta into a crock pot. Might it cook along with the other ingredients? A little experimenting turned out this Simple 3-Cheese Crock Pot Pasta recipe, which is as easy as can be.

Now, this is a meatless meal. You’re more than welcome to stir cooked hamburger or cooked chicken into your crock pot. But then, of course, you’d have to cook the meat first, which means dirtying up another dish, and I refuse to take responsibility for making you do that. Also, you should know that my family full of carnivores ate this and never once asked, “Hey. Where’s the meat?” I think the three cheeses in this recipe make this hearty enough to keep everyone happy.

Simple 3-Cheese Crock Pot Pasta

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Author: Laura

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

2 jars of your favorite spaghetti sauce (25-32 ounces each)
15 ounces ricotta cheese
2 cups grated parmesan cheese
1 cup grated mozzarella, cheddar, or Colby jack cheese
1 pound UNCOOKED whole grain pasta, any shape
Sea salt to taste

Instructions

Dump all ingredients into a crock pot and stir well.
Cook on low for 4-6 hours or on high for 2-3 hours or until pasta is tender.

Serve this easy crock pot dish with a quick salad and steamed veggie. It’s as simple as can be. I don’t think I need to tell you that it’s delicious. This is a given. And now we know that we can dump uncooked pasta into the crock pot and turn out a great meal in just a few of effortless hours.

Here are more Simple Recipes you’ll love!

We’d love more of you to join Simple Meals! There are some exciting plans coming up!

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The Truth About How Cooking Healthier Foods Has Saved Me Time (and dirty dishes)

January 31, 2017 by Laura 2 Comments

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Raise your hands, wives, if you can recall a day you spent extra time on your hair, makeup, and outfit so you could impress your husband – only to have him not even notice. Now leave your hands raised if you can recall another day you pulled your hair into a 5-second messy bun, never changed out of your mis-matched sweats from yesterday, and forgot makeup existed – only to have your husband give you a second appreciative glance, grin, and say, “Well hey there, Cutie.”

Rest assured, he appreciated the nice hair, great outfit, and perfect makeup day too. Perhaps he was just too distracted or busy at the time to say so. Let us all be thankful he loves us on our “prettiest” days and even (especially) on the days we’re singing “oh where is my hairbrush?”

What does all this have to do with saving time while cooking healthy food? Everything. It very much relates in every way.

The Surprising Truth About How Cooking Healthier Foods Has Saved Me Time (and dirty dishes)

See, one day recently, I was having an “I can’t keep up, what even is a kitchen, I don’t feel very well, we have got to get this assignment done” kind of a day. I don’t even have to tell you what my hair looked like (and I recommend you save yourself the embarrassment of trying to conjure up an image). More importantly, dinner prep kept getting pushed farther down the to-do list.

I finally found two minutes (and a bit of energy) at lunchtime to put some frozen chicken into the crockpot, dump on some bbq sauce, and crank it to the “hi” setting. At least we’d have some meat ready before the boys left for drum lessons and basketball practice, thought I.

The chicken cooked itself all afternoon. Just before dinnertime later that night, I stir-fried some carrots and broccoli with a bit of olive oil, garlic, and salt. I grabbed a jar of applesauce from the pantry and declared it a meal, such as it was. My hair though. There was nothing that could be done.

Would you believe? My husband walked into the kitchen after putting in a 10-hour work day, saw the food I had “prepared” and not having any idea of the ridiculously short amount of time I’d spent cooking said, “Wow! This looks fantastic! What a great meal! Thank you!!”

saucy chicken3

Not that he isn’t equally appreciative when I have taken the time to roll out homemade noodles or have produced a fresh loaf of bread. But his gratitude reminded me of this:

A meal doesn’t have to be complicated to be delicious.
Sometimes the healthiest meals are the very simplest.

The busier I have become through the years, the simpler our meals have needed to be. I’ve noticed that the simpler our meals have become, the healthier they are.

Isn’t that unexpected?

And here people still think cooking healthy food takes all kinds of extra time.

Take it from the girl who took five minutes to cram frozen chicken into a crock pot, and then threw out a few veggies just before meal time. Learn from the mom who has learned to make a complete meal of Parmesan Broiled Fish with veggies in record time (10 minutes, start to finish, thanks for asking).

I believe the simpler we keep our meals, the healthier they can be. Stop making healthy food complicated. Focus on the basics (meat, veggies, fruit). Save the special, longer-to-make meals, for special occasions.

Just think. We might even find more time in our day to change into a cute sweater before dinner.

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Psst! If you join Simple Meals, you’ll have more time to change out of your mis-matched sweats. We promise.

