Affording a Large Family: 15 Ways To Make It Work

Rumor has it that raising a child through the age of 17 costs two hundred thousand dollars. That’s $200,000…which is a lot of zeros.

Want to send them to college? Better get used to living in the poor house.

Want more than two children? It’d be cheaper to get a lobotomy. (And most people will assume you have had a lobotomy if you’re crazy enough to venture past 2.3 kids.)

People, I have seven children. Count them…on two hands. That’s nearly 1.5 million dollars just to get them out of diapers and braces!

Affording a Large Family

So how do we afford to raise a large family, especially in a failing economy?

I recently posted about this over at Stacy Makes Cents while Stacy was on blog maternity leave, resting up from growing her own family.

Hop on over to read Affording a Large Family: 15 Ways to Make It Work.

While you’re there, sign up for Stacy’s emails. She’s a fantastic girl—humble, funny, smart, and she has nice grammar. (It’s true: I judge bloggers by their grammar. It ain’t right, I know, but I can’t help myself.)

Read Affording a Large Family

See you over at Stacy Makes Cents!

Over $300 of Healthy Living Ebooks for Only $29…Plus Free Gifts…Plus Giveaways

Have I got an awesome deal for you people! In fact, as soon as I’ve finished telling you about it, I’m going to order it myself!

For 5 days only, 27 respected Healthy Living authors have joined together to bundle 34 of their most popular eBooks, valued at just over $300, for the incredibly low price of $29. (Did you catch that incredibly low price? It’s incredibly low.)

Do the math, people! That’s only $0.87 per book to gain inspiration, encouragement, and the practical resources you may be looking for to take steps toward a healthier lifestyle…and all at your own speed. Here’s the best part. You will also receive $49 of additional FREE Bonuses (good ones!), and be entered to win one of 3 great prizes.

What’s Included in the Sale?

When you purchase the Healthy Living eBook collection, you will get instant access to each of the 34 eBooks listed below.

PLUS $49 of FREE Bonuses

Each Healthy Living eBook Bundle comes with $49 of FREE Bonuses from several of our favorite healthy living companies. Offers include a variety package from Redmond Trading ($21 Value), a FREE 3-Month subscription to Plan to Eat ($15 Value), and a FREE Sourdough Starter or Traditional Buttermilk Starter from Cultures for Health ($13 Value). (My family loves our sourdough from Cultures for Health). Click here for more details.

PLUS you’ll be entered to win one of 3 Great Prizes

Each person who purchases a Healthy Living eBook bundle is automatically entered to win any one of the following 1 Excalibur 9-Tray Dehydrator (ooooh, my favorite!), 1 Omega VRT350 Masticating Juicer, or a R1 Royal Berkey Water Filtration System (Click here for more details).

Click here to purchase your Healthy Living eBook collection (with FREE bonuses) today!

Please note: This collection is only available from 8 a.m. EST on October 29th to 8 a.m. EST on November 2nd. There will be no late sales offered. No procrastinating, Friends!

What ebooks do you get? These:

Okay, I’ll break it down for you.

Real Food Meals for the Whole Family

Have Your Fruits… and Veggies, Too! by Laura Coppinger @ Heavenly Homemakers ($5.95)

Real {Fast} Food by Trina Holden @ Trina Holden ($6)

20 Minute Meals by Leigh Ann Dutton @ Intentional by Grace ($4.99)

Real Food… Real Easy by various bloggers @ The Humbled Homemaker ($9.95)

Baking, Snacks and Desserts

Smart Sweets by Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship ($8.95) (Read my review here.)

Healthy Snacks To Go by Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship ($8.95) (Have it; love it…especially the homemade wheat thins.)

Sourdough A to Z by Wardee Harmon @ GNOWFGLINS ($20)

Homemade “Everything” (Condiments, Pantry Basics, etc.)

