Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Simple Make-Ahead Parmesan Meatballs

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Who gets excited about something silly like Simple Make-Ahead Parmesan Meatballs? This girl. Indeed, I get very, very excited.

I like beef. I like meatballs. I like anything that can be made ahead of time. No. Scratch that. I LOVE anything that can be made ahead of time. And if it’s also made from beef, well, that makes me one happy girl!

You can make this recipe ahead and store the meatballs in the fridge or freezer UNBAKED. Or you can PRE-BAKE up a huge batch and pull out a few as needed to reheat quickly. This recipe is flexible to meet your family’s needs!

Simple Make-Ahead Parmesan Meatballs

Simple Make-Ahead Parmesan Meatballs
 
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Serves: 16-20 meatballs
Ingredients
  • 2 pounds ground beef or turkey
  • 2 eggs
  • 3 Tablespoons dried minced onion
  • ½ cup shredded (or grated) parmesan cheese
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • ¼ teaspoon ground pepper
  • ½ teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
  1. Mix all ingredients together until well combined.
  2. Scoop any size balls out onto a cookie sheet (I use a large scoop).
  3. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30-45 minutes or until the meat is no longer pink.
  4. Serve right away, or refrigerate or freeze baked meatballs to easily reheat for a meal later.
  5. OR, freeze the prepared meatballs UNBAKED, thaw as needed, and bake as directed.

I love serving these Simple Make-Ahead Parmesan Meatballs with:

Meals like this are truly satisfying, extremely delicious, and still very simple to put together!

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Simple Popcorn Chicken Tacos

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Here’s an idea for you. Make extra Popcorn Chicken to serve in tacos for a super simple meal! Popcorn Chicken Tacos are surprisingly good and of course, super fun.

Here’s our very easy, very delicious Popcorn Chicken Recipe. I love making a double, or triple, or quadruple batch of this chicken and then freezing it to reheat at another time for a super easy meal. As an extra fun variation, I reheat it and we use it to build tacos any way we like!

Simple Popcorn Chicken Tacos

Simple Popcorn Chicken Tacos
 
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Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 1 pound pre-made popcorn chicken*
  • 8 whole grain flour or corn tortillas
  • Fresh taco fixins like tomatoes, lettuce, black beans, sweet peppers, corn, cilantro, onions, salsa, olives, etc
  • Shredded cheese
Instructions
  1. Rewarm popcorn chicken.
  2. Prepare taco fixins and set out a buffet for each person to build Simple Popcorn Chicken Tacos per their preference!

*Find our Simple Popcorn Chicken recipe here.

Want toasted tortillas? Simply warm them in a skillet over low heat for about 1 minute on each side until they turn lightly brown and barely crispy!

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Simple Cheesy Salsa Chicken – 2 Minute Prep!

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What has kept me from thinking of this idea Simple Cheesy Salsa Chicken before? After all, I’ve been on a grand mission to use the same basic, real food ingredients in all different ways to create a variety of easy-to-throw-together meals. And yet, it never occurred to me to put chicken and salsa together, then stir in some cheese?

It’s like the idea was too simple to even become an idea. But aha! We have thought of it, it has become a wonderful idea, and now we can put dinner together with 2-minutes of “work.”

You may recall the Simple Crock Pot Salsa Shredded Beef idea, in which we put a frozen (yes, frozen!) roast into the crockpot and dump salsa on top. It cooks itself, falls apart like magic, and tastes amazing in tacos, burritos, salads, or simply on a fork. Now let’s take that same idea and use chicken instead.

Frozen chicken, to be exact. Unless you are the type to actually remember to thaw your meat. Thawed meat works well too. Some of us are underachievers who cannot handle thinking of and walking to the freezer hours before meal prep time. We feel ridiculous about this weakness, but it is what it is. Dinner arrives at the table just the same because we have learned ways to compensate for our lack of meat-thawing skills. We have accepted that thawing meat is not our gift. We have moved on.

