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Flexitarian Meals are simple with Marie Callender’s from Walmart

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My husband and I have made responsible choices for our purchases and would often make vegetarian dishes to reduce meat consumption. But, upon having kids, something changed. Our dedication to make flexitarian choices seemed even more important because our decisions directly impact our kids. But life gets busy. And meals from scratch get more difficult (especially on the weeknights). But flexitarian meals are simple with Marie Callender’s Chick’n Pot Pie made with Gardein Plant-Based Chick’n from Walmart.

Flexitarian Meals are simple with Marie Callender's from Walmart

What is Flexitarian?

A flexitarian is considered someone who follows a less-strict form of vegetarianism. Personally, I just really enjoy meat-free meals!

Why Marie Callender’s?

I grew up eating Marie Callender’s Pot Pies. It’s one of my favorite comfort foods. And Marie Callender’s Chick’n Pot Pie made with Gardein Plant-Based Chick’n is my go-to for that comfort food feeling. It’s made with the same golden, flaky, crust you know and love. But with Gardein Plant-Based Chick’n!

Flexitarian Meals are simple with Marie Callender's

Marie Callender’s Chick’n Pot Pie made with Gardein Plant-Based Chick’n is a regular family favorite in our house. My kids have no idea they are eating Gardein Plant-Based Chick’n. Plus they’re getting all of the veggies they need.

Flexitarian on a budget?

With three kids and two adults to feed, a flexitarian meal plan can easily go over budget. But it doesn’t have to. In fact, I work our flexitarian meals into our regular shopping from Walmart Grocery Pickup and we stay well within our grocery budget. It’s true! The Walmart frozen section is actually full of vegetarian, dairy-free, and flexitarian meals to satisfy the whole family.

Tips for Specialty Diet Shopping at Walmart

If you’re on the fence, add a couple of these to your next Walmart grocery pick up order and try them for yourself. I think you’ll be surprised at how much it tastes like the ‘real’ thing. And who knows! Perhaps you’ll be ready to try out the flexitarian lifestyle, too!

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Tips for Specialty Diet Shopping at Walmart

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bit.ly/3kSzTsOWhen I first became I mom I truly thought I was prepared for everything. I naively thought that sleep issues would be the hardest. Sure, sleep issues were (and are still) difficult. But what really threw me off was finding out that all three of them had dairy intolerances. I had to get inventive with the food we were all eating. I’m going to share all of my tips for specialty diet shopping at Walmart.

Tips for Specialty Diet Shopping at Walmart

Yep, believe it or not, you can do all of your regular shopping and specialty food shopping at Walmart. Here’s how to save money and find all of your favorites at Walmart.

Do your research

I know so many people who think to themselves, “I could never be dairy free / vegan / flexitarian because I’m too busy to make meals from scratch.” Newsflash: there are plenty of ready-made options for you to choose from. Companies like Marie Callender’s, Amy’s Kitchen, Good Food Made Simple, and So Delicious make it easy to grab-and-go for the whole family. And, yep — they can all be found in your Walmart freezer section.

Shopping at Walmart

Don’t get overwhelmed

For many people, trying to dive into a specialty diet can seem overwhelming. Want to try and cut out meat? Do it! But that doesn’t mean you have to eat only raw veggies. Meat free options have come a long way in recent years. For instance, Marie Callender’s famous pot pies are now available with Gardein Plant-Based Chick’n! So you’ll get the same flavors you know and love, with the perfect meat substitute. Of course having veggies as a side is always a good idea. But, at least with these feel-good and convenient items, you can feel less overwhelmed about the changes you’re making in your food choices.

Tips for Specialty Diet Shopping at Walmart

My kids don’t even know that their Good Food Made Simple French Toast is whole-grain. They just love the flavors! The Cauliflower Kung Pao is also gluten-free. And don’t even tell them my secret about Amy’s Kitchen Pizza (shhh — it’s made with a veggie crust!) or Amy’s Mac N 3 Cheese with Cauliflower!