Restocking the Pantry by Kresha Faber @ Nourishing Joy ($7.99)

Easy. Homemade. by Mandi Ehman @ Life Your Way ($3.99)

Grain Free and Alternative Eating

Grain Free Meal Plan Cookbook by Cara Faus @ Health, Home & Happiness ($18)

Toadally Primal Smoothies by Todd @ Primal Toad ($9.95)

Simple Food {for spring} by Shannon @ Nourishing Days ($10)

Simple Food {for winter} by Shannon @ Nourishing Days ($10)

Well Fed (Paleo Recipes) by Melissa Joulwan @ The Clothes Make The Girl ($14.95)

Saving Money on Real Food

Real Food on a Real Budget by Stephanie Langford @ Keeper of the Home ($18.99)

Plan It, Don’t Panic by Stephanie Langford @ Keeper of the Home ($4.99)

Don’t Compost It, Cook It by April Patel @ An Apple a Day Wisdom ($2.99)

Skincare and Beauty

My Buttered Life (Baby edition) by Renee Harris @ Hard Lotion ($5)

My Buttered Life (Gift edition) by Renee Harris @ Hard Lotion ($5) (Have it; love it!)

My Buttered Life (Summer edition) by Renee Harris @ Hard Lotion ($5)

Simple Scrubs to Make and Give by Stacy Karen @ A Delightful Home ($3.99)

Food on Your Face for Acne and Oily Skin by Leslie @ Crunchy Betty ($7.99)

Holistic Mama’s Guide to Homemade Skincare by Roxanne King @ The Holistic Mama ($19)

Homesteading, Gardening and Preserving

Your Custom Homestead by Jill Winger @ The Prairie Homestead ($4.99)

Guide to Gardening and Preserving by Laura Coppinger @ Heavenly Homemakers ($7.95)

Apartment Gardening by Jami Leigh @ Young Wife’s Guide ($2.99)

Healthy Lifestyle

Simple Living by Lorilee Lippincott @ Loving Simple Living ($2.99)

Herbal Nurturing by Michele Augur @ Frugal Granola ($8.95)

Simple Natural Health by Nina Nelson @ Shalom Mama ($17)

Healthy Homemaking by Stephanie Langford @ Keeper of the Home ($12.95)

Music: An Essential Ingredient for Life by Resound School of Music ($6.99)

Pregnancy and Babies

Breast to Bib by Kate Tietje @ Modern Alternative Pregnancy ($8.95) (Read my review here.)

Healthy Pregnancy Super Foods by Kate Tietje @ Modern Alternative Pregnancy ($8.95) (Read my review here.)

Unbound Birth by Jenny Yarborough @ The Southern Institute ($4.99)

 

PLUS, You will receive FREE Bonuses from these awesome Healthy Living companies…

$21.00 of incredible natural products from “Earthpaste” “Real Salt” and “Redmond Clay” products for FREE. (Think Christmas presents for meee…I mean, for someone you love.)

 

Your choice of a FREE sourdough starter, or a FREE traditional buttermilk starter from Cultures for Health ($12.99 value) (We love the San Francisco sourdough we make from our Cultures for Health starter.)

 


Your choice of: a FREE 3-Month Subscription or 30% off a One Year Subscription. Plan to Eat is a simple online menu planner that organizes your recipes and creates your grocery list for you. ($15.00 value)

PLUS, You will also be entered to win one of the following 3 awesome prizes…

9-Tray Excalibur Dehydrator with Timer  
($349.95 Value) (Can you be in love with an appliance, because I love my Excalibur. Read my review here.)


Omega Vert VRT350 Masticating Juicer
($379.99 Value)

 


Royal Berkey Water Filtration System from LPC Survival

($289.00 Value)

 

 

Now pay attention here! This collection is only available from 8 a.m. EST on October 29th to 8 a.m. EST on November 3rd. There will be no late sales offered. None. Not even for me, so I’m outta here so I can go order.

Oh, and you don’t have to make a purchase to enter the drawing, because that would make this whole thing illegal, and that wouldn’t go down so well. I’d have to be “The Simple Prison Cell Keeper,” and that doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

By the way, I am an affiliate for this program, and will receive a commission on every sale. You should know by now that I’m as honest as can be with my reviews and am only an affiliate for things I believe in. I know many of these authors, and they have valuable information. Plus, if you don’t want ALL the books (and I honestly don’t), you’re still getting plenty of bang for your buck just with the free gifts and the books you DO want. Can’t wait to get another sourdough starter and some new recipes! Gotta skitter!