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Simple Overnight Melt-in-your-Mouth Beef Roast

January 25, 2017 by Laura 9 Comments

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Remember the Simple Overnight Saucy Crock Pot Chicken recipe I shared? That’s becoming one of my new go-to recipes to help me feed my family on busy days. This, of course, led me to experiment more with the idea. What else, I wondered, could be cooked in the crock pot overnight to make my day simpler tomorrow? Well. One result this Simple Overnight Melt-in-Your-Mouth Beef Roast.

Simple Overnight Beef Roast

Just like the chicken, you can put your roast into your crock pot directly from the freezer. It thaws and cooks overnight. The next day, the meat will fall apart and melt in your mouth!

Why would we want to cook meat in our crock pots overnight? Let me count the ways:

When we wake up to cooked meat, we have something good to pack for lunches if that is a need.
We can turn the crock pot to the “keep warm” setting and have meat waiting for us later at lunch time at home.
We can turn off the crock pot and cool the meat to eat in big chef salads at lunch time.
We can put the meat in the fridge to pull out any time we need it during the next few days.

The concept is so simple, and it presents so many easy meal options!

Simple Overnight Melt-in-Your-Mouth Beef Roast

5.0 from 2 reviews

Simple Overnight Melt-in-your-Mouth Beef Roast

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Author: Laura

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

3-4 pound beef roast
3 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
3 Tablespoons Onion Soup Mix (recipe below)
½ cup water

Instructions

Put roast in the bottom of a crock pot. (Roast can be frozen or thawed.)
Pour Worcestershire sauce, Onion Soup Mix, and water over the roast.
Cook on low for 10-12 hours.

Here’s my Onion Soup Mix recipe.

Simple Overnight Melt in your Mouth Beef Roast

This roast is delicious no matter if you serve it with mashed potatoes and veggies or if you serve it in a chef salad. The flavor is incredible!!

Have you tried cooking meat in a crock pot overnight? What has your experience been like?

Here are more Simple Recipes you’ll love!

It’s recipes like this that makes Simple Meals such a life saver for families. We’ll provide the plans. We’ll provide the recipes. We’ll provide the grocery list. All you have to do is take a deep breath and enjoy how simple your life in the kitchen has become! Join Simple Meals!

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A Complete Meal in 15 Minutes – From Start to Finish

January 18, 2017 by Laura 11 Comments

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It’s a complete meal, and I made it in 15 minutes from start to finish. Look how beautiful:

sliced-ham3

First let’s talk about pork for a little bit.

I like feeding my family hormone-free meat, antibiotic-free meat, grass fed meat, free range meat, all the happy, healthy kinds of meat.

But sometimes I compromise.

I have great local sources for chicken, lamb, and beef. But I almost always buy my piggies at the store. We don’t have pork very often, but shucks, pork is so delicious. We love bacon, ham, and sausage. My boys are athletes and often ask for meat in the morning (and all day long). I’ve decided that in order to keep life simpler (and to avoid completely killing my already very high grocery budget) – I’ll go ahead and buy pork products when I find them on sale at a regular grocery store.

I don’t feel great about this, but I guess I feel good enough about it that I haven’t stopped doing it. So that’s that.

sliced-ham2

So now let’s get on with the fun part where I tell you how you can put a complete meal on the table in 15-minutes from start to finish!

A Complete Meal in 15 Minutes

Sometimes I buy a pre-cooked ham as pictured above. I slice it all and put it in a Pyrex dish in the fridge to pull out as needed for quick lunches or to go with eggs at breakfast.

Having this on hand is fantastic! This sliced ham fries up within a few minutes in a skillet. We’ll steam some peas and pull out the mixed greens and salad dressing. We’ll prep some fruit. Just like that, we’ve got a complete meal ready to eat.

complete-meal-in-15-minutes

If you don’t feel good about eating pork, there are Turkey Ham options available – or maybe you’d enjoy another variety of meat that fries up quickly to complete your meal.

Either way: Never forget the ease of steaming a veggie, prepping some fruit, and pulling out fresh greens to complete a meal. This is THE way I make our meals simple and nourishing. The variety of fruits and vegetables is so good for our bodies and feeding us like this takes only a tiny bit of effort!

Are you pork eaters at your house? What meals have you found to be easy enough to throw together in just a few minutes?

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A Year of Simple Breakfasts

January 15, 2017 by Laura 4 Comments

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In case the title made you think I have 365 Simple Breakfast ideas to share with you, I have to apologize and let you know that while I do have many simple breakfast recipes, I do not have one for every day of the year. (After all, we do eat eggs pretty regularly at our house.) Rather, this post will share how I’m planning to keep our breakfasts as simple as possible this year! I bet the ideas shared here WILL get you through an entire year, with plenty of variety, and all kinds of simplicity!

