Fresh & Healthy
Fresh & Healthy: Lunch Box Meals
Chalkboard notes to my sweet girls!
The girls lunches are all packed up and ready to be taken to school. Today Brina’s says “Have a super day!” and Karlie’s “Have a great day!” Even though it takes an extra minute or two of my time to write a note or draw a picture it is so worth it.
Lunch box goodies!
Lunch Box Meal:
- Chicken Salad Sandwich
- Fresh Broccoli
- Fresh Carrots
- Fresh Snow Peas
- Fresh Plum Slices
- Fruit & Grain Mixed Berry
- Madagascar Fruit Snacks
- Ritz Snack Mix or Animal Crackers
- Strawberry Yogurt
- Mini Oreo’s or Chocolate Cream Cookies
- Water Bottle with 3/4 Water and 1/4 Fruit Juice
Fresh veggies, Chicken Salad Sandwich, and more!
Love hearing the girls comments to the various notes and drawings. Sometimes after an exhausting day it is hard to come up with a creative message but it’s the thought that counts more than anything else, right. What creative notes, drawings, or messages do you put in your kids lunch?
Honey & Lemon Sore Throat Remedy
When you have a sore throat this is a great recipe to try. The girls love it and makes them feel better. A little bit of water, honey, and lemon helps coat the throat and soothes the pain.
Honey & Lemon Sore Throat Remedy:
- Hot Water
- 1 teaspoon Lemon Juice (or fresh squeezed lemons)
- 1 teaspoon Honey
Fill a mug 3/4 full of hot water. Add equal amounts of lemon and honey. Stir the lemon and honey until dissolved.
The warm water, honey, lemon are soothing for the throat. You can add a little more lemon and honey if you prefer.
Fresh & Healthy: Lunch Box Meals
Lunch is ready for the kids to take to school.
The girls love taking their lunch to school. I try to pack a protein, a veggie, fruit, drink, and snack. With one kid with food allergies she doesn’t have dairy, but the other chickie usually takes yogurt and cheese stick.
Lunch Box Meal:
- Tuna Fish Sandwich
- Fresh Apple Slices with Caramel
- Fresh Banana Pepper
- Dried Peaches
- Fruit Chew
- Mott’s Pomegranate Applesauce
- Animal Crackers
- Stila Blueberry Granola Bar
- Yogurt Tube
- Windmill Cookies (Egg, Diary, & Peanut FREE)!
- Cranberry Juice
The girls are pretty good about helping put together their lunches, however, on busy days I will do it for them. Do you pack your kids lunch everyday? What do you like to put in their lunch boxes?
Living on a Budget: Groceries $40 for 4
Groceries from Ingles & BiLo
It was a whirlwind of a week with the girls off two days from school, elections, and numerous unexpected activities. Despite the busyness I was determined to give you a grocery update this week (thanks for bearing with me). I even remembered to take pictures this week!
Jake has been in Charleston for some work meetings, so we are looking forward to spending time with him this weekend. I did manage to get a lot of projects done (just not necessarily things that I planned to do). Do you ever have weeks like that? Here is my weekly update on our Groceries $40 for 4.
Ingles Groceries:
- $13.04 at Ingles for 2 containers Fresh Strawberries (marked down), 1 bag Lenders Bagels (sale), 1 (5 pound) bag Fresh Grapefruit (sale), 1 bag Fresh Bananas (marked down), 1 container Fresh Potatoes (marked down), 2 loaves Laura Lynn Bread (sale), 1 bag Fresh Spinach (marked down). (Everything I purchased at Ingles was either on sale or marked down or I had a coupon. All the produce was marked down some as low as 99 cents as you can see from the bright green stickers.)
BiLo Groceries:
- $2.48 at BiLo for 1 container Southern Home Butter Spread (This was on sale and it is about the only reasonable priced butter that we have found that is made out of soy instead of dairy since we have a family member not eating dairy right now. I also received an additional 5 cent discount for bringing my own reusable bag.)