 

Simple Bread Recipe

Update: I posted this simple and delicious bread recipe a year ago, and since then many happy people have written to tell me that it really is simple and delicious. I am reposting it for all my new followers…and for all of those who didn’t believe me the first time around when I said it was simple and delicious. You know who you are! 

Many of you have asked me for a simple bread recipe that doesn’t “take all day.” Ask and you shall receive!


A Very Simple Bread Recipe from The Simple Homemaker

 

We don’t buy bread.  Ever.

We make it all by hand.  We make sourdough bread for its health benefits, or grind wheat for a hearty whole grain loaf.  We make rolls, pitas, tortillas, flat breads, and hamburger buns.  One of the hands down favorite breads we make is, fortunately, also one of the simplest.  (While it is not the healthiest bread we make, it far surpasses most grocery store breads for its simple lack of “stuff.”) In fact, this simple bread recipe is the first yeast bread recipe my children follow to make bread by themselves.

Simple Bread Recipe

Ingredients

  • 2 cups warm water, not hot or you will kill your yeasty friends
  • 2 teaspoons yeast—a packet contains 2.25 teaspoons–close enough.
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 5-ish cups flour, all-purpose is fine unless you wish to alter it for health reasons

Instructions

  1. Mix the yeast into the water.
  2. Combine the salt with two or three cups of flour.
  3. Add the flour/salt duo to the water, stirring…or enlisting younger arms to stir for you.
  4. Add more flour and continue to stir until the dough holds together and is not wet.
  5. Dump the dough onto a clean, floured surface and knead. (If you don’t know how to knead bread dough, just fake it. This is very forgiving bread.) Add more flour as needed, but don’t overdo it. A little sticky is fine—too dry is not so fine.
  6. Knead until it is as smooth as a baby’s bottom. If you have no baby’s bottom at hand to compare it to, give it the stretch test. Hold the dough up to the light and stretch a portion of it. If you can see light through it before it breaks, congrats! You’re finished. If not, give it a little more tender lovin’ care. We knead this dough about ten minutes. (Sometimes we cheat and knead less. We’ve yet to be ostracized for our occasional laissez-faire kneading attitude.)
  7. Shape the bread into two or three Italian-shaped loaves or several mini-loaves. Do this by pressing the dough flat and folding it into thirds, or by rolling it up. Put the ugly seamed side down and tuck under the ends. Place the loaves on a lightly greased pan. Optionally, shape two shorter loaves and place them in greased loaf pans for “bread-shaped bread.” Grease the top (I like butter), and cover with plastic wrap or a flour sack towel. Set in a warm place to rise—the oven is too warm for rising and will kill your yeast, but the top of the refrigerator is just fine.
  8. Let those babies rise until about doubled in size, or until you get tired of waiting, whichever comes first. We wait anywhere from 30 minutes on a hungry, summer’s day to an hour and a half on an oops-did-we-forget-about-the-bread day. Normally, 45 minutes should do it.
  9. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. (My girls bake at 450 degrees, and I bake at 425 because I like the little time cushion for when (not if) I get distracted and wander somewhere that I can’t hear the oven timer. I won’t tell you whose bread my husband likes better.) Preheat for 20 minutes if you have baking stones in your oven.
  10. Slash the top of the loaves several times diagonally for that authentic, fresh-from-a-French-bakery look. Put the dough in the oven. (If you want to use baking stones, slide the loaves off the pans and onto the stones.) Spritz the interior of the oven with water. (This is optional, but gives the out-of-the-pan loaf a more tender crust. Some people have had trouble with stones and a few oven doors cracking from spritzing a very hot oven with cold water, so you may opt for a heavy duty pan with a couple cups of water set on another rack in the oven. Or skip it. Honestly, I skip it. We’re going for simple here. Some of my girls spritz the loaf and the sides of the oven.) Set the timer for roughly 12 to 15 minutes, although it may take up to 20 minutes or more, depending on the size of your loaves and whether or not they are in pans.
  11. Because all ovens, pans, doughs, and bakers are different, use this reliable test to see if your bread is done. Traditionally, cooks tap the bread; if it sounds hollow, it’s done. It always sounds hollow to me when I’m hungry and smelling fresh bread. Therefore, I take an instant read thermometer and insert it into the ugliest part of the bread where nobody will notice a hole. If the temp reads 190 to 210, it’s done.
  12. Remove, cool briefly, slice, eat. Personally, I believe bread is a means of transporting butter to the mouth, so I say load on the butter!

