Need some budget friendly, easy weeknight dinners that are also kid approved foods?
If you are in search of cheap and fast every day meals, then you aren’t alone. Most families are always looking for ideas for quickly prepared meals that won’t break the bank. If that’s the case, this collection of some foods I’ve prepared for my own family may help you out! Everything here is easily made with inexpensive ingredients, and approved by my own family. 🙂
Did you know that today is International Bacon Day*?
Who doesn’t like bacon? I mean, even people who don’t eat pork try to replicate it’s delectable taste with turkey bacon and whatever meat substitutes they use. It’s just like crispy Heaven on a plate!
Wanna celebrate the wonderful day of bacon? Here is some inspiration for you bacon lovers out there!
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If you are like me, you usually have a few cake mixes on hand from your couponing adventures, just waiting to be made into a quick and easy dessert!
We may wish we could cook from scratch all the time, but the truth is that we all use shortcuts now and then! For those times when you have a sweet craving without the time for a complicated recipe, we’ve got you covered with this roundup of recipes made with cake mix! There is everything from classic cakes to cookies to bars! There’s such a variety of flavors in this list of things to make from cake mix, I’m sure anyone can find something to satisfy their sweet tooth cravings!
These easy peasy homemade fresh jalapeno poppers are addictive!
The instructions on the picture pretty much say it all, so they are really simple to do. During the summer, these are one of my very favorite snacks. I mean, how can you go wrong with bacon, cream cheese and jalapenos?? It’s not only easy, it’s fresh and delicious!
Slice and seed jalapenos.
Top slices with a dab of cream cheese and a small piece of bacon.
Broil at 500 degrees until bacon crisps and jalapeno is tender, about 6-8 minutes.
Enjoy!!!
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Don’t forget to wear gloves while handling fresh hot peppers. Your skin and eyes will thank you!
Want to grow your own jalapenos to make your own delicious jalapeno poppers? Try this fun Miracle-Gro Container Gardening Kit that includes jalapenos and other salsa friendly plants!
Do you like spicy food? I ate it all the time when I was pregnant with our third baby, and always love it! I’m not sure about trying this Yum Yum Gum (Jalapeno) jalapeno flavored gum, though! What do y’all think??
Don’t want to choose between a tomato or cheese sauce for your pasta dinner? Neither did I!
I didn’t know any recipes that had both separately like I wanted them, so I made up this recipe using ingredients I had on hand. It was so delicious, my husband said he liked it better than Olive Garden! If you knew my husband’s opinion of Olive Garden (which I have never tried, btw) that is high praise!
I made this delicious pasta dish a second time, and decided to take photos and write it up so y’all can get in on this yummy goodness, too! It’s really easy to throw together, and we are able to eat two filling meals out of just one casserole. It would also freeze well. I haven’t done it with this particular casserole yet, but this type always seems to do well frozen.
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You Can Have Your Cheese and Tomato Sauce, Too, Pasta Casserole!
Start the ground beef browning in a skillet and the pasta boiling in a pot.
Cook spinach according to directions on package.
Spray a 13 x 9 Inch Pan like this one I love with cooking spray.
While all of that is cooking, get two large bowls like the bigger ones in this Mixing Bowl Set and dump the tomato sauce in one and the cheese sauce in the other.
Once cooked, mix the ground into the tomato sauce and the pasta & spinach into the cheese sauce.
Layer half of the cheese mixture in the bottom of the pan, half of the tomato mixture on top of that and sprinkle Parmesan and half of the mozzarella on top of that.
Repeat.
Put it all in the oven and bake at 400º F for 30 minutes.
This is one of my family’s favorite meals already!
Seriously, my family loves this recipe so much! It’s even simpler than it sounds. You can easily get it all together in just over the time it takes to boil noodles.
As far as serving suggestions go, I like to serve it with garlic bread of some kind. It works as a one pan meal or you can serve it with more veggies in the form of a salad, green beans, corn on the cob, broccoli or anything else that tickles your taste buds.
After using them to do some Christmas baking, I thought I’d tell y’all about my two favorite cookie recipe books!
I used to check them out repeatedly from the library to try new things, but my dad finally wound up buying them for me. Talk about an amazing gift that he knew I would use and love!!
It’s chock full of tasty recipes, complete with indexes for types, ingredients and titles. I absolutely love it!
Want to know a couple of the goodies I have made from this book?
On page 54, you will find Banana Chip Bars. It’s one of my go to treats! I always add a dollop of peanut butter, because we love it, and sometimes simplify it by using self rising instead of all purpose and it’s accompanying ingredients.
Chocolate Refrigerator Cookies. For a really soft cookie like we prefer, I bake just 5-6 minutes. My kids loved decorating these for Christmas!
You can get your copy on Amazon here: 1001 Cookie Recipes
It also has beautiful pictures, a detailed index using ingredients and titles and includes tips for baking better cookies.
