Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

  • Home
    • About
    • FAQs
  • Recipes
    • Bread and Breakfast
    • Condiments
    • Dairy
    • Main Dishes
    • Side Dishes and Snacks
    • Desserts
    • Gluten Free
    • Instant Pot
    • Crock Pot
    • Heavenly Homemaker’s Weekly Menus
  • Homemaking
    • Real Food Sources
  • Store
  • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Disclosure
    • Privacy Policy
  • Simple Meals
  • Club Members!

After School Snacks to Have on Hand

August 26, 2020 by Laura 2 Comments

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

Even though we homeschool, I still need to have after school snacks on hand. After all, we’re hungry after we’ve finished our school day too!

Here are the snacks we like to have on hand to make our afternoons run more smoothly – especially if we’re heading out to soccer games in the evening!

After School Snacks to Have on HandYum

First, here are some little-to-no prep snack ideas:

  • Summer Sausage
  • Lunch Meat
  • Leftover Ham
  • Variety of cheese
  • Carrot Sticks with Ranch or Hummus
  • Cucumbers
  • Celery and Peanut Butter
  • Sweet Peppers
  • Olives
  • Pickles
  • Apples
  • Grapes
  • Bananas
  • Oranges
  • Strawberries
  • Blueberries
  • Cantaloupe
  • Raspberries
  • Pineapple
  • Peanuts
  • Almonds
  • Cashews
  • Crackers
  • Bread and Butter
  • Peanut Butter Honey Toast
  • Chips
  • Guacamole
  • Salsa
  • Smoothies
  • Popcorn

And if you have time to make or bake a fun recipe, here are some of our favorites!

  1. 4-Ingredient Chocolate Crunch Bars
  2. No Bake Cookie Cups (5 minute prep!)
  3. Cream Cheese Salsa Dip (2 ingredients!)
  4. Pineapple Coconut Quick Bread (blends together fast!)
  5. Parmesan Crisps (so easy you won’t believe it!)
  6. Sweet and Salty Almonds or Pecans
  7. Chocolate Cheesecake Fudge
  8. Creamy Italian Veggie Dip
  9. No Bake Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
  10. Honey Sweetened Flourless Peanut Butter Bars (3 ingredients!)
  11. Easy Cheesy Popcorn
  12. 3-Ingredient Peanut Butter Honey Rice Krispie Treats
  13. Homemade Chewy Granola Bars

It’s fun to have something homemade to treat the family with after a full day of learning!

Bonus: Here are 40 fun snack recipes that include peanut butter.

Want more? Here’s our 227 Healthy Snack Ideas eBook!

I also like to keep snacks like this on hand to grab and go to soccer games:

  • Veggie Straws
  • Applesauce Squeezies
  • Freeze Dried Fruit
  • Cheese Sticks
  • Fruit Leather

What are your favorite snacks to enjoy as After School treats?

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

Food Ideas For Feeding a Large Group

August 5, 2020 by Laura 3 Comments

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

Need some food ideas for feeding a large group? Here’s what I’ve been working on recently!

I’ve been prepping to feed our York College soccer teams several times during our pre-season this fall, so I thought I’d share what I’ve been up to! (My husband is one of the women’s coaches so we are blessed to be heavily involved with the teams. Plus our third son, Elias, will be the fourth Coppinger to be on the YC men’s team!)

If you think I’m crazy for taking this on while chasing our busy 6-year-old and two 1-year-old toddlers, I’d probably agree with you. BUT, all I can say is that I had a strong desire to do this. God said yes. I love food, I love feeding people, and I especially love feeding our YC soccer teams as they transition back into a school year and a new season.

We are praising God that we can have a soccer season and an on-campus school year at this point. We are taking all the precautions to stay safe and the fact that we can have such a beautiful opportunity to enjoy community in this way is such a joy to us. We are SO THANKFUL.

How I can feed a large group while chasing babies

Even if I wasn’t chasing babies, I still have to do the following to make this work:

  1. I have to be very organized.
  2. I have to keep my menus very simple.
  3. I have to ask for help.
  4. I have to get as much food prepped ahead of time as possible.