Therefore, we take frozen, boneless chicken and put cook it with salsa until it falls apart. We eat it with joy, and because of this, we are never motivated to remember to thaw meat again.

Simple Cheesy Salsa Chicken

Simple Cheesy Salsa Chicken - 2 Minute Prep!
 
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Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 2 pounds boneless chicken thighs or breasts
  • 2 cups salsa
  • 1 cup shredded cheese (we like Colby jack best, but any will work!)
Instructions
  1. Place chicken and salsa into a Crockpot, Instant Pot, or cooking pot.
  2. Crockpot: Cook on low for 7 hours.
  3. Instant Pot: Seal and cook on manual at high pressure for 10 minutes.
  4. Stove Top: Cover and cook over low heat for 20-30 minutes or until chicken is cooked thoroughly and shreds easily.
  5. Once meat is cooked, shred or cut into chunks and serve with cheese on top.
  6. Serve over cooked rice or tortilla chips or a bed of lettuce.

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Simple Broccoli Bacon Chicken

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Remember that one day we had a lot going on and needed a quick meal that everyone in the family would enjoy? Oh yeah. That’s every day. Well, I guess that means every day is a good day to make this Simple Broccoli Bacon Chicken.

I’m telling you right now that Simple Meals and the simple recipes that go with it have spoiled me for all the meal plans and recipes in the entire world that require any thought or effort. I am now so used to putting together delicious dishes that take hardly any time.

So when I see a recipe that requires more “work” than quickly putting a few healthy and simple ingredients into a dish and baking, crock potting, or instant potting it for our dinner, I’m like, “No sorry. I can’t possibly boil those noodles before adding them to my casserole dish. Step aside, complicated recipe that requires me to actually thaw my meat ahead of time. How dare you suggest that I take the time to saute a vegetable before putting it into my pot? Who am I? What’s her name??” {Laura takes a moment to look up the fabulous…oh yes! Julia Child.} “Who am I? Julia Child?”

Ironically, I refuse to take “extra,” detailed steps when putting a recipe together, but while writing about my recipe rebellion I will take a few extra seconds to Google “lady chef made into a movie blogger person.” Three cheers for Google who can read my mind and interpret from my garbled keywords the information I am trying to discover.

Indeed, I am basically the complete opposite of the amazing and incredible Julia Child. She braised this and souffled that, and she turned out food called “Boeuf Bourguignon.” Meanwhile, I’m like, “Here, put these four ingredients in a dish and bake it until it’s done. We call this ‘Cass-er-ole.'”

I’ve gotta hand it to Julia (who I have now decided to be on a first name basis with). Everything she made was impressive, what with her duck confit {Laura pretends to know what this is} and her scalloped gratineed {just smile and nod}. I think she would have been delightful to know in person. Do you think she would cringe while watching me throw frozen, raw hamburger meat into my Instant Pot as we talked about recipes over a cup of tea?

Well anyway. Here’s today’s not-so-Julia-Child-style recipe. Once again, we see that we simply lay chicken in a dish, put some other stuff on top, and bake it after our five minutes of “work.” All the while, we are quizzing our kids on their spelling words and thinking of clever ways to pronounce hors d’oeuvres.

Simple Broccoli Bacon Chicken

Simple Broccoli Bacon Chicken
 
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Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts
  • 1 head fresh broccoli
  • ½ pound cooked bacon crumbles
  • 2 cups shredded cheese (any of your favorites will work!)
Instructions
  1. Lay chicken in the bottom of a 9x13 inch casserole dish.
  2. Cut broccoli into florets and place them on top of the chicken.
  3. Sprinkle bacon crumbles over the chicken and broccoli.
  4. Sprinkle cheese over the top of the casserole.
  5. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes or until chicken has cooked through and juice runs clear.

More Simple Recipes

After all this talk about Simple Recipes, I’m pretty sure you’ll want this huge list of the many recipes we’ve shared that can be put together in just a few minutes!

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15 Family Favorite Real Food Soup Recipes

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I shared this list last year, and felt it was worth sharing again! I added all the latest to this list, so here are 15 Family Favorite Real Soup Recipes!