A favorite from this book is banana split brownies from page 379. If you don’t want to make the icing from scratch, just get fresh or frozen strawberries with the pre-made cream cheese kind. This recipe is soooo good, though!
Most busy, penny pinching moms that I know are fond of fun family friendly crockpot recipes. I have had a hard time keeping up with the house and cooking for awhile now, with a new baby and one injury or sickness after another, so my slow cooker is my best friend. I decided to get together a list of 10 great crockpot meals to share with y’all! Read and drool! 😉
Next time you want a comfort meal without all the hassle I hope you give this Crock-pot Beef Stroganoff {Gluten Free} a try. Serve it over hot white or brown rice or GF noodles with your favorite vegetable for an easy dinner. #crockpot #recipe Crockpot Beef Stroganoff
An easy, inexpensive crockpot chili recipe. Hide all kinds of veggies for the picky eaters, and mx your own chili seasoning to control your flavor! Mom’s Healthy Crockpot Chili
Crock-Pot BBQ Orange Pork – A sweet and tangy, super easy, healthier Crock-pot version of a classic family favorite. #recipe #crockpot Crockpot BBQ Orange Pork
Tastes like a gourmet meal, but without all the gourmet hassle. Serve this to impress the neightbors (or you inlaws!) This recipe is picky eater approved. Slow Cooker White Wine Chicken
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Need a new slow cooker? This looks like the newer version of mine, which was a wedding gift. I still use it all the time! Hamilton Beach Slow Cooker
Loaded Potato Soup in the Crock-pot – A potato soup loaded with all the things you like on your baked potatoes. I’m talking bacon, cheese, broccoli, and more! #crockpot #recipe Loaded Potato Soup
Crock-pot Tex-Mex Steak and Beans – An easy meal to throw together; full of tender, juicy steak, black beans, onions, garlic, and spices. #texmex #crockpot #recipe Crockpot Tex-Mex Steak and Beans
Crock-pot Red Beans with Pork – a hearty, easy, crowd pleasing, inexpensive dish that is perfect on any night. #crockpot #recipe Crockpot Red Beans With Pork
To make clean up a snap, I love using Crock Pot Liners. Trust me, huge time saver!
That’s our list, y’all! Don’t they make your mouth water?? Which are you eager to try first? Need more dinner ideas? Try my easy peasy Weeknight Dinners!
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This week God used my couponing and bargain shopping skills to answer my prayers. I was literally down to my last pull-up for my 3 year old (and it was a princess one left over from my 6 year old’s potty training days) and a couple of days worth of diapers for the baby, squeezing my toothpaste tube for the last drops and about to start using my children’s, nearly out of shave gel and moving on to random substitutes, and still needed to get things like milk, bananas and such to feed my kiddos in the way they are accustomed. I was figuring on skipping the extra stuff I needed, since I can live without them, but getting everything we needed for the kids and to get the extra things we needed to cook within budget. (I’m a couponer and hubby is a hunter, so we could eat without shopping for awhile, but we needed the things we go through weekly.) Hubby makes enough money, but we have been carrying two mortgages & double electric, water, insurance for over six months now due to multiple closing delays and it is killing us. I said a prayer, put it out of my mind and went to bed trusting. That’s something that comes hard for me- to simply trust.
The morning came and I got online with my list and coupons handy. I looked up my local stores for deals on the things I really needed, browsed my coupon sites (like Swagbucks, my personal favorite place for printing coupons). I found bargains on most things we needed, with many store and manufacturer coupons I could stack.
I spent $26.94 for $104.90 worth of items at CVS, which is over 74% savings! I walked away with a bunch of things we truly needed- like three packs of Huggies diapers, a pack of pull-ups, wipes, toothpaste, shave gel, razors, canned veggies. I also scored plenty we could just enjoy, like three packs of gum, a candy bar, mentos, vitamin water, some mascara and lipstick. I also have $4 in Extra Care Bucks I can use later if something else comes up that we need, and I didn’t count that into my totals. They paid me a penny each for buying the makeup, 50 cents for buying the veggies and 99 cents for buying the packs of gum! I haven’t bought makeup for myself in a very long time, since I was unable to coupon for awhile due to bed rest and recovery. I could make do with my old makeup, but I am grateful for fresh supplies. I would share how y’all can do it, but I was only able to go shopping and verify the deals on the very last day they were available and that’s not really the point of this post.
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From there I went to Winn Dixie with the goal of spending only $30 so I could qualify to get a $5 ham, and using coupons to keep it at that total, since I needed to keep it at that. I was able to get everything we needed, four packs of cream cheese & two bottles of McCormick vanilla extract for a steal to use for special treats (coupons and BOGOs), and keep the total after coupons at that $30!