Wasn’t that simple?  And it didn’t take all day.

Printable Version

Tips and Trouble Shooting

If you have a stand mixer or a hand-held mixer with dough hooks, feel free to knead your bread with the dough hook instead of by hand.  Give it from four to seven minutes, usually on speed two, although you should check your manufacturer’s guidelines.  Seriously, you need to check.  Don’t ask me why I know.

If you are a stickler, you may let this dough rise twice.  We do that sometimes, shaping it after the first rise.  Honestly, though, we follow this simple bread recipe when we want a fast and simple butter transporter.  If we wanted to putz around with exact kneading and double rises and the like, we’d make something healthier.

Some people like to brush the top of the loaves with egg whites, water, or another “browner” before baking.  I prefer to brush mine with butter as soon as it comes out of the oven.  (I know—the butter thing is a little out of control.)

If your bread turns out flat, you may have let it rise too long. Punch it down, reshape and do over…but this time pay attention.

If your dough is not rising, your yeast may be old. Also, your dough may not be warm enough, a common problem in the winter. If this is a repeated problem, switch to fast acting yeast.

Simple Italian Bread RecipeYou may feel like you are adding a lot of flour. We usually end up using six cups per loaf. You can always add more, but you can’t take it out, so don’t dump it all in at once.

This simple bread is perfect spread thickly with garlic butter (a recipe for another day) alongside a big ol’ sloppy slab of lasagna.  (We’ll save the healthy eating posts for another day, as well.)

One last thing: if you are afraid of making bread, relax.  My eight-year-old has been making bread independently (not including the baking) for about a year, and she uses this simple bread recipe.

Here’s the boring printable version.

Simple Bread Recipe

Author: Christy, The Simple Homemaker
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 8
Simple, easy, and delicious basic French bread.
Ingredients
  • 2 cups warm water, not hot or you will kill your yeasty friends
  • 2 teaspoons yeast—a packet contains 2.25 teaspoons–close enough.
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 5-7 cups flour, all-purpose is fine unless you wish to alter it for health reasons
Instructions
  1. Mix the yeast into the water.
  2. Combine the salt with three cups of flour.
  3. Add the flour/salt duo to the water, stirring.
  4. Add more flour and continue to stir until the dough holds together and is not wet.
  5. Dump the dough onto a clean, floured surface and knead. Add more flour as needed.
  6. Knead until smooth, about ten minutes by hand or four minutes by stand mixer.
  7. Shape the bread into two or three Italian-shaped loaves or several mini-loaves. Do this by pressing the dough flat and folding it into thirds, or by rolling it up. Put the ugly seamed side down and tuck under the ends. Place the loaves on a lightly greased pan. Optionally, shape two shorter loaves and place them in greased loaf pans for “bread-shaped bread.” Grease the top (I like butter), and cover with plastic wrap or a flour sack towel. Set in a warm place to rise.
  8. Let rise until about doubled in size, 30-60 mintues, depending on the temperature of the room.
  9. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Preheat for 20 minutes if you have baking stones in your oven.
  10. Slash the top of the loaves several times diagonally for that authentic, fresh-from-a-French-bakery look. Put the dough in the oven. (If you want to use baking stones, slide the loaves off the pans and onto the stones.) Spritz the interior of the oven with water. (This is optional, but gives the out-of-the-pan loaf a more tender crust.) Set the timer for roughly 12 to 15 minutes, although it may take up to 20 minutes or more, depending on the size of your loaves and whether or not they are in pans.
  11. Because all ovens, pans, doughs, and bakers are different, use this reliable test to see if your bread is done. Traditionally, cooks tap the bread; if it sounds hollow, it’s done. A more reliable method is to insert an instant read thermometer into the bread. If the temp reads 190 to 210, it’s done.
  12. Remove, cool briefly, slice, eat. Personally, I believe bread is a means of transporting butter to the mouth, so I say load on the butter!

