Holiday Help Archives | Page 11 of 13

Second Annual Heavenly Homemakers Christmas Brunch

December 16, 2011 by Laura 247 Comments

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

Last year’s Christmas Brunch was so much fun, we’ve decided to do it again.

We appreciate all of you so much for reading here, and for all of the encouragement you send our way. As a way of saying thank you, we would love to invite you all into our home for a big Christmas brunch. Since that’s not physically possible, we will be having a “virtual” Christmas Brunch here next week that we hope you can all attend.

There will be lots of yummy food (recipes), gifts, and encouragement as we enjoy the week before Christmas together.

In addition, as an appreciation gift for coming to our Brunch, we’ll be having a drawing on the 26th for four $10 Heavenly Homemakers Gift Certificates! Each time you see the above Christmas Brunch Invitation on a post between now and the 24th, leave a comment for a chance to win one of the certificates. I’ll draw four random winners and post them on the 26th. There will be several posts with the invitation attached, so you’ll have several chances to win! (This post counts, so let the comments begin!)

And now, I’m off to prepare goodies and gifts to share with you next week. Please plan to attend this special upcoming week of festivities!

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

Compromising at Christmas Time

December 13, 2011 by Laura 21 Comments

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

Some of you may remember reading this post last year, as I wrote it for another site that had asked me to contribute. This year, I decided to tweak it and post it for you here!

Coconut Cupcakes

I am always so tempted to make food compromises at Christmastime. There are extra events going on, making it harder to put healthy meals on the table. Plus, there are sweets and holiday goodies at all of the parties and get togethers. SO MUCH SUGAR…and it always looks so pretty. Ah, frosting and sprinkles. Why must you tempt me so?

So, what should we do? Avoid all parties and shun all forms of sugary goodness? Or throw caution to the wind, dump a whole container of sprinkles directly into the frosting bowl, grab a spoon and get down to business?

Sugar bonks our immune system right on the head, so the motivation to stay healthy is helping me reach for carrots instead of fudge. But I also know that if I avoid sugar completely, I’m likely to eat the entire pan of fudge later. Allowing treats is okay – sometimes.

But here’s what I’ve decided: The treat has got to taste really, really good. I’m not wasting my sugar intake on a tasteless, dry cookie or a three day old donut. Any treat I indulge in needs to be fresh and gooey. There needs to be chocolate involved. Or cream cheese. Or both.

And here’s another way I compromise during busy times like this. I’m not making every single bite of our food from scratch. Even during what usually tends to be a busy Christmas season, my family still prefers to eat three (to seven meals) a day. I find that buying baby carrots or pre-made whole grain English muffins helps save my sanity. MOST of the time, I cut our carrot sticks, and bake all of our bread. Right now, I feel good if I’ve remembered to give my kids vegetables in the first place. If I need to spend just a little bit more for some healthy convenience during these next few weeks, so be it.

It’s all a part of keeping Christmas time simple this year.

I think we need to cut ourselves some slack. When we work almost constantly to save money and make food from scratch, that buys us a little bit of “chill out time” during those weeks when you can’t tell your comings from your goings and your Christmas lights are tangled up around the tail of your frustrated cat.

The moral of the story is this:

Try not to eat much sugar, and when you do indulge in a treat, make sure it’s the kind that makes you faint from deliciousness. Also, when your son’s birthday falls a few days before Christmas, go ahead and buy “take and bake” pizzas for the party because making a homemade crust might make you say things you’ll regret.

Yes indeed, I’ll be buying pizzas for my son’s birthday next week. Guilt free.

It’s okay, I’ll make whole wheat organic crust again in January.

When do you make compromises? What compromises have you had to make during this season?

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

Caramel Popcorn (no corn syrup!)

December 11, 2011 by Laura 44 Comments

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

Caramel Popcorn With No Corn Syrup!

For years and years and years (give or take a year or two), I’ve been wanting to find a good Caramel Popcorn recipe that did not contain corn syrup. The recipes I found that didn’t contain corn syrup were either complicated, or they contained other ingredients beyond corn syrup that I didn’t feel comfortable feeding my family.

But just leave it to you all to solve my Caramel Popcorn dilemma. A big thanks goes out to everyone who suggested that this new Caramel Sauce recipe might be able to be used on popcorn. Over the weekend, I decided to give it a try. I figured the outcome may not be blog-worthy, but surely my family would eat it regardless of whether it was great or not. My men are always so good to eat my experiments. Especially if it’s an experiment with Caramel Sauce on top.

This got rave reviews, which came, as you can imagine, while they were chewing. Since they were saying such nice things to me about my cooking, I lovingly allowed them to talk with their mouths full. Far be it from me to scold my popcorn munching children when they are in the middle of boosting my ego.

Caramel Popcorn

Yum

Caramel Popcorn (no corn syrup!)

