Blueberries Galore!

Right off the bat, I'll tell you that our family goes through a lot of blueberries. And when I say "a lot" I mean that we buy 3 pounds of blueberries every other week. (We add blueberries to our green smoothies every morning as part of our super simple meal plan.)

But after an enjoyable morning of picking blueberries (and supporting a local farmer who uses organic methods of growing) we'll definitely be able to cut down on our blueberries purchases for a few months.

In case you've ever wondered, this is what 26 pounds of blueberries looks like in our tiny kitchen.

We also saved quite a bit of money to boot. A 3 pound bag of regular (non-organic) blueberries costs $11.90 and the grocery store, but we were able to get the same amount (locally & organically grown) for only $5.37! This is about the same as buying 1 pound of organic blueberries at the grocery store.

If we're able to pick enough blueberries for the entire year (about 78 pounds) we'll be able to save about $150 even with a cushion of almost $20 extra to purchase freezer bags.

Now to bag up all the blueberries and fill our freezer.

Today's Question: Do you stock up on local fruits and vegetables by picking your own?

Be sure to click the link in the first email to activate your subscription.

Meal Planning: Our Very Simple Menu

I’ve been meal planning for several years and have tried several different approaches and methods to find what works best for our family during this season of our life.

I started my meal planning journey when we had only one child. I would choose 15-20 meals to prepare every month, repeating some favorites and allotting days for eating leftovers. This worked well for me for awhile, but as life got busier I found it difficult to keep up with the planning, grocery shopping, and preparations involved.

Now, we’ve settle into a much more simple meal plan method. I’ll admit that I’m only able to maintain this approach because my husband isn’t picky and only requests that I feed our family as healthy as possible within a very limited budget (last month our groceries totaled under $300 for 5 hearty eaters).

Why do we have the same very simple meals every week?

1. planning is quick ~ I have a list of 5 dinners and just plug them into the days in my planning binder
2. grocery shopping is simple and fast ~ at least as fast as it can be with four kiddos, I usually buy the same things every single week plus a pantry staple or two as we run out
3. meal prep is easy ~ I’ve chosen very simple meals for this season of life, so preparing the meals is easy, plus since I’ve made them so many times, I’ve memorized the few recipes that are actually needed
4. dinnertime is happy ~ everything on our typical rotation is liked by the entire family, so we are able to enjoy a pleasant meal together
5. we can eat healthier foods ~ by cutting down our grocery costs, we’re able to afford better quality foods (we buy a lot of organic produce)

So, what do we actually eat?

Breakfast

 

• Green smoothie (raw spinach leaves, kefir, bananas, frozen blueberries, frozen mixed fruit, OJ concentrate)
• Eggs ~ cheese omelets, scrambled eggs (sometimes with cheese), over-medium eggs
• Tim makes a blender full of green smoothie and cooks his own eggs before he leaves for work at 4:45 AM. He puts the remaining smoothie in the fridge for us. When the rest of the family gets up I serve the smoothies (with super cool stainless steel straws) and cook up a large batch of eggs.
• occasionally we’ll toast some homemade bread or have oatmeal instead of eggs (usually just during the winter)
• about once a month, we’ll cook a special breakfast together on Tim’s day off

Lunch

• Tim and the kids eat (all natural) peanut butter on homemade soaked whole wheat bread. I eat celery and peanut butter.
• carrot sticks and assorted fresh fruit: apple slices, pear slices, orange slices, Tim takes a whole carrot and an apple and orange/pear, the kids and I normally share one large carrot and two pieces of fruit.
• Tim also eats a small handful of almonds and/or roasted chickpeas when he works.

Dinner

• We always serve a green salad as the first part of our dinner, unless of course, dinner is a salad. This helps make sure that we all eat our salad before filling up on the other food.