So I’ve detailed my meal ideas. I’ve made thorough grocery lists (Wal-mart grocery pickup for the WIN!). I have lists of tasks others can take off my plate when they come into the kitchen and say, “What can I do to help?” And I started baking five weeks ago!

The plan right now is that I will feed:

  • The guy’s team one evening in our yard.
  • The girl’s team the next evening in our yard.
  • Both teams during an entire weekend retreat (6 meals)

I’ve been feeding big crowds (and chasing littles) for many years now, so I’ve definitely learned a lot about what works well and what doesn’t. I used to go all out and make everything from scratch. Phew, not anymore! I still do what I can, but wow have I simplified compared to making homemade ice cream sandwiches for everyone like I used to!

Food Ideas When Feeding a Large Group

Here’s a simple list of what I’m planning to feed everyone (about 80 people) during the weekend retreat. I’ll share more details below.

Friday Evening: Crock Pot Beef and Chicken Fajitas with Fixins, Watermelon, Butterscotch Bars

Saturday Morning: Egg Casseroles, Quick Breads, Fruit

Saturday Lunch: Dips with Chips, Dips with Veggies, Dips with Fruit, Brownies

Saturday Dinner: Lasagna, Salad, French Bread, Green Beans,  Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Sunday Morning: Cereal, Fruit, Yogurt, Leftover Quick Bread

Sunday Lunch: Pulled Pork Sandwiches, Chips, Baked Beans, Leftover Veggies and Fruits and Dips

During the weeks leading up to the retreat, I have cooked or baked a little bit each day to put food in the freezer to get ahead and prepared for the retreat.

Here’s my countertop one morning after I started cooking Fajita Meat in two crockpots,
Stick of Butter Rice in my Instant Pot,
and pulled three loaves of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread from my oven.

What Can Be Made Ahead of Time and Frozen

  • Chicken Fajita Meat (15 pounds)
  • Beef Fajita Meat (made just like the Chicken Fajita recipe – 6 pounds)
  • Rice for Fajitas (x8)
  • Easy Breakfast Casseroles (9 dozen eggs worth)
  • Lasagna (x10)
  • Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread (3 loaves)
  • Zucchini Bread (3 loaves)
  • Banana Bread (3 loaves)
  • Orange Poppyseed Bread (5 loaves)
  • Chocolate Chip Bread (3 loaves)
  • Chocolate Chocolate Chip Bread (3 loaves)
  • Pulled Pork (20 pounds)
  • Brownies (x8)
  • Butterscotch Bars (x4)
  • Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars (x4)

What Can Be Made Ahead of Time and Refrigerated

  • Creamy Italian Veggie Dip
  • Fruit Dip
  • Bean and Cheese Salsa Dip

In Case You’re Curious:

  • Fajita Fixin’s: tortillas, prepared meat, rice, black beans, shredded cheese, salsa, sliced olives, diced tomatoes, shredded lettuce, sour cream

What I Can Ask Others to Help With

It’s helpful for me to have a list made for ways others can help simply because while I’m in the middle of cooking before a big meal starts, my brain can’t always think of what to say when someone offers, “What can I do to help?”

During the retreat, soccer team members will be coming into the kitchen to help me (or grabbing babies to take them outside to play while I cook!). So here’s what I plan to turn over to the students:

  • Prep Fruit – Apples, Bananas, Peaches, Strawberries, Grapes
  • Prep Veggies – Carrots, Broccoli, Cucumbers
  • Slice Quick Breads
  • Shred Cheese
  • Wash Dishes! ;)

Meals in our Yard

The week after the retreat we’ll feed each team once at our house. I haven’t done any prep work for these yet, but I plan to make the same meal both nights for both teams to save effort and my brain energy. :)

  • Simple Pizza Chicken Bake (this is so easy to put together!)
  • Tossed Salad
  • Corn
  • Grapes
  • Italian Bread
  • Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

What are your go-to meals when feeding large crowds?