Take, for example, the breakfast shown in this picture.

a-year-of-simple-breakfasts

One morning last week, I made and served Giant Breakfast Cookies, Bacon, and Strawberry Parfaits. Sounds involved right? Not at all simple! Complicated and time consuming, even!

But it wasn’t! It was so simple! Here’s how I did it:

I had pre-made Breakfast Cookie dough balls in the freezer. (Read the details on how to do that here.) I simply pulled some out, put them on a baking sheet, and slid them into the oven to bake while I continued my morning Bible reading time.
I had pre-made Bacon. (Read the details on how to do that here.) Just after I woke the boys, I threw some bacon in a skillet to reheat and crisp up. It took 30 seconds, no joke.
I had already made the Cream Cheese Parfait filling for another meal a few days before. I pulled out what was left, washed and sliced some berries, and put them on the table.

The boys LOVED this breakfast (who wouldn’t?) and I loved having such a great meal to serve. What I loved more than anything is how simple it was to put on the table.

But what about taking all that time to prepare simple breakfasts ahead of time?

Sounds like the before-hand prep can negate the “simple” in all of this, huh? Sure, it’s easy to put it on the table if you’ve done all the work ahead of time – but who has time to do all that work ahead of time?

I get it. I don’t always have the time to get ahead either. But I’ve found that if take an hour or two in the kitchen sometime during the week – whenever I can find the spare hour or two – I can knock out quite a bit of cooking which saves me all kinds of time and energy later.

And…while I could fall back on boxed breakfast food if I really wanted to keep it simple, I don’t like doing that unless I’m desperate or especially over-scheduled. We love homemade food. We love a hot breakfast. There really are great ways to keep it simple!

How to Cook Bacon in the Oven, Freeze, and Warm Up Fast

oven-bacon-2

When to find a spare hour or two for cooking ahead?

It varies, and will be different for all of us depending on our work and family situation. Here are some time slots that sometimes (but not always) work for me:

In the morning after breakfast after I’ve gotten my kids going on their school work. This only works on mornings I don’t have any pressing blog work needs or deadlines. And it only works if my youngest is sitting at the kitchen table doing his work so I can bounce back and forth between cooking and helping to keep him on task.
In the late afternoon or early evening while I’m cooking dinner. After all, I’m in the kitchen then anyway. If the dinner meal is simple enough (and at this point, all my meals are kept simple) – I can sometimes stir up something for the freezer or put something into the oven to help me get ahead for another day.
Anytime I’m cooking something for today, I consider if I can double or triple up so I can have extra for another time. I do this with almost everything.

These “cooking ahead” methods work for any meal, but here are some specific breakfast ideas for getting ahead that help keep our morning meal times super simple!

1. Cook several pounds of Bacon Bits ahead of time.

I freeze these to pull out as needed. For a simple breakfast, pull out a scoop to quickly make Scrambled Bacon Cheesy Eggs.

2. Make 5-Minute Stove-Top Granola.

Store it in a jar. Save it for a morning you have no time to cook. Serve it with a variety of your family’s favorite stir-in options.

3. Make Dark Chocolate Almond Granola.

Use the 5-minute stove-top method if you like! This is our favorite granola and making it at home saves quite a bit of money compared to buying it at the store.

4. Make Homemade Grape Nut Cereal.

This is super tasty and super easy! I typically double this recipe and keep it in big jars so we can have it on busy “no time to cook” mornings.

5. Make Homemade Cracklin’ Oat Bran.

This is our favorite of the homemade cereal options! It’s also super easy to make and stores great in jars in the pantry.

Wait! Do I ever buy cereal at the store and serve cereal out of a box?!?

Of course. Remember this post? Just because I can, doesn’t mean I always do. Store bought cereal saves my neck some days. No guilt. ;) Now back to the Simple Homemade Breakfast ideas…

6. Make Breakfast Cookie Balls for the freezer.

As mentioned above, these are awesome to have in the freezer. I usually double the recipe, and freeze the dough in balls so I can pull out just enough for one meal. These can be frozen after you bake them too, but we like eating them fresh out of the oven!

Here’s our White Chocolate Cranberry Breakfast Cookie recipe too. :)

7. Make Homemade Poptarts for the Freezer.

Like the Breakfast Cookies, we like eating these right out of the oven. Again, I usually double the recipe, then freeze them and pull out just enough for one meal. They bake easily from their frozen state. I can throw them in the oven while I’m reading my Bible in the morning. So simple!