• I do not fix side dishes other than the salad. We also do not eat dessert at home (thankfully we usually have a reason to make dessert at least a couple times each month to help with my baking itch).
• We usually eat dinner at my parents’ house about once a week. We typically contribute something and we enjoy whatever we’re served. The kids still have to eat their salad before the get the rest of their meal.
• Depending on what our budget looks like, we like to plan a special cooking night once a month. On this night we try a new recipe or simply cook something we don’t usually eat. Our last special dinner was Tim’s Sweet & Sour Wings—yummy!
• Black Bean and/or Venison Taco Salad (twice a week)~ black beans, cooked ground venison (from my brother-in-law), a little brown rice, half of an onion (chopped and sautéed), diced tomatoes, mince garlic, a splash of lime juice, cumin & salt to taste, served over spinach or mixed lettuce with shredded cheddar cheese, salsa, and kefir cheese (or sour cream). We love adding tortilla chips, too, but decided to cut them out on our last grocery budget review. (During the winter I typically cook this in the Crock-Pot.)
• Pasta with Tomato Sauce ~ I cook our pasta in homemade veggie broth to get a few more nutrients. We’ve used whole wheat past in the past, but we’re looking into brown rice pasta to eliminate some issues with eating unsoaked whole wheat. On past nights we all have a larger salad at the start of dinner so we don’t fill ourselves with pasta.
• Brown Rice and Beans ~ This meal is technically not the same every week, but the main ingredients stay the same. I simply change the taste by adding different spices, veggies or sauces. Tropical  – coconut milk, lime juice and unsweetened shredded coconut; Mexican – cumin, garlic, chili powder, diced tomatoes; Italian – pasta sauce, parsley, basil, oregano, topped with shredded mozzarella or parmesan cheese. (During the winter I typically cook this in the Crock-Pot.)
• “Grilled” Chicken Salad (twice a week) ~ Since we’re living in a town house right now, we can’t actually grill our chicken, but these salads consist of spinach or mixed lettuce topped with pan-seared or baked chicken chunks, cut fruit (apples, pears) or canned mandarin oranges. Sometimes we add a little shredded cheese, some sliced hard boiled eggs, or crunchy chow mien noodles. We typically just serve up the same dressing on everyone’s salad and Tim, Jonathan, and Eliya top theirs with a sprinkle of garlic powder. The kids all love creamy poppy seed dressing, but I’ve been experimenting with making my own dressing, too.

Snacks

• fresh veggies (carrot sticks mainly)
• roasted chickpeas
• almonds
• homemade crackers, when I have time to make them :)
• smoothies

Today’s Question: How do you plan your meals? Have you written about your meal planning method? Leave me a link so I can add your post to my Meal Planning Pinterest board.

Be sure to click the link in the first email to activate your subscription.

Menu Plan Monday ~ June 20th

We're still trucking along with our main dish salads at least 5 nights a week. I love how cool the house has stayed and how simple dinner has been to prepare. Also with lots of different combinations we're not sick of salads yet. That's definitely a good thing since we have quite a bit more summer to go.

Here are a couple of the combinations we've enjoyed so far. (As you can see we love chow mein noodles.)

This Week's Menu

We're adding more red meat to our diets right now because I'm having trouble keeping my iron levels up during this pregnancy. I'm always slightly anemic, but this time my levels are really low and tons of spinach and iron supplements haven't been able to get my levels up to where they need to be. We'll be bending the food budget a little but I need to get my levels up in order to deliver this baby at the birthing center instead of in the hospital.

(Any ideas for raising iron levels would be completely welcomed.)

Monday: 
Tossed Salad topped with Sesame Ginger Chicken, mandarin oranges and chow mein noodles

Tuesday:
Tossed Salad topped with Creamy Poppyseed Chicken and sliced grapes and peaches

Wednesday:

Tossed Salad topped with Lime Seasoned Steak, sliced strawberries, mango and avocado

Thursday:
Black Bean and Ground Beef Taco Salad 

Friday:
Tossed Salad topped with Marinated Steak 

Saturday: 
Salad night off.
Annie's Macaroni and Cheese
Baby carrots (and a small salad for me)

Sunday:

Tim's off.
Tossed Salad topped with Grilled Steak.

