Saving Families Money Since 2007
Today’s question is from Alicia:
My family consists of three boys, my husband, and myself. With the cost of food rising, I have let my meat stockpile diminish. I was wondering if your readers have any budget-friendly recipes for meatless or inexpensive recipes that will satisfy and fill the bellies of a house full of meat-eating males!? -Alicia
Do you have a question you’d like to ask Money Saving Mom® readers? Read the submission guidelines and submit it here.
This is one of our go-to meals. It is so, so easy and delicious.
You could skip the freezing part altogether and just make it the day of, but some times it’s nice to pull a bag out of the freezer, dump it into a pan or crock pot and dinner is done.
It’s a great summer recipe because you can grill it or cook it in the crock pot and not heat up your kitchen at all. We love it served over rice or sliced and served on a big salad.
While I was making the Italian Chicken on one end of the table, the above picture is what was happening at the other end of the kitchen table. Seeing my husband so intently working with Silas on his preschool and Silas just soaking it up melts my heart.
{My husband has been doing one or two of each of the children’s homeschooling subjects with them each evening after he comes home from work. It was his idea — and the children love it!}
{I think one of the reasons they enjoy it is because Daddy’s homeschooling often involves snacks, too. ;)}
To freeze: Put frozen chicken breasts in a freezer bag. Pour the Italian dressing over the chicken. Squeeze the air out of the bag and seal it up. Freeze.
To thaw and bake:
This is delicious served over rice with steamed vegetables on the side. Serves 4-6.
*Want to change things up a bit? You can also use barbecue sauce or any other favorite salad dressing. Let us know if your family has a favorite variation of this recipe!
Did you do any freezer cooking today? If so, I’d love to see the results of your efforts! Link up your blog posts below or tell us about your success in the comments.
SewCraftCreate.com shows you how to make this adorable sunburst flower headband.
Do you have a fun and frugal DIY idea to share? I’d love to hear about it! Read the submission guidelines and submit it here.
Have extra books around your home that you no longer need or use? Definitely check Cash4Books.net, MyBookBuyer.com, and Amazon’s Trade-In Program to see how much they would pay you for selling your books to them.
Cash4Books is also offering a 15% bonus on your buyback total through June 8, 2012. All you have to do to get the bonus is use bonus code SecretStash at checkout and they’ll automatically give you the 15% bonus when they send your payment.
If you decide to sell your books to Cash4Books, you can print out a free shipping label so that there is no cost to you to ship the book. After your books are received, inspected and marked as ‘processed’, payment will be made within three business days. You can choose to be paid via Paypal or check.
If your books aren’t worth much, you might also consider listing them on PaperBackSwap so that you can swap them for books you are interested in reading.
Related posts:
Make Money Selling Books With MyBookBuyer.com
Earn Amazon Credit For Used Books Through Amazon’s Trade-In Program
(Note: Some of the links in this post are my referral links. Read our disclosure policy here.)
Can you believe we’ve made it to the last week of freezer cooking? My freezer is getting so stocked and it has been wonderful.
With Memorial Day weekend coming up, I’m spacing out the recipes a bit more this week to give everyone a little bit more time to play along (should you so choose) and to also give myself the flexibility to not blog much on Monday. 🙂
My apologies in advance that all but one of these recipes has chocolate in it. What can I say? “Dessert” and “snack” is pretty much synonymous with “chocolate” at our house. 🙂 And no day is complete without at at least a little bit of chocolate!
Here’s this week’s list of Snack and Dessert Recipes I’ll be making to stick in the freezer along with a grocery list (let me know if you see any mistakes on amounts needed):
Wednesday — One batch of Whole-Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Thursday — Double batch of Easy Morning Glory Muffins {I’ll share my “health-i-fied” version of this recipe on Thursday.}
Friday — Double batch of No Bake Energy Bites
Tuesday — One batch of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Wednesday – Double batch of Chocolate Banana Bread
(I rounded up on the amounts needed, just to be safe. You probably have many of these items already on hand. You’ll want to double-check that you have the correct amounts, though.)
