Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Menu Plan for the Week

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If you haven’t already, many of you who pre-ordered Oh, For Real should be receiving it in the mail any day now! (Those of you who just ordered last week – yours will be on its way tomorrow!)  I’ve heard back from several of you who have received your book already. Thank you so much for your encouraging responses!

Jolene:  Got my Oh, For Real book today in the mail!!! Loving it already!

Patty:  Just wanted to let you know that since bringing your book home my oldest (10 years) has been cooking up a storm. I have never seen him so excited to be in the kitchen. He is preparing everything with only a little guidance. We have had a lot of messes in the kitchen, but some delicious food.

Beth:  I got my book in the mail yesterday. I enjoyed looking through it last evening even though it made me hungry. I plan to share the book with my daughter.

I have to say (and I feel a little bit giggly as I say it) – Having my own cookbook in my kitchen has already been a tremendous help to me, too. I have to keep reminding myself that it’s there. My first response when I need to check a recipe is to run to the computer to look it up here on my website. Then I remember, “Laura! Look in your book!” And there it is. I’m so thankful for it, and I’m happy to say that so far, I’ve been careful enough not to spill anything on it. (Now that I’ve said that out loud, I will probably go goober it up with a pretty combination of chicken broth, barbecue sauce, and cookie dough.)

Here is what our menu plan looks like for this week:

Sunday, March 24
Homemade poptarts, apples
Barbecue chicken sandwiches, carrot sticks
Huddle at our friends’ house

Monday, March 25
Easy breakfast casserole, oranges
Pizza boats, peas
Cheesy salsa enchiladas, tossed salad

Tuesday, March 26
Quick mix pancakes, blueberries
Chicken patty sandwiches, creamy cole slaw, strawberry-peach slushies
Roasted chicken, potatoes, carrots, gravy

Wednesday, March 27
Peanut butter chocolate chip muffins, applesauce
Tacos
Alfredo sauce with pasta, tossed salad

Thursday, March 28
Blueberry coffeecake, apples
Homemade corndogs, green beans, carrot sticks
Creamy crockpot chicken and rice, tossed salad

Friday, March 29
Baked oatmeal cups, bananas
Cheese quesadillas, pears
Popcorn chicken, steamed veggies

Saturday, March 30
Granola, dried fruit
Leftovers
Potato soup, carrots

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Branson Ziplines, Springfield Meet and Greet, Playing Games, and My Weekend Plans

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It has been a very busy few months, and I’m not sure we’ll be slowing down any time soon. Spring soccer season has begun, our kids are preparing for LTC, and now that the book is finished, I hope to get caught up on all the work I am behind on! (Are any of us ever really caught up, though?!)

I wanted to take the time to share a few more highlights of our Branson trip:

Thanks to Donna, one of the awesome gals I met at the Branson Meet and Greet, Matt, Asa, and Justus got to experience the Adventure Ziplines of Branson. They loved it!

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The final day of our Branson vacation, my dad took us to ride go-carts and play games. The boys had a blast!! Who am I kidding? I had a blast too. :)

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On our way home from Branson, we stopped in Springfield for a Meet and Greet. I so enjoyed meeting and visiting with these wonderful ladies!!!

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Now that we’re home, we’ve been busy packaging and sending books, then picking up more books from the printer to start the process over again! Our boys were supposed to have their first soccer games Saturday, but they were cancelled because of snow. I have to admit, I was happy that they were cancelled. I feel like I’ve been given a bonus day to be home, rest, and get work done this weekend!

So, what do I plan to do with my bonus day? COOK and BAKE!!!  I need it, I want it, and I can not wait to get all floury and messy while I get caught up and maybe ahead in the kitchen. Here’s what I’m planning to make:

We’ll see how far I get. Sometimes, my to-do list gets longer than the hours in my day. 

What are your plans this weekend? 

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When Family Business and Homeschooling Come Together

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It was really all because of Matt. He’s the brilliant one. 

