Recipes Archives | Page 51 of 76 | Heavenly Homemakers

Real Food MakeOver: Crock Pot Chocolate Peanut Butter Pudding Cake (and Cake Boys Episode 7!)

November 13, 2012 by Laura 21 Comments

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

Have a recipe you’d like me to try and make over? Submit your recipes on this Real Food Recipe Makeover Submission Page.

Remember that cake I tried to make in a crock pot that ended up being tedious and difficult? After that, my friend Jenny emailed me a recipe for Crock Pot Chocolate Peanut Butter Pudding Cake, figuring that I could surely make over the ingredients to make this a healthier recipe.

I was excited, yet given my experience with cake in a crock pot, I couldn’t help but wonder: Would this cake be a lot of work? Would it be tasty in the end?

The answer to those questions are: No, this cake is not a lot of work…and YES this cake is incredibly tasty.

I actually handed the recipe to the Cake Boys (aka Justus and bros) to make this for Matt’s birthday last week. It was so easy for them to adapt that they did it without any help from me. Yes indeed, this Real Food Makeover is brought to you by the Cake Boys. :)

You simply pour the batter into the crock pot, then drizzle over a layer of boiling water/cocoa/sucanat. The cake bakes in a crock pot for two hours, and when it’s finished, the cake has baked over the top and a layer of fudgy pudding is on the bottom.

This cake is dreamy, rich deliciousness. We all loved it!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pudding Cake

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup sucanat

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

2 Tablespoons melted butter (or coconut oil)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup natural peanut butter

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine flour, cocoa, sucanat, baking powder, and salt. Mix well. Make a well in the center and add milk, butter, and vanilla. Stir well, until batter is smooth. Stir in peanut butter (heat if needed, to thin). Stir in chocolate chips. Spread the batter evenly into a well greased slow cooker. Make the topping:

Topping:

3 Tablespoons cocoa powder
3/4 cup sucanat

1 1/2 cups boiling water

Mix cocoa and sucanat, whisk in boiling water until smooth. Gently pour over batter in crock pot, but don’t stir. Cover and cook on HIGH until puffed and the top layer is set, about 2- 2 1/4 hours. Turn off crock pot and let stand, covered for at least 30 minutes. Serve the cake (which is now on top) with ice cream or whipped cream and drizzle the fudgy pudding from the bottom over both.

Makes 6-8 servings

And now, you can enjoy Episode 7 of Cake Boys, which includes a ridiculous commercial break by Asa. Wow, our boys have tooooo much fun putting these together. Also, I should note: Justus says that he added “shortening” to the cake. He really added butter. He was just reading the original recipe when he recorded. :) And then we had a little lesson about what shortening is and why we don’t eat it unless it’s Palm Shortening. But anyway…

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

Warm Pumpkin Custard Drink (and my typo confessions)

October 25, 2012 by Laura 45 Comments

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

I’m about to share my Warm Pumpkin Custard recipe with you, but…

Just so you know, it is very hard for me to type the word “pumpkin” without automatically adding a “g” to the end – making it “pumpking”. This is what happens when you type words ending with “ing” frequently.

For the record, because of my blog name, I also type the word “heavenly” so often that I can’t tell you how many times the word “have” first comes out “heave”. For instance, every time I’m sharing about my ebook “Have Your Cookie…and Eat it Too“? I almost always first type “Heave Your Cookie…” It is a huge problem. But you probably didn’t even want to know that, did you?

And ultimately, that was a terrible thing to write about when I’m posting a new, delicious recipe. Try not to think about heaving your cookies, and instead, focus on the pumpking. Um, pumpkin.

Warm_Pumpkin_Custard

Yum

We have a friend who absolutely loves anything pumpkin. Since he was coming for a visit on a cold, drizzly day – I was brainstorming as to what I could quickly mix up that would satisfy his pumpkin craving and warm us all up.

Turns out, I didn’t have to think very hard. I simply grabbed my trusty Warm Vanilla Soother recipe and pumkinized it. Easy and delicious! Our friend loved it and had two huge mugs full!