8. Make muffins ahead of time and freeze them before baking.

This idea is my favorite. I often mix up several different batches of our favorite muffins, freeze the batter, then quickly bake them as needed!

9. Make Stir-and-Pour Bread.

If I have this bread on hand (usually I make it the day before instead of the morning of) – we can make Peanut Butter Honey Toast or Scrambled Egg Sandwiches.

10. Have cheese shredded to make it easy to make Scrambled Cheesy Eggs.

We love melted cheese on our eggs. If I have some shredded already, this makes breakfast so much simpler!

TIP: We use our Food Processor to shred cheese. I LOVE THIS!!! We can shred a huge 5-pound block of cheese in about two minutes. It’s worth owning a food processor just for the cheese shredding capability! (We have one like this.)

grated cheese

11. Make any of these 49 Breakfast Freezer Food ideas.

Frozen breakfasts are awesome to have on hand for simple meals!

12. Make big batches of Turkey Sausage.

I almost always make 12 pounds at once (the entire case of ground turkey I get in my Azure Standard order!). I bag it up in 1-pound bags. Since it’s precooked and crumbled, I can throw it in scrambled eggs or make a quick batch of Sausage Gravy.

I would love to hear your ideas for Simple Breakfasts at your house!

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Limited Time Simple Meals $12 Discount!

January 11, 2017 by Laura 1 Comment

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

As we kick off the Year of Simple, I really want to encourage everyone to join our Simple Meals program!

Why should you join Simple Meals?

So you’ll have more down time to spend enjoying your family! <—- That’s the number one reason. :)
All the meals are simple (of course), delicious, and family friendly.
You’ll save much time and energy!!
Meal planning is done for you.
Grocery lists are made for you.
Every week you get bonus time-saving tips and extra recipes.
Every week you get current bonus money-saving tips.
Subscribers get oodles of freebies!
You can earn money when you refer your friends!

Read all about Simple Meals here.

We know you’ll love it!

Big news this week!

Through Monday, January 16 you can get $12 off your Simple Meals subscription! That is a huge discount along with the $56 worth of freebies you get when you purchase. With this discount, you can enjoy Simple Meals for just pennies per week!

Use the code SIMPLEYEAR12 to take $12 off your Simple Meals subscription. Can’t wait to have you on board!

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Simple Parmesan Broiled Fish (10-minutes from start to finish!)

January 8, 2017 by Laura 8 Comments

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I was going to call this Simple Cheesy Fish Dish – you know – because it rhymed and was cute. But then I was like, “What a weird and not-very-appetizing name. Let’s change it to Simple Parmesan Broiled Fish. People will want to make it if it has a better name.”

broiled-parmesan-fish

I sure hope you all appreciate all the thought and trouble I go to in preparing these recipes and laboring to come up with their names. There is no end to all the decisions I have to make around here.

But in actual news, and what you really need to know about this recipe is how easy it is. You broil the fish. While it is broiling, you mix up a few ingredients to spread over the top. You spread it on. You broil it all a little longer. In ten minutes the fish is completely done and ready to serve.

Ten minutes. Maybe I should have called this Ten-Minute Fish Dish. But seriously, though.

Simple Parmesan Broiled FishYum

5.0 from 2 reviews

Simple Parmesan Broiled Fish

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Author: Laura

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

2 pounds fish, any kind (cod, tilapia, halibut, flounder, salmon)
¾ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
⅓ cup melted butter
¼ cup mayonnaise (I use Hain Safflower mayo)
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
3 Tablespoons dried minced onion
Sea salt and pepper to taste
Splash of hot sauce (we like Cholula)

Instructions

Lay fish pieces in a buttered 9x13 inch baking dish.
Broil for 8-10 minutes in the oven.
In the meantime, mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl.
Removed broiled fish from the oven and spread on the cheese mixture.
Broil for an additional 2 minutes.

This fish has incredible flavor! We have also found that the sauce tastes great with the steamed veggies we eat with this meal. There’s just something about cheese and butter and mayo all together that makes a great sauce. So if the sauce from your fish runs over your plate into your veggies – be grateful. The entire meal will taste better this way!

Other Simple Recipes I’ve Shared Recently:

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Want to Join Me for “A Year of Simple”?

January 5, 2017 by Laura 21 Comments

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I have no idea how my kids are getting so old when clearly, I am staying so young. (That sentence was obviously not written with a straight face, but with one beginning to show several laugh lines.)

Over the Christmas holiday, we were so blessed to spend a day with some of our former college friends. As if no time had passed since 1991, we laughed and shared memories and acted like we were twenty again. Then we looked across the room at all of our kids, and wondered how it came to be that we actually have a kid going to the same college we had gone to together just a few short years ago??

