Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

What We’re Eating On The Road This Weekend

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Want to know what I’m doing right now? I’m running from basketball game to basketball game, cheering for my boys and their teammates while they play at their big end-of-season homeschool tournament. There are teams here from at least 4 different states. This is big time.

tournament_1

Why do you care what I’m doing right now? Because you are super curious about what I’m eating. Right? You’re like, “So…basketball tournament in another state. Running from game to game for three full days. Sitting in bleachers all day, shouting for your boys. Are you eating concession stand hotdogs and nachos?” Yes, that’s definitely what you were wondering.

The answer to the hotdog/nacho question is, “Not if I can help it.” My thinking is: If I’m going to eat junk, it really better taste good. (Ever heard of Freddy’s? That is junk worth eating. Rarely. But yum. One of our meals out this weekend WILL be at Freddy’s.)

The thought of eating out (or eating hotel breakfast) nine meals in a row makes my stomach turn wrong side out – as does the thought of paying the bill for that because we are the Coppingers and we eat large. We’ll feel better and save money by eating food we’ve packed to take with us, and we’ll enjoy eating out a few meals with the team, too. If nothing else, we have loads of fruit and vegetables packed with us to help us avoid the 500-pound lead gut feeling that happens after eating out. This is why God made blueberries.

But here’s the thing about packing the food: I had exactly three days this week to do six days worth of work so I could be gone from Thursday to Saturday at a tournament. Plus we needed to prep and pack the food to take along. This required a huge group effort in all things food between Monday and Wednesday of this week.

tourney food4

That’s not even everything. We made pizzas, breakfast sandwiches, and
turkey sandwiches after we took this picture and took a break!

How can I say this more emphatically? If my boys didn’t know how to cook and weren’t able to help me in the kitchen – I wouldn’t, couldn’t, shouldn’t, I just, I don’t…well, the thought of it makes me cry. I can’t do this without their help. And I can’t always even stop and help them anymore because my work load is heavy and I need them to sometimes take the reigns and be independent in the kitchen. They can and they are and the thought of that makes me cry too. (I get weepy during tournament time. There’s just something so endearing about being here supporting our entire team who has worked so hard and grown so much this year.)

tourney food1
Wow, he’s tall.

I can’t tell you the huge blessing it is to me that my kids have learned so many kitchen skills through the years and can be so helpful and productive. I am sitting in the bleachers eating an amazing chef salad because my boys can cook. They didn’t learn everything overnight. But they certainly wouldn’t have learned it had I not chosen to teach them. (Justus -16 – made an amazing honey mustard barbecue chicken for our salads. So much yum.)

tourney food2

My 14-year old has become a Strawberry Cheesecake Parfait expert. 

The Kids Cook Real Food eCourse? I’m not just talking about it this week because it’s cute and sweet and fun and a priceless way to spend quality time with the kids. I’m shouting hard-core about it because this is a skill our kids will need for their entire lives. They need to learn to cook more than they need to learn just about any other skill. Food is part of every day, forever.

tourney food3

Here’s Malachi, showing off his expert cutting skills, thanks to the free Knife Skills Series.

The funny thing is, I really was teaching my kids cooking skills because I knew it would benefit them. I had no idea how much it would benefit me, too. That’s been the serendipitous blessing in this. My boys are now a huge help to me in the kitchen! I can’t do it all without them.

So. My boys are awesome (on the basketball court, in the kitchen, and daily just because they are God’s and they are mine). I’m sitting in a hotel room eating a Strawberry Cheesecake Parfait that my 14-year old made on Wednesday. It is so good I might pass out. This is the kind of travel food fit for kings (and queen).

Food We Made to Take on the Road

  • Strawberry Cheesecake Parfait (3 each because we are all addicted)
  • Turkey Sandwiches
  • Chef Salads with Homemade Ranch and Honey Mustard Barbecue Chicken (created by Justus)
  • Homemade Pizzas (that we’ll eat cold)
  • Breakfast Sandwiches that we heated and ate on our way down
  • Sliced cucumbers, sweet peppers, and kiwi
  • Summer Sausage and Sliced Cheese (protein in case hotel breakfasts are all empty carbs)
  • Peanuts, Cashews, Crackers, Blueberries, Applesauce, Peach Cups, Pear Cups, Clementines

All of this took a couple hours of working together, and it was worth it! It’s always fun to hear about food you pack for the road too, so leave a comment with your ideas!

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Easy Crustless Pizza Pie

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Without a doubt, this crustless pizza pie tastes as good as it looks. Better actually.

Malachi's Pizza Pie

This recipe is simple enough for my 11-year old to make by himself, and tasty enough that we all decided to add it to the menu frequently.