This is a great dessert – or because it’s so full of rich, hearty, nutritious ingredients – I think it will be great for breakfast. As a matter of fact, it would be heavenly. (See? Told you I use that word a lot.)

Warm Pumpkin Custard Drink

Warm Pumpkin Custard Drink (and my typo confessions)

Save Print

Author: Laura

Serves: 3-5

Ingredients

3 cups whole milk
4 egg yolks
⅓ cup real maple syrup
1 cup canned or pureed pumpkin
2 Tablespoon arrowroot powder or corn starch
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

In a medium saucepan, whisk together milk, egg yolks, maple syrup, pumpkin, arrowroot powder, and spices.
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly (I use a whisk) until mixture begins to thicken.
Remove from heat and add vanilla.
Stir until creamy.
Pour into mugs and serve warm.

Am I the only one with potentially embarrassing typo issues?

Don’t even ask me about the time I accidentally left out the “r” when I was writing about how I store bulk grocery items in my “pantry”. Worst typo ever. Kinda makes you want to heave your cookies, doesn’t it?

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

Pizza Boats – A Quick Throw-it-Together Meal

October 19, 2012 by Laura 15 Comments

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

Yum

Apparently, it’s pizza week around here. :)

It’s great to have homemade Whole Wheat Pizza Crusts in the freezer. But if you don’t, or if you’re wanting just a little something different…might I recommend Pizza Boats?

(Warning to children: These Pizza Boats don’t float. Do not take these into the bathtub.)

I have been ordering Alvarado Sprouted Sourdough French Bread from my health food co-op, Azure Standard. In a pinch, I grab one out, slice it and quickly put together two big Pizza Boats. These are perfect for an easy lunch, or for a quick supper before we run out to soccer games.

You’ll need 2 cups (16 ounces) of pizza sauce. Simply slice the french bread in half the long way.

Top any way you wish.

Bake in a 375° oven for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

I’m telling you. Healthy eating does not have to be difficult or take a lot of time. And it can be a lot of fun. Who wouldn’t want a Pizza Boat for dinner?

But don’t take them into the bathtub.

Why yes. I have been raising boy children for 15 years.

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

Pizza Boats are the definition of a Simple Meal, wouldn’t you say?

We invite you to join all who are benefiting from Simple Meals. Save time, save energy, save money – let us do the hard work for you! Check out Simple Meals here!

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

Easiest, Tastiest, Healthy Pizza Crust (Freezable!)

October 16, 2012 by Laura 77 Comments

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

I have officially worked myself out of a job. Elias, our 10 year old, has now been declared our Chief Pizza Maker.

Why? Because I’ve figured out how to make quick and easy pizza crust – and I’ve figured out that this pizza crust freezes really, really well. Therefore, I make a double batch of pizza dough, shape it, and bake it into personal sized crusts – and then I freeze them. On “pizza day”, Elias gets out the crusts and toppings, and puts together “made to order” pizzas for everyone. He then bakes them in our toaster oven, all while I am sitting with my feet up in an easy chair, sipping lemonade, and flipping through a magazine.

Just kidding. I’m typically working right beside him on another kitchen chore. But it sure is nice to have a my big guys around who help so much. And it’s so very nice to have such an easy recipe to work with so that making pizzas is crazy easy.

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough (originally posted when I shared my Whole Wheat Calzone recipe)

Easiest, Tastiest, Healthy Pizza Crust (Freezable!)

Save Print

Author: Laura

Ingredients

5 cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground flour from hard white wheat)
1 teaspoon sea salt
4½ teaspoons active dry yeast (or 2 pouches)
2 cups warm water (The water should feel warm, but not hot.)

Instructions

Mix all ingredients together, knead for 3-4 minutes, then allow the dough to “rest” for about 10 minutes (give or take).
This dough makes 2 large pizzas, or 18 mini pizzas.
Shape dough into desired pizza sizes and place on baking sheets.
Bake in a 375° oven for 5-7 minutes.
Remove crusts from oven, allow them to cool, then freeze in freezer bags.
Or, top hot pizza crusts with desired pizza toppings.
When you're ready, bake the pizzas at 375° for 10 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and beginning to brown.

