Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Tips for Making a Gluten Free Diet (or Any Diet) EASY!

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If you eat a gluten free diet, or even if you don’t, you’ll want to check out these tips for making your meal prep easier!

You may recall that a few weeks ago I shared that my husband, Matt, was experimenting with a vegan diet to see if that helped some minor health issues he was having. I personally found that trying to cut meat, dairy, and eggs from his meals was pretty challenging! But that’s probably because I’m such a meat-loving, dairy-loving girl! So I was only able to come up with a few ideas for meat free, dairy free, egg free meals.

The results? That particular diet experiment didn’t really help, but it did boost our vegetable and fruit intake! So we’ve held onto that and been even more determined than we already were to be sure we’re all eating plenty of fruits and veggies!

Meanwhile, we visited our wholistic doctor in Lincoln to see what she might have to offer Matt. We are so thankful to have this resource closeby, and her remedies have been making a difference, praise God! Along with her remedies and treatments, she also recommended that Matt try cutting gluten for the short term to at least give his digestive system a break as it heals.

So our pendulum swung! Matt didn’t necessarily go back to eating lots of meat, dairy, and eggs, but it would be pretty tough to cut out gluten and not at least eat some meat and eggs! So he went cold turkey on gluten (without a complaint, because it truly wasn’t very hard – oh except for that one day someone took hundreds of fresh donuts to his work!) and added back in some meat and eggs, with the occasional dairy product.

My personal opinion is that eating gluten-free is MUCH EASIER than eating vegan. I didn’t have the least bit of difficulty making gluten free meals for Matt, and most of the time, the entire family eats what he’s eating because most gluten free meals are just…normal. Rice dishes, meat and potato meals, tacos made with corn tortilla shells? Normal. Easy. Tasty.

So that I could easily stay on top of our gluten free meal needs, I started making a few naturally gluten free foods in any spare moment so I could put meals together at night without much effort.

You guys, this isn’t just about eating gluten free. I do this any day, any time, and that’s where all these Simple Real Food Recipes  came from. If we all – GF or not! – spend a few minutes here and there getting ahead when we can? We can make are meal prep so much easier!

So you’ll notice that while these are the naturally gluten free foods I have been prepping ahead, these are also the normal foods I prep ahead. These just happen to be normal and gluten free at the same time. (Is it ok that I’m using the word “normal” here?! It’s just that many, many foods we normally eat are naturally gluten free. We don’t have to make this difficult! Let’s just eat normally! And also gluten free. Ok.)

Tips for Making a Gluten Free Diet (or Any Diet) EASY!

1. Make rice ahead of time

I make a batch or two of this Amazing Stick-of-Butter Rice, store it in the fridge, then pull out spoonfuls to make:

This make meal prep incredibly easy, especially if I:

2. Make hamburger meat ahead of time

You know that for years I’ve been cooking hamburger meat ahead of time and storing it in meal-size portions to pull out for easy meal prep. But now that I’ve learned how to make it in my Instant Pot? Wow, is it easy! And such a time saver!

I often have several pounds of cooked hamburger meat ready to grab and use. I can stir it in with the cooked rice as mentioned above, and we can have a meal ready in just 5 minutes! I love this!!

Here are some naturally gluten free meals I can make with my cooked hamburger meat:

3. Put meat in the crock pot early in the day

Then I can just add some fruit and veggie side dishes at meal time and we can quickly sit down and eat! Some of our favorite naturally gluten free meaty main dishes are:

Now, I didn’t tackle gluten free breads or pancakes. Those take special-ish ingredients and I didn’t feel the need to “go there” because Matt was fine with all that we’ve had to offer. I did purchas some gluten free pasta to have on hand and I purchased a gluten free pizza crust for him to eat on days we were making pizza for ourselves. I’m thankful these are readily available to buy!

Gluten Free Snacks and TreatsYum

Oh, and for years I’ve kept Coconut Flour on hand because it’s nourishing and fun to work with! Since it’s naturally gluten free and I have fun recipes we like to make with it, I have tried to keep any variety of these fun treats made and in the fridge:

Tapioca Pudding (which, for the record, makes a great breakfast!) is easy and we love it! So I made a big batch to grab from our fridge to eat as needed…

These Super Moist Flourless Brownies and Super Moist Flourless Peanut Butter Brownies are a favorite of ours also! They are completely grain free and I’ve made them for a couple of years now just because they are delicious and nourishing!

Muffins!