After breakfast, Bible, history, and math on Wednesday, Matt picked up several boxes of our Oh, For Real books from the printer and got everyone started on putting them into envelopes as we filled orders. Thanks to my friend Jenny, we had many of the envelopes already addressed and ready to go. By the time I made it out into the living room to help, here is what I found: 

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If that isn’t the picture of a family business, I don’t know what is. I was thrilled and grateful. But Matt hadn’t just put the kids to work on preparing orders. He had a geography lesson going on at the same time. Impressive, huh?!

You see, one of the many fun parts of printing off invoices as your orders have come in has been seeing where they are coming from. So, Matt had the younger boys get out our big U.S. puzzle to fill in the states as they showed up on each package. 

Here’s Malachi, looking to see if the state on his envelope has been put into place yet. In the meantime, I was burning lunch. Yep, I had hastily put a frozen casserole into the oven that morning while we worked, but had the oven turned up too high. Good grief. It seems as if I should get out my Oh, For Real book and read it! I’m pretty sure the instructions in the book tell me to heat the casserole slowly at a low temp. Duh. Be glad you can’t smell our burning noodles as you look at our book packaging process.

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By the time we were almost finished with “round one” of book packaging – our map looked like this:

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 I believe by now, it is completely full. How fun!

I want to say thank you to all of you who have ordered so far. We continue to pray that you will be blessed by Oh, For Real: Real Food, Real Family, Real Easy. For those of you who live outside the U.S., if you are interested in a copy of this book, please email me for details! Then maybe we can get out our World Map Puzzle to see where our book is headed… :)

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What Are The Gifts You Received Today?

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I know we focus on being thankful each Gratituesday around here. But hey, we can focus again on it later in the week, right?!

I am currently reading through Ann Voskamp’s book, One Thousand Gifts. It’s an amazing (and challenging) read, and I highly encourage this book. I am realizing the need tonight to focus on the blessings and gifts of today. Will you join me? 

Some of my gifts today…

~ We got to eat lots of veggies!! Always wonderful after traveling. ;)

~ I was blessed to have a most encouraging telephone conversation with my Aunt Millie this morning. Oh how I love, need, and am inspired by that woman. She is a beautiful woman of God. She begins chemo treatments tomorrow. And there she was encouraging me…

~  Prayer. What would we do without it?

~  It’s the first day of spring! It is still cold here, but today, the sunshine busted through the windows, giving us just a hint of what is to come.

~  I got to be sharpened in Ladies Bible Class tonight. I am surrounded there by godly women. 

~  We have enough food in our fridge for leftovers at lunchtime tomorrow. Hooray for the thirteen peas!

~  I got to squeeze in a work-out today. It was just what I needed after sitting in the van (and eating cheesecake) yesterday.

~  Since I was able to keep up with laundry at our lodge in Branson, by tonight, I only have one load left to do from our trip. 

~  There were casseroles in the freezer for us to warm up and eat today so that I didn’t have to stop working to cook. 

~  You. I am blessed by each of you who choose to read my thoughts and ideas here on this blog. I appreciate you.

~  Made-up songs. My boys come up with them daily. Today was no exception. Sometimes they even rhyme. And they are always ridiculously funny. 

~  Crashing in my own bed. That ranks right up there with eating veggies after returning home from vacation. :)

What about you? Share the gifts of today. What comes to mind? In what ways are you blessed?

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Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

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 This recipe for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins looked too good to pass up – and it was super easy to makeover with healthier ingredients. We all loved the results. (Except for Malachi, who didn’t try them because he doesn’t like peanut butter. He’s missing out!)

Yum

Have a recipe you’d like me to try and make over?
Submit your recipes on this Real Food Recipe Makeover Submission Page.

