Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Gratituesday: Missing Teeth

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I am continually thankful for our four healthy boys. Health is nothing to take for granted. As I catch myself when my boys whiz by me with their crazy, neverending high levels of energy…and shake my head as they constantly outgrow their jeans and shoes, I am reminded to praise God for the blessing of kids who are doing exactly what He created them to do:  grow, learn, change, become stronger and become young men with big appetites and big hearts.

Our youngest lost the first of his wiggly teeth this week. It was bittersweet for me. He was pretty proud of those tiny baby teeth he got to put under his pillow.

This was Malachi’s attempt as smiling and showing the gap
on his bottom row of teeth all at the same time!

I love my boys…and their Daddy, who is doing such a great job of showing them what it means to be a man of God.

What are you thankful for this Gratituesday? Write about it 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!

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Homemade (Healthier) Chocolate Milk

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I have not one, but two recipes to share with you today in regard to making a healthier variety of chocolate milk. If at all possible, I encourage you to stay away from commercial chocolate syrup, as it is full of high fructose corn syrup and corn syrup. (You can’t tell, but I’m making a “blechy” face right now and it isn’t pretty.)

This first recipe for Chocolate Syrup is from a friend of mine right here in town. {hi, Nancy!}  It’s the easiest recipe ever, making it a perfect solution for those of you who really want your chocolate syrup but want to avoid HFCS.

Homemade Chocolate SyrupYum

1 cup sucanat
1/2 cup cocoa
dash of sea salt
1 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix sucanat, cocoa, sea salt and water in a medium sauce pan. Whisk ingredients together and cook on medium-high heat until the mixture begins to boil. Boil for one minute. Remove from heat. Allow mixture to cool for just a few minutes. Stir in vanilla extract.

Add Homemade Chocolate Syrup to your glass of milk to taste. Store syrup in the refrigerator.

If you look real close, you can see a reflection of me with my camera
in the round part of this cute little pour bottle.
Try to focus on the chocolate syrup. I wasn’t having a good hair day.

Homemade Chocolate Syrup

The boys have declared this Chocolate Syrup to be quite delicious.
It will be a special treat every once in a while at our house!

Now for recipe number two.  This is how I’ve been making chocolate milk for the past several years. (Makes you wonder why it took me so long to share this, huh? I have lots of excuses.)

Now don’t freak out or anything, but I often add a few raw, farm fresh eggs into the blender when I’m mixing these up. I don’t worry one bit about getting sick from raw eggs that come straight from my friend’s farm. Their chickens are allowed to roam free all day long and eat all the healthiest chicken feed and you know…bugs. Healthy chickens means healthy eggs, and we eat them free of fear. Raw eggs are great brain food.

Okay, this post is not about the safety of raw eggs. But I did just want to let you know that if you want to add farm fresh, free ranged eggs to this Quick Blender Chocolate Milk recipe, you’ll find that the nutrition level goes WAY up, as does the creamy-richness of this chocolate milk! (I really don’t recommend putting raw eggs into this – or into anything – if the eggs are not organic, free range, farm fresh eggs. Please do your own research about this to determine what you feel is safe.)

Quick Blender Chocolate Milk

6 cups of milk
3 Tablespoons cocoa
4 Tablespoons real grade b maple syrup (give or take, depending on your taste)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Put all ingredients into your blender and mix well.

Chocolate Milkshakes

Malachi LOVES the job of serving the Chocolate Milk out of our fun blender.

So there you go. Many of you were screaming for a healthier chocolate milk recipe, so now you have not one, but two to choose from!

And now, the Heavenly Homemakers Recipe Challenge continues. I’m in the process of figuring out a healthier Onion Soup Mix recipe and have played a little bit with Angel Food Cake. The Angel Food Cake I tried first completely sank and went from four inches tall to 2 inches tall. I’m still working on it. I guess that’s why this is called a “challenge”, huh? :)

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Menu Plan for the Week

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I know I might sound like a broken record…but I’d really love to encourage you to make a menu plan. Menu planning helps save money, time and sanity!! Feel free to steal mine if you want (my menu plan…not my sanity). If you need some extra help organizing and planning your meals, I recommend that you take advantage of Say Mmm’s free services! 