______________________________________________________________

Pssst:

Said 11-year old learned most of his cooking skills because we “made him” take this Kids Cook Real Food eCourse. He was hooked after the first 5-minutes of starting this class. It is fantastic!!

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The best part is: You can make this with any pizza toppings you like. Make it full of veggies, full of meat, or a combination of both.

I will say that we made one with hamburger and one with pepperoni and all of us enjoyed the hamburger pizza pie best. The day we made these for pictures, I had no peppers or mushrooms in the house. Boo. We made them with sauce, meat, and cheese and served olives and tossed salad on the side.

See how Malachi is using one of our DIY Recipe Card Holders to hold up his recipe? Here he is, measuring the ingredients for the Cream Cheese Layer of the Pizza Pie.

malachi pizza pie1

I promise he owns other shirts. Somehow, every time we took
pictures of him cooking, he was wearing the same thing! #ipromiseitsclean

Once the Cream Cheese Layer was in the oven, Malachi browned the hamburger meat – while standing on the AlienBoard. Is there any other way to do it? I promise you will not catch me multi-tasking in this way. But yay for the 11-year old!

malachi pizza pie2

Here is the easy-to-make, very tasty recipe for your family to enjoy. MAKE THIS WITH YOUR KIDS. But that was a given, right?

Easy Crustless Pizza PieYum

5.0 from 2 reviews
Easy Crustless Pizza Pie
 
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Author:
Serves: 1 pie
Ingredients
  • 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 2 eggs
  • ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
  • ½ teaspoon garlic powder
  • ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
  • 1 cup pizza sauce
  • 1½ cups shredded mozzarella, cheddar, or colby jack cheese
  • Any meat or veggie toppings you like
Instructions
  1. In a medium-sized bowl mix cream cheese, eggs, pepper, garlic powder, and parmesan cheese until creamy.
  2. Spread mixture into a pie dish.
  3. Bake in a 350° oven for 15 minutes.
  4. In the meantime, prepare pizza toppings.
  5. Spread pizza sauce over hot cream cheese layer.
  6. Top with any meat, veggies, and cheese you like.
  7. Bake in a 350° oven for 10 minutes or until cheese has melted.

Easy Crustless Pizza Pie

Kids Cook Real Food shout out!

I can’t recommend the Kids Cook Real Food eCourse highly enough. It is well worth your investment. Learn about it here. Malachi loved this class!

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Easy DIY Recipe Card Holders for Kids and Adults Alike (for about 20¢ each)

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Oh my goodness, I could make these recipe card holder clips all day long.

recipe card holder6

This is a craft just about anyone of any age can make and enjoy. If you’re like me and love crafts but your creations look like a pre-schooler made them without help – be very relieved and excited about what I’m about to show you. You need:

  • Binder Clips 1-1/4 width or bigger
  • Small Scraps of Scrapbook Paper
  • Glue Stick

Seriously, a glue stick. Everyone leave the hot glue gun and the whateveryouneedfordecoupage in the cupboard. We’re gluing scraps of paper onto paper clips with a glue stick. Dude, if we have to we can even use safety scissors. That’s how basic this craft is.

recipe card holder5

As you can see, I get as excited about easy crafts as I get nauseous about difficult ones. (And by difficult, I mean everything recommended for elementary on up.)

I believe the instructions for making these are self-explanatory as you look at the pictures, but to make life even easier for you, I will detail the steps for creation below:

Easy DIY Recipe Card Holder

  1. Cut scraps of paper (cardstock, scrapbook paper, construction paper, or paper you’ve decorated yourself) into pieces that fit the binder clips you are using. We made our card holders from 1 1/4″ by 5/8″ clips, so that’s the size I cut my paper scraps.
  2. See? This is a no-brainer.
  3. Use a glue stick to attach the paper to the clip.
  4. There is no fourth step. Your thirty second craft is complete.
  5. Make more than one though because once you start you probably won’t be able to stop.

Easy DIY Recipe Card Holder

Beyond Recipes

These card holders might be fun to give to grandparents with your child’s picture tucked into the clip. Or have your child draw a picture to put in the clip for his/her teacher. And what a fun way to display scripture cards around your house!

Recipe Card Holders For Kids

What I love most about using these clips to hold recipes is that for young cooks – having the recipe stand up makes for easier viewing than if the recipe is lying flat on the counter-top. And not that we ever spill anything while we’re cooking, but just in case that would ever happen, this is a great way to keep the recipes from getting slopped on.

