Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Simple Creamy Layered Enchiladas (For Oven or Crock Pot)

by Leave a Comment

How simple are these Creamy Layered Enchiladas? Well, I was able to throw them together in just five minutes before running out to church on a recent Sunday morning. So I’d say they’re pretty simple!

This recipe is simple in and of itself, but if you happen to have hamburger already cooked and waiting to be used, then you really can throw the rest of this together in just five minutes. (Or use pre-cooked chicken if you prefer!)

There are two great options for cooking this casserole: Crock Pot or Oven.

I use the Crock Pot on days I don’t want to heat up the house with the oven or on Sundays when I want to have our meal ready and waiting when we get home from church. I use the oven when I have these enchiladas made up ahead of time in a casserole dish. Then all I have to do is slide it into the oven and let it bake while I get other work done!

Simple Creamy Layered Enchiladas

Simple Creamy Layered Enchiladas (For Oven or Crock Pot)
 
Save Print
Author:
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 1 pound ground beef
  • sea salt to taste
  • 2 cups salsa
  • 1½ cups sour cream
  • 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
  • 8 whole wheat flour tortillas (or corn tortillas)
Instructions
  1. Brown meat. Stir in salt, salsa, sour cream, and ½ cup of cheese.
  2. Lay 4 tortillas in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish.
  3. Spread half of meat mixture over tortillas.
  4. Layer again with the 4 remaining tortillas.
  5. Spread remaining meat mixture over tortillas.
  6. Top with 1½ cups cheese.
  7. Bake uncovered at 350° for 20-25 minutes.
  8. OR Layer ingredients into a crock pot. Cook on Low for 6-7 hours or on Hi for 4 hours.

 

Want more Simple Recipes?

Join Simple Meals!

728x90

We love how Simple Meals has been saving family time for so many, and helping people put great food on the table each night! Join us for just $1/week!

Simple Meals Yearly Subscription
Simple Meals Yearly Subscription
Your yearly subscription equips you with a 52 week's worth of meal plans, grocery guide, recipes, and bonus tips! Your Simple Meals plan will arrive in your inbox each Thursday morning.
Price: $52.00

Mini Crustless Lemon Cheesecakes (Low Sugar!)

by 8 Comments

I’ve been wanting to try this Mini Crustless Lemon Cheesecakes recipe idea for months! (Apparently my to-do list is a little bit backed up?)

Why did it take so long to finally give these a try? Goodness, I don’t know. Life. People. Ministry. Unexpected foster care in our home. Graduation. Soccer season. Church camp. Moving not one but TWO sons into the college dorm in August.

We never quite know what God has for us each day, do we? It’s fun to look forward to learning what He has planned. So what if it takes six months to get around to trying a new recipe? Good things come to those who wait.

I met a new friend at my kids’ homeschool basketball tournament back in March. She said, “I make your Mini Crustless Cheesecakes all the time, but I always add lemon. You should try it! And top it with fruit!” Oh man, did that sound good.

Of course I couldn’t wait to try it and share the idea with you!! Except that I did wait. Six entire months.

So here we are, without further ado, and without any more delays (says the girl who actually started writing this post back in July…).

Mini Crustless Lemon Cheesecakes

Mini Crustless Lemon Cheesecakes (Low Sugar!)
 
Save Print
Author:
Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • 16 ounces softened cream cheese
  • 3 Tablespoons lemon juice (or the juice of one lemon, plus zest if you like!)
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 Tablespoons maple syrup or sugar
  • 2 full droppers of liquid stevia
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
  1. Blend all ingredients together until smooth.
  2. Pour into 12 muffin cups.
  3. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.
  4. Turn off heat, open the oven door, and leave the cheesecakes in the oven for an additional 20 minutes. (Cheesecakes will puff up during baking but deflate while continuing to sit in the oven.)
  5. Transfer cheesecakes to the fridge and chill for at least two hours before serving.

Add fresh or frozen fruit to your cheesecakes for an added burst of flavor.