While I’m writing this, I am remembering that I have a fantastic Coconut Flour Muffin recipe that has been on my site since 2011! Time to dust that one off and make it again. They are so good!!

Ha! And I just remembered I have this recipe also for Coconut Flour Chocolate Cupcakes. How have I forgotten about these??!

See, this is why I started a Club Membership Site!! All these fantastic recipes and resources get buried and forgotten. Shucks, if I’ve forgotten them I’m quite sure you probably have. The Club Membership site makes it SO MUCH EASIER to access all of these recipes! Check it out and join us!

What are your favorite tips to get ahead to make meal prep (gluten free or not) easier?

 

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How I Get the Most Out of a Build Your Bundle Sale

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I get pretty pumped every year when the Build Your Bundle Curriculum Sale comes up! Here’s what I’ve learned during the past several years that I’ve been taking advantage of these savings.

What will you build this year? Save over 80% on bundles and up to 50% on premium products!

First, let me tell you what the Build Your Bundle sale is!

It’s an amazing homeschool curriculum sale that offers you dozens and dozens of digital books for 75-90% off! It offers books from preschool to high school, resources for parents, items for kids with special needs, and much more. This sale truly is wonderful, which is why I share it with you every year and take advantage of it for my family!


Now that we’re back to homeschooling littles again, I’m back to needing resources for them. I scored BIG yesterday on tons of amazing books for Brayden!!! Here’s how I did it and what I’ve found I like best…

I’ll give it to you in two simple points:

  1. I’ve found that the Pre-Packaged Bundles they offer are super enticing and make it so easy for educators! But I don’t end up using all of the books in the individual packages. Therefore:
  2. I like taking advantage, instead, of the Build Your Own Bundle option.

I love that this sale gives so many options and ways to save! My favorite way to get books that I know we’ll use and love is to shop through the entire list of options. I put everything into my cart that I think I might possibly want/like/need. Then I narrow it back down until I’ve settled on what I think is truly best for our family. And then I watch the total number go down BIG TIME.

As in, if I’ve put $100 worth of books into my cart, at checkout the total automatically goes down to $25 (75% off)!! If I have $200 in my cart, the total suddenly becomes only $40 (80% off). If you want and need even more, you can save up to 90% off the total price. It’s truly amazing!

It is worth your time to shop through this book sale to see what your family might need and enjoy. I’m having so much fun looking at my big purchase from yesterday (that ended up costing me so very little!). I can’t believe all that I got for such a small price tag.

In case you’re curious, here is a list of some of my favorites that I bought:

  • Big Book of Color and Copywork Solar System Edition
  • Book Activities after Reading
  • Fairy Tales Story Sequencing Crowns
  • History by the Decade Coloring Book Series
  • MATH ART: Daily “Math for Fun” bite-sized activities
  • Math on the Farm
  • Pattern Block Mat Bundle (I have this set of Pattern Blocks that I saved from when we were schooling our first round of boys, so I was very happy to see this book being offered!)
  • Preschool Star

Brayden and I are going to have a blast! He’ll be learning, though he may not realize it. :)

Head here to see what is offered in this sale —>

What will you build this year? Save over 80% on bundles and up to 50% on premium products!

Offer ends May 18, 2020. :)

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Simple Spicy Cheesy Chicken

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If you sense a theme going on, it’s because I’ve become obsessed with this Simple Spicy Chicken Cheese Dip and I keep tweaking it to make it into different dishes. This one becomes a very Simple Spicy Cheesy Chicken, simply by…well. You’ll have to read the recipe below to see.

Forgive me, friends, for bombarding you with so many variations of one basic recipe. I am sorry – not sorry – for making your meals so delicous without much effort.

Here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to make this dip recipe – but instead of stirring in shredded chicken, topping with cheese, and baking it to eat as a dip, you’re going to spread the cheesy mixture over boneless chicken, and bake it to serve as a main dish.

Incredible. We just took the exact same ingredients and turned them into a brand new meal. Give yourself a round of applause. You just learned a brand new easy recipe and you can make it without thinking or working hard. What did we ever do before figuring out these simple recipes?

Speaking of Simple Recipes – you do have this cookbook don’t you? If not, run with haste to get yourself a copy forthwith (haha, if you watch Blue Bloods, you will laugh with me over this funny choice of words). It is FULL of delicious recipes that are made with real food and take only a few minutes to prepare. You will love it!