We printed Malachi’s Favorite Cookbook and cut each recipe into easy-to-read cards. Now when he makes his favorites, he chooses a clip and slides in the recipe. It’s a fantastic system!

malachis recipes in holders

Have fun making these on your own or with your kids!

If you aren’t motivated to get your kids into the kitchen by now…well, I will keep working on ya. ;) Teaching our kids to cook is just like anything else: sometimes it seems easier to do the work ourselves instead of working a little harder for a moment to teach our kids to do the job. But trust me when I say that it is worth the effort it takes to equip our kids with cooking skills! Make the decision, and get those kids into the kitchen with you! It will change your life and theirs!

You can use Katie’s Kids Cook Real Food eCourse as a springboard. Malachi has been more eager to learn about cooking through these videos than he ever was when I merely encouraged him to put together recipes or crack eggs beside me. For me, he’s been, “Eew, I hate cracking eggs.” But then he watches a cooking video and he’s like, “Yeah. I’ve got this.” And he DOES.

Coming up tomorrow: Kid Friendly Pizza Pie Recipe. Have you and your kids tried making the Tootsie Rolls yet?

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Homemade Real Food Tootsie Roll Candy – Perfect for Kids to Make!

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You don’t have to make this real food tootsie roll recipe into the shape of Legos, but for real. They do taste better this way.

Malachi's Lego Fudge

When I decided to be intentional about helping Malachi learn to cook, I knew I’d need to start him with something simple, sweet, and fun. Hey, Malachi! Want to put your soccer ball away and come make a boring meat and vegetable casserole all by yourself?!! You don’t?!?

My Peanut Butter Honey Fudge recipe seemed like a fun and perfect choice…except for the fact that Malachi hates peanut butter. “Hey, Malachi! Want to come make something that will make you totally gag? You don’t?!?

So I decided to go ahead and use the fudge recipe but adapt it in two ways:

  1. Use almond butter instead of peanut butter.
  2. Cut down the honey to make it less sugary.

He was on board to “try making fudge,” then he remembered his Lego Shape Molds. “Can I make this into Legos, Mom?” Well, yeah!! What a great way to make this project even more perfect for him!

malachi fudge 1

Be sure to admire the messy counter-top behind my kid. Whoever was supposed to load the dishwasher that morning hadn’t done it yet. I figure you’ve seen a messy counter-top before, but if not, I’m thrilled to offer you your first experience with this. #embracethemess #constantdishesandlaundry

malachi fudge 2

malachi fudge 3

malachi fudge 4

malachi fudge 5

malachi fudge 6

Malachi made some of the mixture into Lego Bricks, some into Lego Mini-Figures, then patted the rest into a small container which we cut into squares later. When all was said and done, we decided that these actually don’t taste like fudge at all. But they do taste like an amazing homemade tootsie roll!!!! To eat a tootsie roll made with real food and shaped like a Lego – that Malachi had made by himself?! Well, it was a kids-cooking success!

Homemade Real Food Tootsie Roll Recipe

5.0 from 1 reviews
Homemade Real Food Tootsie Roll Candy - Perfect for Kids to Make!
 
Save Print
Author:
Serves: 24-30 pieces
Ingredients
  • 1 cup almond butter
  • ¼ cup honey
  • ½ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. Measure all ingredients into a small pan.
  2. Melt and stir them over low heat until the chocolate chips have melted and the ingredients are well combined.
  3. Spread mixture into an 8x8 inch dish or press small amounts of the mixture into fun silicone molds.
  4. Place in the refrigerator to chill for about an hour before serving.

Homemade Real Food Tootsie Roll Candy

Use my recipe and instructions for making Homemade Almond Butter if you like. You can switch out the almond butter for Peanut Butter if you prefer.

This Tootsie Roll recipe is what launched Malachi into his new world of discovering that cooking isn’t so bad!

If you’re wanting to pull your kids into the kitchen to launch them into their own journey to learning cooking skills, I recommend that you:

  • Begin with a very easy recipe – like these Homemade Tootsie Rolls!
  • Pick something fun – like these Homemade Tootsie Rolls!
  • Choose something you know your child will like to eat.
  • Be relaxed. (You can do it!)
  • Get out (or have your child help you get out) the ingredients your child will need before you start the cooking process.
  • Be open to your child’s suggestions.
  • Don’t back down. Your kids NEED to learn how to cook.

I’m excited to show you the fun Recipe Card Holder craft! Plus more kid-friendly recipes throughout the rest of this week! As you can tell, teaching my kids to cook has been so boring and sad we can’t even stand it. Eating Homemade Tootsie Rolls is so difficult and turning over a big part of my kitchen workload to my kids has been such a challenge. Somehow I’ll make it through. #yeahright #lovingthis #teachyourkidstocookalready

Psst!

