Hit the Restart Button Archives | Heavenly Homemakers

The Simplest Chocolate Peanut Clusters

December 10, 2017 by Laura 3 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Truly these Chocolate Peanut Clusters can’t get any easier.

I make some with semi-sweet chocolate and some with white chocolate and when it’s all said and done, I’ve spent about 10 total minutes making amazing Christmas treats.

You don’t have to scoop these treats into muffin cups, but they sure do a lot to dress up the plate, don’t you think? (Read more ideas here for ways to serve festive food without using food coloring.)

The effort it takes to make these Chocolate Peanut Clusters involves pouring chocolate chips into a saucepan with peanuts, then stirring them both together until they melt. Two-ish minutes later your mission has been accomplished. Scoop the melty mixture into muffin-lined cups. Refrigerate. Serve or package up to give as gifts.

If only all of our Christmas preparations would be this easy!

Simple Chocolate Peanut Clusters

The Simplest Chocolate Peanut Clusters

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Author: Laura

Serves: 9-18

Ingredients

1 cup dry-roasted peanuts (unsalted)
2 cups chocolate chips (milk chocolate, semi-sweet, or white chocolate*)
1 shake of sea salt

Instructions

Pour peanuts and chocolate chips into a sauce pan.
Cook and stir over low heat until chocolate has melted and coats the peanuts.
Scoop coated peanuts into regular or mini-sized muffin paper liners.
Allow the clusters to cool until set, about 20 minutes.

*I get my White Chocolate Chips from Olive Nation. They offer some with a little bit cleaner ingredients and I love their quality.

By the way, Olive Nation loves Heavenly Homemakers readers so much that they give us a 20% discount on our orders! Shipping is free when your order is $50 or more. Use the code home for the discount!

If you’re into more time consuming treats (ha!), try these Truffles. I prefer simpler recipes, but of course the effort it worth the prize when you make truffles. They also make amazing Christmas gifts!

Also great for gift giving: Homemade Peppernuts. My grandma always made these at Christmastime!

What kinds of Christmas treats do you enjoy making to share?

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Always Go to the Store When You’re Hungry

September 28, 2014 by Laura 7 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

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.

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.

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10 Easy Real Food Meals for Less Than $1 Per Plate

September 18, 2014 by Laura 6 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

You’re excited to hit the restart button this fall. You’re making healthy changes in your kitchen and you’re likely finding the sticker shock to be a bit painful. (By the way, what is up with the price of butter lately?)

I feel ya. Healthy food costs more than processed “food.” That’s because real food is…real. It’s whole and it’s good, and it is the result of hard work and careful practices. (Go farmers!) Chemicals and fillers in processed foods are cheap to make in factories. You get what you pay for. But ugh, must feeding our families eat up (literally) so much of the pay check?

Always remember that the food you buy is an investment in good health. It helps to keep this in mind when you’re tempted to save money by filling your cart with cheap processed foods that won’t nourish.

Be encouraged! There are so many great meals you can make that are real, completely nourishing, and still very inexpensive. Phew! You’re not going to go broke. You just have to learn a few tricks to making this work.

I’m here to help. I am feeding teenage boys, after all. I really would go broke if I didn’t work to keep our real food costs down. After all, some of the darling children can eat half a casserole each. (And you wonder why I have so much Pyrex.)

Here are ten real food meals that cost less than $1.00 per person. Not only are they super inexpensive, these are some of our favorite meals. Score!!!

10 Easy Real Food Meals for Less Than $1 Per Plate

Sure, several of my boys eat 3-4 plates full of these meals. But that’s still only $3-$4 for each of them. I’ll take it.

What are your favorite, inexpensive real food meals? Share your best tips for saving money while eating real food!

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5 Ways To Save Money While Becoming Healthier

September 12, 2014 by Laura 84 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

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.

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 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.