Save Print

Author: Laura

Ingredients

1 cup unpopped popcorn
1 recipe of Caramel Sauce*
½ teaspoon sea salt

Instructions

Pop 1 cup of popcorn and put it into two 8x13 inch baking dishes.
Stir together the caramel sauce ingredients, stirring in ½ teaspoon of sea salt.
Drizzle the caramel sauce over the popcorn.
Stir the caramel sauce all around the popcorn the best you can without making too many popcorny messes.
Bake in a 250° for 10 minutes, then stir the popcorn.
Bake for an additional 10 minutes.
Remove Caramel Corn from oven and serve.

Find our delicious, no-corn-syrup Caramel Sauce recipe here!

If there is any left after you feed this to your family, package some up to give as gifts. Yep, people everywhere will be talking with their mouths full. It’ll be a beautiful, Christmas moment.

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

Homemade Caramel Sauce (no corn syrup!)

December 6, 2011 by Laura 173 Comments

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

A few weeks ago, Busy Mom in AL left a comment stating that she’d used my Caramel Frosting recipe to make Caramel Sauce. Then, a little while later, the people at Challenge Butter sent me a package and asked me to come up with a recipe using their butter. Well, what’s a girl to do but make Homemade Caramel Sauce with one of those sticks of butter, and then blog about her experience?

I didn’t think you’d mind. Especially if you think about the possibilities this Caramel Sauce presents. Not only can you make it for your own family and serve it on ice cream or cheesecake – wouldn’t this make a perfect Gift in a Jar?

Why yes, I believe it would.

And then, what if you took it a step further and created a big Ice Cream Sundae Basket to give as a gift? In your basket you could include a jar of this Caramel Sauce, a jar of Homemade Hot Fudge Sauce, a container of nuts, an ice cream scoop, some bowls and spoons – who wouldn’t love to receive this inexpensive, yet thoughtful and fun gift?

Alright, now I’m giddy and need to figure out who I can make an Ice Cream Sundae Gift Basket for.

Here is the very simple – and sort of healthy because at least it doesn’t have corn syrup in it – recipe:

Homemade Caramel SauceYum

2 cups sucanat or brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup cream (heavy whipping cream)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place the sucanat, butter, and cream into a medium sized saucepan.

Cook over medium to high heat until ingredients are melted and well mixed, stirring constantly. Bring mixture to a boil and boil for one minute, while continuing to stir.

Pour mixture into a mixing bowl and add vanilla extract.

Serve immediately or pour into a pint sized jar for a gift. Store in refrigerator and reheat before serving if desired. (This recipe makes one pint jar or two cups of sauce.)

Beyond ice cream, cheesecake, and the Ice Cream Sundae Gift Basket, don’t you think I should come up with some sort of Caramel Swirl Brownie recipe? Or maybe a Turtle Fudge Something or Other? We could even use it as an apple dip I bet!

Homemade_Caramel_Sauce

Interested in giving this as a gift? Here is a fun FREE printable gift tag you can use along with this sauce.

caramel_dip_with_apples

What do you think? How could you use this Homemade Caramel Sauce?

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

Heavenly Homemakers Practical Gift Guide

December 4, 2011 by Laura 11 Comments

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

Some of you may remember me posting part of this article last year. I wanted the opportunity to share again my ideas about practical gifts, and to link to the posts I wrote last year that offer ideas for giving practical gifts to everyone on your list. Plus, I thought some of you might enjoy reading about my grandma’s ear-plugs again.

Hello, my name is Laura and I’m a bundle of fun and a barrel of laughs. Being with me is a hoot. I’m one big party. I give the coolest gifts.

Just kidding. About all of it. Except that my name really is Laura.

I can be kinda fun and I like to host parties. I have barrels of wheat and bundles of brown rice, both of which I think are a hoot. Which leads me to the “coolest gift” statement. The fact that I think wheat and rice are so exciting may tell you something about the gifts I give. I will never win the “Coolest Gift Giver Prize”.

I’m not too much into giving junky or fru-fru gifts, and I don’t usually like to spend a lot – not because I’m stingy (hopefully), but just because I don’t see the importance of spending tons of money on gifts. Unless someone needs something.

I am a Practical Gift Giver.

Gifts for our boys usually include items of clothing they need, shoes, jammies and books. They get some toys too, but I’ve got to see the practicality in the toy before I’ll spend money or Swagbucks on it. (Like Legos. I can totally get into Legos.)

And games. I love games. Especially if they are games I can win.

Did I just say that out loud?

I think I come by my Practical Gift Giving honestly. One Christmas, my grandma gave all of the men in the family a pair of ear plugs. All of them. My dad, my brother, my uncles, my boy cousins…all of them. We were a family of farmers (and preachers…hmmm..) so ear plugs were a very practical gift. But we all got tickled, because everyone started putting them in and wearing them around during our big get-together. Every single male in our family looked ridiculous, but that’s okay. They couldn’t hear all of us females laughing and making fun of them.