16 eggs
8 cups sugar (or raw sugar)
3/4 cup brown sugar (or raw sugar)
6 cups rolled oats
1 1/3 cups peanut butter (or other nut butter)
1 (16 oz.) can pureed pumpkin
3 1/2 cups oil
12 cups flour
3 packages chocolate chips
2/3 cup honey
3 cup coconut flakes (For No Bake Energy Bites or Easy Morning Glory Muffins — could substitute something else if your family doesn’t like coconut.)
1 cup flaxseed (For No Bake Energy Bites — could substitute wheat germ or something for this.)
4 cups shredded carrots
1 cup raisins
6 bananas
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
2 apples
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 sticks butter
Vanilla
Salt
Baking Soda
Baking Powder
Cinnamon
Foil
Plastic Wrap
8-12 large ziptop freezer bags
Something to label packages with (marker to write on bags, labels, and/or tape)
Click on the “Print This” tab at the top of the list to generate a printer-friendly list. (If you’re reading via email or a feed reader, you may need to click through to the post to print the list.)
Need another weeknight staple to add to your meal planning rotation? This easy casserole is it. Plus, you can easily double or triple the recipe as it freezes wonderfully!
Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole is delicious, filling, frugal, and freezer-friendly!
It’s the perfect family-friendly meal for busy weeknights when you just want to defrost something and bake it ASAP.
And thanks to the delicious cheesy sauce, your kids probably won’t even complain about eating their broccoli!
NOTE: This recipe makes 4 freezer bags worth of casserole — or roughly around 15-20 servings as each freezer bag serves 4-5 people.
This casserole is not an exact science by any means — please feel free to mix up the ingredients to fit your family’s taste preferences or whatever you already have in the house.
Here are a few ideas to get you thinking:
1. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well.
2. Divide mixture into 4 zip-top freezer bags. Label and seal them tightly.
3. Freeze the bags flat.
4. TO COOK: Thaw one bag overnight (or for 8 hours) in the refrigerator.
5. Dump the contents of the bag into a greased casserole dish (one bag fills an 8×8″ pan; two bags fills a 9×13″ pan).
6. Sprinkle with additional shredded cheese, if desired.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, or until heated through and bubbly.
If you’re planning to make a big batch of this casserole for the freezer, you’ll want to make sure you have plenty of large mixing bowls handy — as well as a variety of freezer containers or bags.
Also, make sure all the ingredients are fully cooked before adding them to the casserole — you don’t want to be surprised by raw chicken or crunchy rice when it’s time for dinner!
Remember to grease whatever baking pan you use to cook the casserole as this recipe can be a bit sticky.
And feel free to let your kids help — this is a great recipe to let them dump and mix!
This meal technically contains all your food groups, so if you’re short on time, you don’t really need anything extra… however, here are a few serving suggestions our family enjoys.
Make sure to share and save it on your favorite platform below!
Did you do any freezer cooking over the past two days? If so, I’d love to see the results of your efforts! Link up your blog posts below or tell us about your success in the comments.
Meal time just got so much easier!
So, I kinda bombed last week… I had this lingering sinus infection most of the week and I was highly unmotivated as a result. I’m trying to dose up on a lot of Vitamin C and other things to boost my immune system — and trying not to get too discouraged that it is hanging on for so long.
The good news is that I did chip away at almost all the goals on the list, but I only completely accomplished three of them. By the way, I really, really tried to get 7.5 hour of sleep every night, but all the congestion made sleeping difficult and uncomfortable. Which, of course, doesn’t exactly lend itself to helping me get better — it’s kind of a vicious cycle!