If you are still reading along, bless you! I am sure you can probably appreciate the joy of a great deal when you have a very tight budget. If you can’t understand the joy of God allowing you to use your gifts and hard work to provide when it’s difficult and you’re struggling feeling helpless and anxious….well, I hope you can discover that feeling! It is both humbling and hope restoring all at once.
Moral of the story? It pays to talk to God about your needs and trust that He will provide. It also pays to use whatever skills, resources and abilities you have of your own to meet those needs. When you put His blessing together with doing your best with what you’ve already been given, amazing things can happen… even if it’s just getting everything you need with a few extras!
In the midst of the holiday shopping frenzy with Black Friday, Cyber Monday and all of the high pressure advertising of specials being ran to tempt us, it can be difficult knowing that you have to pass up the bargains no matter how great they are. It can be tempting to spend money you don’t have for things you don’t need. I know I can’t do much shopping this year. I’m okay with that. I have a couple of things tucked away that I managed to get one way or another and know I can at minimum afford to go to the Dollar Tree to stuff my children’s Christmas stockings. If you’re stretched thin this year and feeling bad about it, just know that it’s okay. Adults can understand no presents. Children don’t need as much as most of us think to be happy. Take the focus off of gifts and you can make it joyful without much money!
This has been a year of change for my family. Change can be expensive, overwhelming and difficult. It can also bring about wonderful results. I’m sure a seed isn’t particularly happy about being thrown in a hole, buried under dirt and drowned by water day in and day out. After many days, when the sun shines down on the seedling now peeking through the soil, the seed can just begin to see that it was for the best that it went through that dark time. When that seedling becomes a full blown flower, it can rejoice in the miracle of that dark time turning into something so bright and beautiful! I’m hoping that is how things turn out for us! I feel like I’m in the barely peering through the dirt phase now.
Are you going through a rough time? Having trouble trusting God and calming your anxiety? You are not alone. He has not forgotten. You are not the only one who just can’t handle it all sometimes. It will be okay!
Need some budget friendly, easy weeknight dinners that are also kid approved foods?
If you are in search of cheap and fast every day meals, then you aren’t alone. Most families are always looking for ideas for quickly prepared meals that won’t break the bank. If that’s the case, this collection of some foods I’ve prepared for my own family may help you out! Everything here is easily made with inexpensive ingredients, and approved by my own family. 🙂
Today has been an all out booger of a day. I spent hours on the phone making frustrating phone calls to fun places like health insurance companies, doctors and human resources hither and yonder while my children ran around the house terrorizing because I couldn’t deal with them properly right then. My outdoor loving children somehow hate going outside once Mommy gets on an important phone call. They’d rather stand at my feet shouting things like “I’m hungry”, “I went potty” and “She took my toy ’cause I hit her with it”. This ended up in my three year old scattering crayons from one end of the living room through the kitchen and den, not to mention his toy trucks and legos. All sorts of other things have been going wrong and bumming me out, plus I am physically something of a wreck, but this is not meant to be a whine fest.
Chopping That Okra Into Submission
Any stress eaters out there?
I know we’ve all heard of stress eating. I do that some, too, but sometimes stress just triggers me into a massive cooking frenzy. I can whip my frustration in to batter, chop some veggies into submission, beat the snot out of some eggs, and bake the bad away while filling my home with a deliciousness. It’s something fairly mindless and soothing because I can control the outcome and see almost guaranteed pleasant results from my efforts. It makes also makes my family happy, even whiny little boogers who like to pester the living daylights out of their mommy when she just CAN’T. A great stress reliever for me is the simple act of cooking….ALOT!
If there are, you would love to join me at my house when I’m super duper agitated! You’ll certainly have plenty to chow down on! Today’s stress cooking fest resulted in the goodies in the photos. I threw my baby girl in our trusty Moby wrap and went to sweating out my frustrations over the stove. Dark chocolate coconut brownies to satisfy my stress induced craving for dark chocolate. Oven fried okra because I had a batch left needing cooked from okra our neighbor gave us, and can’t fry for real while the baby is on me. Two casseroles of ground deer, green beans, rice, tomatoes and other goodies- one for tonight and another for the day after tomorrow. Mexican cornbread to go with our crockpot ham and beans tomorrow. Plenty of food, y’all! 🙂
Stress Cook and Eating
What do you do when you are stressed?
You know, I think my stress cooking not only is about working those frustrations out in a constructive way, but also ties into wanting comfort food, which for me is usually something homemade. Whatever it may be, my husband and children seem to enjoy this particular way I cope with frustration and aggravation! 🙂
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for a tasty celebration!
that includes jalapenos and other salsa friendly plants!
jalapeno flavored gum, though! What do y’all think??
to taste
like this one I love with cooking spray.
and dump the tomato sauce in one and the cheese sauce in the other.
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. Trust me, huge time saver!
is free with the 
Penny Pinching Peach 