Groceries from KMart
KMart Groceries:
- $6.00 at KMart for 6 big bags Smart Sense Wavy Potato Chips (I cannot remember the last time I found plain potato chips on sale for $1.00 recently. With all the upcoming events and activities these will come in really handy! Actually, I purchased them on Thursday and that same evening I used up one bag when a group of friends came over at last minute.)
This week I spent $21.52 on groceries. I went under on the budget this week, YAY!!! I was happy to get some produce deals and stock back up on a few items we were needing to replenish in our fridge and pantry. Hopefully next week we can come under budget and November will be a better month for us!
It is my goal to give you regular updates on this budget section so you can celebrate the good weeks with me and thump me on the bad weeks! As always you are welcomed to join the journey with me. I would love to hear your story and how you are doing too. The purpose of our family doing this it to watch our grocery spending while allowing us to feed our family, enjoy life, share with others, and yet stay on track with our budget.
Living on a Budget is a series of ways our family uses a budget to help keep us accountable with our finances. Life doesn’t always go as planned. We have used some of the ideas I will be sharing for years while others are ones we are just starting to implement as we continue finding ways to be creative and have fun with what we have been given. Having a plan in place allows us the freedom to be smart with what we have been given, get more creative when it is a tight (week, month, year or a season) and when necessary live a much more simplified life. A budget helps us stay on track so we have more opportunities to enjoy the many blessings we have been given as well as share what we have with others. There is so much more to life than having all the stuff. We may not have the newest or greatest items in our house, we drive used cars, and wear hand-me-down clothing…..however, if our family is taken care of and have love for each other and others we have more than all the riches in the world.
Family Recipe: Bierocks
You can pack your bierocks with more meat less bread if you want! I usually do a mix of both (more bread and more meat) so people can choose what they want to eat. This one is a picture of a more bread.
My Grandma taught me how to make this delicious recipe that is basically a dinner roll stuffed with hamburger, sauerkraut, and cheese called Bierocks (although the first half of the word is pronounced like the word “beer” it does not contain any actual beer). Even though the combination sounds a little interesting it really tastes amazing! I am not sure where the recipe actually originated from but I do have family from Czechoslovakia so maybe that area. I remember as a kid helping my Grandma make this recipe and have great memories of spending time together talking while cooking for the harvest crew.
Fresh out of the oven and ready to be eaten!
Every once in awhile I like to make up a big batch of Bierocks so we can eat some right away and the rest I like to stick in the freezer to pull out on those busy days for a quick meal. I have used a number of different bread recipes to make Bierocks and they all have turned out well. Today I will share the latest bread version I made earlier this week using Money Saving Mom’s Freezer-Friendly Pizza Dough. We have made this pizza dough so many times and love it, so we figured why not try using it to make Bierocks!
Dinners ready…….Bierocks…..come and get it!
Bierocks:
- DOUGH
- 2 cups warm water (105 to 115 degrees F.)
- 2 Tablespoons active dry yeast
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 4 Tablespoons oil (vegetable, Canola, or olive oil)
- 5 cups flour (can use all whole-wheat, half white/half whole-wheat, or all white)
Pour the warm water into a bowl and sprinkle the yeast over it. Stir to dissolve.
Add the remaining ingredients and mix. Put onto a floured surface and knead dough for two to five minutes until smooth and no longer sticky. Take the kneaded dough and roll out.
Note: I used this recipe but split the dough into thirds, two of the pieces I wrapped and put in the freezer for future pizzas or other recipes and used the remaining third to make the Bierocks. I love that I get the base to 3 meals out of 1 pizza dough mixture! 🙂
- FILLING:
- 2 pounds Ground Beef
- 1/3 Onion (diced)
- 2 teaspoons Salt
- 1 teaspoon Pepper
- 2 cans Sauerkraut
- 1 cup shredded Cheddar Cheese (or mixed cheese)
Brown beef with onion and seasoned with salt and pepper. Drain any excess oil off the meat. Mix the sauerkraut into the meat and cook on medium for 2 to 4 minutes until the sauerkraut is mixed well.