P.S. I find it easiest to bake my Mini Cheesecakes in a silicone baking pan like this. Once they’ve cooled, they pop right out and the pan is super easy to wash out!

Simple Baked Beans Recipe

by 3 Comments

I love that Simple Baked Beans is such an easy side dish to put together and pair with so many great meats and veggies!

Truly, it is the simplest of foods that make our meals so much better! (Did you download our Simple Ingredients for Simple Meals list yet? It’s FREE! And oh so helpful!)

These Simple Baked Beans take little effort, and are just sweet enough to make us all fall in love. I love adding these as a side dish (along with other veggies and fruits) to a basic meaty main dish.

Consider these Simple Baked Beans when you decide what to serve with any of these Simple Meals recipes:

Phew, so many possibilities!!

If you haven’t joined Simple Meals yet, I encourage you to take the plunge! We do all the planning for you, then provide you each week with a beautifully laid out menu plan, grocery list, side dish ideas, bonus recipes, and so much more. Every week. For one dollar. Seriously.

Get a sample Simple Meals menu plan here.

As for these Simple Baked Beans, you’ll love having this recipe in your back pocket to add protein and goodness to your Simple Meals.

Ready for the super simple recipe? Soak and cook your own beans, or keep some canned beans on hand to throw these together at a moment’s notice.

Simple Baked Beans

Simple Baked Beans Recipe
 
Save Print
Author:
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 32-ounces canned pork and beans (or soak and cook your own pintos or navy beans!)
  • ¼ cup ketchup (give or take)
  • 1 Tablespoon prepared yellow mustard
  • 3 Tablespoons dried minced onion
  • 1 Tablespoon honey or brown sugar (optional)
Instructions
  1. Stir ingredients together in a 8x8 inch baking dish.
  2. Bake uncovered in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or until bubbly.
  3. (In a hurry? Cook in a pot on the stove for 10-15 minutes in a pinch!)

I love that if I plan ahead, I can bake these in the oven. Or if I need to throw these together in less time (story of my life), I can simply stir this recipe into a pot and heat it to bubbly on the stove. So simple and good!

P.S. Make these beans into a main dish by adding leftover cooked hamburger and/or cooked bacon!

Stick of Butter Rice – AMAZING!

by 7 Comments

Now that I have discovered how to make this Stick of Butter Rice, I will never go back to making it “the regular way.” Wow, wow, and then some. It’s because of the butter, of course. Wait until you try this!

Some people be like, “Go easy on this rice because it’s so high in fat because of the butter!” But Laura be like, “What a great and delicious way to add good fat to a whole grain carb dish!”

I’m not a huge fan of empty carbs, which turn to sugar in our bodies, which offer little if any nourishment, and therefore can turn to fat in our bodies as they try to serve some sort of purpose for us. So if there’s any reason to go easy on this rice, it is because our bodies don’t need loads of carbohydrates or grains for nourishment (unless we are avid athletes with rigorous daily workouts).

As for me? I enjoy this wonderfully flavored, high fat rice in small quantities with a large side of veggies and a delightful portion of meat.

The flavor of this rice, though!!! Wow, you must try it. Between the broth, the onion, and the butter (the obvious MVP of this dish), I think you’ll be like me and decide to never go back to making plain rice again!

See how simple this Stick of Butter Rice is?

Measure uncooked rice and minced onion into a baking dish. Cut butter into pats and add to rice.

Add salt and chicken broth and stir.

Cover and bake in a 350 degree oven for one hour. Your job here is done.

We love serving some sort of shredded meat with this rice, such as:

Those are our favorites, though this Stick of Butter Rice makes a great side dish with just about any meal!

Enjoy the simplicity of this wonderful dish! Once you try it you’ll never go back!

Stick of Butter Rice

5.0 from 1 reviews
Stick of Butter Rice - AMAZING!
 
Save Print
Author:
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 2 cups brown rice (uncooked)
  • 4 cups beef or chicken broth
  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt
  • 2 Tablespoons dry minced onions
  • 1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)
Instructions
  1. Measure rice, broth, salt, and onions into a 9x13 inch baking dish and stir.
  2. Cut a stick of butter into 8ish "pats" and spread over the dish.
  3. Cover dish and bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour.