And now on to today’s simple recipe:

Simple Spicy Cheesy ChickenYum

Simple Spicy Cheesy Chicken
 
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Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 8-ounces softened cream cheese
  • ¼ cup hot sauce (your favorite)
  • ½ cup ranch dressing
  • 1 cup shredded cheese (we use Colby jack)
  • 2 pounds bone-in or boneless chicken thighs or breasts
Instructions
  1. In a blender or with a hand mixer, mix together the cream cheese, hot sauce, and ranch dressing until smooth.
  2. Fold in shredded cheese.
  3. Place chicken into a 9x13 inch baking dish.
  4. Spread cream cheese mixture over the chicken.
  5. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30-50 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. (Shorter time needed for boneless chicken; longer time needed for bone-in.)

We like to fry leftover baked potatoes or Stick of Butter Rice for a delicious and easy side dish. We also serve this chicken with mixed greens and a steamed or roasted veggie!

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Easy Spicy Chicken Pizza

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I  have discovered Spicy Chicken Pizza, and I’m not sure how any of us ever lived without it.

Listen, this is the easiest dinner you can make, and your family will think you went to so much trouble that following the meal, they will wash all the dishes and give you a backrub. Every bite of this pizza will be taken with delight, and everyone will shed many tears – not from the spice, but from joy and appreciation brought on by consuming this masterpiece you have made.

Let them all cry their tears and give you all the backrubs. There is no need to tell them that in order to make this pizza, all you had to do was grab a pizza crust and slather last night’s Spicy Chicken Cheese Dip over the top.

Allow me to explain:

To make this Easy Spicy Chicken Pizza, you simply need to make the recent wonderful recipe I shared for Simple Spicy Chicken Cheese Dip. We already established how simple it is to make the dip. Now all you have to do is spread this dip over a pizza crust and bake it to perfection. You’ve spent just a few minutes cooking, dinner is beyond fantastic, and everyone is crying tears over how wonderful you are.

Live in the moment. Silently high-five and fist bump all of your Heavenly Homemakers readers who also made this pizza tonight as we humbly appreciate that feeding our families amazing food is much easier than everyone thinks that it is.

Here are the specifics…

Easy Spicy Chicken Pizza

Easy Spicy Chicken Pizza
 
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Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 8-ounces softened cream cheese
  • ¼ cup hot sauce (your favorite)1/2 cup ranch dressing
  • 1½ cups cooked, shredded chicken
  • 1 cup shredded cheese (we use Colby jack)
  • 2 pre-made 10-12 inch pizza crusts*
Instructions
  1. In a blender or with a hand mixer, mix together the cream cheese, hot sauce, and ranch dressing until smooth.
  2. Fold in shredded, cooked chicken and shredded cheese.
  3. Spread mixture over the pizza crusts.
  4. Bake in a 400 degree oven until cheese is bubbly and pizza is golden brown.

To make this pizza taste even more amazing, toss some sun-dried or chopped fresh tomatoes on just before baking it. Truly incredible.

*Our very favorite pizza crust is this one. You can make it any size and you can make them ahead of time for ease!

If making homemade pizza crust doesn’t work for you, feel free to grab pre-made pizza crust at the store.

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Want more Simple Real Food Recipes? We’ve got a beautiful cookbook full of them!

 

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Simple Spicy Chicken Cheese Dip

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I ate this Spicy Chicken Cheese Dip at a friend’s house recently and fell completely in love with its flavor!

Therefore, I came home and promptly made a big batch for my family the very next day. It’s ridiculously easy to make – especially if you have chicken already cooked and on hand to stir into this dip. (If not, simply cook 3 boneless chicken thighs or breasts in a pan on the stovetop for several minutes in a little water until it is no longer pink and shreds easily.)

Here’s where I confess to you that ever since we started taking in foster kids, I’ve started compromising more in the kitchen. But you already knew that. What you probably didn’t know is that I often now keep this canned chicken on hand in my pantry to use quickly in a pinch. I don’t even feel bad about it because God is bigger than free ranged chicken – and also chicken in a can.

So indeed, if you have canned chicken, drain a couple cans and throw it into this dip. Easy, delicious, and dinner is on the table super quickly!

