Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Go Drink Some Water!

by 11 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

It’s beginning to be a joke around our house. It seems that this is my answer for everything.

Go Drink Some Water

When the kids say, “My stomach hurts.” I tell them to go drink some water.

When they say, “My head hurts.” I tell them to go drink some water.

When they tell me, “I’m tired.” I tell them to go drink some water.

When they begin to get grumpy with each other – I tell everyone to take a break from what they are doing and go drink some water.

When they have been running around after church and their faces are red – I tell them to go drink some water.

When they come tell me that they are bored and can’t figure out what to do – I tell them to go drink some water.

When they tell me that they are out of clean socks, can’t find their math book, or don’t like what I am fixing for dinner  – I tell them to go drink some water. Actually, I tell them to go start a load of laundry, look under the couch, and eat it anyway (socks/math/dinner). If only drinking water really did solve all of life’s problems. :)

Why is “Go drink some water!” the first thing I always tell my kids when they have a complaint? Because typically, it really does help! When we aren’t quite feeling right, need a “pick me up”, feel sluggish, or start getting edgy – a refreshing drink of water often gives us just what we need. If it doesn’t, then I know to move on to the next idea. But I have been amazed at how well this little trick works. And at the very least, I know that a drink of water certainly won’t hurt us and that often it is a great distraction from whatever it is we’re are frustrated about.

I have personally learned that if I’m not hydrated well I get head-achy, grumpy, tired, sluggish, and in general – I just don’t feel right. Getting a drink of water is an easy first thing to try, and almost always, I find that a nice drink of water is just what I’ve been needing.

I figure if I need it, and it works for me, then “Go drink some water” is the first thing that should come out of my mouth when it seems that my kids need a little something. They tell me what’s going on, and I say, “Go drink some water.” Then they say, “I knew you were going to say that.”  And I just grin, wondering when they will learn to just automatically go to the water instead of complaining to Mom first.

That’s okay though. My day may not be complete without hearing 43 complaints. At least “Go drink some water” is a no-brainer answer, right? Hmm, maybe I should shock them sometime when they complain and tell them to “Go lay down and take a nap.” I bet they’d come back with, “Nah. Shouldn’t I just go drink some water?” Yes, good idea.

Just you wait. I may get into such a habit of answering questions with “Go drink some water” that the next time you email me asking, “I can’t find your recipe for Mac and Cheese!” – I’ll reply with “Go drink some water….”

 

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

Let’s Talk About Eating Out – I Need Your Input!

by 96 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Let's Talk About Eating Out

I’m working on a new project that I’m hoping will:

  • Save you $$ by helping you avoid falling back on take-out as frequently
  • Save you $$ by helping you avoid unnecessary trips to the grocery store
  • Save you time by helping you easily prepare tasty meals for the freezer which can be thawed and cooked with little effort
  • Save you even more time by making your dinnertime meal prep take 10 minutes or less
  • Save your energy when you’re tired at the end of the day
  • Make your family meals times a blessing

I want to equip you with everything you need, from grocery list to check-list. And of course, I’m playing with new recipe ideas that your family will love. My men happen to love this part of my job. ;)

Before I get too far into this project, I’m hoping you’ll answer these questions for me:

  • How long do you spend cooking dinner each evening?
  • How many nights per week do you “not feel like cooking?”
  • How often do you throw your hands in the air and say, “Forget it. Let’s go out.”
  • About how much money do you spend for your family to eat a meal at a restaurant?
  • What kinds of recipes would help you eat at home more instead of resorting to going out?

By the way, you’ll receive no judgement from me about your eating out habits. :)  As you know, our family eats out here and there when we’re on the road and shucks if I don’t love me a good burger and fries as a treat when we splurge like this.

But since you and I are working together to become healthier, to feed our families well, and to save money and time while doing so – I think we can all agree that eating out should be a treat, not the norm. Not to mention the deliciousness of home-cooked food. Melt-in-your-mouth goodness, that’s what it is. Thus, we will all benefit from this new project I’m working on.