 

Bread was invented as a means of transporting butter to the mouth.

~The Simple Homemaker, raised on a farm in The Dairy State

This seems like an ideal time to share this link about the health benefits of butter.

So…go make bread, and let us know right here how this simple bread recipe turned out!

20 Tips for Traveling With Children

I know a thing or two about traveling with children…and dogs. We have seven of them (children, that is), and we have been traveling with them for 15 years. Currently we are on the road full-time traveling the country as part of my husband’s music mission. Yup, all of us.

The Travel Bags
The Travel Bags rig in Donner Pass where we blew a tire. Has your house ever blown a tire?

You can read about that at The Travel Bags.

Go to The Travel Bags.

As you might imagine, I’ve gathered a few pointers over the years for making traveling with children a bit more fun and a little less…well, a little less not-fun. A word of warning, these tips do require that you put down your smartphone and focus on your family.

You can read my 20 tips for traveling with children over at Purposeful Homemaking. Buckle up and cruise on over there.

Read Traveling With Children: Keeping Kids Happy on the Road.

The Cure for Overwhelm

Sometimes life plays hardball, throwing curve ball after curve ball until you’re one strike away from throwing in the towel. Other times life piles so much on the plate that you barely have time to scratch your nose. Whether good or bad, life’s activity list can leave a person a little overwhelmed.

 Overwhemed

Case in point:

Currently we are on tour with my husband’s music mission. This is a full-time gig, meaning our home is primarily a travel trailer parked somewhere in this great country of ours, and never more than a week in one place. Yes, by “we” I mean all nine of us and the 125-pound dog. It’s an adventure. (You can read about it here.)

The great thing about adventures is that they are adventurous. The not-quite-as-great-but-not-altogether-bad side of adventures is that they leave little time for other things.

Everyone’s life is an adventure from time to time, and everyone gets overwhelmed.

I recently wrote about how to handle life when you just can’t handle life over at The Humbled Homemaker. Give it a read.

Read When You Just Plain Can’t.

And thanks for understanding on those days when simplifying at The Simple Homemaker means it’s a little quiet here for a time.

NOTE: Posts aren’t much fun without pictures, and my camera died, so, while I have several posts written, they are waiting for me to save up for a new camera so I can add a little post bling. Thanks for your never-ending patience as I use old photos, stock shots, or totally unrelated pics just to give you something to look at, and as I hold off on my how-to posts for a time. You rock…but you knew that.

Rainy Day Giveaway: Dayspring Umbrella and Mug

April showers bring May flowers, as they say…whoever they are. Even in our desert, the spring rains bring with them a burst of opportunistic flowers known (un)affectionately as “those blasted weeds.” And so starts allergy season.

Not being allergy sufferers, most of my littles and I look forward to the rain and flowers. (Honestly, people, don’t little ones make everything, even rain, just a bit more exciting!) This spring, however, we were a bit on the extreme side as we stared at the sky, hunting for little black rainclouds. You see, Dayspring sent us this gorgeous umbrella to review:

We were like children waiting for Christmas as we enthusiastically waited for rain…

and waited…

and waited…

but it didn’t rain. It hailed once, but the umbrella was in the van and we were not. Bummer.

(Meanwhile, my accident-prone second daughter opened the umbrella in the house about 100 times, which, as you may know, is 700 years bad luck, give or take a decade…and then she fell down the stairs…three times. Coincidence? I don’t think so.)

So…what do we awesome-umbrella-toting desert dwellers do with our awesome umbrellas when it doesn’t rain? Block the sun of course!

Like this:

Three-year-old not included.