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

Last Day for Real Moms Cooking Community Freebies!

July 7, 2020 by Laura Leave a Comment

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

If you haven’t already, please come join our Real Moms Cooking Community!

Real Moms Cooking Community Goals:

  • Add new quick and simple recipes to your regular rotation that your family will love
  • Find ways to save time in the kitchen
  • Discover great tips for saving money on groceries
  • Learn simple ways to eat out less
  • Add more fruits and veggies into your meals
  • Gain tips for making menu planning easier
  • Support one another!

There is absolutely no cost to join this community. In fact, we’re practically paying you to be a part of this! If you sign up to join the Real Moms Cooking Community by today (July 8), we’ll give you:

  • A special 2 week series of emails highlighting topics like grocery budgets, family-friendly recipes, saving time in the kitchen, simple menu planning, and how to make vegetables actually taste good. :)
  • Exclusive access to our brand new Real Moms Cooking Community Facebook Group – so we can all share ideas, tips, and recipes!
  • 1-month FREE subscription to Simple Meals
  • This incredible packet of resources, for FREE —->

Ready to join us?

We’ll hang out via email and Facebook. Sign up here and we’ll start sending you freebies and connect you with the Real Moms Cooking Community.

Click here to sign up!

BONUS! If you share this post on your favorite social media sites so that your friends can join too – you can enter you our giveaway for a copy of our beautiful Simple Real Food Recipes Cookbook! Everyone needs this cookbook!!!!

Be sure to let them know that if they sign up by July 8, they’ll also receive the $49 worth of freebies we’re handing out!

Join the Real Moms Cooking Community here

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

Join our Real Moms Cooking Community!

July 1, 2020 by Laura 4 Comments

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

This is for all the moms (and aunts, friends, sisters, and grandmas) behind and in front and in the middle of all the daily grind beauty of every day. Introducing the Real Moms Cooking Community!

Cooking for the family…
While trying to keep up with the family?

What actually is most important?

When it comes to food, so many of us are seeking to:

  • Feed our families well
  • Save money on groceries
  • Stop eating out so much
  • Figure out menu planning
  • Spend less time in the kitchen

AND, we want to keep God first. This is vital.

Ummm, balance??

It almost seems impossible to do them all at the same time, right? There’s so much to learn and you and I can’t possibly know or do everything.

Is it possible that this is the missing link? —>

We need each other.

If the 2020 quarantine has taught me anything, it’s that community is so very necessary. So we created an opportunity to find the support, resources, and togetherness that we all need as we ask questions about what is most important as we strive to feed our families.

We want to do it well, and we want to figure out how to balance it all. I don’t have all the answers. Neither do you. But I do know what has worked for me through my 23 years of raising a family so far. And you know what has worked for you during your time raising a family. So I decided:

Why not form a Real Moms Cooking Community where we can work together and share all the recipes, tips, and ideas we’ve learned!

Our Real Moms Cooking Community Package includes:

  • A special 2 week series of emails highlighting topics like grocery budgets, family-friendly recipes, saving time in the kitchen, how to eat out less, and how to make vegetables actually taste good. :)
  • Exclusive access to our brand new Real Moms Cooking Community Facebook Group – so we can all share ideas, tips, and recipes!
  • This incredible packet of fun and practical resources —>

Yep, throughout this series, among all the wonderful tips, links, and information we’ll also send you these fantastic bonus resources:

  • 30-Minute Meals eCookbook – Filled with our favorite real food, family fun recipes that can be on your table within just 30 minutes or less!
  • Simple Kitchen eBook – Loaded with fantastically simple ideas, recipes, and tips to help make your real food kitchen life so easy! Make your own ranch dressing mix, make bacon bits, make and freeze muffin batter – so many wonderful ideas!
  • Real Tips eBook – Here’s where you’ll learn how you really can eat out less, but still have SO MUCH FUN. This eBook will help you save lots of money. Oh, and you’ll learn tips about helping your family eat more fruits and veggies too!
  • Budget-Friendly eGuidebook – Want to save money while living a real food lifestyle? This guidebook is just what you need. You can do this!
  • Printable Recipe Cards – All the recipes in the eBooks can be printed as super cute recipe cards! The fun never ends!

