Eating well on a budget... cheap meals;)

Anyone who knows me, knows that I LOVE to cook! I definitely live out my New Orleans heritage in the kitchen. I enjoy trying new recipes, tweaking recipes, and creating my own new concoctions.

As a minister's wife, our family has almost always been on a budget that limits extravagant meals. I have enjoyed cooking cost effective meals, cooking to freeze meals, and even teaching cooking classes to newly married students who are trying to live on the budget of a college student. However, you don't really learn something until your life requires that skill. Recently, with the addition of our third son, a move and job change, as well as saving for our adoption of a baby from Ethiopia, our budget has been quite tight. I have learned and created a few recipes that help feed my boys healthy options while not breaking the bank. 

potato bean soup

*Disclaimer: many of these recipes contain beans... they're hearty, healthy, and cheap!

Ham and beans... this is recipe takes all of 5 minutes to throw in a crock pot, and is great for using up leftover deli ham. I have used canned beans instead of dry beans, and just half the amount of water. Serve with corn bread for an incredible and easy meal!

Red beans and rice with a twist (thankful for Pinterest). It's actually really good without the lime. You might ask whether or not these recipes are kid friendly... my 4 year old has told me he would like to eat this red beans and rice everyday!! He loves it!

Potato bean soup is my own concoction. I used my Mom's standard potato soup recipe and tweaked it quite a bit.

Potatoes, green beans & ham is a super EASY crock pot recipe I found on Pinterest. It's a bag of frozen green beans, potatoes, ham (I use leftover ham from sandwiches), an onion, and chicken broth. Really that's it! I serve this with cornbread and enjoy!

Chicken tetrazinni is an easy kid friendly pasta recipe that can utilize leftover chicken, serve many, and freeze well.

Many of these recipes go great with a loaf of bread. Blog coming soon about my love for my bread machine... including a few great money saving dough recipes!

Cooking like Mommy!

When I was a little girl, my sister and I enjoyed pulling up chairs next to Mom while she cooked. We wanted to learn all of her incredible New Orleans recipes (crawfish etouffee, stuffed crabs, shrimp alfredo, seafood gumbo) as well as lick the beaters or spoon of anything sweet that was baking in our Louisiana kitchen. Even though we now live in Arkansas, I definitely carry out my New Orleans heritage in the kitchen! My boys love to help me in the kitchen when making bread, cakes and cookies! We also enjoy many picnics with their pretend food.

Recently I found an idea on Pinterest that combined the two activities... pretend cooking with real food! What an incredibly fun idea!!

I raided my pantry and spice cabinet and filled up a muffin pan with their "ingredients".

potatoes, pasta shapes, nuts, beans, rice, sesame seeds, rosemary, salt/sugar, oats, coffee beans

I also gave the boys a ball of flour & water for dough 

My little chefs hard at work!!

 The boys had fun measuring with measuring spoons, mixing and stirring up their own concoctions! 

The final result!!
I actually had to explain to them why we would not eat it... they begged to try it!!! 

Linking up with Let's Hear it For the Boys!!

My boys and their cool tricks!

As a mom of 3 boys, I hear this phrase very often... "Mom, watch this cool trick!!" 

Here are a few of our latest "tricks";)

Evan latest trick... climbing door frames!

My blue eyed babe is learning how to eat!

Samuel loves eating his avocado/banana combo in the mesh feeder

It's dinosaur week! Here's Ben's shirt to celebrate this week:)
Check out my Etsy shop for more cute shirts!

They boys enjoy playing cards with Daddy!
Ben's fav is UNO, Evan's fav is War.

The boys love to build massive Thomas the Train tracks...
our train table is too small to hold their masterpieces;)

Evan with one of his train track creations

My brave little swimmers are no longer scared of the water!!

Evan loves his new mask!

The boys favorite summer pastime is swimming!!!

Link up with other Moms of Boys with The M.O.B. Society!!