FYI – I find that 2 cups (16 ounces) of pizza sauce is typically needed to go with this pizza crust recipe.

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

Yum

I found little mini turkey pepperonis at the store. Our boys love them. :)

I love how easy this dough is to work with. I simply pinch off a little dough, and quickly roll out crusts and bake them.

Once they have baked and cooled, I put them into freezer bags. I don’t even get them out in time to thaw before we top them and bake them. So convenient!

If you’d like to borrow my ten year old sometime, I’m sure he’d be happy to come build you some pizzas. Then, you too can put your feet up in an easy chair, sip lemonade, and flip through a magazine. :)

Ever tried freezing pizza crusts? If not, I highly recommend it. It makes homemade pizza so very easy!

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

Healthy Crock Pot Recipes: Fiesta Chicken

October 10, 2012 by Laura 13 Comments

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

Since yesterday’s Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cake in the crock pot really isn’t a great crock pot recipe, here’s a great one for Fiesta Chicken. This was a hit with our whole family!

Crock Pot Fiesta ChickenYum

2 Tablespoons olive oil or coconut oil
3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large green pepper, chopped
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced (or one teaspoon garlic powder)
1 small jalapeno pepper, chopped
1 – 14 1/2 ounce can of Mexican style diced tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon oregano

In a skillet, cook the chicken pieces in the olive oil until browned. Remove chicken, and saute onion, pepper, garlic, and jalapeno in the juices and oil. Combine all ingredients in a crock pot. Cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 6-8 hours.

Serve over rice, or on a soft tortilla. Top with cheese, olives, lettuce, sour cream – or any toppings you choose. Add frozen corn and/or black beans to the crock pot if you’d like.

The houseful of company I told you we were having? They started coming in today. The fun is just beginning!

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

Easy Homemade Chicken Salad

October 2, 2012 by Laura 28 Comments

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

I couldn’t very well make homemade pita bread last week without making Chicken Salad, now could I?

Matt happened to be out of town for two days last week on a soccer trip. The poor guy. All I talked about when he came home was how good the new pita bread recipe ended up and how I’d made chicken salad to go in it and served it all with fresh tomatoes from our garden. And how all four boys scarfed it up and came back for more.

And then I had to tell him that all of it was gone – that we’d saved none at all for him.

Yeah. Welcome home, Dad. ;)

Not to worry. I’ll make him more soon. Have you tried the Whole Wheat Pita Bread recipe yet?

Easy Homemade Chicken Salad

Easy Chicken SaladYum

Easy Homemade Chicken Salad

Save Print

Author: Laura

Ingredients

2 cups cooked, shredded chicken
½ cup mayonnaise (I use Hain Safflower)
2 Tablespoons pickle relish (I use either homemade pickle relish or an organic variety from Amazon or Vitacost)
¼ teaspoon onion salt
2 hard boiled eggs, chopped (optional)

Instructions

Mix all ingredients together and serve on crackers, on bread, or in pita pockets.

Shucks, get out a fork and eat it plain if you want. It’s good stuff. :)

Recipes and links you might need for your Chicken Salad:

Hain Safflower Mayo
Homemade Pickle Relish Recipe
Pre-made pickle relish from Amazon or Vitacost

I’m not a fan of hard boiled eggs in my meat salads. You? And you know, if you all leave a comment answering that question, this will make for one of the most exciting blog conversations – ever. :)

You can also use this recipe to make Turkey Salad with turkey leftovers after a holiday meal. This is one of my favorite ways to use up chicken or turkey leftovers! Chicken or turkey salad makes a wonderful convenience food!

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

Homemade Whole Wheat Pita Bread

September 27, 2012 by Laura 196 Comments

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

Before you try to make this Whole Wheat Pita Bread recipe, here is what you need to know: Pita Bread is EASY to make!

