Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Great Lunch Idea! Black Bean Salsa

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When you’re trying to eat a healthy diet, figuring out exciting lunches can be a challenge. And if you are trying to pack a healthy lunch to take to school or work, it can be even more of a challenge. This yummy Black Bean Salsa is delicious, good for you, and super easy to put together.

Pack it up “to go” with some blue corn chips, some fruit and a Peanut Butter Honey Bar, and you’ve got a great lunch that’s easy to take anywhere.

Black Bean SalsaYum

Great Lunch Idea! Black Bean Salsa
 
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Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 1 cup dried black beans
  • 5 tomatoes, diced
  • 1 small onion, chopped fine
  • 1 cup frozen corn, steamed and cooled
  • ¼ cup chopped cilantro
Instructions
  1. Soak beans in water overnight.
  2. Drain and cover with fresh water in saucepan.
  3. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 45 minutes.
  4. Drain.
  5. In large bowl, mix together beans, tomatoes, onion, corn and cilantro.
  6. Stir together.
  7. Store in refrigerator.
  8. Serve with corn chips or baked tortilla chips.

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Make this salsa even easier by using canned black beans and canned corn…then all you have to do is quickly throw all the ingredients into a bowl and stir!

Mmmmm…I LOVE this stuff!

Need more “to go” lunch ideas?

The Make-Ahead Lunch Box

Look through all the recipes listed in our Make-Ahead Lunch Box series. Lunch can be so much more than a sandwich and carrot stick! All of the ideas will work great to make ahead, then pull out to pack for a lunch.

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Swiss Steak Trivia

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Here’s a quick and yummy Swiss Steak recipe for you…perfect to make with the great fresh vegetables you can find in your garden or farmers market!

It’s not like I have oodles of spare time on my hands…but I just had to take the time to wonder…

Why is Swiss Steak called Swiss Steak? 

Did it originate in Switzerland? Do I need to dress like I’m from Switzerland when I’m preparing this dish? Must I learn to speak a new language in order to serve Swiss Steak? 

These very important questions came to mind as I stood cooking our most recent Swiss Steak…so I googled it. Because I knew that as soon as I posted this recipe, I’d be swarmed with emails from all of you, full of questions such as these. I just couldn’t leave you hanging with so many unanswered questions. Hey, I’m here for you.

Get this! According to Wikipedia…Swiss Steak does not come from Switzerland at all. (Which is a huge relief because I am not a good student of foreign language.)

Swiss Steak is named Swiss Steak because the meat has undergone a process called “Swissing” in order to make it tender. 

I’ve never “swissed” my meat before…nor do I remember learning to “swiss” my meat in Home Economics in high school. Imagine that…I’ve gone all these years without ever “swissing”. 

Apparently I purchase my meat already “swissed” in the form of “Cube Steak”. How about that? I never knew that the cube steak in my freezer had been “swissed”. I’m willing to bet that some of you have some steak in your freezer that has been “swissed”. Eh? Am I right?!

Now that you have all the background information you could possibly ever need (and oh so much more) about Swiss Steak…here is my recipe. (Take heart…the recipe is VERY SIMPLE compared to all of the swissing detail you just received.)

Swiss SteakYum

1 1/2 lb. cube steaks or minute steaks
4 T. whole wheat flour or unbleached white flour
2 T. palm kernel oil
2 cups chopped tomatoes
2 T. water
1 small onion, cut up into rings
½ cup chopped carrot
½ t. thyme

Coat meat in flour and cook in hot oil until lightly browned on both sides. Add tomatoes, water, onion, carrots and thyme. Salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer on low heat for 1 hour or until meat and vegetables are tender.

Serve over noodles or rice.

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Enjoy the Swiss Steak…and all of the information about “swissing” that you can now use during important moments such as awkward silences or while completing crossword puzzles (five letter word for the process of tenderizing meat).

You’ll thank me later for this.

:)

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Could It Be Possible for us to LIKE Coleslaw?!

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I have never liked coleslaw. Ever.

And believe it or not…neither has Matt, my easy to please husband who eats everything.

But for some reason a few months ago, I had a cabbage that I needed to do something with…so I experimented making coleslaw.

And I REALLY liked it. A LOT!!