Here’s what we’re planning to eat this week:

Sunday, February 27
Easy breakfast casserole, oranges
Hearty bean casserole, peaches
Corndog muffins, green beans, carrot sticks

Monday, February 28
Mini breakfast pizza, creamy orange cooler
Tuna salad on toast, cottage cheese and peaches
Potato soup, raw veggies with ranch dip

Tuesday, March 1
Simple soaked pancakes, blueberries
Cheeseburger macaroni, steamed carrots
Chicken ‘n biscuits, tossed salad

Wednesday, March 2
Breakfast burritos, applesauce
Sloppy cornbread muffins, peas
Roasted chicken, potatoes, carrots, gravy

Thursday, March 3
Vanilla muffins with cinnamon crumb topping
Chicken and rice soup, banana muffins
Lasagna, tossed salad, corn

Friday, March 4
Whole wheat sourdough biscuits, fried eggs, hashbrowns
Bean dip with organic corn chips, fruit
Chicken fried steak strips, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas

Saturday, March 5
Homemade poptarts
Leftovers
Sub sandwiches, carrot sticks, apples

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Just a quick reminder that the 10% off Heavenly Homemakers coupon code (HHFEB) for MadeOn Dry Skin Care Products  ends tomorrow, February 28! If you want to read more about how my dry, cracked and bleeding hands are a thing of the past…read all the good things I have say about MadeOn Procucts here!

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Two Simple Ways to Get Ahead in the Kitchen

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It may be apparent after you read this post that somebody got a little bit wheat grinder happy this week, thoroughly enjoying a small portion of the 300 pounds of hard white wheat that had been delivered. (You can read all my posts involving grain and grinding grain here, in case you’re interested in reading about my grainy obsession.)

I couldn’t help myself. After being sick myself and taking care of a family of sickies for the past four weeks (that influenza stuff is a BEAR), to have energy again and healthy children with appetites is truly delightful. I’ve been spending extra time in the kitchen, trying to make up for lost time it would seem. I loved every minute of it.

Okay, maybe not the dirty dishes part.

Dirty dishes aside (and really – I shouldn’t complain about the blessing of having so many people to dirty up dishes at my house), I loved being able to bake and cook a little extra this week in order to have healthy convenience foods in my freezer. Two things occurred to me as I was participating in this mad flour grinding, recipe mixing up, dough kneading, cooking ahead extravaganza this week, and I would like to share them with you.

Here are two of the simplest ways I’ve found to get ahead in the kitchen:

1. Cook or bake just one extra thing each day, if at all possible.  This might mean that you brown up several pounds of hamburger to have on hand for an easy casserole, tacos, sloppy joes, etc. Or it might be that you whip up some snacks to have on hand for the kids. Or maybe you could cook up some brown rice to have for simple meal prep the next day. It doesn’t have to be complicated or time consuming. But if you happen to be home and have a few extra moments during the day, utilize it for cooking up a little something extra to make for convenience on those days you barely have time to cook at all because you’re running around crazy-like. 

2.  If you’re mixing up one batch, you might as well mix up two (or three) batches.  You’re already making a mess. You’re already getting out the needed ingredients. Why not double or triple up the recipe and make plenty of extra of whatever it is you’re making, then put the leftovers in the freezer for a busy day. I love doing this with Whole Wheat Waffles, Easy Lasagnas, Muffins…whatever freezes well and reheats easily.

Here are just a few pictures of the food items I made this week in my efforts to get ahead. Let me clarify something though:  Not every week is this productive for me in the kitchen. I happened to be home most of the week without many outside engagements, allowing me to really focus on teaching my kids and working in the kitchen. Now I  have several quick foods in the freezer to easily warm up on those days where we’re running to ball games and practices, or dentist appointments or any other event that makes it difficult to spend time cooking.