Thank you in advance for helping me by answering any or all of the questions above. :)

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

Watch That “No Sugar Added” Label!

by 13 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Sometimes a “No Sugar Added” label on a container of food or drink means that all that is included in the package is 100% fruit or juice.

Sometimes.

It is very important that we read the fine print and read the list of ingredients! Unfortunately, “No Sugar Added” almost always means, “We didn’t add sugar. Instead, we’ve added artificial sweeteners like Splenda, Sorbitol, or Aspertame. It could be that we added all three. Don’t worry though. We didn’t add sugar. Sugar is bad.”

Packages of fruit and juice with a “No Sugar Added” label are especially deceiving. See these Mixed Fruit Cups?

no sugar added 1

 

The “No Sugar Added” label makes you think that all that’s included in those mixed fruit cups is fruit. But read the ingredients:

no sugar added 2

Along with your fruit, these cups also contain Sorbitol, Natural Flavor, and Sucralose (which is Splenda).

Sorbitol, for the record, is a sweetener made from pulling the glucose out of fruit, which then goes through a chemical process to produce a “sugar alcohol” by adding hydroxil. (I don’t know what hydroxil is. Please add it to my fruit cup and tell me it’s healthy, because yay, “no sugar added.”)

Sucrolose (Splenda) is also made in a lab in which three chlorine molecules are added to a sucrose or sugar molecule. (Mmm, chlorine added to my food. Please pass me a fruit cup.)

By the way, why are we trying to make fruit sweeter than it already is? I do not understand this. But back to the point of this post…

Please, please, please don’t buy into the lie that artificial sweeteners are healthier for us than sugar. And please don’t be deceived by a “no sugar added” label. Our bodies don’t know what to do with artificial sweeteners and in the long (or short) term, they can make us very ill. Too much real sugar isn’t good for us either, but at least our bodies recognize it.

As always, I advocate for eating real food and for eating on purpose for the sake of nourishment.

Nourishment. Real food. It’s what our bodies crave.

Now go eat a naturally sweetened, God-made-perfect piece of fruit. Apples, pears, oranges, and bananas are “no sugar added” foods, but there’s no need for a label because they come pre-packaged and contain all they were ever meant to contain because they are delicious pieces of fruit for goodness sake. (Subjects like this often inspire me to write run-on sentences.)

It would seem as though eating well is not nearly as complicated as our culture tends to make it, wouldn’t you agree?

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

How to Easily Add Fruits and Veggies to Your Meal

by 9 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

It’s not hard, it’s not hard, stop making it hard, I’m telling you – it’s not hard.  It’s also quite easy.

I used to just serve one fruit or vegetable with each meal (if that). This might have been enough for our nutritional needs, as long as we were getting some fruits or veggies at snack time too. But when all was said and done, I think my family was only getting 1-3 servings of fruits or veggies each day. That is just not enough.  Our bodies need more – more variety of nutrients, and a larger quantity too.

Putting a big variety of fruits and vegetables on the table with each meal is something I’ve been improving on through the past few years. I hope you’ll join me in this endeavor. It isn’t nearly as difficult as I used to believe it was. In fact, I’m learning that fruits and vegetables are probably the easiest food there is to make and serve. Truly!

Below you’ll see an example of a meal I made recently. Notice the simplicity. Also notice that I rarely put our food in serving dishes – we just eat them right out of the cookware. :)

Easily Add Fruits and Veggies to Your Meal

See the big pot of Tuna Casserole? Easy as that was to make, it was the most time consuming meal item I prepared. All the fruits and veggies on the side were a piece of cake. Actually, they were fruits and veggies, not cake, but you know what I mean.