When Matt got home for lunch that day, I was telling him that I had made coleslaw and that I was so excited about it! He kinda gave me a lopsided smile and looked at me like, “Seriously? You made coleslaw? And you want me to eat it?!” 

But of course since he’s so nice, he did eat it. And guess what? He liked it too. 

So it seems that I have come up with a coleslaw recipe that we both like and will eat. We find it refreshing and great to eat with sloppy joes, hamburgers or BBQ chicken. 

Creamy ColeslawYum

½ medium sized cabbage
2 carrots
1 cup mayonnaise (I use Hain Safflower mayo)
2 T. red wine vinegar
1 T. honey
1 T. minced onion
sea salt, to taste

Place cabbage and carrots into food processor. Shred together. Pour cabbage and carrots into a mixing bowl. Set aside. In a small bowl, mix mayonnaise, vinegar, honey, minced onion and salt. Add mayonnaise mixture to cabbage and carrots. Stir until well combined and creamy.

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I hope that even if you don’t like coleslaw…you’ll give this recipe a try! It’s a really yummy way to eat more raw veggies! (And if Matt and I like it and eat it…that’s really saying something!)

Visit Tammy’s Recipes for more great kitchen tips!

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Cheesy Turkey Sausage Stromboli

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If I ask my husband what special meal he wants for his birthday or for Father’s Day…he usually grins and says, “Can you make me a Stromboli?”

It is SO YUMMY…it’s no wonder he always requests it! 

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Cheesy Turkey Sausage StromboliYum

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 T. honey
1 t. sea salt
1 package yeast
3/4 cups warm water
1/4 cup warm milk
1 T. melted butter
1 pound turkey sausage
2 cups white cheddar cheese, shredded
2 eggs
1 t. basil
grated Parmesan cheese

Combine flour, salt and yeast. Add water, milk, honey and butter. Knead until smooth and elastic. Place in a bowl, cover and let rise until doubled, about one hour.

Meanwhile, in a skillet cook sausage. Stir shredded cheese, one egg and basil into the sausage. Set aside.

Punch dough down and roll into a 15 x 10 inch rectangle. Spoon sausage mixture down one side of the rectangle to within one inch of the edges. Fold dough over filling and pinch to seal. Place on a cookie sheet. Cut four diagonal slits on top of the stromboli. Beat remaining egg and brush it over the stromboli. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. 

Cover and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Slice and serve warm.

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This is definitely a family favorite! Hope you try it and enjoy it!

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Spinach? I Don’t See Any Spinach…

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Whatever you do…don’t look through the ingredients in this slushy and get all freaked out because there’s spinach in it. Don’t do it. Just relax.

There’s nothing to freak out about. I promise you can’t taste the spinach….and this slushy is so refreshing and delicious you won’t even know what hit you.

The first time I made these, I was just messing around trying to come up with a yummy way to get more raw greens into our diet. I figured they’d turn out some ugly brown color, since I was mixing red, yellow and green together. I just hoped I’d be able to make my family look past it and enjoy the fruity taste.

But instead, they turned out to be a beautiful deep red color…and tasted like fruity heaven. So even though you KNOW there’s spinach in them because you made them and put it there yourself, you will forget all about it while you sit down with a spoon and eat this slushy that tastes better than anything I’ve eaten this entire summer.

Try these!!!

Strawberry Peach SlushiesYum

2 cups frozen strawberries
1 cup frozen peaches
1 cup raw mixed greens or spinach
5-8 drops stevia (more if you like)
1 cup water

Put all ingredients into blender. Process until everything is mixed and becomes slushy.

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And see what my blender did? It made that pretty swirl thingy. My boys beg for me now to show them the pretty swirl thingy everytime I make these.

Strawberry Peach Slushy

These have become one of our favorite side dishes….or sometimes they are our breakfast. WE LOVE THESE SLUSHIES!

Please, oh please, try them. :)

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Yummy Apricot Breakfast Bars

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One day a few weeks ago, I was getting ready to make my Giant Breakfast Cookie recipe…but decided to play with it a bit and create some kind of breakfast bar instead. (I LOVE playing with recipes!)

I came up with these yummy apricot bars and knew I’d have to share it with you.

And then I forgot. (So sorry.)