Before we talk soup, first, let’s talk Broth. Here’s my tutorial on making Chicken Broth on the stove-top. In addition, here’s my tutorial on making Beef Broth on the stove-top. I actually like making Beef Broth more often, simply because it doesn’t require the tedious task of boning a chicken. But that’s just me trying to save time in the kitchen. :)

UPDATE: I’ve started making broth in my Instant Pot, which truly is easy and a great time saver! That has become my go-to method of broth making!

And now, who’s ready for some awesome soup recipes?

15 16 Family Favorite Real Food Soup Recipes

  1. Beefy Vegetable Soup
  2. Cheeseburger Soup
  3. Chicken Noodle Soup
  4. Chicken Tortilla Soup
  5. Chili
  6. Homemade Tomato Soup
  7. Pizza Soup
  8. Potato Soup
  9. Simple Taco Soup
  10. Chicken Soup with a Kick
  11. Twenty Minute Taco Soup
  12. The Simplest White Chicken Chili
  13. Creamy Chicken Soup
  14. Simple Noodle Soup
  15. Simple Hamburger Soup
  16. Crock Pot Ham and Potato Soup with a Kick

Hospitality and SoupYum

As much as possible, we enjoy inviting college students over on Sundays after church. We tell our sons (our oldest two are students at York College) to invite whoever they want, so we never know who might show up on our porch. It’s a blast! Of course, we now also have several regulars who come every Sunday that they are available, and now they are inviting their friends too! So when I make soup for such gatherings, my soup pots are large. :)

In case you’re curious, and I’m sure you must be, the favorite soups our local college students enjoy are:

  1. Potato Soup
  2. Chicken Soup with a Kick
  3. Twenty Minute Taco Soup

These are the simplest to prepare, and they are always a hit. As an added bonus, the Chicken Soup with a Kick and the Twenty Minute Taco Soup are allergy friendly (if I leave out the cheese), so everyone can enjoy them without issue.

What to serve with the soup?

I’m glad you asked. When we have guests, here are some fun ideas for what to serve alongside our soup!

Enjoy soup. Enjoy hospitality. And take advantage of this!

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Simple Creamy Chicken Soup for Crock Pot or Instant Pot

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This Simple Creamy Chicken Soup is the definition of comfort food.

Hmmmm. Actually, the definition of comfort food (I just looked it up) is: food that provides consolation or a feeling of well-being, typically any with a high sugar or other carbohydrate content and associated with childhood or home cooking.

I believe I have just re-defined comfort food. No longer must it be associated with a high sugar or carb content. Certainly not in the case of this Creamy Chicken Soup. We can associate it with home cooking (because we will be at home, cooking it) and it is likely that your children will someday associate it with their childhood.

But there is no pasta or potato involved in the making of this soup to make it high in carbs. Add some if you like. I’m personally in it for the chicken and the cheese. I find it delightfully comforting.

Simple Creamy Chicken Soup

Simple Creamy Chicken Soup for Crock Pot or Instant Pot
 
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Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 1-2 pounds boneless chicken thighs or breasts
  • 10-ounce can Rotel
  • 32-ounces (4 cups) chicken broth
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 8-ounces softened cream cheese
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 2 cups shredded Colby jack or cheddar cheese
Instructions
  1. Place chicken, Rotel, broth, salt, and paprika into an Instant Pot or Crock Pot
  2. For Instant Pot: Seal and cook on manual at high pressure for 15 minutes. Quick release.
  3. For Crock Pot: Cook ingredients on low for 6-8 hours or until chicken is no longer pink.
  4. Remove chicken from Crock Pot or Instant Pot. Shred it and put it back into the pot.
  5. Stir in cream cheese, cream, and shredded cheese until smooth.
  6. Serve with frozen corn sprinkled in if desired

I added a carb by sprinkling frozen corn into our soup to cool it and sweeten it. So I guess this meets the definition of comfort food after all!

Don’t have an Instant Pot? I have and love this one.