Chocolate Chip Cookies and Easy Lasagnas

Honey Whole Wheat Bread (x2)

Whole Wheat Waffles (x2)

Homemade Whole Wheat Rolls (recipe found in Heavenly Homemaker’s Guide to Holiday Hospitality)

Whole Wheat Tortillas (x4)

Meat and Cheese Burritos

Sloppy Cornbread Muffins

Banana Muffins (x2)

Whole Wheat Vanilla Wafers (x2)

What did my kids do while I was doing this extra cooking? Most of the time, they were sitting in the kitchen with me, doing their school work. They also spent a fair amount of time playing with a huge box, shooting things, and eating the food I was making. 

What did my dust and clutter do while I was doing all this extra cooking? Let’s not talk about it.

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How to Be a Cool Nana

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The following is a guest post by Teresa Bell Kindred who blogs at Nanahood. She’s a Nana who likes to have fun, but she asked me to be sure to let you know she’s kidding. I mean, I think she’s kidding. I’m pretty sure she’s kidding. No really, she’s kidding.  :)

I can’t let David Letterman out do me, so here are my Top Ten Ways To Be A Cool Nana…..

10. Tattoo your grandchild’s name on your arm. If you have several grandchildren use both arms. If this doesn’t sound appealing use an ink pen for the tats and wash it off after your grandchildren visit.

9. Feed your grandchildren as much candy and as many soft drinks as they can hold, but make sure you only do this when they are not spending the night with you. Unless of course you like staying up all night watching Miley Cyrus reruns.

8. Do whatever they want to do when they want to do it and don’t complain about the mess.

7. Give them the television remote and tell them they can watch anything they want (be sure and have the remote programed for only age appropriate channels before you give it to them).

6. If they are spending the week with you and don’t want to take a bath or brush their teeth-don’t make them.You fought that battle with your children. You shouldn’t have to do it again.

5. Take them to an animal shelter and buy them a pet to take home to mom and dad.

4. Get concert tickets for their favorite rock group and tell them they can take a friend. Then buy yourself a good set of ear plugs and go with them.

3. For summertime entertainment- Have a food fight out on the deck. When you are done use the water hose to spray everyone off. Remind grandchildren not to try this at home. Parents are not nearly as cool as nana.

2. Use photo shop to make a picture of you with their favorite sports star. They’ll think it’s really cool that nana once dated Tom Brady.

And the number one way to prove you are a cool nana….

1. Sell your car and replace it with a Moped Scooter. Use the money you make to take the whole family to Disney World for a week.

Teresa is a super fun Nana (even though she really doesn’t have a moped) who blogs at Nanahood. Spend some time with her on her blog, and take all of your moms and Nanas with you!

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Make Your Own Cultured Buttermilk, Yogurt and Kefir (a Giveaway!)

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I love how much money it saves and how easy it is to make your own cultured dairy products! It really is as simple as putting the live culture into the milk and walking away. (Well, you do want to put the lid on first.)  Here are my posts which explain how to make buttermilk, how to make yogurt and how to make kefir. You can do this!!

Once you’ve made a batch of any or all of the above, all you have to do to make subsequent batches is to pour the tail end of the previous batch into your fresh milk and start the process all over again. It’s easy, it saves money and it is oh so healthy! These cultured dairy products are so good for your digestion. Mmm, and yummy too!

To give you a little motivation, in case you’ve been wanting to start making your own cultured dairy products…Cultures for Health is offering to give one of you a nice package of a Traditional Yogurt Starter, a package of Milk Kefir Grains and a Buttermilk Starter.  Remember, once you have the starter, as long as you keep your kefir grains alive and save the tail end of your batches of buttermilk and yogurt, you can keep making more and more batches of these delicious dairy products! 

Cultures for Health is a site I fully trust for purchasing culture starters. They know what they’re doing, they are very reasonably priced and their shipping is a flat $3.99!! This is an excellent company to work with and I love their products. By the way, they’ve got more than just dairy cultures at Cultures for Health…be sure to check out all of their products!