Dayspring didn’t just send us a rainy day umbrella. They also sent a beautiful mug for warming up on chilly spring mornings. The mug is equally as charming as the umbrella. It reads “He fills my life with good things!” from Psalm 103:5.

 

And to prove its point, it showcases this little good thing inside:

Can you picture yourself walking home from the market with your darling daughter in a light rain, and sitting down together to mugs of tea or cocoa as you warm up from your spring showers? It’s all very Norman Rockwell, isn’t it? Okay, more than likely you’ll forget your umbrella at home, step in an ankle-deep puddle, trip over a scooter, get chased by a dog, and drop the bag of groceries with the eggs in it by the time you get halfway to the house, and your soaked daughter will catch the sniffles. When you finally get in, you’ll realize you’re completely out of tea, cocoa, and coffee, which is why you went shopping in the first place, so your mug will also go unused. But you will still have enjoyed a mother-daughter adventure, and the mug and umbrella are still a beautiful combo with a heart-warming, soul-stirring message, and would make an excellent gift.

Win the umbrella and mug.

Would you like to win your own Dena Designs Good Things mug and umbrella set? My daughter Hannah from Horse Crazy Bookworm and I are teaming up to run this Dayspring-sponsored giveaway. Enter today (or my second-born just might send you some of her bad luck)!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

By the way, it did eventually rain while we were on our travels, and we did use the umbrella, and it worked like a…well…like an umbrella is supposed to actually. We endured some pretty strong winds with this beauty, and it held. Nevertheless, I don’t think this umbrella would hold up in storms with ferocious winds…nor do I think you should be out in such a storm, with or without the umbrella.

Due to its large size, several of us could fit under it at once, which is a really big deal in a family of nine. There’s nothing like a big umbrella and a rainy (or sunny) day to draw a family together!

In the spirit of full disclosure, I feel compelled to share the negatives. Because this is a large umbrella, we were hoping to try the Mary Poppins travel method—flying via umbrella–but it rather disappointed in that arena. (What?! You haven’t seen Mary Poppins? It’s one of those rare movies that is better than the book and is certainly a family favorite, but enough about that.)

Dayspring has beautiful products with lovely messages. Check out their online store.

Current Dayspring Specials

Buy any two beautiful Dayspring mugs, get the third free here.

Get free shipping on premium birthday cards here.

Receive 25% off select Thomas Kinkade boxed cards and a perpetual calendar here.

Save $20 on Bless This Home and Abide in Me wall art. Lovely reminders!

Enjoy 15% off any card purchase: graduation, confirmation, first communion, Father’s Day, you name it! Use the code 15offCARDS here.

Disclosure Statements

Disclosure statements galore: Dayspring supplied the umbrella and mug for this review. They also are supplying the set for the winner. This in no way affected my opinion of the product. Would I have bought it anyway? Hello! I live in the desert. I do, however, very much appreciate having this beauty on our travels, and, were I to buy an umbrella, this may well be the one I would choose. I like it’s cheerful classiness, complimented by the Scripture verse. In fact, I like most of the Dayspring products!

By the way, I am a Dayspring affiliate and will receive a small compensation for anything you purchase through these links. You are in no way obligated to purchase through my link, but there is that little unresolved issue of my daughter and her bad luck, which rumor has it is transferable. All proceeds, as usual, support our roadschooling as The Travel Bags.

Photo credit: product photos by Dayspring; cute three-year-old photo by Hannah Bagasao

Pouch Cooking: Baking Fish in Foil

Today I’m participating in the Ultimate blog Swap. You’ll find me posting over at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers about how we roadschool (that’s Simple Homemaker lingo for homeschooling on the road), and I’m excited to welcome Amanda from Coping with Frugality at the Simple Homemaker.

Pouch Cooking: Baking Fish in Foil

I love all types of cooking–grilling, baking, fresh food. There is one cooking method that is fast, nutritious, delicious, low-mess, infinitely adaptable, and darn tasty. What is it? Pouch cooking!