Become a Simple Meals member! Every week we’ll send you a great menu plan full of Simple Recipes like this one. We’ll equip you with a grocery list. We’ll break everything down so that your meal prep is as simple as possible. We’ll give you bonus tips and recipes and freebies. And this is all for just $1 each week. You’ll love it!

Simple Meals
Simple Meals
Your yearly subscription equips you with a 52 week's worth of meal plans, grocery guide, recipes, and bonus tips! Your Simple Meals plan will arrive in your inbox each Thursday morning.
Price: $52.00

Simple Strawberry Fluff (Real Food Ingredients!)

by 3 Comments

I don’t mean to be a lazy cook. Truly I don’t. In fact, I really love making wonderful food as a way to bless people. Can I help it that this Simple Strawberry Fluff is super easy to make? No. I cannot help it. There’s nothing I can do to make it difficult. It’s simply, well, simple.

I’m sure you’re dying to know how this Simple Strawberry Fluff came into being.

I had decided to make these Strawberry Cheesecake Parfaits for 20 people at our local mission. (We take turns with one other family to make a meal to serve there once each month.) I planned to make The Best Grilled Chicken, my friend was providing a salad and veggie, so the Strawberry Parfaits would round off the meal to perfection.

However, I began to get low on time, my kids weren’t home to help (how dare they go off to church camp and leave me to do all the cooking), so I began to brainstorm ways to cut down my prep time. This is no easy feat when I already do everything possible to keep my meals simple.

But…aha! It occurred to me that instead of building individual parfait cups, I could make one big bowl with strawberries and cheesecake parfait filling and stir it together into a salad. It was then that I realized I would be creating a cross between the Strawberry Cheesecake Parfaits and this Pineapple Fluff.

Would it work? There was only one way to find out. Make it and insist that my husband give it a taste test (life is hard at the Coppinger house).

Matt had no idea where my brain had been storming. He only knew that I put a pretty blue bowl in front of him and handed him a spoon. “Oooh, that’s good!!”

Now that I’ve tried this, I may never go back to making parfaits again. Why would I when making it this way saves a precious eight seconds?

Simple Strawberry Fluff

5.0 from 1 reviews
Simple Strawberry Fluff (Real Food Ingredients!)
 
Save Print
Author:
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 8 ounces softened cream cheese
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 Tablespoons lime juice
  • ¼ cup sugar or 3 Tablespoons real maple syrup or liquid stevia to taste
  • 1 pound fresh strawberries, washed and cut into bite-sized pieces
Instructions
  1. Wash and cut strawberries into a large mixing bowl.
  2. In a high-power blender mix cream cheese, whipping cream, vanilla, lime juice, and sweetener of choice until well combined and smooth.
  3. In a bowl, fold strawberries into the whipped mixture.
  4. Chill for at least one hour before serving.

The folks at the mission said lovely things about this salad. (One 12-year old girl at fourths. Her love for the salad made me happy but our sweet conversation gave me even more joy.)

I will now and forevermore go back and forth between these Strawberry Cheesecake Parfaits and this Simple Strawberry Fluff. They are both incredibly delicious, and they are both super easy to make.

Pack this fun salad/dessert into a jar to take in your lunch box and you’ve got one more to-go option!

Great lunch box additions to your Simple Strawberry Fluff

Lunch in a Jar: Fruit Cheesecake Parfaits

by Leave a Comment

If starting up a new school year is a bit of a bummer to you, these Fruit Cheesecake Parfaits will make it all better. After all, if you know you’ve packed this for your lunch box, you have so much to look forward to!

Sometimes I exaggerate (i.e. My house is always clean!!). But when it comes to these Fruit Cheesecake Parfaits, it is no exaggeration when I say that this is my all-time favorite food and I cannot get enough. And by the way, is there such thing as a clean house when there are people living within its walls? I don’t think so. No matter. We have Fruit Cheesecake Parfaits. Life is good and crumbs on the floor represent happiness.