Who is this for?

This community is for everyone. Some of us are stay-at-home moms, some of us work outside the home, some of us work from home, some of us are empty nesters, some of us are new moms, some of us are veteran moms. Some of us carry more than one of those labels, and some of us have both adult children and babies (Laura raises her hand). :)

What do we all have in common? We want to do the best that we can to care for our families!

Certainly, all women are welcome, moms or not. Shucks, men can even join! But this community and its contents are geared toward guiding women who are regularly cooking for a family. It’s a big job and we can work together to do it well!

Real Moms Cooking Community Goals:

  • Add new quick and simple recipes to your regular rotation that your family will love
  • Find ways to save time in the kitchen
  • Discover great tips for saving money on groceries
  • Learn simple ways to eat out less
  • Add more fruits and veggies into your meals
  • Gain tips for making menu planning easier
  • Support one another!

Ok, ready to join us?

Purchase your package below and let’s get started! We’ll hang out via email and Facebook. We’ll share the best of the best tips and ideas, recipes, and encouragement! You’ll love every email and all the bonuses that are included!

Let’s join this community and learn and share together!

Maximum quantity exceeded
Minimum purchase amount of 0 is required
Maximum purchase amount of 0 is allowed
49.000
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Perfect Summer Snack for Toddlers

June 17, 2020 by Laura 15 Comments

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

I have discovered the perfect summer snack for toddlers! But first, let’s enjoy some pictures of the adorable toddlers who eat these snacks:

Keith (on the right, above) is our forever Bonus Boy6. The future of Boy Babe7 (on the left) is still up in the air. We are praying goodness and security for him as we spend these months loving him in our home.

The sweet 6-year old in the blue polo is Brayden, our Bonus Boy5. He became our fifth Coppinger boy through the gift of adoption in 2019. Truly, the work God has done in our family during the past two years has astounded us. He continues to grow us in number and in faith and trust as we walk this journey with Him!

Now that we’re back to raising littles again (our older sons are now 23, 20, 18, and 15!), we’ve been fixing up our backyard to be fun for them. Brayden helped me paint an old tractor tire, and we turned it into a sandbox. It has been so much fun!!

We bought a kiddie pool, and bubble mowers:

  • Two of these little mowers 
  • This simple but perfect-for-us kiddie pool. (Not only does this work well for our 1-year olds, it’s great for Brayden, our 6-year old too! Also, this one is listed now for way more than we paid for it a month ago!? We only paid $20!)
  • And this toddler sized picnic table:

Which almost leads me to share about the fun summer snack I discovered. But first, can we just take a minute to appreciate God’s work in teenagers and young adults? In the picture above you can see Malachi, age 15, our Boy4, running around and pick up sticks in the yard with Brayden. And Elias, age 18, our Boy3 kissing the babies before he headed off to work for the day. My heart overflows with gratitude.

Here’s Justus, age 20, our Boy2 who was home from college for several weeks during quarantine before he headed to Texas for a summer internship. Our little ones sure miss “dut-dus.” Well, we all do.


Last but not least, here’s Asa, our 23-year old and Boy1. He lives and works in Lincoln now as a videographer for Back to the Bible. So we don’t get to see him often, but when he does make it home, the little boys pile on top of him!

Apparently I felt that you needed a big family update!

Ok, one last thing: I’d love for you to be blessed by the latest video our boys made together. Asa, Justus, and Malachi worked hard on it as a gift for Elias’ high school graduation!

 

Perfect Summer Snack for Toddlers

And now, the information you’ve all been waiting for. The perfect summer snack I’ve discovered for our toddlers is:

Frozen Peas.

See also: Frozen Corn, Frozen Blueberries, Frozen Mixed Veggies, and Frozen Mango.

