Eat at Home

Everyday Food for Busy People

cooking tips

How to Stretch Ground Beef & Bulk Meatball Recipe

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The cost of ground beef has sky rocketed lately.  I was shocked to pay $10 for a 2.25 lb. package and my incentive to learn to stretch that burger was just as high as the price tag.

I made a recipe of meatballs for the freezer.  My original recipe makes about 88 meatballs.  I made a half recipe, which would have yielded 44 meatballs, but I used brown rice to stretch the meat.  I was able to get 69 meatballs.  That’s a whole extra meal!    [Read more…] about How to Stretch Ground Beef & Bulk Meatball Recipe

18 Casserole Recipes {including some that freeze and/or slow cook}

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Bake up a casserole and you’ve got family pleasing, comfort food for dinner.  But casseroles are also convenient and easy.  Especially if they can offer the option of freezing for later, baking in the oven or even slow cooking in a crock pot.

I’ve got 18 recipes for you to try.  And I’ve included some handy tips for many of them too.

Not every recipe uses cream soups, but a few do.  If you avoid the canned version, or find that you’re out, here’s a post on using White Sauce (with several variations) as a substitute.

Baked Pasta with Cauliflower and Cheese – A meatless meal that can be frozen.  This one makes a lot, so it’s good to share with a friend or stock your freezer.

Baked Spaghetti – One of the most popular recipes on Eat at Home.

Beef and Black Bean Taco Bake – Easy and it can be frozen.

Black Bean and Corn Chicken Taco Bake – The chicken version of the recipe above.  Can be frozen.

Chicken and Cheesy Rice Casserole

Chicken and Dressing Casserole

Chicken Broccoli Divan – Fix it in the oven or slow cooker.

Chicken Casserole with Corn and Peas – Make an extra for the freezer.

Chicken Pot Pie

Chicken Shepherd’s Pie

Chicken Tetrazini – Make it in the oven or slow cooker and it can be frozen too.

Cottage Pie – Use ground beef that you’ve already cooked and frozen to make this super quick.

Easy Jambalaya

Ham and Swiss Scalloped Potatoes

Italian Chicken and Rice Casserole

Mandarin Chicken and Rice Bake

Meatballs and Spanish Rice

Hashbrown Casserole – Make this in the slow cooker with ham or smoked sausage, or place sliced smoked sausage on top and bake in the oven.  This one freezes well too.

Chicken Casserole – lightened up! – a bonus 19th recipe

 

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Back to School Dinner Solutions

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I kind of hate to say it.

I’d much rather find my way back to my beach chair with a good book and the ocean breeze.

But the truth is…it’s that time of year again.

Back to school.

Time to get ready and get organized.

Tomorrow, I’ve got a solution I think you’re really going to love.  Hint: It will help you with meals, schedules, cleaning and more.

And today, I’ve got a list of dinner solutions for you.  I’ve pulled my best posts together for you in one place.  These are the posts that I go back to when I need a mealtime solution.

The Menus

All of the Print, Shop, Cook menus are a big time-saver for me.  Although, I sometimes shop without a list nothing beats printing the list and heading to the store.  No planning or thinking required.

Here are a few special menus that are a big help at back to school time:

Year 3, Week 28 – All Slow Cooker Edition

Year 1, Week 28 – Fill Your Freezer

Year 2, Week 17 – Fill Your Freezer

You can find more menus with at least 4 slow cooker recipes here.

You can browse all the menus here.

Slow Cook It

How do families survive without slow cookers?  There’s nothing more satisfying than knowing your dinner is fixed by 10am and you can check that off the daily to-do list.

Rock the Slow Cooker! – This post breaks down the recipes by 5-10 minute prep, all day cooking, and no sides required meals.

Summer Slow Cooker Meals – Soup weather is coming, but until then here’s a list of hot weather recipes.

Freeze It

Spending a little time stocking your freezer is a great way to prep for back to school.  Use one of the freezer menus above, or try some other recipes from the freezer category.

Tips for cooking a lot of meals in just a few hours.

Everything you ever wanted to know about storing foods in the freezer.

How do you get ready for back to school?

This post is linked up at The Organizing Junkie‘s Back to School post.

 

10 No-Cook Homemade Ice Cream Recipes + Other Ice Cream Dessert Recipes

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When I was in Jr. High, every day I came home from school and made a bowl of vanilla ice cream with lots of chocolate syrup and nut topping.  Every day.  I still love ice cream that way.

In high school, I often bought a container of Haagendaz coffee ice cream and ate it straight from the carton with a spoon.

When I was pregnant with my third son, I made trips to the small grocery near our house so often for the same Ben & Jerry’s flavor that one man who worked in the store got on the loud speaker and announced “Coffee Coffee Buzz Buzz Buzz” as I walked in.  Caught!

Since then, I’ve gone all-in for Mayfield Dairy, Blue Bell, Graeter’s and more.  It’s rare that we don’t have some kind of ice cream in the freezer.  And I always have the bowls for my counter-top ice cream makers frozen and ready to go anytime we want to make homemade ice cream.

If you love ice cream, please join us this afternoon at 4pm Eastern for a live chat on all things ice cream! I’ll be here, along with Kasey from Time 2 $ave, Rachel from Following in My Shoes, Stephanie from Debt Free Spending.  Join us by scrolling to the bottom of this post.  You’ll see the chat box there.

But before we start chatting, I have a list of some of our favorite homemade flavors and recipes.  There’s also a list of recipes using store-bought ice cream.

Have some delicious fun browsing! [Read more…] about 10 No-Cook Homemade Ice Cream Recipes + Other Ice Cream Dessert Recipes

Ingredient Spotlight: Hot Dogs & Sausage

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We eat a fair amount of hot dogs, brats and smoked sausage during the summer.  They are so quick to throw on the grill and serve with watermelon, corn on the cob, sliced tomatoes or some such.

I don’t have any recipes that involve hot dogs.  I do have some recipes for smoked sausage and Italian sausage:  [Read more…] about Ingredient Spotlight: Hot Dogs & Sausage