It probably goes without saying that these muffins taste awesome with a glass of milk. They are easy to make ahead of time and serve the following day. (Although they really do taste best right out of the oven. Doesn’t everything?!)  These muffins freeze well. They make a great snack. I love recipes like this! It doesn’t get any easier!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins
 
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Author:
Ingredients
  • 6 Tablespoons butter, melted
  • ½ cup natural peanut butter
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • 2¼ cups whole wheat flour
  • ⅔ cup sucanat
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • ¾ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. In a small saucepan, melt together the butter and the peanut butter.
  2. Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, salt, and sucanat.
  3. Add melted butter and peanut butter, eggs, and milk.
  4. Stir until well combined, then fold in the chocolate chips.
  5. Scoop batter into 18-24 paper lined muffin cups.
  6. Bake at 375° for 15-20 minutes or until muffins are golden brown.

Notes:

  • I use homemade peanut butter. It is amazing, so if you haven’t tried your hand at making peanut butter, learn soon! You’ll love it and it’s much easier than you think!
  • I use freshly ground flour made from hard or soft white wheat. Soft wheat works best as it is lighter and fluffier (more like white flour – except still nourishing).
  • Make these muffins even more moist by subbing 1/2 cup of milk for 1/2 cup of sour cream.
  • Make these muffins ahead of time, freezing the batter like this. You’ll love this time-saving trick!
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Are you a chocolate/peanut butter fan?

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Gratituesday: Play Time!

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I’m not very good at taking down time. I love being productive with my time, working hard, feeding people, doing-doing-doing.

But getting away, taking turns cooking (and cleaning!), playing games, going on fun outings – I have found it so refreshing the past few days.

Branson is full of fun things to do. We took the kids to the fish hatchery (I’ll try to share pictures after I have a chance to upload more of them) and then did a little hiking (all free!). Our hike took us to a beautiful lake, where the kids had a blast skipping rocks. And hooray, the sun was shining bright that day! I LOVED being in the sun after months of winter cloudiness!

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We splurged and took the kids to The Price is Right Live show one evening. We all had SO much fun – even if none of us got called up to be on contestant’s row. :)

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I’ll share more about our adventures another day. (Hey, I’m still on vacation while I write this, after all.)  :)  Today, I’m thankful for a fun get away with extended family. I am well rested and ready to go again! That’s a good thing, because there is a lot of work waiting for us once we get home!!

Share how God is working in your life on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for! Please read through the Gratituesday Guidelines so that you understand what kinds of posts you can link up to share here. Posts that are linked but do not fit our Gratituesday theme will be deleted.

If you are linking up a blog post for Gratituesday, please copy and paste the following sentence into your post! Thanks!

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

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Menu Plan for the Week – and Our First Two Meet and Greet Events!

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Our family is hanging out in Branson with extended family for a long weekend – having a blast!! What I’m most excited to share with you though, is that our first two Meet and Greet events were SO MUCH FUN!!

I was excited about it and knew it would be fun to meet some of you. I just had no idea how much fun it would be. We laughed. We met each other’s kids. We shared. We asked questions. We laughed some more.

Thank you so much to all of you who took the time to come for a visit. This made me want to take a huge tour so that I’d have the opportunity to meet more of you! Someday, maybe our family will make it to your area. :)  (Here are the upcoming  Meet and Greet events we know of for sure. And if you’re anywhere close to Springfield, MO – please come visit on Tuesday, March 19! Read the time and location details here.)

Below is a picture of part of our group in Kansas City. There were a lot more kids playing in a different room, and another gal showed up later (forgot to get a picture at that time!). And just in case you were wondering, we hid all of our sugary drinks before having Matt snap the shot. Oh wait, did I just rat all of us out?!?! Oops. :)

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Here’s the group at Branson. Don’t worry. We weren’t hiding our sugary drinks in this picture. We just hadn’t ordered them yet.  ;)

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Here is a good guess as to a menu plan for this week. Here’s hoping by the time we get home, I will have enough of a brain to follow it. If not, we can always resort to Creamy Mac and Cheese with a veggie.

Sunday, March 17
Banana muffins, apples
Taco bar with all the fixin’s (cooked by another family member)
Bbq beef brisket, baked potatoes, green beans, cream cheese corn (cooked by yours truly)

Monday, March 18
Giant breakfast cookies, applesauce
Burgers on the grill (cooked by another family member)
Supper – Reservation at Mel’s Hard Luck Diner (my dad has a gift certificate!)