Okay…interested in winning this prize package of  from Cultures for Health? This giveaway is just a little bit different than our usual giveaways.  This time, to enter you need to head over to this page on the Cultures for Health site. You can sign up right there, plus receive their free ebook full of Kefir Recipes by signing up!!

I’ll draw a random winner from all entries over at Cultures for Health on Monday, February 28.

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Warning! Facebook Can Be Destructive To Your Marriage!

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helpmeet

Let me just get all the arguments out of the way right now. Facebook can be great and is a wonderful way to connect with people. I am rarely on FB, but have found it to be a super way to “find” old classmates, see pictures of friends and family, learn news of babies born and read of ways I can be praying for people I love. (For the record, by “old” classmates I totally mean “young” classmates because wow, we are all so incredibly youthful. I should have said former classmates, yes?) 

Facebook can be purely innocent and can offer a wonderful connection to the outside world, especially for moms who really just need an adult to commiserate with them on a day that the poop got smeared across the piano keys while the cell phone simultaneously got dropped into the toilet. 

Facebook in and of itself is not evil. Are we clear on that?  This is not a post telling you to avoid all appearances of FB and woe to the person who  updates her status or changes his profile picture. I’ll even go so far as to encourage you to hit my “like” button so that you can be a fan of Heavenly Homemakers on Facebook if you so choose.

However, just like everything that can and should be used for a good purpose, Facebook has been a party to destroyed marriages. It’s sneaky and subtle and can creep up on a person before they realize that damage has been done. Sounds just like the way Satan works, doesn’t it? 

I’m pretty sure most people do not log into Facebook with the plan to get too close to someone who is of the opposite sex and cross any boundaries that should not be crossed. But I’ve seen it happen and I’ve seen divorce as the outcome. It’s heartbreaking and it’s gut-wrenching and I’m here to beg you to please be careful.

If you choose to be on Facebook, I think it is important to be very selective in deciding what you post. I’ve seen gals post information about their bras, about their bodies, about the fact that they’re getting ready to go take a shower. It may seem innocent, but for REAL…that is too much information to share with all of your “friends”.

Also, please be careful about your Facebook conversations with others, especially with people of the opposite sex. It’s somehow much easier to say things on screen that we would NEVER say to someone’s face, which of course makes it much easier to cross lines we know better than to cross.

We have to work daily to protect our marriages.  Facebook is just one small example that has been on my heart lately. 

Hey…here’s an idea! How about using your Facebook status updates as a way to build up your spouse? Share with your “friends” something great that your husband did or a reason you’re proud of him. Nothing says, “I love my husband, everyone else back off!” like a wife who can’t stop saying great things to others about her man.

See? Go check this out.  I just updated my Facebook status to say something great about Matt. Easy as that, I’m doing something positive for my marriage and using Facebook for good. 

If you’re a Facebooker, can I challenge you to do the same? :)

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The Chocolate Fix

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Matt and I were right in the middle of writing love letters to each other. We were at The Art of Marriage conference last weekend, sitting quietly in a room by ourselves, doing our assigned project. I was writing my heart-felt thoughts to him, reliving on paper about the time we met and about the qualities he had that attracted me to him. It was beautiful. I was teary eyed and feeling nostalgic.

And that’s when it hit me.

I’d forgotten to put the sucanat in the Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins I had baked for the kids to wake up to that morning. 

Why? Why does my brain work this way? We will probably never know. But somewhere in between writing “I love what a great daddy you are to our boys” and “Thank you for showing your love to me in so many ways” my brain shifted all the way back home and I began thinking about what the boys might be doing and if they were okay and if they’d found the muffins I’d made for them for breakfast. 

And somewhere within those few seconds of thinking about muffins, I thought through the steps I’d taken and recognized that I had not gotten out the jar of sucanat (sugar), opened it or measured it out. The muffins were made of flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt, milk, eggs and coconut oil…no sucanat. I’d thrown in a few chocolate chips, which may have added a little bit of sweetness, but probably not enough.