Enjoy a stress-free dessert

Once you start looking at food labels, you’ll find that many of the items you *thought* were off limits actually are not. When the kids and I went dairy-free, I was really worried about dessert options. Ice cream is a go-to for most kids (and adults). These days the options for dairy-free desserts are endless. Our go-to frozen snack are the So Delicious® Dairy Free Salted Caramel Frozen Dessert Bars from Walmart. Super creamy, flavorful, and you would never even guess they don’t contain dairy!

Save money whenever possible

Going vegan, dairy free, or even as meat-free doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact, I do all of our weekly shopping with Walmart.com and use their convenient pickup options. That way we always have our favorite pizza’s, snacks, and dinners without breaking the bank.

Tips for Specialty Diet Shopping at Walmart

Tell me — what’s your favorite way to save money with Walmart on your specialty food items?

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PIN ME - I'm going to share all of my tips for specialty diet shopping at Walmart. Yep all of these are from Walmart! #ad #meatless #amyskitchen
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Back to school with an Ohio 529 Plan

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Back to school season is in full swing across the country. Things may look a little different this year, but some things will always stay the same. One of those things that is always the same is this: we can prepare our children for the future starting now. This back to school season I’m doing what we always do — investing in an Ohio 529 Plan.

Back to school with an Ohio 529 Plan

What is an Ohio 529 Plan?

A 529 Savings Plan is a lot like a 401k. It’s an easy, tax-friendly way to save for your children’s higher education. Ohio’s 529 Plan can be used across the country for 2-year and 4-year programs as well as technical schools. Fun fact: Ohio’s 529 Plans can be used to fund your education nationwide — not just in the state of Ohio. And withdrawals from your plan are tax free when used for eligible education expenses.

Why now?

I used to be one of those people who would only (and could only) think about the here and now. But having kids changes a person. Now I can barely make it through a day without thinking about their futures and how I want to do everything in my power to set them up for success.

Back to school with an Ohio 529 Plan

Whether your child is sixteen or 1, you can take steps today to prepare for their future education — even if you have no idea what that higher education may look like! By using this, you can calculate see how inaction can negatively impact your higher education finances. You don’t need to have a massive amount of money to get yourself started, so why wait?

How to get started

It’s honestly super easy to get started to open an Ohio 529 Plan. Here’s what you’ll need:

  1. Your ID, social security number, telephone number, address, your date of birth, and your mothers maiden name.
  2. The telephone number, social security number, address, and date of birth of your successor (someone to take over the account should something happen to you).
  3. And lastly, the date of birth, telephone number, address, and social security number of the person you’re saving for.
Back to school with an Ohio 529 Plan

So why not take this change in season to reevaluate the future of your children’s education. Open an Ohio 529 Plan today!

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Back to school with an Ohio 529 Plan

How Lexington Law is Helping Me Recover My Credit

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I remember my Senior Year of high school like it was yesterday. The excitement and anticipation of what was to come was a total rush! At the time, every impressionable adult in my life urged me to go to college, despite being ‘undecided’ on a major. My guidance counselor urged me and my parents to take out student loans because, in her words, the return on the investment would be worth it. And interest rates were so low, right?! Well, that’s not exactly true. But even years after my college graduation, Lexington Law is helping recover my credit from student loan debt.

ABOUT LEXINGTON LAW

I’ve talked in great detail about my credit journey. Well, I’ve been a college graduate for nearly 14 years, and I am embarrassed by the amount of student loan debt still looming over me. Despite making monthly payments on all of my student loans, I could never seem to get ahead. Did you know that despite the ‘low interest rates’ your actual amount due over the principal will grow and grow and grow?! It’s honestly insane how much money I was throwing away towards interest.

How Lexington Law is Helping Me Recover My Credit

That’s where Lexington Law comes in. As a law firm, they have actual lawyers to drive the credit repair process and intervene as needed. They take questionable negative items, which are things in your credit history that could lower your score, and they challenge them.