Y’all. I have an adult child. My other kids will also be adults the day after tomorrow. This is not new information. But sometimes the realization knocks me over the head. How did I get here? How did this happen?

coppinger-time-lapse

It is this realization – knowing that time flies and the years are short – that lands me in a place of wanting to get rid of everything that is not essential. If it’s not nailed down, out it goes. If it’s overwhelming, I’m off-loading. God has been calling me to simplify as never before.

why-im-choosing-a-year-of-simple

I’ve been making lists of what I feel is priority. It is surprisingly short.

Love God
Love my husband
Love my kids
Love myself
Love my neighbor

While this sounds simple in and of itself, you and I both know how much all of that involves. There are so many essentials involved with loving all the people, and we all know the food doesn’t cook itself. My days are filled with:

Feeding my family well
Teaching and training our boys
Taking part in our boys’ outside activities
Caring for several people in our community and in our church family
Managing my home
Maintaining this website
Dozens of other tasks
Take a day of rest each week

It is these priorities along with these essentials that leave me a bit in a quandary. While the lists are short, they are very involved. How to juggle? How to manage? How to remain in a state of peace and joy while keeping top priorities and managing the essentials? God gave us 24 hours each day on purpose. But even while cutting out much during the past few years and saying no more than saying yes, I’m still overwhelmed much of the time. My conclusion is that there is no way to do life perfectly and also…

I must simplify as much as possible

My family and my ministries require much of my energy – much more, even, than when my kids were little. Saying “no” to all the good things that pull at me but aren’t God’s best for me is my only solution to receiving peace, especially as I have come to realize that God has not called me to do all and be all. All He asks of me is to seek Him. This is the only way His answers for my daily life become clear.

Thus, I am excited to explore the next few months of The Year of Simple.

Join me?

Simple doesn’t give way to laziness. Simple means we’ll work smarter, not harder. Simple means we’ll seek to go about our days with God’s best in mind, cutting out all that hinders and everything that keeps us from looking up to Jesus (Hebrews 12:1-2). This will look different for each of us.

What I’m planning for a Year of Simple at Heavenly Homemakers is…

To encourage all of us care for our families in the simplest ways possible so we can keep our top priorities at the top. This will include:

More Simple Recipes – We’ve still gotta eat. We still want healthy meals. But let’s learn more about keeping it simple. (Simple Meals is one of the best ways to simplify our kitchen lives, hands down! Everyone should take part in this!)
Simple Kitchen and Homemaking Tips – I’ll continue to share ways of managing our homes by working smarter, not harder.
Simple Truths – God continues to reveal His perfect and simple Truth as I study and meditate on His Word. Lies fade as Truth overpowers. As God directs, I’ll share what I’m learning.
Simple Fun – But of course.

I don’t think it matters what season of life you are in. Whether you have no children, baby children, growing children, teenage children, adult children, a spouse, no spouse – no matter who you are and what your current time of life holds for you – we can all get so wrapped up in being so busy with all the busyness that we forget to take part in what is most important.

What if we all learn together how to let go of the non-essentials, to ask for help when we need it, and to walk in peace as we trust that God will provide everything we need?

Each time I think about how God can help me simplify, I feel great joy. I take in a deep breath. I see the lovely that is around me. Often the lovely is covered in a layer of dust and smells like sweaty socks. Lovely doesn’t mean perfect. Lovely means fully being in the moment to recognize that God’s mercies are new every morning and that He is at work in all things.

I look forward to spending 2017 with you. Join me in this Year of Simple!

What’s at least one way you seek to simplify your life this year?

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Simple Hamburger Soup

December 30, 2016 by Laura 9 Comments

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My mom used to make something like this Simple Hamburger Soup every Wednesday night before church. She called it “Beef Garden Casserole” and usually baked biscuits on top and on the side. I remember coming home from sports practices, starving, and so excited to eat this meal along with several biscuits dripping with butter.

beef-garden-soup

Ah, the memories.

I’ve been making this for my own family during the last 22 years, and even though it started out as a simple recipe, I’ve simplified it even more. I now skip the biscuits altogether. I often make it ahead of time so all I have to do is rewarm it and serve.

But then there’s the fact that some people in my family don’t like corn. Of all things not to like, right? So I usually make corn on the side for people to stir in if they like.

Also? I don’t make this as a casserole. It goes into bowls like soup, then we top it with shredded cheese. It’s still one of my favorite meals, and it always reminds me of my mom. You’ll love how easy this is!