Teach your kids some great cooking skills through the Kids Cook Real Food video series. Learn about it here. The knife skills series is free, but we loved it so much we went through the entire course. Malachi learned a ton and is now so much more confident with his cooking skills!

This recipe contains affiliate links.

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Get Your Kids Into The Kitchen This Week! (What Malachi is Learning)

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I tell you, when my older boys were little I had them in the kitchen learning with me all the time. It’s amazing, though, what Malachi has missed out on by being the youngest of four. Poor kid. I read to him less, took fewer pictures of him – basically he has all the “baby of the family” issues. You can see how sad and miserable he is as a result:

pineapple fluff malachi

There. We can’t say I never took his picture.

One thing that has been nice the past few months is that while the older boys have been at basketball practice on Tuesday/Thursday nights – Malachi has had quite a bit of one-on-one time with the parents. We’ve used these nights to work on special projects – one in particular has been in the area of cooking. (He’s also been dreaming of and planning a state-wide Lego Convention with Matt, because when Malachi has an idea it’s go big or go home.)

I’ve been pulling him down onto my lap (because yay, he still fits!) and together we’ll watch a cooking video from the Kids Cook Real Food eCourse that came out in January. We talk about what we watched. We make plans for what to cook, based on the skills he just learned. We practice the skills together. This kid has made huge strides in just a few weeks!

In fact, he and I got so excited about what he’s learning that we spent part of the month of February writing a little cookbook together! I’m not even kidding. (More about his book later!)

Malachi's Favorite Cookbook small

Score one (or one-thousand) for being intentional. That’s really all it takes: Deciding you’re going to teach your kid something – then actually following through with it. (That is profound parenting advice, right there.)

malachi cutting

Free 3-Part Kids Cook Real Food Videos

This all started for Malachi and me back in January when we took advantage of Katie’s FREE Knife Skills Training Lessons. He learned loads in those lessons alone. Now Malachi confidently cuts everything from apples to strawberries to carrots – and I confidently hand him the sharp knives. (I am totally working myself out of a job.)

malachi cutting berries

I’m so happy to share that Katie opened up access to these FREE video lessons again just for Heavenly Homemaker readers. They are completely free – so grab the videos, grab your kids, then grab some knives. ( <—For your fruits and vegetables. Oh, you know what I mean.)

What You Can Expect This Week

All this week we’ll be focused on getting our kids into the kitchen. Why?

  • Our kids need to know how to cook.
  • Our kids need to know about cooking nutritious foods (not just about putting a frozen pizza in the oven).

Even if you don’t have kids at home, I think you’ll still enjoy the posts during the next several days (because recipes and a craft!!!). Here’s the line-up for this week:

  • Kid (and everyone else) Friendly Recipe: Crustless Pizza Pie
  • Kid (and everyone else) Friendly 3-Ingredient Recipe: Homemade {Real Food} Tootsie Rolls – I am not kidding!
  • Easy 5-Minute Recipe Card Holder Craft Tutorial for Kids and Adults Alike (If I can make it, you can make it. Wait until you see how cute!)
  • Lists of easy recipes (with links) your kids can learn to make on their own
  • And don’t forget that this week only, you have access to the FREE Knife Skills Videos and Lessons.

kids in the kitchen week

A Word About the Kids Cook Real Food eCourse

Registration for Katie’s Kids Cook Real Food eCourse closed right after Malachi and I signed up in January. Since that time, it has benefited our family more than I ever imagined it would. Malachi wasn’t super thrilled to watch the first video with me and get started in the kitchen (because it’s easier to let someone else do the work, right?). But in just a few weeks, he has gone from knowing very little about cooking to being able to do dozens of kitchen tasks. Now each week when a new lesson hits our inbox, Malachi actually gets excited!

“Did we get a new cooking video? I really like those, Mom. You should tell Katie that I really like the videos and the lessons. What’s this new one about?”

That is why I emailed Katie recently – to let her know that her eCourse has been a huge blessing to our family, and to ask her if she would pretty please open up her cart for a few days in Feb/March so more of you can jump aboard this amazingness with Malachi and me. She said “sure!” You need to know that we scored big to be given this privilege, because the cart doesn’t open back up for the general public until May!

What Surprises Me Most About The Kids Cook Real Food eCourse

I’ve been cooking since I was about 8-years old. I’ve been researching nutrition and real-food eating for over 10 years. I consider myself to be pretty good in the kitchen and pretty knowledgeable about food in general.

But I have learned oodles of facts I did not know while working through this eCourse with Malachi.