Cut the dough 3 to 6 inch circles (depending on the size you want it to be). Place 1 ice cream scoop (or 1/4 to 1/2 cup) of meat filling onto each circle. Sprinkle about a teaspoon of cheese over the top of the meat. Bring the four corners up over the filling and pinch together to seal on the bottom. Repeat with remaining dough and filling. Place seam down on greased baking sheets. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top of the bierocks.
Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes or until the dough starts turning a golden brown color. You can rub a little bit of butter over the tops of the bierocks immediately after taking them out of the oven for additional flavor and color if you want. Makes approximately 24 Bierocks
You can eat these plain or (my favorite) with a touch of ketchup. Any leftover Bierocks after eating them for dinner are wrapped individually and put in a freezer ziplock so we can easily pull one, two or more out at a time, stick them in the microwave (or toaster oven) and have a meal ready in minutes.
Ground hamburger and sauerkraut mixture
Bierocks stuffed and ready to be baked
Cheese sprinkled over the top of some of the Bierocks (we like the cheese inside and out but it is optional). I made some with cheese and some without since we have a family member who cannot have dairy.
Picture of the Bierocks without cheese!
Fresh & Healthy: Lunch Box Meals
Karlie and Brina’s school lunches are ready to go!
Some days it is hard to get everything done. I am a person who likes to have things done in a timely manner and on schedule, however, you have those days….weeks…..that just don’t happen the way they are planned. Thankfully, I have spent time on the weekend prepping for lunches so usually it doesn’t take too long to put them together!
Lunch Box Meal:
- Hot Dog Slices
- Fresh Apple Slices
- Fresh Carrots with Hummus
- Peanut Butter Crackers or Teddy Grahams
- Strawberry Yogurt
- Foot Long Strawberry
- Mixed Flavored Mini Marshmallows
- Capri Sun Sunrise Juice Bag
Fresh apple slices, carrots & hummus and more!
I am thankful the girls enjoy eating leftovers and taking their lunches to school. I like knowing what they ate for lunch. Plus Karlie’s teacher lets any kids that have a lunch or brought a snack eat something about mid-morning to keep everyone going.
Fresh & Healthy: Lunch Box Meals
Lunch is ready to go!
The best part about Holidays is you get a lot of fun food to eat. On this particular day the girls got to take a rice krispie treat “cat” with the first letter of their name on it. When Grandma Penny was visiting she made these cute cats for the girls. They were super excited to see them in their lunch bags.
Lunch Box Meal:
- Hot Japanese Beef, Vegetables & Rice (in the thermos)
- Fresh Fruit Salad or Fresh Fruit Salad with Creamy Sauce
- Fresh Cucumbers
- Sugar Free Cherry Jello
- Cashews
- Apple Peel Confetti Crisps
- Halloween Cat Rice Krispie Treat with initial of their first name
- Corn or Bugle Chips
- Ritz Bits Cheese Crackers or Kellogg’s Pop Tarts Mini Crisps
- Reduced Sugar Grape Hugs Drink
Japanese food, Halloween rice krispie treat, fresh fruit salad and more!!!!
I always love sticking in a surprise for the girls every once in awhile. Sometimes they see it before lunch but several times they don’t open their bags until at school. One day I was able to go to lunch with them and watch their faces when they pulled out the special treat (a new container with their name on it). It made my day seeing the thrilled looks on their faces when they discovered their new container. Although it was something simple and easy it really was special to them!
Recipe: 3 Easy Seasoned Pumpkin Seed Recipes
Every Fall our family likes to pick up a couple pumpkins to carve. One of our favorite parts about carving and enjoying some time together as a family is making toasted pumpkin seeds. This year was even more special because Grandma Penny and Great Grandma Willa were here to join in the festivities with the girls.
We did 3 different seasoned pumpkin seed recipes this year. The two that we did last year were such a huge hit that we did them again plus added one more. To make it easier on you I have all three recipes in this post.
