Trim Healthy Mama - Page 7 of 9 - Humorous Homemaking

Veggie Tuna Pasta Salad

(Note: I forgot to post this before I went on maternity leave..and now it’s autumn – so bear with me. Ha!)

In the summer months, I have a hard time making hot food. I just don’t want to eat it. I want to eat ice cream and pudding…sandwiches and watermelon. I hate heating up the kitchen. This year it’s worse since we’re still saving up for a heat pump – so when I cook, the entire kitchen warms up to a balmy 95 degrees. When you’re 8 months pregnant, that feels more like 150 degrees.

I try to make salads and sandwiches when I can. We survive on them in the summer. I created this delicious salad using veggies I had in the fridge. Yes, you do have to cook it but then you eat it chilled – and since you only use the stovetop, it doesn’t make the kitchen too hot. Nice. [Read more…]

Crock Pot Baked Potatoes or Sweet Potatoes

We LOVE baked potatoes in this house…even Annie chows down on them. However, I find that I don’t make them very often. Why? Well, for some reason I just hate heating up the whole oven to make potatoes. I know that’s weird. In the summer, it makes sense to avoid it because of heating up the house, but in the winter I have no excuse.

But then I came across a genius idea…to “bake” potatoes in the crock pot! I’m not sure why I didn’t think of it…we’ll chalk it up to sleep deprivation and Momnesia. But, there were a few problems I was seeing with all the posts out there about crock pot potatoes.

They used aluminum foil. We try not to use aluminum foil much in this house and I really hate it touching my food…so I sure didn’t want to cover my potatoes with it for 8 hours in high heat. You can call me paranoid – as long as you call me for dinner.
If you didn’t use foil, some people reported that the potatoes ended up all brown and grody looking. I’m not sure about you, but there’s something about eating food that looks ugly and gross…I’d be hard pressed to eat a potato that looked like doody – because I see enough doody in my day. [Read more…]

Bacon-Wrapped Green Beans

I’m not much one for fancy side dishes. For our family, I usually serve the basics, like rice or oven-roasted potatoes with a vegetable. But every once in a while, it’s fun to dazzle your family with a more gourmet-type side. And these bacon-wrapped green beans do just that.

And really? I don’t know why I don’t make these more often. They don’t just spice up an otherwise boring meal, but they are actually very easy to make! [Read more…]

Crock Pot Garden Marinara Sauce

Today we have Sumptuous Spoonfuls joining us for a FABULOUS seasonal recipe – Marinara Sauce. If you’ve been up to your ears in tomatoes, you’re gonna love this! Crock on, baby!

Hello everyone! I’m Ann from Sumptuous Spoonfuls. Stacy contacted me to ask if I would do a guest post for her…something made in the crock pot. The only things she asked were:

Not a recipe already on the site
Only use whole food ingredients

I thought that’s no sweat! I can totally handle that … Well, time went by and the date she had given me as a deadline came and went and I hadn’t sent her anything. You know how life gets so busy … this guest post completely slipped my mind! So I totally failed on the “submitted a week in advance” part, but I did make a new recipe with whole foods! In fact, just about everything in this recipe is fresh from the garden. The only things I purchased were the garlic, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, brown sugar (or sucanat) and bay leaves. [Read more…]

Crock Pot Spice Rub Chicken

Today’s Crock Pot post is from The Frugal Chicks.

So everyone makes new year’s resolutions, or as I call them goals, every new year. I chose to go Paleo this past January. I did not stick with it, but I am planning to go back to it because I felt so much better. I have MS, and this diet makes you feel so much better – just going gluten free is not the easiest thing in the world. I discovered this recipe during my paleo days.

Not only is it delish and versatile, but it is healthy too! I found this recipe in my Everyday Paleo cookbook by Sarah Fragoso. I have it on my nook, which makes cooking quite easy! My favorite way to eat this dish is on portabella mushrooms as sandwiches. Hope you love it as much as I do!! [Read more…]

One Pot Spaghetti

This is so ridiculously easy and so ridiculously yummy. I can’t believe I haven’t been making this for YEARS! I have heard of “one pot spaghetti” before, but I didn’t really like the ingredients…so, I used the general idea and make this puppy from scratch. Scratch cooking is a thing of beauty. It’s even MORE beautiful when you only dirty one pan. It’s a spaghetti miracle.

I usually like making my Crock Pot Spaghetti Sauce, but this is a fabulous recipe to have on hand when you need spaghetti at the last minute…because I know that happens a lot to me. Sometimes I’m just sitting around and think “Man, I need some spaghetti NOW.” I hear it happens to a lot of other people too. [Read more…]

Crock Pot Simple Greek Inspired Beef Roast

Today our Crock Pot post comes from The Cheapskate Cook….any friend of the CHEAP is a friend of mine. Thanks Steph! 🙂

If I’ve learned one thing in my frugal cooking experience, it’s how smart old people are. Really.

I think of all the things our grandparents did that people have laughed at over the years – washing their freezer bags, refusing to get credit cards, using that old seventies sofa until its exposed springs were a tetanus hazard. Then I look at these new blogs popping up every day, and I can’t help but laugh all over again. We’re suddenly realizing that our grandparents were pretty smart. They might not have a huge Twitter following (let’s face it – most of them are pretty savvy members of Facebook now), but many of them have wise ideas about handling and saving money. [Read more…]

Mama’s Sausage Macaroni

This is a meal that my mom would make when I was growing up – I remember it very fondly…it might be one of my favorite meals of ALL TIME. Not only is it delicious, but it’s so easy and takes very few ingredients. I’ve never been able to post it before, because she didn’t really have a concrete recipe. So since we’re staying here for now, I ~~ordered~~ asked her to make it so I could take photos and write down measurements. It’s a thing of beauty. [Read more…]

Crock Pot Mexican Pork Roast

Fix and Forget Friday is brought to you this week by my colleague Kate from Modern Alternative Mama. You might have noticed that I’ve had a lot of guest posts on Friday…this pregnancy been a bit rough and food was not my friend during the first trimester (although I’m quickly making up for that). My friends have graciously stepped in to help me. Thanks Kate!

I might be a little crazy.

Recently I decided that I needed to be a better friend, which largely means when my friends need help – I need to step up. So when a friend texted me half in a panic a few days ago and said “Can you please watch my kids on Thursday?” I agreed to do it. Even though it meant switching my work schedule around (which I don’t mind doing). [Read more…]

Crock Pot Minestrone

Y’all today we have a guest post by my awesome friend, Becca from Frugal Wannabe. I met Becca at a workshop and she’s been a blessing to me ever since. Crock on!

I admit, I’m one of those weird people who can and will eat and/or make soup any time of year, even in summer. So, yes, I am bringing you a soup recipe when it’s warmish weather! I also love using my Crockpot, because I have 4 kids to care for during the day, which means almost no free time, and standing over the stove leaves plenty of opportunity to forget and burn food. I am known for burning grilled cheese sammiches. Oh well, on to the recipe!

To make this yummy soup, you need lots of fresh, yummy ingredients. You could use frozen if you want, but why, when you can use fresh?! Look at all this goodness.

See that onion? Don’t mind that. I forgot that I was using leeks and stuck it in the picture. Oh well, it still looks good, right? [Read more…]