On a hot day when we’re running around and playing outside, grabbing little bowls of frozen veggies or fruit for them to eat at the picnic table as finger food is a huge hit for our toddlers! It cools them off and nourishes them at the same time. The frozen foods are easy to eat and take absolutely no prep! They’re perfect!

And now you know.

I’ll leave you with this:

Here’s Keith the night our littles took turns putting on goggles and laughing their full belly laughs.

God’s plans are better than ours, always.

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

How to Serve a Special Breakfast without Breaking the Bank

June 14, 2020 by Laura 2 Comments

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

Want to serve a special breakfast without breaking the bank? Here’s how!

Yum

How to serve a special breakfast without breaking the bank

In short, the answer is pancakes.

And crepes.

With pretty fruit.

And whipped cream.

See, here’s how I came to learn about this special breakfast. I mean, I already knew about it. But I guess I didn’t realize how amazing it really was. I thought I was just feeding college kids while simultaneously cleaning out my fridge (shh, don’t tell!).

As it turns out, I was giving them a feast that made them think I had gone to a lot of trouble and expense. They were amazed and grateful and overjoyed when they saw our buffet. Which was?

A tower of pancakes and whatever fruit I could find in my house.

We already know that pancakes are cheap to make in bulk. And we already know that most people love pancakes. So this is a great meal to feed a larger group of people.

So as I flipped the cakes, I kept pulling out whatever I could find to go with them. Matt sliced some bananas. I whipped some cream. Then I got out frozen fruit stuffed and forgotten in the back of my freezer and turned it into syrup.

We got out half empty full jars of applesauce. We pulled out a few fresh berries. We set out homemade peanut butter.

The buffet ended up looking so pretty and fun! The college students (who this time happened to be a bunch of soccer athletes who can EAT and who also have a soft spot for our Boy Babes – oh my heart) were simply thrilled with the food options.

We fed about 10 extras that night for just a few dollars. But seeing their faces beam and their plates fill and their hearts soften as they loved on our littles – it was entirely priceless.

For the record, I did decide to save money and make “syrup” by heating and stirring together brown sugar and water in a saucepan. Again, they all thought it was fancy since I’d made it myself. I was kinda feeling stingy about such a large group dousing their pancakes in our hard-to-come by and pretty pricy real maple syrup. So that was my money-saving solution to that. :)

So that’s that.

If you need to feed a crowd and you want to do it on the cheap, make a pile of pancakes and clean the frozen fruit out of the back of your freezer. Make your own “syrup” (I’ll post the details soon!) and put a big smile on your face. Offer this meal for breakfast, lunch, or dinner – it is a winner any time of day!

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

How I Get Ahead and Make Mealtime Less Stressful!

May 31, 2020 by Laura Leave a Comment

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

I have discovered lots of tricks through the years for putting meals on the table quickly and simply. But this is by far the best one I’ve found for how to get ahead and make mealtime less stressful!

How I Get Ahead and Make Mealtime Less Stressful

Ready for the tip? It’s simply this:

Make as much of your meal as you can before you actually need to serve it.

Eh?

Here’s an example: While my family was finishing lunch today, I made tonight’s Sloppy Joe Meat. Then I got out a couple of cans of pineapple, olives, and buns and set them on the counter. Carrots and ranch are already ready in the fridge to pull out. When dinner-time rolls around, I’ll simply warm up the Sloppy Joes and we’ll sit down and eat.

sloppy_joe_1

Why do I try to do this?

Well, right now we have eight kids living in our home. Five of those kids are high maintenance and some are even labeled “intensive.” So most of my time is spent caring for and chasing babies while helping traumatized teenagers learn better coping skills. Or I’m talking to case workers, or making therapy appointments, or changing diapers, or trying to help my older boys with whatever they need, and hey! I’m even trying to take care of myself too. Ah, and my hubby/favorite teammate. (UPDATE: I wrote and scheduled this post in April. We’re back down to just 7 kids for now. Praise God, he found other homes for the traumatized teenagers!)