Simple Chicken Cheese DipYum

Simple Spicy Chicken Cheese Dip
 
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Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 16-ounces softened cream cheese
  • ½ cup hot sauce (your favorite)
  • 1 cup ranch dressing
  • 3 cups cooked, shredded chicken
  • 2 cups shredded cheese (we use Colby jack)
  • Tortilla chips
Instructions
  1. In a blender or with a hand mixer, mix together the cream cheese, hot sauce, and ranch dressing until smooth.
  2. Fold in shredded, cooked chicken.
  3. Spread mixture into a 9x13" baking dish.
  4. Sprinkle shredded cheese over the top.
  5. Bake in a 425 degree oven for 10-15 mintues or until cheese is melted and dip is bubbly.
  6. Serve with tortilla chips.

If you want, you can throw this dip into a crock pot to take to potlucks or parties. Make as directed, and cook in a slow cooker on low for 2-3 hours.

Amazingly tasty!!!

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Want more Simple Real Food Recipes? We’ve got a beautiful cookbook full of them!

 

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

How to Cut Hair at Home

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During this crazy time of life, many of us are learning to cut hair at home. Even after the quarantine, maybe we can use these skills to save money!

How to Cut Hair at Home

Through the years, I’ve cut many a head of hair! Matt and the boys just line up and we get ‘er done! We’ve saved thousands of dollars through the years. I’m not a pro, but I get the job done.

The past couple of years, our older boys have gone to a salon for their cuts, and Malachi even got a perm! I’ve welcomed this break from cutting everyone’s hair since we started adding foster and adopted kids to our family.

But here we are back to needed everyone’s hair cut at home again – at least for now!

In case you need to figure out hair cutting at home right now, I wanted to remind you of the simple tutorials we have shared here through the years!

How to Cut Long Layers

Paula shared a wonderful tutorial here for how you can cut long layers in just 5 minutes. Ever since she shared this, I’ve been cutting my hair this way. I LOVE how much money it saves me but I especially love how much time it saves. I cut it after a shower, and I go on my way. No making appointments, no arranging for our littles to be cared for so I can go to the salon. I LOVE IT!

How to Cut Boys’ Hair with Clippers

I’m a scissors girl, but clippers would probably be much easier. If you have boys and they need a hair cut – check out this great tutorial on How to Cut Boys’ Hair with Clippers.

How to Cut Boys’ Hair Like a Pro

Don’t want to attempt clippers? Check out this amazing tutorial on how to cut boys’ hair without clippers. This truly makes it easy!

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How to Brighten Someone’s Day During Quarantine!

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There are many ways to brighten someone’s day right now. Here’s a fun idea for you to send a surprise gift to someone!

Someone recently ordered a few items for our boys and they just showed up on our porch one day. EVERYONE was thrilled. It was so cool. What a great way to bless people during the quarantine – and any time!

For the women in your life, take advantage of amazing sale going on now over at Lilla Rose —>

Now through Sunday, April 19, everything is 20-50% off!

Also, get FREE SHIPPING on orders over just $30, PLUS a FREE simple U-pin!
Only $2 shipping on all other orders!

At that price, you may want to send a few pretties in the mail to brighten a friend’s day!

(If you happen to go crazy with these prices and order over $80, you will get a FREE Mother’s Day Gift Set, which includes Sea Salt Spray and a decorative Swerve U-pin!)

And if you have any friends or family members in the healthcare field, you may want to surprise them with a pack of adjustable elastic comfort bands. These are so helpful in relieving the ear discomfort people get from wearing their masks all day. Now THAT will bring a smile to someone’s face!

What else can you think of to do to show extra love during this time?

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Make-Your-Own Cane’s Sauce

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I can’t take the credit for this one! Malachi (15) came up with this and we all decided that you all needed to know how to Make-Your-Own Cane’s Sauce!

What’s Cane’s? Oh my, only the best chicken place around, according to the Coppinger family. Raising Cane’s is definitely our top restaurant choice when we go to Lincoln. We love their chicken – but it’s the dip that really makes it great!

So when we made chicken strips at home recently, Malachi decided to try and duplicate their sauce for extra good dipping. What he came up with was so delicious, we all declared that he must make this for us to have on hand at all times. We even cleaned out an old ketchup bottle so we now have a special squeezy Cane’s Sauce bottle in the fridge alongside all of our other favorite condiments. #priorities

If that’s not a delicious way to reuse and recycle, I don’t know what is.

Make-Your-Own Cane’s SauceYum

Make-Your-Own Cane's Sauce
 
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Ingredients
  • 1 cup mayonnaise (we use Hain Safflower mayo)
  • ½ cup ketchup
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 2 Tablespoons worcestershire sauce
  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
  1. Combine all ingredients with a whisk.
  2. Store in an airtight continer in the fridge.