Here’s to hoping this week is a better week — and that maybe I can find some relief from the sinus infection. {I’m *this* close to breaking down and trying a neti-pot. But it just weirds me out so much that I’ve not worked up the nerve yet! Yes, you can tell me I’m crazy! :)}
Last week’s goals:
Family/Mothering Goals
1. Finish reading Quest for Truth:Taken and Spy for the Night Riders aloud to the children.
2. Start our summer schedule.
3. Write a love note to Jesse.Personal Goals
4. Finish reading Escape from Saddam. Start The Referral Engine.
5. Run at least five times.
6. Listen to 2 hours of The Little Big Things.
7. Sleep for at least 7.5 hours every night.
Home Management
8. Follow my Freezer Cooking plan and blog about it.9. Make Homemade English Muffins.
Business Goals
10. Write one article for another site.
This week’s goals {pretty much a repeat!}:
Family/Mothering Goals
1. Finish reading Quest for Truth:Taken and Spy for the Night Riders aloud to the children.
2. Go to a baseball game and musical production as a family.
3. Write a love note to Jesse.
Personal Goals
4. Finish reading Escape from Saddam. Start The Referral Engine.
5. Run at least five times.
6. Listen to 2 hours of The Little Big Things.
7. Sleep for at least 7.5 hours every night.
Home Management
8. Follow my Freezer Cooking plan and blog about it.
9. Make Homemade English Muffins.
Business Goals
10. Write one article for another site.
How did you do on last week’s goals? What are your goals for this week? I’d love to have you share your progress on last week’s goals and your goals for this coming week in the comments. Of, if you’ve blogged about it, leave your direct link below. Let’s cheer each other on to live purposeful and productive lives!
You can download a free customizable weekly goal-planning sheet here.
Easy Italian Breadsticks (made in the bread machine!)
Breakfasts
Granola bars
Cereal
Baked Oatmeal (from the freezer)
Scrambled eggs, Cinnamon Roll Biscuits, fruit salad
Banana Split Pancakes
Omelets in a Muffin Tin, Fruit
Homemade English Muffins, scrambled eggs, fruitLunches
Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches from the freezer
Lunch with friends
Leftovers x 2
Cheese Quesadillas, carrots, fruit
Salad, Hard-boiled eggs, toast, fruit
Snack-y lunchSnacks
Fruit/veggies
Popcorn
Chocolate Waffle Ice Cream Sandwiches
Better for You Banana BreadDinners
Dinner with extended family
Italian Chicken, Bread Machine Buttery Rolls, steamed veggies, fruit
Southwest Rollups from the freezer, steamed veggies, sliced oranges & apples
Homemade Pizza, tossed salad, fruit salad
Dinner out
Ham & Cheese Pockets from the freezer, fruit salad, steamed veggies
Lasagna Casserole, Easy Italian Breadsticks, steamed broccoli, fruit
What’s on your menu this week? Share details and/or your link to your menu plan in the comments.
Guest post from Jackie of Mom on a Mission
Our family loves the great outdoors! Three years ago we bought a pop-up camper through Craigslist to make lasting family memories. My husband bought it off season and got it way below book value.
A year later we began to look for a camper with a bathroom, knowing we were having a little one on the way. Our friend found a used hybrid Jay Feather during the winter — we got a great price and begin to look for ways to save at the campground before the Spring.
Here are just a few of the ways we came up with:
Good Sam RV Club and Passport America both offer discounts through a reasonable membership fee. Passport offers a whopping 50% off nationwide participating campgrounds. KOA offers discounts on special weekends. We camp at KOA when they run buy one get one free nights.
Some campgrounds offer free nights. For instance, Adventure Bound in Gatlinburg, TN offers all military, police, fire, nurses, EMT and teachers free camping for two nights on a designated weekend of the year. KOA offers buy one night, get one free on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day weekends.
Google “free camping”, “discount camping” and “complimentary camping” to see if there are any local campground deals in your area.
We bought season passes at Dollywood in Tennessee this year so we will coincide our camping trips with our trips to Dollywood and Spash Country, use our Passport America discount, and save money on food by eating in our camper.
We live in a gorgeous area where there are plenty of hiking trails, natural water falls, slides, fishing, kayaking, and natural beauty. Different areas offer museums, parks, playgrounds, and more.