How Lexington Law is Helping Me Recover My Credit

Lexington Law are trusted leaders in credit repair for a reason. They use a three-step process which is proven to help repair credit. The first step is to analyze your report to identify any questionable negatives impacting your score. The second step is to address these items by challenging them with creditors. And the third step is to accelerate by keeping the process going to get individual clients to their goals!

HOW TO GET STARTED

When you first call Lexington Law, a credit advisor will pull a TransUnion Summary Report and FICO Score for free. While it only shows the first 5 of your negative items, it’s enough to get an idea of where you stand credit-wise and how it’s impacting your current situation.

How Lexington Law is Helping Me Recover My Credit

From there, should you decide to use Lexington Laws services, you’ll be charged a one-time fee of $14.99 to pull all of your reports and histories. From there you’ll be charged a “First Work Fee”. This First Work Fee helps get your case started. Their advisors will start analyzing reports and start the credit repair process.

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO USE LEXINGTON LAW

As a young 17-year-old headed off to college, I had no idea how those massive student loans would haunt me for years to come. But calling Lexington Law has helped me go from feeling defeated to feeling hopeful. Now there’s a plan in place and I have trusted leaders on my side. And now I spend less time worrying, and more time with my family.

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So call Lexington Law today and kickstart your credit repair journey. Because your credit is not written in stone!

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How Lexington Law is Helping Me Recover My Credit

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Instant Pot Copycat Panera Mac and Cheese

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Busy weeknights are back. And that means I have even less time to make dinner for our family of 5. One of my favorite ways to save time on meals is by using my Instant Pot. And, by far, one of my families favorite weeknight meals is this Instant Pot Copycat Panera Mac and Cheese!

Instant Pot Copycat Panera Mac and Cheese

Panera Mac and Cheese is one of my families favorite guilty pleasures. But, guess what? It’s crazy expensive! I mean, for the serving size, it just seems ridiculous to pay $8 or $9 for a large macaroni and cheese when you can make 4-6 servings of the same thing for a fraction of the cost.

Instant Pot Copycat Panera Mac and Cheese

What you’ll need

The recipe itself is so crazy easy. And it takes very few ingredients.

Instant Pot Mac and cheese prep
  • 16 ounces (or one pound) of pasta shells
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 4 tablespoons margarine
  • 8 ounces White Cheddar Cheese, shredded
  • 6 slices White American Cheese
  • 1 cup Milk
  • Black Pepper, optional

We use the big pasta shells because my kids know that those are the kind that Panera uses. And sometimes I have to ‘trick’ my kids into eating. And whatever works, right?

The process

If you are new to pressure cooking, this is a great recipe to start your Instant Pot journey off with. Instant Pot meals are oftentimes dump-and-start. This one is dump-and-start until the end. After the noodles are cooked is when you mix in the cheese. And then — bam! — done!

The prep time is listed as 4 minutes, but it truly shouldn’t take you that long. You’ll start by adding the pasta, butter, and salt to your Instant Pot. Add 4 cups of water, and then give a good stir making sure each noodle has been mixed with the water.

Close the lid on the Instant Pot, and turn the valve to sealed. Choose High Pressure and adjust the timer for 4 minutes. It will take about 10 minutes for your Instant Pot to come to pressure (hence the ‘extra time’ in the recipe). Once the time is up, manually release by pulling the valve to you and opening it. Be sure to open using a towel, hot pad, or long wooden spoon.

Instant Pot Copycat Panera Mac and Cheese

You’ll want to remove some of the water from the pot. No need to make sure all is gone, just a bit. Then just add in the shredded cheese, slices cheese, and milk to the noodles. Mix until fully melted and incorporated. That’s it!