I didn’t mean to gasp, right there while we were writing our love letters. I didn’t mean to take Matt away from his “You’re so beautiful, I’m so glad God put you in my life” phrases. But I couldn’t help it. 

Our sweet silence was shattered as I blurted, “I forgot to put sucanat in the muffins for the boys!”

There was obviously nothing we could do about the muffins during that moment, so we had a little chuckle together about how quickly the boys might have realized that the muffins weren’t at all sweet and what else they’d found to eat. Then we carried on with our letter writing.

At home later we found exactly what we had expected:  Four muffins with one bite taken out of each of them and all of the rest of the muffins still on the tray.

So the next question of course was, “What should we do with all of these muffins?” We just didn’t have the heart to throw them away. Surely they could be salvaged somehow.

Matt was the one who had the brilliant idea. He’s always the brilliant one (and I may or may not have told him that in his love letter). He suggested that we make my yummy hot fudge sauce recipe to drizzle over the top of the muffins to add some sweetness.

Perfect.  I made some hot fudge, whipped some cream, and we had one of the most delicious breakfast treats ever.

It was a perfect chocolate fix, making us all hope that I will forget the sucanat in these muffins again sometime. :)

Oh, and by the way…all that love letter stuff I put in this post for you to read? All those phrases were cheesy ones that I just made up off the top of my head. What? You really think I’d tell you what we wrote in our love letters to each other? Yeah, I don’t think so. :)

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Gratituesday: Mother-Daughter Banquet

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Last weekend, our congregation held a special Mother-Daughter Banquet. And why, you might ask, is the mother of four boys writing about this event? :)

When this banquet was announced a few weeks ago, I nodded in approval and then didn’t give it another thought. I knew the mothers and daughters would have a lovely time together while I stayed home and had a rockin’ good time with all my menfolk. There would be Star Wars music involved at “my party” and there would be dirty socks and there would be burping contests. I love my life, I love being the mother of all boys and I love all that comes with it…even if it is a little uh…burpy sometimes. Not being included in a Mother-Daughter Banquet didn’t upset me in the least…I am so grateful for the life God’s chosen for me.

But my friend Rose had a different plan for me for that evening. It would appear that several of the gals were talking about how they could get me to this Mother-Daughter Banquet. They paired me up with a young-married college friend whose mother doesn’t live around here. We both needed an excuse to be there, they said. Why didn’t we come together?

And so we did. I picked up my adorable and fun friend Sarah and together, we headed to the Mother-Daughter Banquet.

It was a beautiful evening. There were over 140 ladies there:  Mothers, Grandmothers, Aunts, Daughters, Nieces, Sisters, Friends. I loved having the chance to spend time with Sarah and with all the other gals in attendance. The littlest girls there were wonderful to watch, as they came in all dolled up in their prettiest dresses…all twirling around.

Sarah blessed me with a beautiful pink wrist corsage to wear for the evening. Everything about the evening was so…girl. So feminine. Such a celebration of womanhood and sisterhood.

I love my church family. I love that they cared enough to work out a way for me to join them for the Mother-Daughter evening. You know, one of these days…one of those little girls in the pretty, twirly dresses might grow up and catch the eye of one of my sons and become my daughter. What a lovely thought.

What are you thankful for this Gratituesday? Write about it 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!

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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Time for a Vanilla Shake

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Are you in the middle of making a batch of homemade vanilla extract? If so…might I remind you to get your jar down out of the dark cupboard where it is hiding and give it a shake? 

I always seem to forget to shake my vanilla during the months it is extracting. My husband reminded me this week that it is time for a “Vanilla Shake”. I thought maybe he was going to take me out for ice cream…but nope. It was really just time to get down our jars of “vanilla in the making” and boogy down. 

And so we did.

So, how about it? Wanna join us for a Vanilla Shake?! :)

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