Tuesday, March 19
Traveling day – not sure what we’re eating but we’ll see you Springfield, MO folks at Panera Bread at 10:30! I can not wait!

Wednesday, March 20
Baked oatmeal cups, clementines
Easy noodle stir-fry with broccoli and carrots
Chicken fried steak strips, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas

Thursday, March 21
Pancake sausage muffins, applesauce
Cheeseburger macaroni, green beans
Creamy chicken and rice casserole, carrots, tossed salad

Friday, March 22
Honey whole wheat bread with peanut butter and honey, grapes
Homemade pizza, fruit salad
Salmon patties, rice with butter, tossed salad, steamed broccoli

Saturday,  March 23
Homemade granola with dried fruit and milk
Leftovers
Potato soup, carrots

Are any of you enjoying a spring break?  :)
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Practicing My “Oh, For Real” Tips and Tricks

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Ever read the acknowledgements in the front of a parenting book that say something like, “A big thanks to my sister, who took care of my kids while I was writing this book.” Get the irony there? The author can’t take care of her kids…while she’s writing a parenting book. Hahaha…makes total sense, and cracks me up.

But, I’ve got to admit:  The last few weeks while I was finishing Oh, For Real: Real Food, Real Family, Real Easy – I certainly didn’t do everything I was describing in the book. We did continue to eat real food. It was all homemade. I totally drew the line at ordering pizza when I was writing about avoiding take-out. But I was very much squeaking by each day, not doing anything to prepare food ahead of time to make life easier. I should have just stopped for a few hours and spent some much needed time putting healthy convenience food into the freezer! But I was determined to finish the book, even if it meant that I was scrambling eggs or asking the kids to cook more often than normal.

We didn’t starve, we didn’t make compromises, and we all stayed healthy – even if I was fumbling around with last minute Creamy Mac and Cheese and frozen peas more often than is typical. All that to say – with the book finished and at the printer, I have had so much fun this week in the kitchen – practicing what I had written about, using many of the recipes I had shared in the book, enjoying the methods that make life so much easier each day as we work to eat healthy, whole foods!

Here’s another bit of irony: While I was making each of these foods this week, I was SO wishing I had my book right in front of me! (I didn’t get my proof copy until I had all of this food already made.)  Without the book, I kept having to run to the computer to look at the recipes on my site, double checking ingredients and measurements. It wasn’t the end of the world – especially if Matt was sitting at the computer because that is, of course, always a convenient time to flirt. 

Did I just write that out loud?  {blush}

Ummm, but anyway. It sure is nice to have the book in my kitchen now. And I’ll just have to find other opportunities to flirt. (Goodness, now I’m all flustered. I should really just move on and start talking about my pizza crust. {cough}

Yes indeed, I made a double batch of Whole Wheat Pizza Crust, which will be wonderful for the boys to take out of the freezer and make individual pizzas in the toaster oven.

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I also made a double batch of Whole Wheat Quick Mix. 

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In preparation for our trip, I made Chewy Granola Bars, Breakfast Cookies, and Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins (recipe coming soon).

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I had a blast! I’m talking about the cooking session – not the flirting. I think. Oh, never mind. ;)

If you’re interested, you can read my thoughts on The Great Marriage Flirt here. 

Done any flirting extra cooking lately?

 

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Lilla Rose Flexi-Clip Giveaway

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It’s time for another Lilla Rose giveaway! These are always so much fun. :)

I continue to love my Flexi-Clips, wearing them almost daily. Did you see the March Special? It’s so pretty! I’m thinking I should get it to wear to Asa’s basketball games next year, since his team colors are green and white. As a supportive mom up in the stands, I really should be well accessorized and coordinated, don’t you think?! :)

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Just a note about how nice Flexi-Clips are to wear:  I am always amazed each time I pull my hair up in a rubber band for a workout. It doesn’t take long before it starts to pull and hurt my head. But whenever I wear a Flexi-Clip, I can go all day and feel perfectly comfortable. I love this about my Flexi-Clip – not to mention the fact that it’s pretty. :)  Oh, and another thing about rubber bands? They stretch out after I wear them just a few times, so I find that I have to purchase new ones often. But with my Flexi-Clip – I’ve been wearing the same one almost every day for well over two years. It’s a great investment!