All this – plus there’s all the normal laundry, food, and other homemaking tasks that need to be done.

So now more than ever, I’ve found that I must both keep our meals simple AND prep food ahead of time if possible. Otherwise meal prep is quite stressful.

I don’t always get food made ahead.

Not even close. Sometimes I’m throwing food together at the last minute. Sometimes I haven’t even had a chance to think of a plan for a meal before it’s actually meal time.

But if I possibly can, I try to think ahead and do as much prep as possible (and of course, I get every capable boy involved in helping with this prep!). Making food ahead is about the only way I can stay functional in my kitchen right now because we never know when someone might have a melt-down or a blow-out or another big need.

Ways to make food ahead of time

1. Make part of dinner during and/or after lunch. 

While the family is still at the table or still in the kitchen after lunch, it works wonderfully to get veggies chopped, meat browned, or at the very least needed ingredients rounded up for the evening meal. Our Take Ten Challenge books give you great options and tips to help with this!

2. Make breakfast after dinner.

This is the same concept as making dinner during lunch – but I find it’s key for being able to get ahead on all of our meals the next day. If I have an ounce of energy left after a long day, it’s nice to mix up tomorrow morning’s muffins or pancake mix or breakfast bars in preparation for the next day. Even if we’re just going to have cereal, I can have one of my kids get the boxes out along with bowls and spoons so we save a few minutes the next day.

There’s something really refreshing about waking up and knowing I don’t have to do much work before feeding everyone the first meal of the day.

3. Start a crock pot meal cooking right after breakfast.

This is even better than making dinner at lunchtime because the meal prep has been done before I day gets started!

4. Do some sort of meal prep any time you find a few minutes to spare.

Sure, sometimes we might feel like there’s not an extra 5-minutes anywhere in the day. Or it might seem like 5-minutes isn’t worth much. But I find it to be amazing what I can do with a spare 5-minutes here and there. That’s when I’ll grab ingredients for the next recipe I’m planning to make. Or throw meat into the crock pot and dump on sauce. Or wash some grapes and put them into a bowl for later. Or stir together a loaf of Stir-and-Pour Bread. Or start grinding wheat so that I’ll have flour ready to bake with another time. Or give instructions to my big kids about what they can put together for a meal.

What are some helpful tricks that help you get ahead in the kitchen?

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

How to Make Nutritious Stir-Fry QUICKLY!

March 29, 2020 by Laura 2 Comments

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

Stir-Fried Veggies are one of our favorite ways to eat veggies! Here’s how you can make a nutritious stir-fry quickly!

We’ve been eating a lot of stir-fried veggies lately! It’s been a great way to up our veggie intake as stir-frying them gives them such an incredible flavor!

Not that it’s terribly difficult or time consuming, but cutting up veggies for a meal does take more time than simply opening a bag of frozen veggies or grabbing mixed greens out of the fridge. So here’s what I’ve tried to do if I have a few spare mintues (read: if the babies are in their high chairs eating breakfast, safe from running in two different directions, and therefore safe from climbing precariously on the furniture while my back is turned)…

How to Make Nutrious Stir-Fry Quickly

The advice is a no-brainer really. Simply spend a few minutes – when you can find a few minutes – washing and cutting a bunch of veggies for stir-fry. Mix them all in a large ziplock bag and pull them out to cook at meal time!

Recently, I spent about 15 minutes washing and cutting sweet peppers, onions, broccoli, asparagus, and carrots. We then had a 2-gallon bag of prepped veggies in the fridge! So for the next few days, we have delicious stir-fry meals or stir-fried veggie side dishes with our meals!

Here are three ways we like to eat stir-fried veggies:

1. As a delicious side dish to go with whatever meat we are eating.

2. Stirred into cooked spaghetti noodles like this. Sometimes we add cooked meat, sometimes we don’t.

3. Stirred into Stick-of-Butter-Rice. Again, sometimes we add cooked meat and sometimes we don’t.

The Easiest and Most Flavorful Way to Stir-Fry Veggies

How to Make Nutritious Stir-Fry QUICKLY!
 