You’ve heard me talk about these Strawberry Cheesecake Parfaits. You already know how much I love them. When strawberries aren’t in season, I cry a little bit.

The fact that these can be packed and taken in a lunch is a huge perk. Another perk is the fact that you can sweeten these with either stevia or regular sugar – whatever you and your family prefer. (I make batches of both as my children aren’t stevia fans.)

Add to these perks that you can make a Chocolate Cheesecake Parfait version and now we’re all completely overjoyed.

These parfaits can be made with any variety of your favorite fruit that is in season: strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, bananas, or peaches. Make them in 8-ounce jars to take on the go as needed. Perfection!

—-> Did you see the fun list of supplies and jars I recommend for packing lunches? <—–

I’ll post this recipe again here for your convenience. Enjoy how fabulous this makes your lunch box!

Fruit Cheesecake Parfaits

Lunch in a Jar: Fruit Cheesecake Parfaits
 
Save Print
Author:
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 2½ cups heavy whipping cream
  • 8 ounces softened cream cheese
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 Tablespoon real maple syrup
  • Liquid stevia to taste (I use about 20 drops) (Use a few Tablespoons of sugar if you prefer.)
  • 1 -2 pounds fresh, sliced strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, bananas, or peaches
  • *Add 3 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder if you would like a chocolate version of this cheesecake parfait!
Instructions
  1. Place all ingredients (minus the fruit) into a blender.
  2. Whip until smooth and creamy.
  3. Spoon mixture into jars, bowls, or cups - layering them with sliced fruit.

Great additions to your Fruit Cheesecake Parfait Lunch in a Jar Idea

Have you tried this Fruit Cheesecake Parfait recipe yet? What’s your favorite fruit to use with it?

Lunch in a Jar: Mini Crustless Quiche

by 3 Comments

If we can bake Quick Bread in a Jar we can certainly bake Mini Crustless Quiche in jars. Check this out!

Surely your first question is: “If I bake quiches in jars, then pack them in a lunch, won’t they taste weird since they are cold?”

You would think so. But these quiches actually taste good cold. Or, if you have the ability to rewarm them, that’s great too. <— Laura states the obvious.

Just like so many Lunch in a Jar ideas we are sharing this month, these Mini Crustless Quiches can be made to order. Add or exclude whatever your family likes. It’s super easy to line up several jars and fill them using an “assembly line” method.

If you have cooked meat, put some in each jar per people’s preferences. If the kids won’t scream too loud about it, add some fresh spinach. Crack in 1-2 eggs per 8-ounce jar (1 if you have a lot of add-ins, 2 if you are more focused on eggs than meat/veggies/cheese). Add in any goodies you like: onions, sweet peppers, shredded cheese, cooked sausage, cooked bacon, chopped ham, leftover chicken – the options are only limited to your preferences and what you have on hand!

I recommend 8-ounce wide mouth jars for each Mini Crustless Quiche as they are easier to clean afterward. But truly, any 8-ounce jar will work!

—-> Did you see the fun list of supplies and jars I recommend for packing lunches? <—–

Lunch in a Jar: Mini Crustless Quiche

Lunch in a Jar: Mini Crustless Quiche
 
Save Print
Author:
Ingredients
  • 1-2 eggs per 8-ounce jar
  • 1 Tablespoon heavy whipping cream or milk per jar (optional)
  • Sea salt and pepper to taste
  • Add in options:
  • Cooked Sausage Crumbles
  • Cooked Bacon Bits
  • Chopped Ham
  • Shredded Cheese
  • Chopped Onion
  • Chopped Sweet Pepper
  • Torn Spinach Leaves
  • Leftover Cooked Chicken
  • Your choice!
Instructions
  1. Crack 1-2 eggs into each 8 ounce jar.
  2. Add cream or milk, salt and pepper, plus any add-ins you like.
  3. Use a fork to scramble the contents together in the jar.
  4. Place jars on a cookie sheet.
  5. Bake for 30-40 minutes in a 350 oven until contents in each jar have puffed up and cooked until the middles no longer "jiggle."