That’s it. That’s all you need to know.

Know why I’m telling you that? Because as I was researching different recipes and trying to figure out the best way to make pita bread – every recipe seemed sooo difficult. I felt like ducking out on my Funky Fresh Challenge committment this week because, really? Did I have time and energy to make such a complicated recipe? And did I really want to share a complicated recipe with you? Why no, I did not.

So, because I just couldn’t help myself – I took short cuts and figured out how to make this recipe easy. And guess what? It worked. There is no reason to make cooking so complicated. Goodness. As if trying to keep my desk cleaned off isn’t difficult enough.

I should also note that these pita pockets tasted so good that we couldn’t get over it. I will definitely be making these again and again. Especially since they are so easy! And I know that they will freeze well, and will be a wonderful item to have in the freezer to pull out for quick meals!

Whole Wheat Pita BreadYum

Homemade Whole Wheat Pita Bread

Save Print

Author: Laura

Serves: 8

Ingredients

3 cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground whole wheat from hard white wheat)
1½ teaspoons yeast
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 Tablespoons honey
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 cup warm water

Instructions

Stir together flour, yeast, and sea salt.
Add honey, oil, and water, stirring until a nice dough forms.
Knead the dough on a well floured surface for 4-5 minutes. (In other words: Mix dry ingredients. Add liquid ingredients. Stir well. Knead.) See? Easy.
Place dough back into the bowl, cover, and allow dough to rest and rise for about an hour.
Pull dough out of the bowl.
Knead for about 30 seconds.
Cut dough into eight equal parts.
Roll each into a circle, about six or seven inches in diameter.
Place circles directly onto a baking sheet after rolling.
I baked mine on a well seasoned baking stone, so didn't find that I needed to grease my pan, but feel free to grease yours if you need to.
Allow the dough circles to rest/rise on the baking sheet while you heat your oven to 500°.
Place baking sheet of pita circles into hot oven.
Bake for 5-8 minutes - just long enough for them to puff up and brown slightly.
Allow pitas to cool, slice in half, and serve as desired.

I made Chicken Salad for ours. So delicious!

Don’t ever let anyone tell you making pita bread is hard. And how much do these cost in the store, anyway? I’m pretty sure making these is huge money saver (not to mention they are surely much healthier).

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

EASY! Overnight, No Knead Yeast Bread

September 19, 2012 by Laura 263 Comments

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

No Knead Bread. Let’s make life easier, shall we?

No-Knead Bread

I love having smart friends.

Smart friends who give me great, easy, healthy recipes are my favorite kind of friends. As are my friends who give me chocolate. Or jars. Or hugs. Or the friends who listen to my constant and sometimes nonsensical chatter. And the ones who put up with my unreasonable freak-out moments of stress. And the ones who pray with me. And the ones who deal with me during soccer season when I can’t finish sentences.

Let me just pause and wipe a tear. I really have the best friends ever…

Well now. (stops to loudly blow nose and gain composure) I really brought all that up to say that one of my great friends, Nikki, shared this recipe with me. She’s one of my smart friends who I believe has done all of the above and then some (God bless her).

Once when I was at her house, she let me try some of the bread she had made that morning. It was great! And then she started telling me how she made it. How you don’t have to knead it. How you start it the night before and how it takes about three minutes to mix up. I think I grabbed her neck, hugged her fiercely, and knocked her over when she handed me the recipe. Not really. I truly can control myself. Usually. But hey, there was a great recipe involved, so no guarantees. See, I told you my friends are great to put up with me.

And now, the easiest bread recipe in the world…

No Knead Yeast BreadYum

5.0 from 1 reviews

EASY! Overnight, No Knead Yeast Bread

Save Print

Author: Laura

Ingredients

3 cups flour (This recipe works a little better with unbleached white flour, but I prefer to use freshly ground hard white wheat so that it is healthier.)
1 ¾ teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon active rise yeast
1 ½ cups water

Instructions

Stir ingredients together in the evening. (No need to proof the yeast.)
Cover and allow dough to sit over-night on the counter-top.
In the morning, dump the dough onto a well floured surface.
Shape it into a ball.
Let it sit for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 450°, heating the baking dish in the oven at the same time.
Place the dough in the hot baking dish.
Cover and bake for 30-40 minutes.