Sharing alongside hundreds of other meal plans at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

What are you cooking this week? I'd love some new recipe links and simple salad ideas!

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

Welcome to A Heart for Home! We'd love for you to subscribe

to receive free updates through e-mail or our RSS feed.

Thanks for visiting and we hope you'll be back often!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Menu Plan Monday ~ June 6th

This summer, while Tim works during the day and is in class from 6-10 PM Monday through Friday, he has graciously suggested having a simple main dish salad for dinner every night.

Oh, how easy and healthy and uncomplicated. Oh, how much I love this man!

So, every night that Tim is home for dinner (Monday - Friday) we are having a huge green salad topped with some type of protein.

For the salads calling for chicken, I simply chop an entire package of chicken tenderloins and divide the cubed chicken into 3-4 containers. I then pour a little homemade marinade or store bought salad dressing into each container and place them in the fridge (or freezer if I do them more than a few days before we'll use them).

I cook the chicken on the stove top, since neither Tim or I have time to grill right now.

This Week's Menu

Monday: 
Tossed Salad topped with Sesame Ginger Chicken, mandarin oranges and chow mein noodles

Tuesday:
Tossed Salad topped with Creamy Poppyseed Chicken and sliced strawberries

Wednesday:

Tossed Salad topped with Tropical Lime Chicken, sliced strawberries, mango and avocado

Thursday:
Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos (because I'm making a batch to take to neighbors who just brought home a new baby)
Serve with Creamy Lime-Cilantro Dressing and Sour Cream
Tossed Salad

Friday:
Taco Salad 

Saturday: 
Tim's working.
Annie's Macaroni and Cheese (bought on sale last week)
Baby carrots (and a small salad for me)
Fruit

Sunday:

Tim's working.
Leftovers 

Sharing alongside hundreds of other meal plans at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

What are you cooking this week? I'd love some new recipe links and simple salad ideas!

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

Welcome to A Heart for Home! We'd love for you to subscribe

to receive free updates through e-mail or our RSS feed.

Thanks for visiting and we hope you'll be back often! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Menu Plan Monday ~ May 16th

This past week we managed to use up most of our leftovers and significantly cleaned out the fridge. We'll be traveling back to our hometown this week for my "little" brother's wedding next Saturday.

So, while we won't be cooking much this week, I have been preparing some meals to freeze and take with us since the whole family will be involved with wedding preparations this week.

This Week's Menu

Monday: 
Tossed Salad topped with (leftover) Grilled Chicken

Tuesday:
Stopping at my older brother's house to spend the night.

Wednesday:

We made and froze a batch of Toasted Pecan Waffles for breakfast on Wednesday. (Just a classic waffle recipe, but simply sprinkle chopped pecans on the griddle before pouring the batter in. I made these a little less crispy than normal and hope they'll toast up nicely in the toaster.)

Taco Salad at my parent's home

Thursday:
Made and froze a batch of 16 Egg, Sausage & Cheese Breakfast Burritos for quick, easy and low clean up breakfasts for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We flash froze then wrapped them individually in foil. We'll be thawing these in the fridge the night before then baking them (still wrapped in foil) at 350°F for 10 minutes.

Made and froze (uncooked) a triple batch of Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos to eat with my extended family.
Serve with Creamy Lime-Cilantro Dressing and Sour Cream
Tossed salad

Friday:
Rehearsal Dinner
Lasagna
Tossed Salad
Rolls

Saturday: 
Wedding reception

Sunday:

Probably leftovers since we'll all be exhausted.

Sharing alongside hundreds of other meal plans at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

What are you cooking this week? I'd love some new recipe links!

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

Welcome to A Heart for Home! We'd love for you to subscribe

to receive free updates through e-mail or our RSS feed.

Thanks for visiting and we hope you'll be back often! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Menu Plan Monday ~ May 9th

This Week's Menu

We've had a crazy whirlwind of a weekend...faraway family visiting...Graduation...Mother's Day...celebrating Emahry's 4th Birthday!