 

Even my pickiest kid loves these – even with the spinach!! Score!

What are your additional suggestions for Add-Ins for these Mini Crustless Quiches?

Great additions to your Mini Crustless Quiche Lunch in a Jar Idea

Consider adding any of the following to your lunch box along with your Mini Crustless Quiche

We’ve got 10 super fun Lunch in a Jar ideas to share this month – perfect for your Back to School lunchbox! Subscribe here so you won’t miss a post!

Lunch in a Jar: Chips and Guac

by Leave a Comment

Chips and guac is a surprisingly perfect lunch to pack in a jar and take on the road, to work, or to school!

Now, let’s not talk about the color of the guacamole. Bless its heart. It is delicious and it can’t help the way it looks. Green (avocados) and red (salsa) make…the color of baby poop. We offer huge apologies for this, yet there’s nothing we can do to change it.

Trust me, we’ve tried.

But we like to do things the simple way around here, so it is what it is. The fact that we can scoop avocados into a blender, dump in salsa and lime juice, then blend it to perfection – all in five minutes? Well, so what if the mixture turns out not-so-pretty? We just made a super nutritious and delicious snack or meal in record time!

I shared our favorite Guacamole Recipe here. But I’ll share it again today as a perfect “Lunch in a Jar” idea. Truly, this is substantial enough to make a meal. The guac packs perfectly in a small jar. Add a baggie of tortilla chips and any other sides and your lunch box will be the envy of all around you.

Especially because of the color of your guac. Who wouldn’t be jealous of that?

Lunch in a Jar: Chips and Guac

Lunch in a Jar: Chips and Guac
 
Save Print
Author:
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 4 ripe avocados
  • 16-ounce jar of your favorite salsa
  • 3-4 Tablespoons of lime juice
Instructions
  1. Cut open the avocados, pull out the pit, and scoop the "meat" into a blender.
  2. Dump salsa and lime juice into the blender.
  3. Blend until smooth.

I recommend these tiny 4-ounce jars for packing guacamole. These 8-ounce wide mouth jars are also awesome for those with a bigger appetite.

—-> Did you see the fun list of supplies and jars I recommend for packing lunches? <—–

Great add-ins to your Chips and Guac Lunch in a Jar Idea

We’ve got 10 super fun Lunch in a Jar ideas to share this month – perfect for your Back to School lunchbox! Subscribe here so you won’t miss a post!

Super Moist Flourless Brownie Muffins – Perfect for a Lunch Box!

by 5 Comments

Would someone please stop me from eating all of these Flourless Brownie Muffins?

Just kidding. I’d actually like to keep eating them.

And also, I can let the kids eat all the Flourless Brownie Muffins they want because there is no reason to hold back on these. Want a brownie for breakfast? Sure! Want three more brownies? Okeedokee. Ran out and need to bake more brownies? Shucks, don’t mind if I do.


It’s been so interesting to me since I posted these Super Moist Flourless Brownie and Super Moist Flourless Peanut Butter Brownie recipes. SO MANY people have had trouble with them turning out dry and crumbly. (This is the opposite of moist – what in the world?! I am baffled.)

I’ve been trying to trouble shoot and solve the mystery of this, because these recipes turn out great for me every single time! Is it my oven? It can’t possibly be that my oven works in these recipes and all other ovens don’t. Is it the temp? The time?

I do believe it’s the time. I shortened the baking time in the instructions, hoping that will make a big difference. I believe the trick to turning out perfect Super Moist Flourless Brownies is to pull them out of the oven when they are slightly underdone. If they bake too long, they will become dry and taste like burned nut butter. Meh.

So during my time of tweaking and trouble shooting, it occurred to me that I should try baking this recipe in muffin cups. Perhaps that would turn out Super Moist Flourless Brownie Muffins, I thought. Maybe if this recipe was baked in muffin cups, we could bake them for less time and avoid drying out our brownies.