Save Print
Author: Laura
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 2-4 cups fresh or frozen veggies of your choice (broccoli, carrots, peas, peppers, corn, zucchini, squash, etc.)
  • 3 Tablespoons olive oil, coconut oil, or palm shortening
  • 1 clove minced fresh garlic or ½ teaspoon garlic powder
  • Soy sauce (to taste)
  • Sea salt (to taste)
Instructions
  1. In a skillet, toss vegetables, garlic and olive oil together - cooking on medium heat until veggies are tender.
  2. Add soy sauce, stirring until the veggies are barely coated.
  3. Add sea salt (and more soy sauce) if desired.
3.5.3229

 

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

How Your Entire Family Can Learn About Eating Healthy!

March 4, 2020 by Laura Leave a Comment

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

Looking for a simple way for your entire family to learn about eating healthy? It doesn’t get any easier than this!

We just rolled this out, and it’s packed with great information while being as simple as can be!

What is the Healthy Eating Jumpstart Basic Nutrition Class?

You won’t believe all that you’ll get in this fantastic online class! Healthy Eating Jumpstart includes:

  • 10 easy lessons to walk you through the basics of eating well
  • 10 fun videos to watch and use with each lesson
  • A practical packet full of worksheets and printables to use with each lesson
  • A beautiful bonus Jumpstart eCookbook filled with 51 easy recipes that will jumpstart your entire family on a journey to healthy eating
  • A Lesson Guide and Checklist packet to walk you through completing each lesson

How can you best use this Healthy Eating Jumpstart Basic Nutrition Class?

  • Work through it as a family and set goals together toward taking steps for healthier eating
  • Work through it on your own and start making small changes in your kitchen for your family
  • Hand it to your older kids to work through as part of their homeschool lessons or life skills learning
  • Hold on to it and utilize it again and again for yourself, your kids, and your entire family as needed

Your Entire Family Can Learn About Eating Healthy!

Here’s a peek at the Lesson Book intro page so you can get an idea of what this class will cover…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ready to begin your Healthy Eating Jumpstart Class?

GREAT NEWS!!!! If you are a Heavenly Homemaker’s Club Member, this fantastic product is already yours!!! Find it on your eCurriculum page (because this is a great educational resource for your family!) and on your Kitchen Tips page. Then dive right in!!!

Not a Club Member yet? It is WORTH IT to be a member so you’ll have access to this amazing new Healthy Eating Jumpstart resource plus ALL of our eBooks, eCurriculum, printables, and so much more (over $1000 worth!) for just $10/month!

Join us here! You won’t believe all you get for such a low monthly cost!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you prefer, you can purchase this online class separately. Ready to get started? Purchase here:

Maximum quantity exceeded
Minimum purchase amount of 0 is required
Maximum purchase amount of 0 is allowed
27.000

Make healthy eating EASY!!!!! This class will help!

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

Meatless, Egg Free, Dairy-Free Recipes

February 16, 2020 by Laura 1 Comment

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

Yes indeed. Here’s a list of Meatless, Egg Free, Dairy Free Recipes that are still fun. Mostly.

Is it possible? Is this meat-loving, dairy-loving mama going to share some Vegan recipes with you?

Well, funny story. (Yeah. So, so funny.)

Twas the night before Christmas Eve, 2019, and my darling husband decided to watch a documentary. Why, Matt, why? You couldn’t have just watched Elf??

But no. He watched the one about why we should probably not be eating as much or any meat, eggs, or dairy. The next day, he stood in the kitchen telling me about it – you know – while I was cooking seven pounds of hamburger meat in my Instant Pot and whipping cream for pies. Dude, you have got to be kidding me. No meat or dairy? Do you even know me at all?

But alas, the documentary had convinced him. Not that we should all go vegan (BECAUSE MAMA NEEDS HER BUTTER!!!!!). But he wondered if he might need to cut out animal products as an experiment to see if the change helped some of the minor health issues he’d been experiencing.