Instant Pot Copycat Panera Mac and Cheese

The Recipe

Instant Pot Copycat Panera Mac and Cheese

Instant Pot Copycat Panera Mac and Cheese
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 4 minutes
Additional Time 10 minutes
Total Time 19 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 pound Pasta Shells
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 4 tablespoons margarine
  • 8 ounces White Cheddar Cheese, shredded
  • 6 slices White American Cheese
  • 1 cup Milk
  • Black Pepper, optional

Instructions

    1. Add to your Instant Pot pasta, butter, and salt. Add 4 cups of water, and then give a good stir making sure each noodle has been mixed with the water.
      Instant Pot Mac and cheese prep
      Instant Pot Noodles
    2. Close the lid on the Instant Pot, and turn the valve to sealed.
    3. Choose High Pressure for 4 minutes. It will take about 10 minutes for your IP to come to pressure. 
    4. Once the time is up, manually release by pulling the valve to you and opening it. Make sure to open using a towel or hot pad. 
    5. Remove some of the water from the pot. No need to make sure all is gone, just a bit. 
    6. Add in the shredded cheese, slices cheese, and milk to the noodles. Mix until fully incorporated. 
      Instant Pot cheese
    7. Serve in bowls, and enjoy! 
      Instant Pot Copycat Panera Mac and Cheese
© Rachel

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Invest in their future on 529 Day!

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Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. All opinions herein are my own.

We have been on a roller coaster lately. Times of uncertainty have been upon us and our children are going through something that will forever change their lives. Their education has been transformed overnight. Parents are working harder than ever to keep up with working and schooling, whilst also planning for the future.

There isn’t just one way to educate

Education happens in so many ways. Over these last few months, I’ve come to not only appreciate my children’s educators even more, but I’ve also learned that education comes in so many forms. Playing outdoors, making kitchen science experiments, and even planting a garden are incredible ways of learning. My 7-year-old even took part in an online coding camp!

Education doesn’t stop at school

We all now know this (whether we wanted to or not!). Our children are always learning, always listening, and always growing. Literally every single part of their days are spent learning about the world around them. And it’s our job to help nurture the process of education.

Invest in your child’s future with Ohio’s 529 Plan

As an adult with a decent amount of student loan debt, I can attest to the fact that the cost of higher education can be daunting. Regardless of your child’s age, opening an account with Ohio’s 529 Plan right now is the perfect way to invest in their future education.

Ohio’s 529 Plan can be used across the country at both 2- and 4-year programs and technical schools. Using the College Saving Planner you can see how an investment of any amount today can truly help cover the cost of schooling later!

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Your child doesn’t need to know what they want to be today. My son still says he wants to be a YouTuber. But tomorrow he may say he wants to be a video game engineer. And, heck! He’ll probably at some point say he wants to be an electrician. The point is, any financial investment in Ohio’s 529 Plan today will help him to be whatever his heart desires. He can use the funds for a 4-year school as an engineer, or he can use the funds towards a technical school to be an electrician.

You only need a few items to start the process of opening Ohio’s 529 Plan and you do not need to be a resident of the state of Ohio! In fact, if you are an out-of-state grandparent or relative of a child and would like to give the gift of education, this is a great way to start. You can open and contribute to the plan for the beneficiary of your choosing.

Ohio's 529 Plan - Invest with Confidence

What better time to make an investment in Ohio’s 529 Plan than on May 29th?!

May 29th, or “529 Day,” is a day to highlight the importance of higher education. Ohio’s 529 Plan has partnered with BlackRock Investments to host a webinar (which you can find here) to provide helpful tips on how to save and prepare for the future during a volatile market. The webinar is completely free and will provide you with all the tips to help you invest in your children’s future with confidence!

The benefits of investing in Ohio’s 529 Plan

Investing in Ohio’s 529 Plan means you’re accruing tax-free compound interest towards your future education expenses. You’ll also receive a tax deduction of up to $4,000 per year for each beneficiary. You can use this tool to see the real Cost of Waiting to see just how much your money can grow by investing in an Ohio’s 529 Plan versus a low-interest savings account.

But what about market turbulance?

Ohio’s 529 Plan has teamed up with BlackRock to discuss this very thing during a live webinar on May 28th. You can register for this webinar at no charge here.

Check out my video for information on how to get started!

Tell me — how many of you could use $250 to start your Ohio 529 Plan?!

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