Simple Real Food Recipes

 

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Simple 10-Minute Instant Pot Mac and Cheese

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I have a major confession, and I think you will all be a tiny bit shocked. (No I didn’t start eating margarine. Who do you even think I am?) For years, I deemed this Creamy Mac and Cheese recipe the best in the world. I held to this opinion for years. And now. NOW, I have discovered a recipe that is even better than the best. Allow me to introduce you to the marvelous, wonderful, fabulous 10-Minute Instant Pot Mac and Cheese!

If you don’t yet have an Instant Pot, I feel you, I get you, and I was on your Non-Instant-Pot-Team for many years. Then I finally gave in and allowed this jewel to change my life forever. I truly do love my precious Instant Pot because it saves me so much time and energy in the kitchen. It’s like God knew we all needed Simple Meals and Simple Recipes so on the eighth day He created the Instant Pot. And God said it was good.

What are my favorite foods to make in my Instant Pot? I’m so glad you asked.

If you don’t yet have an Instant Pot, might I recommend that you save up and invest in one? I do think you will love it as much as I do!

For all the Instant Pot owners out there, you’ll be delighted to know that this 10-Minute Instant Pot Mac and Cheese can actually be ready to serve – from start to finish – in just 10-minutes. This has become a great go-to lunch for my boys at home or a wonderful side dish at dinner after a busy day.

Simple 10-Minute Instant Pot Mac and Cheese

4.0 from 2 reviews
Simple 10-Minute Instant Pot Mac and Cheese
 
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Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 16-ounces whole grain pasta (any shape)
  • 4 cups water
  • 4 Tablespoons butter (always butter, never margarine, amen, hallelujah)
  • 2 teaspoons sea salt
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 3 cups shredded cheese (we love Colby jack)
Instructions
  1. Stir uncooked pasta, water, butter, and salt in your instant pot.
  2. Seal and cook on manual, high pressure for 4 minutes.
  3. Quick release the pressure.
  4. Open the pot and stir in the cream and cheese until melted and creamy.

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DON’T Make Meal Plans in 2019! (What?!)

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Yep. Sit back and let us make your meals plans for you. How fantastic would that be?! We offered this back in September – and it’s back for two days in a flash sale. Drum roll please…

We included an entire years Simple Meals Subscription (worth $52) in this year’s Healthy Living Bundle. That means you can get your first year subscription for just $29.97! That’s almost half price. (Complete real food, simple menu plans every week for $0.58 each!!!!)

Ultimate Healthy Living Bundle 2018PLUS, your purchase instantly gives you 95 other Healthy Living resources that help you learn more about keeping yourself and your family healthy. And if that isn’t awesome enough, we decided to sweeten the pot even more by creating a new Simple Recipes eBook and giving it to you for…

FREE.

Yes. When you buy this year’s Healthy Living Bundle through our links,  not only will you be getting an entire year’s worth of Simple Meals complete planning packets for almost half price, you’ll get 95 other products (worth $2235), 6 bonuses…

Then you can email me and we’ll throw our Simple Recipes for Simple Meals eBook into your inbox!

But I don’t want the Healthy Living Bundle!

Oh. Well, I think if you look at all that is included in this year’s collection, you might change your mind about not wanting it. But hey, I get it. Sometimes the idea of having the entire bundle can feel overwhelming.

So say you don’t want the Bundle, but you DO want a One-Year Subscription to Simple Meals. And you want our new Simple Recipes eBook too. But of course. 

You can pay full price for both of those if you want to, but I suggest buying the bundle anyway so you can get Simple Meals for $29.97 instead of our regular $52. And you’ll get our free new eBook, regularly priced at $8.95.

(You’ll end up saving $31! Which is more than the cost of the entire bundle!)

Why is this worth it?

The best thing I can say is that we all want to feed our families well so we can be healthy, but there are more important ways to spend our time and energy than planning, shopping, and cooking for hours every week. It is much more important to love God and love people. We must turn our focus from work to love!