I didn’t know the thing about the garlic! I didn’t even know the thing about the rice. (I can’t tell you which things because that’s not fair to Katie.) If your kids are taking the course and you read/hear the things about the garlic and the rice, please email me to tell me if you knew. Did you know??

I Have a Bunch of Free Stuff for You To Go With This eCourse

You might remember me saying that I’ve been wanting to put together a Kids Cooking eCourse for years. I was even a little bit disappointed when I heard Katie was making one because I wanted to make one! (<— best read in a whiny voice.) Then I saw what Katie had put together, and I was like, “Well, wow. This is a million times better than I would have/could have done. This is incredible.”

But if I would have made one (which I didn’t), I would have geared it around my Teaching Your Kids to Cook and Learn to Cook ebooks. They would have gone hand-in-hand because those books have a lot of basic cooking information and of course – many easy-to-make real food recipes.

Katie’s class is perfectly set up to teach your kids to cook the real foods you regularly make in your kitchen. This means that if your family has allergies, your child learns to make allergy friendly food your family can eat. It means that if your family has favorite recipes, your child learns to make your family’s favorite recipes. This means that no matter what cookbook your child has, he/she can read it and cook from it.

That’s why it’s fun to be able to give you all 212 pages worth of my Teaching Your Kids to Cook and Learn to Cook ebooks FOR FREE when you buy the Kids Cook Real Food eCourse this week. Then you and your kids will have even more great real food recipes to work with!

Free Teaching Your Kids to Cook eBooks

Additional Freebies!

I’ve been creating some simple activities for Malachi to complete as he has been working his way through the Kids Cook Real Food eCourse. They are fun and effective – reinforcing the skills and nutrition tips he’s been learning. So I packaged them up for you to enjoy with your kids too! Get the Kids Cook Real Food Activities Packet for FREE when you buy Katie’s eCourse this week.

Kids Cook Real Food Activities Packet - Free with Purchase

A Special FREE Copy of Malachi’s Favorite Cookbook

Malachi and I had so much fun working together to write a cookbook. Wait until you read, “Malachi’s Best Cooking Tips!” on page 2 of his book. (He actually used the word, “duh!” which I edited out then put back in because he is eleven and adorable and I couldn’t not include it.)

I’m guessing Malachi’s favorite recipes will soon be your child’s favorite recipes. The book includes 16 of his favorites. Of course, now that we’ve completed it and we keep cooking together, he keeps thinking of more. “We should have added that recipe to my cookbook!” Good thing we included extra pages at the back of the book for your child (and mine) to add new favorites as he/she discovers tasty recipes he/she enjoys!

Malachi agreed that we could give this book away for free this week to anyone who buys the eCourse. “People should get these classes, Mom. They’re really good. Tell them it’s really good.” <— Malachi has spoken.

Malachi's Favorite Cookbook Samples2

So Let’s Review

  1. Everyone can sign up this week to enjoy the FREE Knife Skills Training Videos with your kids. Do this now! You’ll love it!
  2. I have some really great recipes and a craft tutorial ready to share with you this week. Homemade tootsie rolls? Absolutely, yes!
  3. The Kids Cook Real Food eCourse is open just for Heavenly Homemaker readers, just through Monday, March 7. It is well worth your money and time investment.
  4. To sweeten the pot, I’m giving everyone who purchases the eCourse a free Learn to Cook eBook (102 pages), a free Teaching Your Kids to Cook eBook (111 pages), a free copy of Malachi’s Favorite Cookbook (15 pages), and a free KCRF Activity Packet (10 pages)!

To get your freebies and to be entered into our drawing, you’ll just need to email me to let me know that you made the purchase. I’ll have your name in a ledger, but I won’t have your email address. So I can check the ledger, then email you back with the goods!

It’s going to be a great week! At home we’ll be starting with Malachi cutting broccoli, carrots, and zucchini for stir-fry. See? Told you I was working myself out of a job. :)

Look forward to fun kid-friendly recipes coming right up!

Learn More About the Kids Cook Real Food eCourse Here.

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Kid Cooking Skills and Character Training – At the Same Time! (A Fun Freebie for You!)

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malachi cooking1

I’m so excited to give you all this freebie today! I mean, you get a book, not the cute kid making muffins up there. He’s mine. All mine.

I’ve been getting Malachi into the kitchen with me more and more since we started working our way through Katie’s Kids Cook Real Food eCourse a few weeks ago. (The class isn’t open to join right now, but I love it so much that I’m sweet talking Katie into offering you a special promo here in a couple of weeks.) I’ve been amazed to watch Malachi’s skills improve and his confidence grow in just a short time.