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:

Cereal like Homemade Grape Nuts and Dark Chocolate Almond Granola.
Bread products, like Honey Whole Wheat Bread and Whole Wheat Muffins. Occasionally I’ll buy a loaf of 100% whole wheat bread at the store, but typically, if I don’t have time to make bread, we just don’t eat bread. No worries – there are tons of other goodies to eat like fresh fruit and cheese!
Frozen convenience foods like Meat and Cheese Burritos and Calzones. This saves food cost, plus saves us from the high cost of eating out if I don’t have food prepared.

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?

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Barbecue Beef and Cheese Hot Pockets ~ The Make-Ahead Lunch Box

September 4, 2014 by Laura 5 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Hot pockets can actually be eaten cold. Who knew?

When I asked you what you needed in a packed lunch, this is what you told me:

Quick and easy
Can be eaten cold
Hearty and filling

These Barbecue Beef and Cheese Hot Pockets are all that plus they are delicious. You can make them big or small, accommodating big or small appetites. They taste great hot or cold. You can make them ahead of time and pull them out as needed. They freeze well. What more do you need? Just the recipe I guess…

Barbecue Beef and Cheese Hot PocketsYum

Barbecue Beef and Cheese Hot Pockets ~ The Make-Ahead Lunch Box

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Author: Laura

Serves: 16

Ingredients

2 pounds beef stew meat
1 batch homemade barbecue sauce (more if you like)
2 cups shredded cheese
1 batch whole wheat pizza dough

Instructions

Place stew meat and barbecue sauce in a skillet.
Cook on low heat for about an hour, stirring occasionally, until meat is cooked and tender.
In the meantime, mix the whole wheat pizza dough and set it aside to rise.
Once both meat and dough are ready, remove meat from the heat.
Stir in cheese until it is melted.
Divide dough into about 16 pieces.
Roll each piece of dough into a thin circle.
Spoon meat mixture into the center of the circle, then gather up the edges of the dough and pinch to seal.
Place pinched side down on a baking sheet.
Once all dough is filled with meat, allow the pockets to rise about 15 minutes more.
Bake in a 375° oven for 15-25 minutes or until pockets are golden brown.

This would be a great way to use up leftover roast beef. In addition, you can fill hot pockets with any variety of meats and cheeses. They are a great, versatile meal idea!

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If you’re hitting the restart button with us this fall, I challenge you to find one recipe (maybe this Barbecue Beef and Cheese Hot Pocket recipe?) that you can make ahead of time and freeze. Having food prepared like this in the freezer is a life saver on busy days when you need a healthy meal quickly. You’ll find all of our Make-Ahead Meal recipes here.

Once you’ve completed the challenge, come back to this post and leave a comment letting us know what you made. Can’t wait to hear!

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Hit the Restart Button: Eat More Salads ~ Try Our Homemade Salad Dressing Recipes

September 2, 2014 by Laura 17 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

I have homemade salad dressing recipes for you!

Yum

Let’s just say you are hitting the restart button this fall in an effort be healthier. If I could give you just one piece of advice for making one simple change, it would have to be this: Eat more salads.

And also drink more water and cut back on sugar. And eat real butter instead of margarine.

Apparently I feel strongly about more than one aspect of making healthy changes and I just can’t not mention butter in a post about making changes in your diet. But today, I really do want to focus on eating salads. With a big glass of water on the side. Plus you should never, ever eat margarine.

Soooo, salads. We all know they are good for us. The reason I bring them up today is because I think they are a fantastic way for all of us to hit the restart button and fill up on nourishing foods. The possibilities are endless when it comes to building a salad. This means that none of us have excuses as to “not liking” what’s in front of us. You can pick what you put in it, for goodness sake. Green leaf, red leaf, romaine, spinach, cucumbers, peas, carrots, tomatoes, mushrooms, sweet peppers, onions, and on it goes. Then you can put dressing all over it – the kind you like best. You can even put bacon and cheese in your salad. If that’s not a reason to eat a bowl full of green leafy vegetables, I don’t know what is.