That is the inspiration behind Simple Meals. Every week our team creates and sends you super simple, real food menu plans, grocery lists, recipes, and more – so you can very easily put great meals on the table every night. You’ll be able to feed your family tremendous food while spending very little time in the kitchen. This will free you up for:

  • More family time
  • More time spent in ministry
  • More time to rest and find refreshment in God’s word

That’s more of everything that is most important. All while feeding your family well too.

Your kitchen life is about to make a big change for the better.

This Healthy Living Bundle flash sale offer is only good through Friday, December 28.

Take advantage right away! You’ll get immediate access to Simple Meals, and you’ll benefit from it for an entire year. Then email me ([email protected]) and I’ll email you a copy of our brand new Simple Recipes for Simple Meals eBook for FREE!

Then look through all the other (95!) products that are included in the bundle too. They are yours forever, so you can take your time in looking through them all.

Ultimate Healthy Living Bundle 2018

I can’t wait to connect with you through Simple Meals!

This offer expires December 28, 2018.

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Simple Real Food Recipes For Your Holiday Break

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I don’t know about you, but I’m taking a break right now. I break from blogging and a break from many normal responsibilities. This is why we all need Simple Recipes so we can still feed our families well!

Keep your meals as simple as possible as you enjoy family time and celebrations. Here’s our ever-growing list of Simple Recipes for you to choose from!

Dozens of Simple Real Food Recipes

Want them in your hands?

We’ve got most of these recipes already in eBook format so you can download, print, and hold them in your hands!

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Simple 5-Minute Cheesy Hamburger and Potatoes

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Add this Simple 5-Minute Cheesy Hamburger and Potatoes recipe to the growing list of reasons it is awesome to have a stash of frozen hashbrowns waiting in the freezer!

Around here, we like our recipes to be both easy to prepare and made with real food. Why?

Because loving God and loving people is more important than well, anything else in this world.

(Matthew 22:36-40)

Therefore, we’re learning to do everything possible to keep our food as nourishing as possible, all while preparing it as quickly as possible. This frees up our time and energy to spend doing what God calls us to do each day.

Frozen Hashbrowns for the win!

I shared in this post about my happy hashbrown find and why I now rely on it for a healthy, convenient option. (In summary, Mr. Dells frozen hashbrowns has one ingredient: Potatoes. Beautiful!)

Since discovering these, I’ve come up with a variety of fun Hashbrown Casseroles that my family loves and that take only a few minutes to put together. Many can be made either in the oven or in the crock pot, which means I can make adjustments based on what we have going on each day!

Other super easy (but still real food) Hashbrown Casseroles I’ve shared:

Today we’re adding 5-Minute Cheesy Potatoes and Beef to the list! How can this be made in 5 minutes? Well, with our trusty frozen hashbrowns of course. And also, IF you follow this handy trick of cooking hamburger meat ahead of time, then all you have to do is pull out cooked meat, add it to your crock pot or baking dish with the other ingredients, and in 5 minutes, dinner is ready to bake!

Simple 5-Minute Cheesy Potatoes and Beef

Simple 5-Minute Cheesy Potatoes and Beef
 
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Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 1-2 pounds ground beef
  • 30-ounces frozen hashbrowns (or 5 medium potatoes sliced thinly)
  • 2 Tablespoons dried minced onion
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 3 cups shredded cheese (we use Colby jack)
  • ½ cup chicken or beef broth
Instructions
  1. Brown hamburger meat in a skillet on the stove-top.
  2. In a large crock pot, layer ½ of the potatoes followed by ½ of the cooked meat.
  3. Sprinkle with 1 Tablespoon minced onion, ½ teaspoon paprika, ½ teaspoon garlic powder, ½ teaspoon sea salt, and 1½ cups shredded cheese.
  4. Repeat with another layer of potatoes, meat, seasonings, and cheese.
  5. Drizzle broth over the ingredients and put the lid on the crock pot.
  6. Cook on "Hi" for 4 hours.

Need some veggies to go with this meal. YES. Always. :) Here are my favorite easy ways to prepare veggies to go with our meals!

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