I’d say I’m working myself out of a job, except that I’m finding that more than turning over the kitchen to my kids – I much prefer working side by side with them there. Some of our best conversations, our most fun inside jokes, and our most relaxed opportunities for teachable moments have come when we’re working in the kitchen together.

Parents – pull your kids into the kitchen with you! For so many reasons – from cooking skills to conversation opportunities – I feel this is important.

This leads me to the freebie I want all of you to have today.

FIll Em Up Coversm

Fill ‘Em Up! is one of the very first eBooks I wrote – based on fun and meaningful experiences I have had with my own kids or with teenagers from church. It is written for parents or teachers of children ages 4-18 (give or take). And actually, some of the ideas work for adult Bible lessons too. I’ll be using the “Homemade Butter in a Jar” idea this weekend with a group of ladies I study with.

Fill ‘Em Up! contains seven recipes, and each recipe is accompanied by two Bible lessons (one suggested for use with children ages 4-10, the other suggested for use with children 11-18).

The recipes and character lessons included are:

  • Pizza Casserole (A Lesson on Building Our Faith)
  • Honey Wheat Muffins (A Lesson on Using Our God Given Gifts)
  • Peanut Butter Fudgies (A Lesson About Following a Godly Leader)
  • Homemade Butter in a Jar (A Lesson About Being Transformed)
  • Fruitie Smoothies (A Lesson About Filling Ourselves with Goodness)
  • Chocolate Chip Cookies vs. Sugar Cookies (A Lesson About Not Comparing Ourselves with Others)

While you spend special time cooking and baking with your kids and filling their tummies…you also experience the joy of discussing God’s word together, which will fill their hearts with His wisdom. Thus the name…Fill ‘Em Up! What a fun way to study God’s word together!

This eBook is for sale in our shop here.

But wouldn’t you rather get it for FREE?

Well, of course.

For one week only, we’re giving this eBook away for free to anyone who wants it! Click here to access this freebie.

I’m super excited to share that signing up for these freebies will connect you to our new Heavenly Homemaker’s Learning Zone. It’s free, of course. You can unsubscribe at any time, your info will never be shared or sold, and being on this list means that you’ll be the first to know of the other fun (yes, FUN!) educational tools we’re putting together! 

P.S. If you are already subscribed to Heavenly Homemaker’s Learning Zone, you should have received an email yesterday giving you instant access to this freebie. Look in your inbox for the subject: A Free Kids Recipes and Character Training Book For You!

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101 Pre-School Projects – Free Download!

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It’s warm, it’s cold, it’s windy, it’s raining, it’s cloudy…yes indeed:  It’s March.

I’ve had fun this week pulling out some project ideas that have been buried throughout my website. Did you make some Homemade Bubble Bath? That’s a super simple idea your kids can have fun making with you.

In an effort to shed some sunshine upon all of us struggling with a touch of spring fever, I opened up a freebie I had put together a few years ago, tweaked a few things, and redesigned the cover to make it available to you again. If you and your kids are going stir-crazy, I believe you’ll find an activity or twelve to do together in this free eBook.

Yep, there are over 100 ideas, recipes, games, and activities for you to read through and pick from. Kids older than pre-school age are sure to have fun with these ideas too. These ideas came from moms and grandmothers – all Heavenly Homemaker Readers. All of you are so creative, which is what makes this eBook so much fun!

You’ll be able to use this eBook year round, as it has fun ideas for outdoors too. Help yourself to this fun, free eBook. Spread the word to your friends so that they can come get their free eBook too! Together, we will survive this crazy weather!

101 Preschool Projects Free Download

Grab this FREE 101 Pre-School Projects book here!

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The Work It Takes to Teach Your Kids to Cook: Is It Worth It?!

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The goopy finger reaches into the dough you asked him not to touch. The flour spills. Everyone wants a turn at the same time. The cookbook gets slopped on. The tiny hand grabbing for the spoon knocks over the glass of water. The excitement escalates. An egg gets cracked onto the floor. The smiling kid with cinnamon and honey all over his hands, face, and arms runs out of the kitchen to smear himself all over the couch….

Ah, it’s the picture of parenting bliss. These are the delightful reasons we all love letting our kids help us in the kitchen. Mmm-hmmm. 

I remember it all very well. I knew the value of getting my kids into the kitchen with me to teach them the basics – plus they always loved helping me. But wow, usually it was so much easier to do it myself. After all, I didn’t need help spilling the buttermilk. I could do that very well all by myself.

The next time you have your kids helping you in the kitchen, and you begin to feel exasperated, wondering if it’s worth all the trouble and extra work – be encouraged by this walk down memory lane in the Coppinger Household:

These are my four boys, back in 2007. I don’t recommend always having all of your kids help you at once, but hey, when it’s Monkey Bread – everyone wants to help.