 

We’ve found it interesting to note that this sauce tastes great with just about everything. I even caught one of my kids using it to dip veggies, and who am I to argue with a  kid eating his veggies?

Try it with these Chicken Fried Steak Strips. Try it with Popcorn Chicken. Try it in Popcorn Chicken Tacos. Truly, this Cane’s Sauce is dreamy!

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Want more Simple Real Food Recipes? We’ve got a beautiful cookbook full of them!

 

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Oatmeal Cinnamon Yogurt Muffins

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Hmmm, Oatmeal Cinnamon Yogurt Muffins. I’m sure you’re wondering…what’s in these muffins? ;)

Perhaps a little oatmeal? Some cinnamon? Possibly a tad of yogurt? Wow, you guys are good. How’d you figure that out?

These simple muffins are the result of an experiment on a day I needed to use up some yogurt in my fridge. Yogurt makes muffins extra moist – though the oats make them a little more hearty. So the yogurt plus the oats work well together so that these muffins don’t turn out dry and crumbly!

And the cinnamon? Well, of course, that makes these muffins taste incredible!

We prefer these straight out of the oven, slathered in butter. You can use flavored yogurt if you’d like, though if you do, I’d recommend cutting down the sugar since flavored yogurts have sugar added. I use whole milk plain yogurt when I make these.

Oatmeal Cinnamon Yogurt MuffinsYum

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Oatmeal Cinnamon Yogurt Muffins
 
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Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • 1½ cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground soft white wheat)
  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • ¼ cup sucanat or brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • ¾ cup whole milk plain yogurt
  • 2 eggs
  • ¼ cup melted coconut oil
Instructions
  1. Stir together dry intgredients in a large mixing bowl.
  2. Add yogurt, eggs, and oil, mixing well.
  3. Scoop batter into 12 paper-lined muffin tins.
  4. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20-22 minutes or until muffins are golden brown.

I especially like these because they remind me of a muffin I used to enjoy in our college cafeteria wayyyyy back in the day. I have no idea what was in those, but they were hearty with a hint of sweetness and cinnamon. Mmmm.

Is it crazy that I now have sons in college? And that I have babies again? And that I can still taste those college muffins from 29ish years ago? Life is crazy. Expect God to do great things!

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Get Your Focused Family Fun Easter Packet – Quarantine Edition

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Looking for a way to make Easter special at home this year? We put this Focused Family Fun Easter Packet together for our family and want to make it available to you too!

This year, with our houseful of kids (including two new foster sons who have very limited understanding of the Bible and who Jesus is), we wanted to make Easter a time of learning and of fun.

Since we are not able to leave the house, we came up with this way to make Easter an extra special day for everyone. Here’s hoping we’ll all have fun and learn more about Jesus and His resurection at the same time!

How our Hello Easter Focused Family Fun works:

  1. On Friday, we’ll read and share about Jesus’ crucifixion and death.
  2. On Sunday morning, our boys will wake up to nothing. Oh! But they’ll receive their first riddle/clue to help them know that something great is coming! (The details of this are all in the packet we’re giving you!)
  3. The first clue will lead them to a great big basket. Hmmm, an empty basket?? Well yes. It represents Jesus’ tomb. That was empty too. :)
  4. We’ll read from scripture about how Jesus’ friends discovered His empty grave. We’ll hand the kids the next clue so they can work together to figure out where their first gift is. This will lead to more scripture reading, more gifts, and more riddles and clues.
  5. Throughout this fun scavenger hunt, our boys will learn or re-learn the beauty of Jesus’ plan for salvation. We’ll take communion together. We’ll work together. We’ll have fun together. We’re praying that this will be a time of joy and learning for our kids!

Want to join the fun?

We put together a packet that shares more details about what you need if you’d like to put together a similar scavenger hunt for your family. It includes a full sample of riddles and clues that show you what we’re gifting our kids and where we’re hiding everything (shh, don’t tell!).

Obviously what we’re doing won’t work perfectly for your household – but we hope you use the sample we share and all of our riddles to give you lots of ideas for how you can adapt and make this work for your family!

Grab your free Focused Family Fun packet by signing up below. Watch for an email asking you to confirm that you want to receive this information. Then check your inbox again to see the packet come your way!

You’ll become a part of our wonderful Heavenly Homemakers community, something that brings us great honor.

Sign up to receive your Hello Easter Packet below:

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