Seasoned Salt Pumpkin Seeds
- 2 c pumpkin seeds
- 2 T butter
- Sprinkle Seasoned Salt (or substitute a 1/2 package ranch package mix)
Rinse the pumpkin seeds. Saute pumpkin seeds in the butter for about 5 minutes (until they start to turn brown). Sprinkle the Seasoned Salt on the seeds. Spread seeds into a shallow baking pan and baked at 250 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes or until crispy. Stirring every 10 minutes.
Dill Ranch Pumpkin Seeds
- 2 c pumpkin seeds
- 2 T butter
- 1/2 package Hidden Valley Dill Ranch Mix
Rinse the pumpkin seeds. Saute pumpkin seeds in the butter for about 5 minutes (until they start to turn brown). Sprinkle half the pack of Hidden Valley Dill Ranch Mix (or any flavor of Ranch mix) on the seeds. Spread seeds into a shallow baking pan and baked at 250 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes or until crispy. Stirring every 10 minutes.
Cinnamon Apple Cider Pumpkin Seeds
The cinnamon apple cider pumpkin seed recipe was adapted from the recipe My Retro Kitchen shared on her blog. I removed the nutmeg from the recipe but otherwise it is the same. These seeds came out with a perfect mix of sweetness. The other two recipes were more the salty flavors so adding this sweet one was awesome compliment to the three. I want to make them again because mine came out a little oily (maybe they needed to cook longer or I had too much butter?). These were a hit with family and friends, perfect for the Fall festivities!
- 2 cups pumpkin seeds, cleaned and rinsed
- 1 1/2 cups apple cider
- 1 1/2 tablespoons melted butter OR olive oil
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Pour the apple cider in a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil. Add the pumpkin seeds and boil on medium heat for 10 minutes. Drain the seeds and pour them in a large mixing bowl.
Pour the melted butter or olive oil into the bowl, along with the salt, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Mix well to coat and spread pumpkin seed in a single layer onto jelly roll pan or a baking sheet. Bake for 1 hour, stirring them them every 10 minutes, until butter topping has dried and the pumpkin seeds are golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool and dry-out the rest of the way on the cookie sheet on top of the stove. Store in an air-tight container.After cleaning out our pumpkins we had a little over 6 cups of pumpkin seeds so we decided it up three ways and made three different recipes. These seeds were a hit with our family and friends. The girls had a blast cleaning and carving their pumpkins!
Fresh & Healthy: Lunch Box Meals
Karlie is ready to pack up her lunch!
I found fresh strawberries marked down at the grocery store last week and after picking out 1 bad strawberry the rest were perfect. The girls were excited to get strawberries in their lunch this week for their fruit. 🙂
Lunch Box Meal:
- Peanut Butter & Jelly or Almond Butter & Jelly Sandwiches
- Fresh Strawberries
- Fresh Carrots
- Cashews or Peanuts
- Strawberry Yogurt
- Ritz Cheese Bits or Elf Grahams
- Bugles or Corn Chips
- Whole Grain Crackers
- Cherry Kool-Aid Jammers or Yahoo Chocolate Milk
Fresh strawberries, carrots and more!
The girls are always excited to help with their lunches and they do a great job. This year we have a lot of extra activities going on after school so it has been hard to get all the activities, homework, dinner, baths, lunches made, and everything else done after school so I have been pitching in to help them when it is getting too close to bed time. If they don’t get a chance to pack their lunches before beds they are always eager to find out what is in them. Many times I catch them sneaking a glance in their lunches at breakfast or on the way to school.
Recipe: Carmel Apple Dip
Are you looking for a simple and tasty apple appetizer? All you have to do is wash the apples. Core out the middle of one of the apples. Put 1 tablespoon of lemon juice in the middle and swish it around making sure the entire inside of the apple has been coasted with lemon juice (the lemon juice helps prevent the apple from browning). Pour caramel dip in the center of the apple and serve with fresh apple slices.
You can either buy the already made caramel dip or melt caramels according to the package directions. Make sure the caramel is cool before pouring it into the apple “serving” bowl. This recipe is simple, easy, and delicious. A perfect Fall treat to share with family and friends!