It is now easier than ever to make super healthy salads. Do you have these little gems at your grocery store?

They are pre-washed, so all you have to do is throw the greens in a bowl or on your plate. No excuses!

I highly encourage you to make a variety of tossed salads a bigger part of your life. I highly encourage you to make your own salad dressings with pure ingredients to keep your salads healthy. And I encourage you to eat butter.

Need some easy salad dressing recipe ideas? Hit the restart button by making a new salad dressing or two. You’ll find that it’s so nice to have Ranch Salad Dressing Mix and Italian Salad Dressing Mix made up in bulk so that you can quickly mix in liquid ingredients for fresh, healthy dressings.

You’ll find all of our homemade salad dressing recipes on this page (along with many other fun condiment recipes you’ll love). Here are our favorites at a quick glance…

Homemade Salad Dressing Recipes

How many times each week do you eat salad? Could you eat them more often? What is your favorite kind of salad dressing?

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Hit Restart, Save $10

September 2, 2014 by Laura 3 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Right now, I’m very much in a “stock up on groceries for fall and winter” mode. I want to be set up to have company, to bake for others, and to make our school days easier. Being well supplied with ready-to-grab groceries is super helpful to me. Many of you (like me) already purchase food online from Vitacost. It’s a wonderful option for healthy groceries, low or free shipping costs, and home delivery – my favorite part!

If you are new to Vitacost, you can shop through my referral link and get a free $10 off your first order of $30 or more. You’ll love all the great food they offer, and to get $10 free? Well, yay! Even better, if you purchase $25 or more Vitacost Brand products, shipping will be free. (Otherwise it’s just $4.99.)

Items I recommend:

Vitacost Brand Coconut Oil (this one tastes and smells like coconuts)
Vitacost Brand Refined Coconut Oil (this one is odorless and flavorless)
Enjoy Life Soy Free Chocolate Chips
Organic Whole Wheat Pasta
Tinkyada Brown Rice Pasta
Organic Brown Rice
NuNaturals Liquid Stevia
Coffee (YUM!)

Obviously, there are hundreds more products – those are just some of our favorites. Go get your free $10!!!!!! Your healthy food restart will arrive on your porch in just a few days! :)

This post contains some affiliate links.

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We’re Hitting Restart – But Before We Do…

August 31, 2014 by Laura 12 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Thank you all for joining me in hitting the restart button this fall. It’s going to be so much fun to settle into the season together! But first, let’s chat…

Once we decide to hit the restart button on our lives, it can be way too easy to get pumped up to jump right into every single bit of every single thing we hope and dream to be and to do – all at the same time. We know changes need to be made, we greatly desire to offer the best to our families, and we’re tired of not quite hitting the mark.

Before we know it, we’ve made a vow to daily scrub our floor boards, have no less than 28 casseroles in the freezer at all times, and never, ever raise our voice to our children again. We’ve decided to get back into smaller jeans by Thursday, sleep 8.5 hours every night, and hand-craft all Christmas and birthday gifts with recycled materials. Because we feel that we can certainly accomplish all this and then some, in an effort to be everything we can possibly be for our families, we eagerly sign ourselves up for yodeling classes.

Clearly, once we all master the art of yodeling, we will have arrived. Clearly.

You know how this works right? We hit the restart button and then start restarting everything at once. Very soon, we get overwhelmed with it all, end up hating every bit of it, succeed at nothing, and hang our heads all the way to the fast food drive-thru four nights in a row.

Deciding to do too much and thinking you can actually pull it off is just…too much.

You can’t put 28 casseroles in the freezer and then sleep 8.5 hours that night so stop thinking you can. Smaller jeans aren’t the be all and end all, so stop focusing on that and simply work to nourish your body better. Nobody wants an earring holder made from a toilet paper tube, so if handcrafted recycled gifts aren’t your thing, please do not try to make it your thing.