Note: You need a covered dish to bake this bread. I found a deep-dish casserole dish with a lid that worked for me, similar to this one. But if I can save up and splurge on this one, would that not be the coolest?

When you mix it and cover it in the evening, it starts out looking like this:

In the morning it will look like this:

After you bake it, it will look like this:

And when you slice it it will look like this:

Once you serve it, it will look like this:

(There’s no picture. The bread is gone. Obviously.)

I highly recommend that you give this recipe a try, and that you consider serving it with this wonderful Calico Beans dish. It’s a wonderful combo!

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

Healthy Crock Pot Recipes: Calico Beans

September 12, 2012 by Laura 128 Comments

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

This Calico Beans recipe packs a punch when it comes to protein. In my household of men, this is much appreciated. Oh, who am I kidding? I may be the only girl in my household, but give me a bowl of beans, beef, and bacon, and I’m a happy camper. I love me a high protein meal! If all the boys in the house enjoy it too, well now, that’s just a huge perk. :)

Add some chopped sweet green peppers, or even a few chunks of spicy peppers to this recipe if your family enjoys a little “kick”.

Calico BeansYum

Healthy Crock Pot Recipes: Calico Beans

Save Print

Author: Laura

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

8 ounces turkey bacon, cut into one-inch pieces
1 pound ground beef
½ cup chopped onion (or 4 Tablespoons minced onion)
1 Tablespoon yellow mustard
2 - 15 ounce cans baked beans (I use Eden Organics, full of healthy ingredients)
1 - 15 ounce can kidney beans
¾ cup ketchup (I recommend homemade ketchup or an organic variety that does not contain high fructose corn syrup)
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 Tablespoon vinegar (I use either red wine or balsamic)

Instructions

In a skillet, brown bacon, ground beef, and onions together.
Drain and dump into a crock pot.
Add remaining ingredients, stirring until mixed.
Cover and cook on low for six hours or on high for three hours.
Or, skip the crock pot and bake this in a covered casserole dish at 350° for an hour.

Of course, you’ll save even more money if you soak and cook your own beans. Read more about this process here.

Calico Beans

I know everyone is different when it comes to craving meat and high protein meals. Are you like me and feel like you could eat a half a cow sometimes? Or are you content with a small bowl of beans and the occasional peanut?

Interested in more Crock Pot recipes? You’ll find several to look through here!

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

Healthy Crock Pot Recipes: Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip

September 4, 2012 by Laura 192 Comments

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

I couldn’t decide. Should I tell my kids what was in this Spinach and Artichoke dip…or should I not?

Turns out, I didn’t have much choice, because they came into the kitchen and asked what I was making and what was in it. I wasn’t going to lie, obviously, but shucks, I was just sure that once Elias, our 10 year old, heard that there were artichokes and spinach in the dip, he’d suddenly be, “not very hungry right now.”

Thankfully, there were chips involved. ;) Chips are always a good motivator for eating artichokes, right?

All of the boys decided to “give it a try”, which in Elias’ case, means putting a teeny bit of dip onto his chip. Much to my surprise, all of the boys loved the dip. And Elias was the one who raved about it the most.

The moral of this story? I give up on ever being able to predict which of my kids will like which foods, because about the time I think for sure my pickiest child will rebel against artichokes, I will be wrong.

Just a note: When picking out Marinated Artichoke Hearts at the store, watch out! Many of them contain partially hydrogenated oils. Ick. I was happy to find a healthier version at Vitacost which contains only artichoke hearts, water, salt and citric acid. Sweet!

As for chips, I recommend an organic variety of corn chips so you will be avoiding bad fats and GMO corn. Or, this dip also tastes great with carrot sticks and other veggies.