Then, last week, Marie emailed and asked if I’d try to come up with a good breakfast bar recipe (I think she said something about “since you’re so brilliant in the kitchen”…yeah, that was it.). And I was reminded that indeed – I had already come up with one. So Marie (and everyone else), here you go! (I hope you like them, but if you don’t, can we still be friends?)  :)

Apricot Breakfast BarsYum

2 sticks butter
3/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1/4 cup sesame seeds
3/4 cup dried apricots

Melt butter and honey together. Remove from heat. Pour mixture into a mixing bowl and add baking soda, salt, vanilla and buttermilk and eggs. Stir in flour, oats, coconut and sesame seeds until well combined. Cut dried apricots into small bites (I usually cut mine into fourths). Fold apricot pieces into dough.

Bake in a 9 x 13 baking pan at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

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You can play with these yourself and add any combination of fruit and nuts – I know I’ll continue to mix and match different ingredients! Enjoy!

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Make Homemade Turkey Sausage!

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Make this turkey sausage recipe even easier by creating a jar of seasonings for this sausage. Learn how!

We LOVE ham and sausage at our house, but from what I read, pork is not the best for you. We do eat bacon from time to time, but this Turkey Sausage is a delicious alternative to pork. It’s easy and it tastes great!

See? It looks like sausage and everything?! My family devours this sausage.

Homemade Turkey Sausage

Homemade Turkey SausageYum

Make Homemade Turkey Sausage!
 
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Ingredients
  • 1 pound ground turkey
  • 3 Tablespoon minced onion
  • ¼ teaspoon cumin
  • ¼ teaspoon marjoram
  • ¼ teaspoon ground pepper
  • ¼ teaspoon oregano
  • ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
  • ½ teaspoon dried basil
  • ½ teaspoon thyme
  • ½ teaspoon sage
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 egg (optional)
Instructions
  1. Mix all ingredients.
  2. Chill for about an hour. (If you forget to chill this ahead of time...it cooks up okay anyway!)
  3. Form into patties.
  4. Saute in butter.

You’ll find more recipes like this in my ebook:  Think Breakfast…Outside of the Box or in my “actual book” Oh, For Real: Real Food, Real Family, Real Easy.

What can you do with this Turkey Sausage? Here are our favorite ways to use this:

  • Just eat it. Turkey Sausage Patties are pretty great as a breakfast meat along with eggs, pancakes, or muffins.
  • Homemade Sausage Gravy is amazing. I like to make a huge batch of this sausage, then freeze it browned and crumbled in 1-pound meal-sized portions. Then I just pull it out and quickly make gravy. Of course, we eat this gravy over biscuits. This means that you also need my Quick Mix Biscuits recipe.
  • Turkey Sausage and Red Bean Stew is a wonderful comfort food – made easier if you have this sausage made ahead of time.
  • Sometimes I use this sausage in my Spicy Mac and Cheese recipe.
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Kids in the Kitchen: Making Cheesecake For Mom!

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We have two pretty solid Mother’s Day traditions at our house. (Neither of them involves spending much money!) 

One tradition is that we take the pictures of our boys beside the peach tree that we planted a few years ago. Each year, it is super fun to see how much the tree has grown and how much the boys have grown. We then email these pictures to all of the special women in our lives for Mother’s Day. I LOVE looking back at these pictures! 

The second tradition is that I get the day off from cooking. :)

And I get to choose what we’re eating! (okay…I do that EVERY day…)

I absolutely NEVER want to eat out on Mother’s Day. I find the restaurants overflowing and stressful…and that is not a treat for me. 

So Daddy and the boys put on their aprons (not really) and cook for mama. I LOVE it!!

You can read about the Mother’s Day Muffins they’ll be making here. And for lunch…they’ll be making steak on the grill, baked potatoes, veggies and cheesecake.

Here’s the cheesecake they’ll be making for me  (and YES, we’re compromising a bit and by eating processed sugar and graham crackers from a box. I know…you must be absolutely shocked!)  :)

Simple CheesecakeYum

2 pkgs graham crackers
2 sticks butter
¼ cup sugar
2 – 8 oz. pkgs. cream cheese, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 t. vanilla

In a gallon sized Ziploc bag, crush graham crackers with a rolling pin. Melt butter in a small saucepan. Pour crushed graham crackers, melted butter and sugar into a 9 x 13 inch pan. Stir ingredients together and pat it down to create crust. Set aside.