I almost got mad (she admits, sheepishly). It’s just that with two one-year-old babies toddling around and crawling on the floor eating food I hadn’t found time to sweep up yet, and a 6-year old who constantly demands attention and needs a lot of re-training, and all the others and everything else plus a freezer full of MEAT  – I didn’t know what to do with the words he’d just spoken.

It’s a Wonderful Life, Matt. Now THAT’S a great Christmas movie. Documentary, schmocumentary. Stop trying to learn new things.

So after the 5-minute tantrum I had inside my head, I half-smiled and told him that after Christmas I’d consider thinking about thinking about how I could possibly accommodate this idea. But for today, we were eating meatballs. God bless us, everyone.

Anyway, after Christmas was over and we started to settle into a new routine, I became intrigued by the challenge of figuring out tasty ways to feed my favorite guy. After all, man cannot live on peanut butter alone.

And that, my friends, is the story of why I’m sharing this list of Meatless, Egg Free, Dairy-Free Recipes. Mind you, I just ate a slice of homemade pizza that was heavily topped with cheese and two kinds of meat. (I don’t watch documentaries that tell me things I don’t want to hear. Heh.)

Meatless, Egg Free, Dairy-Free Recipes

Here are some of the recipes I’ve adapted by leaving out ALL OF THE GOOD STUFF. (I mean, by excluding potentially harmful ingredients in an effort to bless my husband’s health.) I am so proud that the recipe links in this list made it into the double-digits. I wasn’t sure I could do it. Because have you seen my recipes??!! Cream cheese rules! Butter and beef for days!!!! But not in these recipes:

  • Black Bean Salsa
  • Bean Burritos (cheeseless)
  • Calico Beans (without meat)
  • Calzones (made with lots of veggies!)
  • Easy Noodle Stir Fry
  • Last-Minute Lentil Chili (Matt’s favorite so far.)
  • Pizza Boats
  • Skillet Taco Pasta (no meat, no cheese, basically just pasta and salsa.)
  • Simple Taco Rice Dinner (meatless, so I guess we should just call this Spanish Rice.)
  • Pancakes (but with eggs, because I couldn’t even. and Matt was ok with that.)
  • Waffles (same as above.)
  • Baked Potatoes (with no butter, cheese, or sour cream. Blah.)
  • No-Bake Chocolate Fudge Cookie Bites
  • No-Bake Snickerdoodle Bites
  • No-Bake Peanut Butter Cookie Bites
  • No-Bake Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites

Can you believe it? Out of the hundreds of recipes on my site, this tiny list is all I could come up with. Send help!

Or not, because Matt’s not living and dying by this lifestyle. He’s just experimenting to see if it makes a difference. Meanwhile, he’s making lots of veggie stir-fries for himself, spreading peanut butter on bread or apples or bananas, and really focusing on eating lots of veggies and fruits in general.

Long live the cow. And all of the cow’s friends. I like beef. The end.

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

Join Our Community!

 Facebook Twitter E-mail Instagram Pinterest

Popular Posts

~ Will All of the Real Moms Please Stand Up?
~ Easy! Stir-and-Pour Whole Wheat Bread
~ How to Make Gatorade
~ 31 Real Food Breakfast Ideas
~ Dear Teenage Girls...
~ When Mom Takes a Step Back
~ The Inexpensive Health Insurance We Love!
~ Let's Talk Real Food Grocery Budgets

Check out our latest posts!

  • Big Family Food and Fun: May 24-30, 2026
  • Free 7-Day Summer Menu Plan
  • Big Family Food and Fun: May 17-23, 2026
  • Easy Side Dishes for Summer
  • Big Family Food and Fun: May 10-16, 2026
Home  ~  Simple Meals  ~  Club Membership  ~  Shop  ~  Privacy Policy  ~  Disclosure  ~ Contact

Copyright © 2026 · Beautiful Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in