Ah the memories.

Below are a series of posts I’ve written which will give you some ideas for practical gift giving. If you’re looking for some gift ideas, or are interested in what I consider to be ideal gifts, click around on the following links. Ear plugs not included.

Gifts for Women
Gifts of Books
Gifts of Games
Toys for Little Ones
Stocking Stuffers for Kids (Yes, these can actually be practical)
Stocking Stuffers for Moms (Yes, because Moms really can have a stuffed stocking)
Gifts for Men

Are you a practical gift giver, or are you a barrel of laughs?

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

Homemade Peppermint Patties

November 27, 2011 by Laura 44 Comments

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

Yum

This post is all Amy’s fault. ;) She linked to a recipe for peppermint patties last week and made me very hungry for them. I figured you wouldn’t mind me testing and adapting the recipe, then sharing it with you. These would be perfect holiday treats to make and share with co-workers or neighbors, or to wrap up to take to a gift exchange.

This recipe actually calls for leftover mashed potatoes – how fun is that? Since I had a pound or four of mashed potatoes left over after Thanksgiving, I decided I could spare the 1/2 cup needed to make this recipe.

But before we go any further, I need to let you know that this recipe is a little different from those that I usually share. There is not much about this recipe that is healthy. These peppermint patties consist mostly of sugar. Do not make this recipe and serve it to your family for breakfast. Do not assume that since there are mashed potatoes in these, they can be considered a vegetable to be served as a side dish to your pot roast. Do not sit down and eat this whole batch by yourself. Do not make this recipe very often, for these patties are addicting. I will not be held responsible for you getting sick off of homemade peppermint patties. In fact, I hereby relinquish any responsibility for influencing you to make these. Just because a recipe is posted here does not mean you have to make it. Nobody here is forcing you to get out your mixing bowl. Actually, you really shouldn’t make these at all. No. You should just read through this post, then nod and smile. Then you should promptly move on to read about something less sugary, like this Angel Ornament post.

Yes, whatever you do, do not make these peppermint patties.

Peppermint Patties 2

Homemade Peppermint Patties (adapted from Domesticated)

1/2 cup leftover mashed potatoes
1 Tablespoon melted butter
2 teaspoons peppermint extract
5 cups powdered sugar (told you there was a lot of sugar)
1 cup chocolate chips
1 Tablespoon coconut oil or palm shortening

Stir together the mashed potatoes, butter, peppermint oil and powdered sugar to form a thick dough. Spoon a teaspoon at a time onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. (I was able to form 38 teaspoon sized patties from this dough.)

Press down the dough and shape as small patties. Refrigerate for 3 hours, or freeze for 45 minutes.

On the stove top, melt together the chocolate chips and oil. Dip the chilled patties into the chocolate to cover them. Chill until set. Admire the peppermint patties, but do not eat them. Do not even lick your fingers.

Good luck with that. ;)

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

Gifts in a Jar eBook – the FREE Download is Here!

November 20, 2011 by Laura 45 Comments

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

Our Gifts in a Jar eBook is now complete and ready for download! This eBook is free for everyone and absolutely full of inexpensive and clever homemade gift ideas, inspired by you!

A huge thank you goes out to all of you who took the time to provide wonderful pictures and instructions to include in this eBook. This eBook includes wonderful gift ideas such as pudding mix, bath salts, diaper rash ointment, cookie mix, seasoning mixes, chai mix, soup mixes, facials, hot fudge and much more. Your creativity never ceases to amaze me, and I am very grateful for the help you all gave to make this eBook fun and helpful!

Click the link below to download this free eBook.

Download Gifts in a Jar eBook HERE

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

Simple Ways To Earn a Little Extra Cash for Christmas (while sitting at your computer)

October 8, 2011 by Laura 11 Comments

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

Hello, and welcome to a post that might be just about as annoying as your local department store. Summer is barely over and I’m already starting to talk about Christmas. Hey, at least I haven’t put up a tree yet. (Although, that would be an efficient thing to do in October, wouldn’t it?) kidding

I think we can all agree that Christmas is not really about presents and hooplah. And yet, I would guess that most of us probably do at least a little bit gift giving around the holidays. Here are some simple ways to gain yourself a little extra cash for the upcoming Christmas season. Don’t worry – you don’t have to start singing Jingle Bells yet. Just start planning ahead a little bit now so that Christmas won’t be a financial burden. Christmas should never be a financial burden. Christmas should be a season of joy. Don’t make me get on my soap box.

1. InboxDollars

I’ve mentioned InboxDollars recently in a giveaway they sponsored. You won’t get rich off of InboxDollars (or any of the ideas shared in this post), but you will be able to earn a little extra cash while in the comfort of your pajamas and slippers. (I recommend opening up a separate, free email account to use specifically for InboxDollars – it makes this much easier!)