To go with the tuna casserole, I cooked some frozen peas (which took about 3 minutes), washed blackberries, sliced a cucumber, and opened a bag of petite baby carrots. That made a total of four super easy fruit and veggie side dishes that we enjoyed. The apples, bananas, pears, and clementines you see in the weren’t actually for our meal. Those just sit out on the table as a center piece and for all of us to grab for snacks as needed.

This practice of setting out several different lightly cooked and raw fruits and vegetables to go with our main dish has become the norm around here. Once you get into the habit, it really is easy. Actually, I’ve found that it’s even been a fun challenge to see how many different kinds of fruits and veggies I can put on the table with each meal!

groceries 2014

This is a typical grocery shopping haul for the week, plus I have many fruits and vegetables in the freezer.

An added benefit of setting out a wide variety, beyond the obvious fact that we are getting a great bounty of nutrients with all the different types of goodies out there is this:  If one of our boys doesn’t love all the types of fruits and vegetables I set out, they will at least like 2 or 3. I do it this way on purpose so that everyone will have something they love. While we don’t all fill our plates with every single item, we do fill our plates with what we like…which means there is no fighting at the table to get my kids to eat their veggies. Hallelujah!

And one more thing. Crunching and chewing on these fruits and vegetables as side dishes has been filling up my boys’ hollow legs. If I covered my table with a bunch of grains and carbs, they’d certainly fill up on those, but would not be gaining as much nourishment. We still eat plenty of grains around here (especially at breakfast), but I’ve found that we’re feeling better by trading heavy amounts of bread for larger quantities of fruits and vegetables.

And another one more thing. If fruits and vegetables is what you serve, that is what your family will learn to eat. If you don’t serve them, they won’t eat them.

Okay, one last one more thing. I still have to push a couple of my kids to fill up on fruits and vegetables. It is getting easier, but just like most kids –  mine would rather have a donut with a side of potato chips. Keep encouraging, keep serving, keep providing – the love of fruits and vegetables will come.

How’s it going at your house? Have you found easy ways to add fruits and vegetables to your table?

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

How My Family Eats While We Travel

by 14 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

While we were on our long road trip, Lindsay asked the following question:

I’m curious what you guys eat while you are on the road. Do you pack meals, or do you have a few “go-to” places that serve healthier food? Also, when you are visiting family/friends do you just put healthy eating on the back burner? I’ve gotten the impression that you value relationships with people more than being a stickler with healthy/real eating. So, what does that look like when you are visiting people and staying in their home? And if you do just eat whatever is served, how does that affect how you feel (physically)?

I decided to break down all the questions and answer them individually. So here goes!

I’m curious what you guys eat while you are on the road. Do you pack meals, or do you have a few “go-to” places that serve healthier food?

When we plan to only be on the road for one day, we can typically pack all of our food. This obviously means we can eat much healthier food, plus it keeps our costs much lower. (Eating out costs a minimum of $35 for our family – ouch!)

Here’s a list of 27 ideas I typically pick from when packing food for a trip. In addition, I pack a lot of fruits and vegetables.

Fruits and Veggies On the Go

 Fruits and Veggies on the Go – read more!

Taking along fruits and vegetables has been so helpful in keeping us from feeling gross on a road trip. We munch on apples, clementines, berries, carrots, sweet peppers, and cucumbers along the way so that even if we do need to grab fast food, our stomachs don’t rebel as much. We are also careful to drink plenty of water. Well…I’ll admit to drinking a little less than normal to avoid taking quite as many potty stops. (“Mom, you pee all the time!” I’m not sure why they are still shocked about this.)

When we are on the road for many days at a time, it becomes significantly more difficult to pack food. Somewhere between Durango, CO and home, I snapped a couple pictures of the food in my lap to give you an idea of how we eat during long road trips.

travel food 2

Once I ran into a grocery store while Matt filled our van with gas (LOVING the lower prices on gas right now, by the way!). The deli section had a few items marked down that I grabbed. Some are compromise foods, but wow was this a tasty lunch. We enjoyed big salads with popcorn chicken, fresh raspberries, and sweet peppers. I also picked up some chips and fresh salsa for snacking later that day.