In a medium sized bowl, stir together cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla. In a large bowl, whip the cream until soft peaks form. Add cream cheese mixture to whipped cream and fold in gently. Smooth mixture over the crust. Chill for at least two hours.

This cheesecake is super simple to make…which means the boys can do it entirely by themselves!

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The boys LOVE crushing up the graham crackers in the baggie. It IS permission to BREAK something after all! (Oh, and don’t you just LOVE Malachi’s outfit in this picture? He chose it himself…)  :)

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Okay, and I always do pour the vanilla myself for them. It’s organic, and it’s pricey, and I’m afraid they’d accidentally pour in the entire bottle. Just the control freak in me coming out while they make MY cheesecake… ;)

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I love this Mother’s Day tradition…and so do Daddy and the boys! They look forward to it as much as I do! 

I’d love to hear about any Mother’s Day traditions you have!! What special things are YOU looking forward to this weekend?!

[tags]Mother’s Day, Kids in the Kitchen, Cheesecake[/tags]

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Mother’s Day Breakfast…Chocolate Swirl Muffins

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Daddy and the boys always make a great Mother’s Day lunch for me each year. This year, they’ll be making our breakfast too!

These muffins can be made ahead of time, so the kids will make a double batch of these on Saturday so that they’ll be ready to grab on Mother’s Day morning! 

And yes…I chose a Chocolate Swirl Muffin for them to make because it IS Mother’s Day after all…and a mama needs her chocolate…

Chocolate Swirl MuffinsYum

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1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. sea salt
1/2 cup honey
1 egg
2/3 cup milk
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 t. vanilla
2 t. cocoa powder
3-5 drops stevia

Mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in honey, egg, milk, melted butter and vanilla. Scoop out 1/2 cup of batter into a small bowl. To this small amount of batter, add cocoa and stevia.

Fill nine paper lined muffin tins about half full with plain batter. Put about 2 t. of chocolate batter on top of each. 
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 Use a butter knife to cut the chocolate into the muffin. 
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Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

I hope you’ll continue to join us this week for lots more Mother’s Day encouragement! Read about our Celebrating Women series here!

And be sure to check out Tammy’s Recipes for more kitchen tips!

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Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns

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 In the past few years as our family is working to learn more about eating healthier…I’ve tried to come up with a healthy, homemade whole wheat hamburger bun. 

I think I have finally figured out how to make a good bun.

(I must say…blogging about my buns feels a little….strange. But  just in case you’ve had trouble with your buns…I thought this was worth sharing.)  

Many burger bun attempts failed…as usually they were too bready…or too heavy. And we all know that NOBODY wants their buns to be too heavy…

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Yum

So last week…I tried again and tweaked one of my other recipes and turned out a great batch of buns! Here’s how I did it:

Homemade Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns 

5 cups  (+) whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 pkgs regular or active dry yeast (4 1/2 t.)
2 T. honey
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup milk
2 T. butter
2 t. sea salt

In a large mixing bowl, stir together 3 cups of whole wheat flour and 1 1/2 cups warm water. Set aside to let rest for 30 minutes. In the meantime, mix together 1/4 cup water, yeast and honey. Allow this to sit for at least 10 minutes to activate the yeast.

Melt butter, milk and salt in a small saucepan on the stove. Do not allow the mixture to get above 120 degrees.

Pour yeast mixture and milk mixture into flour mixture. Add remaining two cups of flour (more if needed). 

Knead for about 10 minutes until dough begins to look “shiny”. Put dough back into the bowl, cover and let rise for at least an hour…or until it has doubled.

Pull dough onto a clean countertop and knead for a couple of minutes to get any air bubbles out. Roll dough on a lightly floured surface until about 1/2 inch thick. 

Cut circles from the dough with a large drinking glass or wide mouth jar. Place circles on in a well buttered baking dish about an inch apart. 

Allow to rise for about 30 minutes. Bake for 20-25 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Makes about 18 buns.

Now….I really hope you like these as much as we do!! 

But really…do be careful when you share this recipe and talk with others about them. Because…

“Don’t you just LOVE Laura’s buns?!” might just not sound quite right… ;)

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