2. Swagbucks

It’s been a while since I’ve mentioned Swagbucks around here, but if you aren’t using Swagbucks to earn extra money from home, you really should be! There are many, many ways to earn Swagbucks, but my favorite is to simply use the Swagbucks search feature. Each time I need to search for something online (which is quite often), I use my Swagbucks search engine. Several times a day, I earn some swagbucks – all for doing something I would have done anyway. Once I’ve accumulated enough, I turn my Swagbucks into Amazon Gift Cards. (There are many other options for ways to redeem your Swagbucks – Amazon cards are just my favorite.) One year, I saved all my Amazon Cards throughout the year and we had a practically free Christmas. It was awesome!

Plus, when you refer others to Swagbucks, you can earn extra Swagbucks! So, get yourself signed up, then tell your friends about this feature. You’ll both earn! (See, I’m referring you, so that means I’ll earn Swagbucks based off of my referral to you. Thanks!) :)

I’ve written more about Swagbucks here if you’d like more information.

3. Shop it to Me

This may be one of the simplest ways to earn a little extra cash – although, like Swagbucks, it comes in the way of gift cards instead of actual cash. I like gift cards just fine. Gift cards buy gifts – what more could we ask for? Or, you could give the gift card away as a gift. Perfect!

How this works: Sign up to receive Shop It To Me newsletters. These newsletters are painless – I receive them twice a week and either look through them if I feel like the deals they share are relevant, or delete them if they’re not.

I used my personal referral link above. For every ten of you who sign up, I receive a $10 gift card of my choice. (Thank you, by the way!) Once you’ve signed up, you can then refer your friends and family through facebook, email, blog or tweet – and for every ten people you refer, you receive $10 gift cards too! It’s free, it’s easy, there’s no catch, and you can earn gift cards for Starbucks, Whole Foods (my personal fav!), Gap, Macy’s and many others – whichever you choose.

4. Become a Heavenly Homemakers Affiliate

It’s been a while since I’ve mentioned this feature we have here at Heavenly Homemakers. Did you know you can earn money by referring sales in our Shop? We offer 33% affiliate earnings on all of our downloadable products – that means that not only can you earn a few dollars when someone you refer purchases our ebooks, you can earn a whoppin’ $14.85 each time someone you refer purchases our Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve curriculum kit! Your earnings can really add up! Read more details here – we’d love to have you on board as an affiliate.

Have you started thinking about Christmas yet – or is it just me?

(Disclosure: I think it was obvious that many of the links I used in this post are my referral links, but just in case, I thought I’d tell you again. Each of these opportunites are painless and easy and a great way to earn a little extra cash – and sharing them with you will help me earn a little extra cash for Christmas too. Then you can turn around and do the same! But don’t feel obligated to sign up for any of these if you don’t want to. We’ll still be friends either way.) ;)

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

Gift Certificate in a Jar

August 24, 2011 by Laura 35 Comments

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

Welcome to the post in which I encourage you to buy packages of high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors and food coloring. Brace yourself – there are no vegetables mentioned, nor do I offer suggestions for using whole wheat flour or coconut oil. Once you see the idea, you’re sure to understand and know full well why frozen peas just wouldn’t cut it for this project. ;)

It is no secret that I love jars. I have cabinets full of jars, I store my leftovers in jars, I preserve a lot of produce in jars.

Knowing of my jar obsession, Teresa emailed me the fun idea of using jars full of candy as a way to package gift certificates. I loved the idea and was very excited to finally make use of it last week at a baby shower I helped host.

Several friends pitched in money for the mother-to-be. I used the money to buy a gift certificate, then filled a pint jar with brightly colored Tropical Skittles. (Yes, you should have heard my boys when they were unloading my shopping bags.)

I stuck the gift certificate down inside the candy, put on a lid, tied a bow around the jar and had a lovely gift ready to present to my friend.

I think this would be fun to do at Christmas time with red and green M&Ms or for a graduation gift using candy that matches the graduate’s school colors.

In case you’re wondering, one 14-ounce bag of skittles was exactly the right amount needed to fill a pint sized jar (with a few leftover to give eager children who may or may not be standing by watching you fill the jar).

What kinds of fun ways to you use jars?

(And by the way, aren’t you proud of me for giving away one of my beloved jars at this baby shower? I didn’t even ask my friend to give it back to me when she was finished with it. I almost did, but stopped myself just in time, so as not to appear obsessed. Shocking.)

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

Holiday Buffet

December 24, 2010 by Laura 114 Comments

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

Here are some fun and yummy treats you can make to enjoy this Christmas season. I know Christmas is about much more than food…but don’t we all love a great buffet at Christmas time?