This week's plan is simplicity.

Simplicity...and leftovers.

Monday: 
Tossed Salad topped with (leftover) Grilled Steak
Rolls

Tuesday:
Grilled Steak Fajitas (using leftover steak)

Wednesday:
Tim's working so it's just the kids and me.
Homemade Cheese and Spinach Pizza using Tammy's wonderful thin crust recipe

Thursday:
Tim's working so it's just the kids and me.
Pasta with Red Sauce
Baby Carrots

Friday:
Tim's working.
Leftovers


Saturday: 
Tim's working.
Breakfast for Dinner
Peanut Butter Pancakes

Sunday:

Tim's Grilling Night.
Undecided

Sharing alongside hundreds of other meal plans at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

What are you cooking this week? I'd love some new recipe links!

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

Welcome to A Heart for Home! We'd love for you to subscribe

to receive free updates through e-mail or our RSS feed.

Thanks for visiting and we hope you'll be back often! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Menu Plan Monday ~ May 2nd

Review of Last Week's New Recipes:

Our family really enjoys this German Apple Pancake recipe so I thought I'd try it last week using kefir to replace the milk for some added health benefits.

The recipe turned out perfect, although as usual I did double the number of apples called for.

Also, I would never try to fix this recipe to feed 6-8 people as the recipe calls for. Our family of five, three of whom are under four can easily put the whole thing away with no leftovers. I have increased the recipe to 1 1/2 times and used my larger 12 inch skillet to feed approximately 6 adults.

This Week's Menu

Monday: 
Tim's working, so it's just the kids and me.

Creamy Mac and Cheese
Baby Carrots

Tuesday:

possibly having some friends over
Homemade Cheese Pizza for the kids~ using Tammy's delicious thin crust recipe
Grilled Chicken and Brown Rice for the adults

Tossed salad

Wednesday:
Grilled Chicken Salad

We have family visiting this weekend for Tim's graduation so we'll be preparing a lot of meals with little prep time so we can enjoy spending lots of time with the grandparents and not in the kitchen :)


Thursday:

Taco Salad

Friday:

Pasta with Red Sauce
Tossed Salad

Saturday: 

Tim's grilling night
Not sure what he's making yet.

Sunday:
Mother's Day Lunch at Church
Crock Pot Sloppy Joes
Tossed Salad
*Peanut Butter Pie (x3)
 (For the crust I'll use peanut butter cookies instead of chocolate (my husband and kids don't eat chocolate) for the crust and skip the sugar. I'll also make it a little healthier by using all natural ingredients and replacing the white sugar with powdered turbinado. I'll also reduce the sugar and skip the butter in the filling. I'll be playing around with this recipe quite a bit and hope to have a great healthier peanut butter pie recipe for you next week.)


* Denotes new recipes to be reviewed at the beginning of next week's Menu Plan Monday post.

Sharing alongside hundreds of other meal plans at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

What are you cooking this week? I'd love some new recipe links!

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

Welcome to A Heart for Home! We'd love for you to subscribe

to receive free updates through e-mail or our RSS feed.

Thanks for visiting and we hope you'll be back often! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Menu Plan Monday ~ April 18th

Review of Last Week's New Recipes:

Our Best Bites

Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos: These were a huge hit. We made them with the small sized flour tortillas and served them with sour cream and this awesome creamy lime cilantro dressing.

I didn't have any green onions for the taquito filling so I simply left them out. I also used lime juice instead of freshly squeezed.

Tim and I loved these taquitos. The kids also enjoyed their portions with a little extra sour cream to cut the spiciness.

If I were making these for company of to deliver to friends I would make them with half pepperjack cheese and half regular cheddar or maybe even all cheddar to help cut down on the spiciness.

Our Best Bites

This creamy lime cilantro dressing goes really well with these taquitos and also makes a great compliment to the meal on top of a tossed salad.

I omitted the hot sauce entirely and there was still a little kick from the green salsa. I also used 6 teaspoons of this homemade ranch dressing mix.