In an effort to keep our food stops quick, we do sometimes hit a fast food restaurant. Sometimes we get salads, but come on. Our family rarely goes to Chick fil a, so we really enjoyed our treat of chicken sandwiches and waffle fries.

travel food 1
That’s the beauty of eating out very rarely. When we do, it’s a treat. And yes, we do feel kind of bleh later. ;)

When you are visiting family/friends do you just put healthy eating on the back burner? I’ve gotten the impression that you value relationships with people more than being a stickler with healthy/real eating. So, what does that look like when you are visiting people and staying in their home?

When we are visiting others, we focus on enjoying fellowship and appreciating the hospitality of others – no matter what food is served. On this trip, we were served everything from farm fresh eggs or mixed green salad to canned cinnamon rolls or non-dairy whipped topping. We ate it all with gratitude.  Actually, I didn’t eat it all. My system really can’t handle high amounts of sugar anymore, so I had to graciously decline some offerings. Like on the eggs and cinnamon roll morning, I just ate eggs and drank coffee with our hosts. No one questioned why I wasn’t eating rolls, and trust me, my boys ate my share. :)

During our extended stay in California, we were able to eat many delicious home-cooked and healthy meals – some prepared by me, many prepared by other loving hands. We also ordered pizza once to maintain the sanity of all the mothers trying to keep up with all the festivities. Balance is key, right?

If you do just eat whatever is served, how does that affect how you feel (physically)?

No doubt, our bodies do feel the difference in eating choices (and lack of activity) after a day or so. We’ve found that as long as we continue drinking plenty of water and find ways to sneak in fruits and vegetables, we do okay. Now that we’re home, we’ll get back to our regularly scheduled program of eating mostly whole foods.

Here’s a picture of our shopping cart yesterday when we got back home from being on the road for 12 days:

groceries jan 5

I had done some price matching on my phone during the 5,934 hours I had to sit and do nothing in the van. Most of what I found didn’t work to price match, but I did get four pineapple for $1.29 each, and golden delicious apples for just 68¢ per pound. Mixed greens, spinach, raspberries, blueberries, carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, and zucchini came home with us, as well as some cheese, buttermilk, yogurt, and cream. Tonight we’ll pick up our farm fresh milk (can’t wait!) and get back to our normal dairy drinking and culturing.

Oh, and see the big turkey in my cart? More on that tomorrow, because obviously, you want to know all about my turkey.

So how about you? How to you eat when traveling? What works best for your family?

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

Do I Buy Everything Organic?

by 20 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Happy New Year! I figured we should begin 2015 with a little chat about vegetables and butter. Good idea, don’t you think?

After seeing some pictures of my grocery store purchases a few weeks ago, Nancy wrote:

Do I see that you don’t buy everything organic? Your butter and cheese are not. I struggle because as much as I have changed our lifestyle, make so much on my own, and buy so much organic, I cannot afford for the butter to be (organic). With the amount we consume in a week, my husband would need a second job! :)  Your ministry continues to be a blessing. Thank you!

Second job, indeed! I was excited to see that our grocery store is carrying organic butter now, but at almost $5 for a tiny little 1/2 pound, that’s awfully hard to take in – even for a butter lover like me. :)

My short answer is, “No, I do not buy everything organic.” And now the long answer…

From meat to milk and fruits to vegetables, organic truly is best. But you know what’s also best? Staying within our budget and taking the stress out of feeding our families whole foods.

I used to be super afraid of anything that wasn’t completely clean – so much so that if a food item wasn’t organic, I simply would not buy it or feed it to my family. This became very stressful, mostly because it was practically impossible and very limiting.  Because I live in a small town without many organic resources (and can only get food from a food co-op once per month), fresh fruits and vegetables were rare around here at that time. Wow, were we missing out.