Research your camping area and look for discounts to those places as well. Groupon and Living Social sometimes offer half price tickets to different attractions.
You would think in the great outdoors, you could easily scrounge up something tasty. This is true when you only have one meal to plan, but most mommas would agree a healthy weekend requires some planning ahead to avoid last-minute purchases from the overpriced camp store.
This momma plans a camping menu just like our home menu — complete with breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner. I like to write it down and make as much as possible ahead of time. Salads, snacks, and fresh veggies can easily be stored in ziptop bags to fit inside a compact camper fridge or cooler.
I use a plastic shoe box to store items such as marinated chicken and homemade flatbreads for grilled pizza and/or gyros.
I like to make a healthy homemade trail mix with nuts as a protein snack. I often make freezer breakfast burritos or breakfast bagel bites for easier clean up in the camper. A fresh fruit basket on the table is a perfect way to implement grab-and-go for the kids.
Just like Crystal, I’m an avid freezer cook and I pack a cooler of freezer goodies right before we head out.
Many times camping can be just as costly as a motel visit. However, when you take these money saving ideas into consideration, you may find camping a frugal, family fun adventure like we do!
Jackie Brown is a Mom on a Mission, freezer cooking for her family while serving the poor and needy in her community.
Guest post by Meg from Saving On The Essentials
Moving can be a stressful time. Between packing your current house, coordinating schedules with those helping you move, and unpacking, things can quickly get stressful.
As if that isn’t enough to take care of, you also have to keep in mind the cost of moving: renting versus borrowing trucks, the cost of boxes, tape, and packaging material for fragile items, and much more.
Here are a few tips I have put into action during our last two moves to help keep our moving costs minimum:
My husband and I moved twice in a six month period. The first time was only a few blocks so we were able to use my brother in law’s truck and as well as our our vehicles to move our entire house.
However, during our second move, we moved out of state. We knew that we would need to rent a truck in order to move our house in one trip. As we began to research prices, we found a wide range and were shocked at how much it costs to rent a moving truck!
Make sure to compare prices in order to get the best bang for your buck. Read all the fine print to see who charges the most for miles traveled over the set limit, late fees, and any other hidden fees.
We were surprised to be charged a $5 Environmental Fee from our truck rental because the company uses an environmentally friendly soap when washing their vehicles.
When we reserved our moving van, we had the option of purchasing moving supplies. These came to a whopping total of $100! Needless to say, we opted for a more affordable (free) option.
We were blessed to receive a lot of our moving boxes from my husbands workplace, but we also were able to get them from our local grocery stores, Craigslist, family, friends, and neighbors.
Use your wash clothes, towels, newspapers, expired coupons, and other items you have on hand to protect your breakable items. Clothes and towels are going to take up space when you box them to move anyway so make sure to put them to good use during your move!
When our moving day arrived I was ill prepared to feed those who so generously offered to help us move. Due to the fact that we were moving and all of our pots, pans, plates, silverware, and glasses were loaded into the moving van, we opted to splurge for a pizza lunch as a way to thank our family and friends for their help during our move. Easy prep and clean up is a must!
Using these simple money-saving tips, we were able to keep our moving expenses to a minimum.
Meg Kavanaugh is an Arkansas native married to her best friend, Andrew. When she isn’t bargain hunting she spends her spare time with family, reading, or photographing God’s beautiful creation! She shares her love for frugal living and money saving tips over at Saving On The Essentials.
A testimony by Kate from San Diego Deals and Steals
In 2011, we completed our second adoption process – this time completely debt free! One of the ways we did this was by praying my husband’s 99 Camry (with over 250,000 miles and a cracked radiator) would last just a bit longer.
Since we were fundraising for our adoption, we didn’t want to spend any extra on anything unless we absolutely had to. However, as soon as we completed our adoption, our next financial move was to save for a slight upgrade to his car.
We put the money we had been putting in our “adoption fund” into the “newish car fund”. Here are some of the ways we saved:
It all added up and we saved just over $6,000 without touching our emergency fund!