Next time I'm going to try to make this dressing with kefir or greek yogurt to get rid of the mayo.


This Week's Menu

Monday: 
Tim's working, so it's just the kids and me.

Creamy Mac and Cheese with leftover shredded Chicken
Baby Carrots

Tuesday:

Homemade Cheese Pizza ~ using Tammy's delicious thin crust recipe (made with whole wheat bread flour)

Tossed salad

Wednesday:
Busy day with grocery shopping so Tim's grilling.
Easy Tilapia with Wine and Tomatoes
Brown rice

Tossed salad

Thursday:

Pasta with Red Sauce

Tossed Salad

Friday:

Taco Salad

Saturday: 

Breakfast for Dinner, Just the kids and me
* German Apple Pancake ~ this isn't a new recipe, but I'm going to try it with kefir this time around, so I'll share the results next week.

Sunday:

No traditional Easter Dinner here
Tim's Grilling Night 
I'm thinking it's time for burgers :)

* Denotes new recipes to be reviewed at the beginning of next week's Menu Plan Monday post.


If I have some extra time this week I'll be making another batch of Creamy Chicken Taquitos to place in the freezer and share with neighbors. I think I'll try mixing pepperjack and cheddar this go around.

Sharing alongside hundreds of other meal plans at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

What are you cooking this week? I'd love some new recipe links!

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

Welcome to A Heart for Home! We'd love for you to subscribe

to receive free updates through e-mail or our RSS feed.

Thanks for visiting and we hope you'll be back often! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Menu Plan Monday ~ April 11th

Well, we've been passing around a stubborn sinus cold for a week now. The kids seem to be on the upswing but I keep getting slammed with sinus headaches. Oh, and did I mention that the pollen is laying it on thick this spring? I hate really dislike allergy season.

Review of Last Week's New Recipes:

The Fried Rice never got made, but is on the schedule for this week.

Our version of Potato-Topped Mini Meatloaves were a huge hit (even though I forgot the gravy). I tweaked a couple different recipes and came up with a slightly sweet meatloaf that I baked in a jumbo muffin tray.

Potato-Topped Sweet Mini Meatloaves

1/4 cup packed brown sugar 1/2 cup ketchup 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce 1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef 2 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 small onion, chopped 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger 2 garlic cloves, minced 3/4 cup Italian Flavored bread crumbs

Makes 6 jumbo muffins (12 regular muffins).


1. Combine all ingredients.
2. Press into greased muffin trays.
3. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes plus an additional 10 minutes covered with foil. 
4. Invert onto cookie sheet then use spatula to transfer to plates. Topped with prepared hot mashed potatoes. 


Very good. Tim's favorite meatloaf recipe yet! 


We loved the Peanut Butter Pancake recipe. I substituted homemade kefir for the 1 cup of milk and added 6 Tablespoons skim milk. We also used coconut oil and Turbinado sugar. I meant to get pictures of these pancakes, but we ate them so quickly that I completely forgot (until it was too late). These will definitely be making their way to our meal plan again.

This Week's Menu

Monday: 

Fried Rice ~ using left over grilled chicken

Tossed Salad 

Tuesday:

Homemade Ham & Cheese Pizza Rolls (never got made last week)

Tossed salad

Wednesday:

Taco Salad
Baby carrots

Thursday:

Homemade Pizza (substitute whole wheat bread flour & unbleached all-purpose flour for the white flour)

Tossed Salad

Friday:

Leftovers (or pasta with red sauce)

Tossed Salad

Saturday: 

*Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos

Tossed Salad

Sunday:

Tim's Grilling Night 

* Denotes new recipes to be reviewed at the beginning of next weeks Menu Plan Monday post.

Sharing alongside hundreds of other meal plans at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

What are you cooking this week? I'd love some new recipe links!

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

Welcome to A Heart for Home! We'd love for you to subscribe

to receive free updates through e-mail or our RSS feed.

Thanks for visiting and we hope you'll be back often! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~