JoaS

So, one of the ways we work our grocery budget is by buying proteins in bulk at Costco. Their Kirkland's Smoked Pulled Pork is a little strong in the smoke flavoring, but we've found several recipes that could not be easier and provide a variety of flavors and dishes to get us through a week or so. Without further ado, here they are. The first, and easiest, dish is to just heat up a helping of pork, roast some veggies, and serve the whole thing with BBQ sauce. The pork comes fully cooked, so all you have to do is heat it. The photo above is the pork simply heated. We actually do prefer to cook it further in the other dishes, but this is easy and good, too. I also love a good BBQ pork stuffed sweet potato, or baked potato. One of my favorites is this Slow Cooker Pork and Apples dish I discovered on Pinterest years ago. The original recipe from katheats.com calls for pork chops, which I don't particularly love, but I used this shredded pork as a...

There was some expressed interest in this recipe after I posted a photo of our lunch on Instagram last week, so I thought I'd just quickly jot out the details of how we make this super easy and satisfying meal for two. This dish could not be easier, and I use a lot of short cuts. You could always go all out and make everything from scratch, use higher quality ingredients, yadda, yadda...but the point of this for us is to be able to whip something together quickly when we're pressed for time or energy. I use these prepared, thin and crispy pizza crusts from Walmart. They are less than $3.50 for two, and I keep them in the refrigerator, ready for dressing. I coat the entire top side of the crust in a very thin layer of coconut oil once it's on my baking sheet, just to keep from drying out too much. Then I simply spoon and spread about 1.5 to 2 tablespoons of BBQ sauce into the center. Recently we've been using the Noble Made Classic BBQ Sauce from ...

Finally! The promised next recipe. I've been meaning to write this and share it for weeks, but somehow Summer busyness is a thing and sneaks up on you last minute. I actually have not been able to spend much time in our kitchen the last couple weeks. But we're pretty much back to normal now, and here is the last family meal we enjoyed. My husband absolutely loves this, and that's saying a lot. Especially for a fairly healthy dish. And it's so easy, it's foolproof. All you do is toss the ingredients into a baking dish and bake it for an hour at 350 degrees Farenheit. Literally. That's it. Ingredients: Chicken tenderloins- or breasts, whichever you prefer. Chicken is not my favorite meat, simply because it tends to seem very dry to me. I prefer the tenderloins because I find them to be less dry than chicken breasts. You can use as much chicken as you deem necessary for your family/dinner party. I usually use four if it's only two of us, bu...

This is another favorite meal, and also very versatile. I started making this a few years back when we fell in love with roasted veggies and were very tired of the regular hot dog in a bun. I made this meal with turkey dogs, sweet potatoes, red potatoes, and a green bell pepper. I have made it in the past with chicken, sausage, shrimp--any protein you prefer. Also, I've thrown in cherry tomatoes, yellow squash, zucchini, asparagus, butternut squash, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower--any vegetable you can imagine. It's super easy and healthy, and a great way to round up and use any produce that may be on its last leg. To make this super simple, one pan dish, you will need: A protein of choice: I like to use turkey dogs or sausage that are already cooked so that you're really just flavoring and roasting it with the veggies, rather than having to worry about cooking it separately. Produce of choice: Our favorite are sweet potatoes, red potatoes, and bell peppe...

Anyone who has ever been to a Wednesday night church dinner knows that one of the easiest and most popular meals for large gatherings is spaghetti. Throw together a salad, bake some cookies, and you've got yourself a widespread winner. Today I'm sharing with you one of the first meals I learned to make and our most repeated meal in the history of our marriage so far. I call it spaghetti casserole, I think because my great aunt called it that once. I got the idea from her--one of the most frugal cooks I know. It's always a crowd-pleaser and, if it's just Michael and I, it easily lasts us three meals. Before you begin, you will need the following: 1 box of pasta - Your choice, I love shells and macaroni, but often use penne or rigatoni. 1 lb. ground meat - Our favorite is turkey, but you could use pork, beef, or chicken. 1 can tomato sauce  - I have many digestive issues so I use a literal metal can of simple tomato sauce, but when I make this for famil...