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I had one that always walked on and jumped off countertops while helping me.
If I remember right, the floor was made of hot lava.

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See what I’m saying?
Elias, please be careful with that vanilla you’re sniffing. It’s too precious to spill.

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Sitting on the countertop was also a very effective way to reach the bowl.

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Oh look, here they are making Snowflake Quesadillas. The little cuties. It’s great to look back at pictures of the kids and forget that what was really happening when I snapped the shot was that the five year old had his pants on backwards, the two year old was in the background screaming, and the other quesadillas were on the stove burning.

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Why the walk down memory lane? Those pictures were all taken six years ago. See that little one in the middle of the picture above? Here he is now, making French Toast for our family brunch with very little help from me:

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Check out our littlest guy in 2007, when he was just two years old:

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This is him now, making pizza crust for our lunch:

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My encouragement to you is this:  If you continue to let your kids into the kitchen with you, teaching them basic skills and letting them do what they are able to do – your hard work WILL pay off.  Now, all I have to do is hand my 11 year old a recipe and he can make it on his own. Now all I have to do is ask my 13 year old to brown hamburger meat for lunch, and he has it done in 15 minutes. Now all I have to do is ask my 8 year old to get the eggs ready for breakfast and he knows just what to do (except for the actual cooking part – we’re still working on that one). Now I can turn parts of our meal over to our 16 year old and he’ll take care of them completely.

My kids still have a lot to learn, but they’ve spent a lot of time helping me in the kitchen through the years, which has made learning to cook come more naturally to them.

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So keep at it! You will be blessed, and more importantly, your kids will be blessed with knowing skills that are very valuable! Want some more encouragement and some incredibly awesome resources to help you with this endeavor? Check out what is available for you now:

“Bless Your Parenting” Packet ~ $78 value just $49!!

Bless Your Parenting Packet 2

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Four Boys, Three Meals Each, One Happy Tired Mom

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This has been one fun week! If you recall, our four boys were in charge of planning and cooking meals one day each this week. Here is their menu plan if you’d like a reminder.

I took pictures throughout the week, although you’ll likely notice that there are more pictures of food than boys. Trust me – this is not because they boys weren’t doing the cooking. It’s simply because the older my boys get, the less excited they are about having their lives documented on my blog for all the world to see. I respect that. So instead of seeing them stir their muffins, you just get to see the muffins. (With the exception of one Elias picture and several of Malachi – who is still usually okay with having his picture taken.)

We’ll begin with Monday’s meals – the day Asa, our 15 year old, did all the cooking. He actually didn’t make breakfast that day (logistical issues), and is instead making breakfast on Saturday before soccer games. 

For lunch, he worked and worked, cutting chicken and potatoes into nuggets and fries. He then used our fryer (the one Matt and the boys gave me for Christmas!) and cycled through batch after batch of fries and chicken nuggets. I was impressed with how he never stopped working until the last batch was finished. In fact, at one point, I stepped in to help and he said, “Wait. I thought I supposed to be cooking this meal?” Sweet! I promptly put down the knife and went over to eat fresh french fries. 

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For dinner that night, Asa and I worked together to make a double batch of fresh whole wheat tortillas for tacos. That was quite a job, and he did awesome once again! He also took the time to make Peanut Butter Brownie Cups. We devoured that meal. SO good!

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Tuesday was Elias’ day – our 11 year old. He got right out of bed and made a big mountain of French Toast. 

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Just like his brother, he didn’t stop to eat until all of the bread and eggs had been made into French Toast. That’s saying a lot for a kid who is typically ready to eat his pillow as soon as he wakes up. This boy wakes up hungry and is a HUGE breakfast eater!

After breakfast, we cleaned up, then I taught Elias how to make pie crust. More on that later. :)  For lunch, Elias used the Corndog Maker he got for Christmas to make 40 corndogs. (They actually were 20 hotdogs cut in half.)  There was a grand total of three corndogs left after our meal. We sliced up pears and got out baby carrots to go with the corndogs. Oh, and we decided that our corndogs would be stickless. No need to go to the trouble to put a stick in the dog when we’re just going to devour it anyway, right?!

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Right after lunch, Elias got busy making two Cream Cheese Lime Pies. Into the fridge they went. Then, he browned hamburger meat and put his dinner into the crock pot.

When it was dinnertime, all Elias had to do was get out bowls and chips to go with his Hamburger Cream Cheese Dip. I think we had apples with this, but for the life of me, I can’t remember. And yes, we did just put our chips on the table beside our bowls. Who needs extra dishes? 