Here’s what I do now:

  1. I strive to fill our table with as much variety of whole food as possible, especially fruits and vegetables. Organic or not, this is my first priority.
  2. If an organic option of the food we want/need is available and within our budget, I am very happy to buy it.
  3. If an organic option is not available but the food will nourish us, give us variety, and is within our budget, I am still very happy to buy it.

I prefer organic, free range, locally grown, and sustainably raised versions of every single food – I do. I’m so thankful for every bit of meat, dairy, fruit, vegetable, and grain I can get my hands on that has been produced with care. This really is best for us.

But I no longer feel guilt or anxt about eating whole foods that are not organic. I know that God is bigger than pesticides and that doing the best we can with what we have is a more important focus. Our bodies crave nourishment, so I’ll continue to work on filling my family with goodness in any form I can find and afford.

One final thought:  Just because a fruit snack or cookie carries an “organic” label, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s nourishing. I’d rather have a non-organic peach than an organic cheddar bunny. Just something to chew on (literally).

How about you? Do you prefer organic? How much of the food you feed your family is organic? What’s your stand on this topic?

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

How to Cook Spaghetti Squash

by 24 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

If you’ve never tried Spaghetti Squash, I highly recommend you add this to your veggie eating repertoire.

For the record, I don’t think I can pull off correctly pronouncing the word repertoire. I just thought that sentence sounded better than me simply stating, “Yo. You should totally eat Spaghetti Squash.”

We were blessed with several fantastic spaghetti squash in our garden this summer and fall. I’m not sure there’s a better meal than home grown spaghetti squash, served with sauce made from home grown tomatoes. It’s delicious! Plus, practically free. Plus, super healthy. It’s merveilleux! ( I can’t pronounce that either, but it means “wonderful” in French. In other words: YUM.)

How to Cook Spaghetti Squash

1. Rinse outside of the squash.
2. Poke squash with a knife or fork 3-4 times.
3. Place squash in a baking dish, uncovered.
4. Bake in a 350° for 45-60 minutes or until squash is tender.
5. Cut squash in half to open.
6. Pull out seeds and discard.
7. Use a fork to pull “spaghetti” away from the inside of the rind. (This is the fun part!)
8. Serve cooked spaghetti squash as is, or serve with your favorite red or white sauce.

How to Cook Spaghetti Squash

Beyond Spaghetti Sauce, we love this squash with Alfredo Sauce and Italian Cream Cheese Chicken.

Are you a fan of Spaghetti Squash, or is this something you’ve not yet added to your veggie repertoire? What’s your favorite way to serve Spaghetti Squash? Can you pronounce the word repertoire?

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

Always Go to the Store When You’re Hungry

by 7 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

shopping cart 2

Yep, it’s just like Grandma used to say:

  • Be sure to go outside with wet hair on a cold day.
  • If you can’t say something nice, be sure to say it really loudly. While sticking out your tongue.
  • Sit very close to the TV. It’s good for your eyes.
  • Always go to the store when you’re hungry.

Best advice ever, right? Good ol’ Grandma. How’d she get so smart?

Obviously, I’m a little mixed up on what I remember hearing from Grandma. Cold day…stick out tongue… I think what she actually said was that when I go outside on a cold day, I should always stick out my tongue to lick the fence post. Yes, that was it.

Before I get any more carried away, let’s set the record straight:  Don’t go outside on a cold day with wet hair or stick out your tongue (fence post or not). Never say unkind words or sit close to the TV. There, now you can’t sue me if your kid reads this and says, “That Heavenly Homemaker Lady said I should.”

But going to the store when you’re hungry? Now that’s a different story. Grandma never gave me advice about this, but I’ve heard it from plenty:  “Don’t go to the store when you’re hungry. You’ll come out with a cart full of junk food you don’t need.”

I beg to differ.  Just hear me out.

Always Go to the Store Hungry

Last week, I went to the store before dinner. I wasn’t “passing out hungry” because I do know my limits and realize that the grocery store manager would appreciate it if I don’t faint beside the display of plums. I had snacked, and I was just on the verge of “Mmm, food is starting to sound pretty good right about now.” You know that feeling?