Our goal was to spend less than $6000 and not include the money we would make from our old car sale. We found a 2004 VW Passat with a little over 100,000 miles (that may seem like an old car to some – but it was dreamy for us!) and purchased it for just under $5,500.
Thank goodness he holds none of his self-worth in what he drives! We have lots of friends with much nicer cars, but he doesn’t care. He says, “Ours is paid for!” (Love him for that).
His new car also gets better gas mileage so he will save about $1 each day on his 40+ mile commute. That is going to help as we continue to work on our Baby Steps. We also sold our car (with full disclosure) for $1,700 the very low blue book value – but we wanted to be honest with our sale.
I know many people would have thought nothing of financing a $20,000 car with that $6,000 down. Instead, we just bought a less expensive car and put the money leftover (the extra $500 from our car savings and the $1,700 from the sale of his old car) into our Emergency Fund savings in the bank.
Kate lives in San Diego CA with her husband Harry, and kids, Josie (homemade), Silas (handpicked from Russia), and Charlotte (handpicked domestically). She is passionate about adoption and having fun in San Diego frugally. You can see more at San Diego Deals and Steals where she blogs about both.
Have you saved up and paid cash for something — large or small? Submit your story for possible publication here.
Homemade pizza is such a family-friendly meal… and extra delicious with a homemade crust. This recipe is super easy (and freezer-friendly!)
This pizza crust recipe has been my go-to recipe for years. It’s so easy to make — and it’s really hard to ruin. In fact, I’ve made it dozens upon dozens of times and I don’t think I’ve ever messed it up.
That’s saying a lot coming from someone like me, who can even ruin simple recipes like Reese’s Peanut Butter Bars.
Last year, I experimented with freezing the pizza dough — to make it even quicker to pull off Homemade Pizza for dinner.
While I still think fresh is best, the frozen dough is almost as good — and it’s much less expensive than ordering pizza for dinner! 🙂
1. Pour warm water into a large bowl and sprinkle the yeast over it. Stir to dissolve.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and mix.
3. Dump onto a floured surface and knead dough for 3-5 minutes, or until smooth and no longer sticky.
4. Cut the lump of dough in half and roll out onto 2 greased pizza pans OR, put each half of dough into an airtight freezer bag and freeze for 4-6 weeks.
5. To Bake with Fresh dough: Add pizza toppings of your choice. Bake at 500ºF for around 10 minutes (until the crust looks crispy and lightly browned).
6. To Bake from Frozen dough: Place frozen dough in a greased bowl, cover with a damp towel, and thaw at room temperature for at least 3-4 hours. Roll out and shape onto a greased pizza pan. Add pizza toppings of your choice. Bake at 500ºF for around 10 minutes (until the crust looks crispy and lightly browned).
The best way to freeze this homemade pizza dough is to divide the dough ball into 2 portions and place each into a gallon-size zip top freezer bag. Squeeze the air out, label, and freeze for 4-6 weeks.
I’ve found it often works best to let the dough cool in the refrigerator (in the zip top bags) before freezing it. The dough will continue to rise in the fridge, so you may need to squeeze the air out of the bag a couple of times.
You’ll want to plan ahead about 5 hours when using frozen pizza dough — as that’s about how long it takes to defrost, top, and bake.
1. Place frozen dough in a greased bowl and thaw at room temperature for at least 3-4 hours.
2. Roll out defrosted dough and shape onto a greased pizza pan.
3. Add pizza toppings of your choice.
4. Bake at 500ºF for around 10 minutes (until the crust looks crispy and lightly browned).
Nope! Simply defrosted the dough enough so you can roll it out, then top and bake!
Make sure to share and save it on your favorite platform below!
Done-For-You Dinner Recipes With Simple Ingredients and a Grocery Shopping List!
Need some freezer cooking inspiration? Head on over to Finding Hope to read about how Kayse and Bethany made 112 lunches in 7 hours!
If you missed Parts 1-3, be sure to read them here.