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After dinner, Matt had a few buddies over to play cards. Elias served us all some of his pie. It was crazy good!!

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That night, Justus, age 13, who was up next for cooking meals, got into the kitchen and made Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins to serve for breakfast Wednesday. That got our morning off to a great start!

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Justus made us a huge lunch that day!! Chicken fried steak strips, mashed potatoes and gravy, peas – wow. I can’t believe how hard that kid worked.

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It was his first time to make mashed potatoes and gravy and he did awesome! See, the gravy thickened up just perfectly…

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Justus also went all out and tried a new recipe for Carrot Cake. He got fancy and decorated. To say the least, after lunch, he was exhausted. :)

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Would you believe I forgot to take pictures of his dinner? :(  He made pasta with Alfredo Sauce and steamed broccoli and carrots. It was delicious, but we rushed off to church after we ate and taking a picture completely slipped my mind.

Wednesday night when we got home from church, I asked Matt if he wouldn’t mind helping Malachi (age 8) get his Breakfast Cookies made for Thursday. They went right into the kitchen and got started, Malachi’s excitement level growing the whole time they worked. I hollered in some insufficient information about which pan to use and how many cookies to put on one pan, so the cookies sort of ran together and off the pan into the oven just a bit, but hey, that’s how we learn, right? (I’m not talking about Malachi. I’m talking about old married couples. After 18 years, we’re still learning more effective ways to communicate.)  

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I’m debating on whether or not I should tell you about the small oven fire that resulted in this slight miscommunication. Oops, I just did. Well, let’s just say it was smaller than some I’ve started in the past, and we put it out quickly. The next day, I was easily able to scrape up charred cookie drippings from the bottom of the oven. My hair still smells strangely smokey. But the breakfast cookies sure tasted good. :)

After we ate breakfast, Malachi and I got to work on the Lasagna. Yes indeed, we used store-bought noodles. By day four of helping boys cook, I was getting tired. ;)

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We ate the lasagna for lunch, since there were soccer games in the evening. It was delicious!

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After lunch, Malachi made brownies because he was set on making Death by Chocolate for dessert. In the late afternoon, he and I made a double batch of Calzones so that we could have some in the freezer as well as plenty for dinner. 

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They turned out great! Here’s round one out of four:

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And the Death by Chocolate? Well, it was as tasty as Malachi is proud…

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Sheesh, did we eat a lot of sugar this week!!! Big desserts every day of the week? Too much. But shucks, it was fun just this once.

What was I doing while my boys were cooking up a storm this week? Standing in the kitchen helping them cook, cleaning up messes with them, and offering a lot of guidance. I found that everything took at least twice if not three times as long as it normally takes me. But wow, did the boys learn a lot! 

It was wonderful having so much one-on-one time with each boy. It was super to see their excitement and willingness to work so hard all day. And I daresay, they really learned how much effort it takes to put great meals on the table three times each day. My favorite quote of the week was this:  Upon hearing that it was time to come downstairs and work on making dinner, Justus said, “Already?  I feel like I just finished cooking and cleaning up after lunch!” Uh-huh.  This is what it is to cook three meals a day for a family. I let him know that this is why I give them “the look” when they come into the kitchen asking for a snack 45 minutes after a meal. He grinned sheepishly. ;)

Did you do any cooking with your kids this week?  Fun as this week was, I’m telling you right here and now – we are having leftovers tomorrow!! This mama is tired. :)

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Homemade Playdough Mix

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Here is one of the great ideas you’ll find in our free Gifts in a Jar eBook. If you haven’t downloaded your free copy (no catch!), you can go do that here. This idea was sent in by Kristy at Little Natural Cottage and is a wonderful, inexpensive gift idea for a child, babysitter, parent or friend!

Homemade Playdough Mix

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Mix all ingredients until thoroughly combined. Place in a pint-sized jar and cover. This makes a cute gift for a child when coupled with a cookie cutter or two!

To Make Homemade Playdough:

Dump entire contents of jar into a bowl. With your hands or a wooden spoon, work in 1 Tablespoon olive oil and 1/3 cup hot water. Knead dough by hand until a soft, smooth dough forms. Adjust flour and water ratio until dough reaches desired consistency.

To color the dough with natural, safe coloring – add about 1 Tablespoon of any of the following to the water before you work it into the dough:  beet juice (pink); paprika (orange); turmeric (yellow); blueberry juice (lavender); cocoa powder (brown).

Within the pages of our Gifts in a Jar eBook, you’ll find printable tags you can make so that you can attach these directions to the gift jar.

What ideas do you have for homemade gifts for kids?

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