That is when you should go to the store – to the produce section. For the love of Doritos and Dolly Madison, do not go to the cookie aisle, the bakery, the bread aisle, or the potato chip aisle when you’re hungry. But I dare you: Go to the produce section of the store when you’re hungry.

The pineapple, the asparagus, the cucumbers, the mixed greens, the apples, the pears, the fruit you’ve never heard of before much less tasted – it will all look fantastic to you! You will begin to crave it right then and there. You will imagine crisp slices of cucumber, dipped in fresh ranch dressing, and you will think that you might die if you don’t have some this very night. You will long for vegetables roasting in the oven. You will have to fight the urge to bite into a Honey Crisp apple right there on the spot, but for goodness sake, don’t do it because we all know Grandma told us we always have to pay for food before we eat it and that is the absolute truth.

Don’t cross your eyes. They might stay that way forever. But do go fill your cart with fruits and vegetables when you’re hungry. Buy them. Don’t complain about the price. They are cheaper than junk and our bodies crave nourishment- so don’t even get me started. Bring fruits and vegetables home by the bag full, then start crunching. Eat your fill. Enjoy the goodness.

Then wait 30 minutes before you go swimming. Grandma knows best.

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

5 Ways To Save Money While Becoming Healthier

by 84 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

5 Ways to Save Money While Becoming Healthier

Remember how my healthy living journey started?

A decade ago, clipping and using coupons was one of my favorite hobbies. I got Hamburger Helper for 33¢ a box, Windex for 49¢, and cans of green beans for a dime. Cheap or free – that’s what I looked for when purchasing the food we ate, the cleaning products we used, and the tissues that wiped our noses. I was the Coupon Queen, and I rocked that job.

blueberry_streusel_muffin

Then, our fourth baby was born with chronic eczema. Suddenly our poptart-filled lives needed to change drastically.

We recognized right away that we could no longer use regular (cheap) laundry detergents as they caused major break-outs for Malachi. Anytime a spray cleaner was used, he would be even more miserable. Before he was a year old, we realized that everything we brought into our home – from food to cleaning supplies to medicine – needed to be changed.

dark_choc_granola_3

Dark Chocolate Almond Granola – Less Than $1 Per Serving

I’m thankful for the kick-start we received so that our whole family could become healthier, but it really was quite a difficult and discouraging time full of question marks.

A loving friend who knew I was trying to find better foods and cleaning supplies for my family handed me her health food co-op catalog. She said it helped her family save money. Excitedly, I started skimming the pages.

With one glance, I was soooo disappointed! These were the best prices to be found on healthy food and household products? Seriously? I was used to paying pennies for our food and cleaners. And what even was half of that stuff they listed in there? Kimchi, kombucha, coconut milk? Weird…and expensive.

Well, here we are, a million and a half life lessons and experiences later. Thankfully, I’ve learned the importance of investing in nourishing foods and non-toxic household items for our better health. I’ve also learned many new ways to save money – the healthy way. Isn’t God cool?  He always provides what we need – from finances to information to ideas to support.

chicken_pot_pie_5

Easy Chicken Pot Pie – Less Than $1 Per Serving

I still have a lot to learn. I don’t always practice these money saving methods perfectly. But I do my best to save money and be healthy at the same time. I’ll continue to share the great deals I find and the tips I come across. I know this journey can be hard, and I want to encourage you in any way I can!

You’ll want to be sure and check out our
entire section of real food meals for $1 per plate!