Well, as it turned out, once again these Super Moist Flourless Brownie Muffins turned out perfect for me! So perfect, in fact, I had a difficult time staying out of them. “I just want one more. I can quit any time…”

As for baking time on these Super Moist Flourless Brownie Muffins, I’m going to recommend 12-15 minutes. They may look slightly underdone when you pull them out. But this is what will keep them gooey and delicious!

Super Moist Flourless Brownie Muffins

5.0 from 2 reviews
Super Moist Flourless Brownie Muffins - Perfect for a Lunch Box!
 
Save Print
Author:
Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • 1½ cups (12-ounces) Peanut Butter or Almond Butter
  • ½ cup honey
  • ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 2 eggs
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
  1. Stir all ingredients together until well combined.
  2. Scoop batter into 12 paper-lined muffins cups.
  3. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 12-15 minutes. (Remove them from the oven when they are just slightly underdone so they come out moist!)

I felt this recipe was worth sharing in the middle of my Lunch in a Jar series simply because these Super Moist Flourless Brownie Muffins are perfect for your Back to School Lunchbox! They are filling, nourishing, and fun!

Other Lunch Box ideas shared so far in this series:

Great add-ins to your Fruit with Dip Lunch in a Jar

We’ve got 10 super fun Lunch in a Jar ideas to share this month – perfect for your Back to School lunchbox! Subscribe here so you won’t miss a post!

Simple Summer Supper: Grilled Salmon

by 2 Comments

There’s nothing fancy about this Simple Grilled Salmon. But who needs “fancy” when “delicious” fills the plate?

I know there are more flavor-packed ways to grill salmon. The recipes for such are all over the internet and they look amazing.

But do you know what is also delicious? Salmon thrown on the grill with no preparation or prior thought. I hesitated to try this because I’d heard salmon didn’t grill well straight on the grates.

Lazy cook that I am (and by lazy, of course I mean clever), I decided one night to try grilling our salmon as-is. No prep. No seasoning. No cedar plank that had been soaked in newborn baby kisses (or whatever delightful options we read about that promise to present us with perfectly grilled salmon).

Would it be good? Would my family eat it? Would it be a waste of good salmon?

Or would it be yet another simple meal idea we could keep in our back pocket?

You guys! Why must we make real food cooking difficult? Just go get you some salmon fillets and throw them on the grill. My family devoured this deliciously simple grilled salmon. My 13 year old ate three fillets before I could stop him. There were no leftovers and I will be making this all summer long.

Might you want to squeeze a lemon over your grilled salmon? Absolutely. Should you consider making homemade tartar sauce (recipe below) to accompany this deliciously grilled meat? Certainly. Do we need to slave over and baby our salmon before we grill it? Not unless we want to.

For the record, I don’t want to. Because I’m lazy. I mean clever.

Simple Grilled Salmon with Homemade Tartar Sauce

Simple Summer Supper: Grilled Salmon
 
Save Print
Author:
Ingredients
  • Wild caught salmon fillets (1-2 per person)
  • Homemade Tartar Sauce:
  • 1 cup mayonnaise (I use Hain Safflower Mayo)
  • ¼ cup sweet pickle relish
Instructions
  1. Grill salmon on low heat for approximately 20 minutes, turning once or twice as needed.
  2. While the meat is grilling, mix mayo and pickle relish to serve with the salmon.
  3. This is so easy it barely qualifies as a recipe.

 

Serve this Simple Grilled Salmon with any fresh summer sides you have on hand: Fresh greens, corn on the cob, berries or other fruit, green beans or zucchini – what an amazing meal! Pineapple Fluff is a wonderful addition to this meal.

Have you seen our other Simple Summer Suppers? Here’s a running list:

Don’t miss any of our new ideas we’ve got coming! Subscribe for free so all the latest can come directly to your inbox!

Have you become a Simple Meals member yet? You will LOVE how simple all the recipes are, and better yet, you’ll love that we do all the planning for you!