Cooking in a pouch is a remarkably simple method capable of producing remarkably complex aromas and flavors. How does it work? Well, if you apply enough heat to food, the moisture inside will be released as steam, right? The steam usually just drifts away, taking a lot of heat with it. But placing food in a pouch is, well, kind of like getting in a small tent on a warm day, okay? Instead of evaporating, that moisture and the heat is trapped right up against the food, cooking it very, very quickly. And since the aromas, the flavors, the essence of the food is captured, fish tastes more like fish, chicken tastes more like chicken, and I suppose, given enough time, I would even taste more like me.

Here is my basic strategy for pouch cooking. I usually pick a meat, this time grouper. Then I build upon that with vegetables. There are a lot of vegetables that would work well with this recipe for baking fish in foil, but this time I picked dried mushrooms, zucchini, and jalapenos. Next is the starch. I love using ramen-style noodles. They are inexpensive, super easy, and taste great in this recipe! Moving on to the aromatics, I never go more than two. This time I kept it simple with lime rind (using lime juice in the sauce as well). Seasonings? Anything goes, but I like to keep things simple. We’ll go with salt and black pepper.

(TSHM Note: Rewritten to avoid plagiarism. Many people aren’t aware that you can copy another person’s ingredient list if you give proper credit, but you must rewrite the instructions. My apologies for not checking this guest piece prior to publishing. It’s all better now.)

Preheat your oven to a whopping 400 degrees Fahrenheit. (You don’t store anything in your oven, do you? Check!)

Crunch up those noodles. Get someone small to help you. Divide them among the foil pieces. Then place on top the following: fish, mushrooms, zucchini, jalapeños, lime zest, salt and pepper.

Pouch Cooking: Baking Fish in Foil

Wrapping time! Pull up the corners and side of the aluminum foil to all food is safely encased inside. Leave a “chimney” for pouring in the wet ingredients.

Pouch Cooking: Baking Fish in Foil

Mix together the liquids: vegetable broth, mirin (what is that anyway?) or cider vinegar, soy sauce, lime juice, and sesame oil. Pour an equal amount down each chimney, sealing it off afterward, with the exception of a small steam vent. Pop it all on a baking sheet to contain and overflow. Bake those babies for 15 minutes and serve ’em up good and hot!

Pouch Cooking: Baking Fish in Foil

Ingredients for Baking Fish in Foil

2 packages Ramen noodles
1 cup dried mushrooms, chopped
4 – 4 oz grouper filets
1 cup chopped zucchini
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 quart vegetable broth
1/2 cup mirin or cider vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
4 teaspoons sesame oil
Zest and juice from 2 limes

Print the pouch cooking instructions for baking fish in foil here:

Pouch Cooking: Baking Fish in Foil
Author: Amanda of Coping With Frugality
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
A quick, healthy meal with little clean-up, and open to countless variations to suit any taste. Does it get any better?!
Ingredients
  • 2 packages Ramen noodles
  • 1 cup dried mushrooms, chopped
  • 4 – 4 oz grouper filets
  • 1 cup chopped zucchini
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 quart vegetable broth
  • 1/2 cup mirin or cider vinegar
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 4 teaspoons sesame oil
  • Zest and juice from 2 limes
Instructions
  1. Preheat your oven to a whopping 400 degrees Fahrenheit. (You don’t store anything in your oven, do you? Check!)
  2. Crunch up those noodles. Get someone small to help you. Divide them among the foil pieces. Then place on top the following: fish, mushrooms, zucchini, jalapeños, lime zest, salt and pepper.Wrapping time! Pull up the corners and side of the aluminum foil to all food is safely encased inside. Leave a “chimney” for pouring in the wet ingredients.
  3. Mix together the liquids: vegetable broth, mirin (what is that anyway?) or cider vinegar, soy sauce, lime juice, and sesame oil.
  4. Pour an equal amount down each chimney, sealing it off afterward, with the exception of a small steam vent.
  5. Pop it all on a baking sheet to contain and overflow.
  6. Bake those babies for 15 minutes and serve ’em up good and hot!

Did you try this recipe for baking fish in foil? Please share your experience and variations on pouch cooking in the comments below, and rate the recipe!

Visit Life Your Way to see all of the Ultimate blog Swap participants.