Here are five of my favorite ways to save money while striving for good health:

1. Make it Homemade

You already know this about me, so I’ll just briefly say – it saves our family hundreds of dollars every month when I make most of our simple meals from scratch. Here are some of the highest money-saving foods I make:

2. Skip it Altogether

While I used to have a specific cleaning product for every single cleaning need on the planet, I’ve found that it’s not necessary at all. Do I really need to spray chemicals from a can onto my dusting cloth before wiping down my furniture? Um…who knew a bit of water would work just as well if not better? (sometimes I amaze myself)

I use a great All-Purpose Cleaner from Tropical Traditions for tougher jobs. Otherwise, simple household items like baking soda, vinegar, and lemon juice are completely healthy, inexpensive, and pretty much amazing. A great way to save money is to make your own household cleaners (see #1 above).

3. Think Outside the Box

What if the way we’ve always done things isn’t necessarily the only way to do it? What if doing something different might be healthier and save money too? It’s hard to think outside the box sometimes – especially if anything outside of our norm seems foreign to us. But on your healthy living journey, you’ll find it’s great to save money by exploring new ideas.

For instance, I used to run my kids to the medical clinic for every sniffle or bump. The costs really added up, but what’s a mom to do? I am so thankful for what I’ve learned the past few years about treating my family at home when possible. Doctors and clinics are there for a reason, and we certainly use them when we need to. But home remedies, essential oils (I’m just digging into these and LOVE what I’m learning!), natural options for keeping on top of illnesses – these are keeping us healthier and saving us hundreds of dollars too.

4. Plan Ahead

While it isn’t possible to see into the future, there are a few constants in life we can prepare for. For instance:

  • You will always need toilet paper and laundry detergent.
  • We all need to eat three times a day.
  • Christmas is always December 25.

Planning for what I know will be needed saves my sanity and keeps us from spending money we don’t need to spend. Making meal plans each week has saved me so much money! You can see all my weekly menu plans here.

5. Use Online Resources

I continue to be amazed about the awesome deals I find online. Not only am I saving money on the items themselves, I’m saving all kinds of gas money and travel time. I love that I can shop at my convenience, and save time by having items shipped (usually, for free) to my door.

I always try to share great online deals with you here when I find them. You’ll find a button on my sidebar for our Amazon Deals page

Share with us – what are your best tips for saving money on your healthy living journey?

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

14 Oven-Free Breakfast Ideas for Summer

by 9 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Have I ever mentioned that we don’t have central air conditioning in our home? People think we’re crazy. Well, yeah. But there are a few important aspects to note about our variety of crazy – and about our lack of central air conditioning:

1. Our house is over 100 years old and was built to stay cool back before air conditioning was invented. We have high ceilings, which makes a significant difference.
2. We have an attic fan that sucks hot air out and pulls cool air in. (I believe I just told you that our attic fan sucks.)
3. When a person is used to air conditioning, a person tends to think they need air conditioning. When a person is not used to air conditioning, a person gets used to not having air conditioning.
4. I freeze to death when I go to Wal-Mart and other places with air conditioning and freezer sections. See #3 above.
5. We have several window air conditioning units. Remember this?  Ain’t she a beaut? We haven’t even installed it this summer. We haven’t been home long enough to care. But we have that one, another for out guest room, and another for our boys room upstairs. Window units work great for our needs.

All that to say:  I rarely turn our oven on during hot summer days. We typically deal with lack of air conditioning just fine – but avoiding the oven makes this much more doable. Baking muffins, quick breads, and egg casseroles is rarely an option. Instead, we stick with stove-top meals, toaster oven choices, or smoothies. Here are some of our favorite oven-free breakfasts, which of course can be made for lunch, snacks, or dinner too. Breakfast for dinner always rocks. Kind of like my attic fan sucks. (Oh, stop it.)

14 Oven Free Breakfast Ideas For Summer

14 Oven-Free Breakfast Ideas for Summer

It’s always fun to throw in the occasional bacon or sausage too, if I have time.  Fresh fruit in the summer time is amazing.  All the delicious berries, nectarines, plums, peaches, melons available – incredible. Yes indeed, summer time is my very favorite time of year – even without central air conditioning. :)

What are your favorite oven-free breakfast ideas?

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