I’m not into fancy hairstyles – just a ponytail is how you’ll usually find me. But it’s so much fun to see other fun ways to wear your hair, using either a Flexi-Clip, or any of the other great accessories at Lilla Rose. How pretty is this?

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Today, I’m excited to share that four winners of this giveaway will receive their choice of Flexi-Clip, or any item valued up to $16. Fun! For a chance to win, leave a comment on this post. For a second entry, look around Paula’s site, then come back and leave a second comment letting us know which Flexi-Clip is your favorite. For a third entry, like Paula’s Lilla Rose Page on Facebook.

I’ll draw four random winners on Monday, March 18. Be watching for a post stating the winners as you will be responsible for contacting me if your name is chosen!

girl red hair

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Chili Mac ~ Real Food Dollar Menu

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I have a love-hate relationship with leftovers.

Most of the time, I really do love them. On the days I have way too many items on my to-do list and just don’t have time to cook – it’s great to just pull out leftovers to warm up and eat. But on the other hand, having a fridge full of little tid-bits of this and that? It makes my fridge look cluttered, which kinda makes me feel annoyed.

This, my friends, is what we call a “first world problem.” Too many leftovers? So much food in my fridge that I can’t find what I’m looking for? So many people around the world long to have the “problems” I have.

When I have to slide all sorts of bowls and jars around in my fridge, just to find the peanut butter stuffed way in the back? It’s a waste of a good thirty seconds of my life.

Ooh, and you know what’s really annoying? When I make enough peas for each of us to have a nice serving. And then the last person leaves about 13 peas in the pan. Why? Just take the rest of the peas, for goodness sake! I do not want to find a little container for 13 leftover peas, and then put them into the fridge so that I can slide them all around when I’m looking for peanut butter. Likely, they’ll become forgotten and fuzzy because really? Who wants to take the time to re-heat 13 peas?

Oh to have the luxury of complaining about “all” the food in my refrigerator. I truly am thankful for all of the food on my shelves – even the container of 13 forgotten peas. I promise to always be grateful for the cluttery tid-bits.

(But really, if you are the last one to serve yourself at my house, and there are a few peas floating at the bottom of the pan, please, for the love of my sanity as I search for peanut butter, just put them on your plate and eat them already.)

And now for a real food recipe that costs a very small amount of money and uses up some of the leftovers that are taking up space in your fridge.

Chili MacYum

6 cups (give or take) leftover chili
2 cups water
4 cups whole wheat or rice pasta (any shape)
Sea salt to taste
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

In a large pot, bring chili and water to a boil. Add uncooked pasta. Cover and cook on medium heat until pasta is tender. Sprinkle in salt, according to your taste. Serve with shredded cheddar cheese sprinkled on top.

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Estimated cost of this meal? About 65¢ per person. And that includes the peas. All of them – even the last 13.

*I calculated my cost based on the food sources and prices I have available to me. Most of the ingredients I use are organic. Your cost may be slightly more or less depending on where you find your ingredients.

If you are sick of chili, and don’t want to eat your leftovers immediately – simply spread this Chili Mac mixture into a 9×13 inch baking dish, top with cheese, cover, and freeze. Reheat another day.

I am happy to report that the day recently when I served Chili Mac, there were no leftover peas. But just in case, maybe I should come up with a recipe that uses 13 peas…

Looking for more meals on our Real Food Dollar Menu? Here are the recipes I’ve shared so far:

Stay tuned for many more recipes and ideas for our Real Food Dollar Menu!

Are you a fan of leftovers? Do you sometimes find a few straggly uneaten peas in the pan? 

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