If you are feeling burned out, step back and evaluate your life. How much of the time are you spending doing things that drain you and how often are you doing things that energize you?
If your answer to this question is that you’re doing little that energizes you, you may have just found the solution to overcoming burnout.
Instead of thinking of all the things you have to do or the things you should do, clear your mind for 10 or 15 minutes and just make a list of things you love to do. What excites you, makes you feel alive, refreshes you, and recharges your batteries?
Maybe it’s gardening, having lunch with a friend, going to garage sales, painting, scrapbooking, swimming, writing, or browsing books at a bookstore. Whatever comes to your mind as something you love to do, write it down.
Take your list and schedule in at least one or two things every week that you love to do. Not only does this give you something to look forward to every week, but it prevents you from becoming too worn down. If every few days — or at least once a week — you’re doing something that recharges you, you’re going to be less apt to ever feel completely burnt out because you’re regularly replenishing your energy stores.
When I did this exercise, it was so helpful for me. I realized that, while I love spending time with other people, I’m most refreshed with quiet. Going and doing and being with people exhausts me after awhile.
So, in order to recharge my batteries, I need time away — going to a coffeeshop and writing for a few hours, curling up with a good book for an hour, or going grocery shopping by myself.
Because I know this about myself, I intentionally carve out at least an hour or two of quiet each week, if at all possible. The stillness — without people and projects and pressing to-do’s — re-energizes me and makes me much more productive and passionate about life.
What If You Can’t Think of Anything You Love To Do?
When I was deep in the midst of postpartum depression, someone encouraged me to try and do something fun every single day. The problem was, I couldn’t come up with a single thing I wanted to do. Nothing sounded fun, interesting, exciting, or even appealing to me. And that was a warning sign that I needed to get help — and to get it quickly.
If you’re feeling this way, please don’t take it lightly. Like me, you may be suffering from something more than just physical exhaustion or fatigue.
Think you might be interested in trying your hand at freezer cooking? Here are some suggestions for starting off successfully:
If you’ve never done any freezer cooking before, I’d recommend starting with no more than two recipes at first. You’re probably capable of much more, but start small and gradually work up from there.
If you want to love the recipes you stick in the freezer, make sure you pick recipes you already know your family loves. There will be time for experimenting later, but wait until you feel really confident with freezer cooking before you branch out and try a bunch of new recipes.
Not sure your favorite recipe will freeze well? Check my list of what freezes well in my free Freezer Cooking ebook.
Set aside sometime during the week or on the weekend when you have a free hour and plan to do your cooking then. Make sure that you have a solid hour or more set aside for the cooking so that you’re not in a rush. Rushing around trying to get things done before you have to go somewhere only sets you up for failure.
If you have young children, make sure you have a plan for what they’ll be doing while you’re cooking, too. The last thing you need is to have your first freezer cooking experience be an exercise in frustration due to constant interruptions from needy little people.
Afternoon naptime might be the best time to do your freezer cooking. Or, you could do it on the weekends when daddy or grandma can watch the children. If neither one of those are an option, consider putting together some Busy Bags or Day of the Week tubs to be brought out only during freezer cooking times.
Freezer-Friendly Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies
Want to ruin your yummy food? Don’t let it cool, don’t wrap it well, and don’t package it up in an airtight manner. All three of these things almost guarantee that your foods will develop freezer burn.
It’s wonderful to have food at-the-ready in the freezer, but it does you no good if you don’t actually use it. Make sure to eat it within 2-3 months, if not before.
I always consult my freezer when planning our weekly menu and incorporating some of the meals — especially those that need to be used up soon — into our weekly menu.
Need some tried and true freezer recipes for your first freezer cooking experiment? Here are a few of our most-loved freezer cooking recipes:
::Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
::Banana Bread
::Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
::Brown Bag Burritos
::Ham & Cheese Pockets
::World’s Easiest Marinated Chicken
::And don’t forget to check out all of my posts so far in the 4 Weeks to Fill Your Freezer series.