Am I making sense? Do you know what I’m saying? (Am I the only one who dislikes being asked that?) YouknowwhatImean? Yeah, Iknowwhatyoumean. (expressed in my best yodel)

Be reasonable. You have my full permission to be very eager to make positive changes for your health and for the health of your family! I highly encourage it. But be real and be wise. Changes in our lives need to be God inspired, not self inspired. The quickest way to feel defeated is to forget the Source of our strength, and the Purpose behind our choices. Success is determined not by all we accomplish in a day, but by the peace we experience through choosing God’s best for our lives.

I’m hitting the restart button because I need it – mind, body, and soul. I look forward to learning what God plans to teach you and me during this season.

I like clean floorboards, but I like peace and joy more. I like healthy food in my freezer, but I like listening to God more. I like making handcrafted recycled gifts, but no I don’t, who am I even kidding, youknowwhatImean?

So what I’m trying to say is, do you really need to sign up for yodeling classes? Or be a part of another program? Or set 14 new goals for yourself? Or strive to be what you think everyone else thinks you should be? I haven’t scrubbed my floorboards since #*&$hc&s#* <—- dropped call static

(Can you hear me now?)

Make goals based on what God is calling you to be. Improve in areas that bless your family. Hit that restart button in an effort to glorify God. Won’t it be lovely to see what He works out in you through your open heart?

She yodels and she dresses her children in homemade matching outfits.
As if that isn’t enough, they flit, they float, and bid us all adieu in perfect four part harmony.

Unless God has clearly called you to be a yodeler, then by all means, I don’t know how to even finish that sentence. Just join me in simplicity, will you? Join me in making prayerful decisions about God’s purpose for you. Join me in hitting the restart button that offers something better for our families in the form of peace and joy.

All the rest – the healthy eating, the exercise, the organization, and the clean house – it will all fall into place.

I so totally love this platform. I love that so many of you hang out with me here each day. Thank you, my dear readers, for being such an inspiration to me and to all the others here. Here’s to a fantastic month of prayerfully hitting the restart button together!

P.S. If any of you can actually yodel, I have to know.

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Hit the Re-Start Button – Join Us This September

August 29, 2014 by Laura 174 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

It’s been a great summer! For many of us, there has been downtime, traveling, fun in the sun, and lots of crazy good times. Likely there’s been some difficulty, frustration, and troubled days too. Perhaps there have also been a few more than normal ice cream cones and trips through the fast food lane. No worries. We’re not perfect, nor are we health-nut-Nazis.

But now that Fall is upon us, who’s ready to settle into a nice routine? Who’s ready to get some healthy food prepared ahead of time, get the house more organized and manageable, fine-tune the budget, start exercising regularly, get the natural medicine cabinet stocked for winter – any or all of the above?!

I always feel this way when September hits. I super-love the flexibility of summer. But I’m ready for routine, I’m ready to find more organization in my days, and I’m ready to breathe in a fresh breath of all that this season offers.

Who is with me? Let’s hit the Restart button!

Through the entire month of September, we’ll be hitting the restart button together around here. We’ll have new recipes, freebies, sales, rockin’ giveaways, tips and ideas, and encouragement. Hey, I’m doing this for me as much as I’m doing it for you. Actually, technically, you’re doing this for me. Sharing these ideas refreshes me – so thanks for the kick. Bam. Smack that Restart Button! Here we go.

First off – let’s start with a giveaway. All the books, eBooks, and eCourses in my shop are geared toward making your real food journey easier. They’ll help you hit the restart button – so how about we give some away? Leave a comment on this post sharing what you’re most excited about this fall as you hit the restart button. Wednesday, September 3 I’ll draw 5 random winners who will each win a $10 gift certificate that can be used on any downloadable product or eCourse we carry. Let your comments begin:

What are you most excited about this Fall as you hit the Restart Button?

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