Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Donuts

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After months of trial, illness, starvation, exhaustion, and many other forms of misery (encouraging post so far, Laura) – the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags came together for a great feast on what is now known as The First Thanksgiving. These incredible people had much to celebrate, no doubt.

On their table there was an abundance of lobster, rabbit, chicken, squash, chestnuts, hickory nuts, onions, leeks, dried fruits, radishes, and cabbage – all of the traditional foods you and I always serve to our families on Thanksgiving, right? (I always tear up a little during the carving of our traditional Thanksgiving Lobster.)

Quick question: How did the above First Thanksgiving menu give way to boxed stuffing and canned cranberry sauce that plops out onto a plate? Don’t answer that. But what I do what to know is this:  Where have these Whole Wheat Pumpkin Donuts been all my life? These need to be added to everyone’s Thanksgiving menu: turkey, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, relish tray, mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade rolls with butter, and a big, huge platter of Pumpkin Donuts. Oh, and don’t forget the Lobster.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Donuts with Glaze

These Pumpkin Donuts scream, “Fall is here! Be thankful! Inhale deeply the scent of cinnamon spice! Eat me already!” This is a fall treat that ranks right up there with all things amazing. This donut recipe stirs up quickly, rolls out easily, and fries up into fantastic goodies that might make you pass out. They are great with a cup of coffee or apple cider.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Donuts (adapted from this recipe)Yum

5.0 from 1 reviews
Whole Wheat Pumpkin Donuts
 
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Serves: 15-20
Ingredients
  • 3½ cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground hard white wheat)
  • 4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon nutmeg
  • ½ cup sucanat (or brown sugar)
  • 2 Tablespoons melted butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ cup buttermilk
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree
  • Oil for frying (I recommend coconut oil or palm shortening for healthy frying)
  • GLAZE:
  • 2 cups powdered sugar (I use unbleached powdered sugar)
  • ⅓ cup buttermilk
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
  1. Stir together whole wheat flour, baking powder, sea salt, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and sucanat. Add melted butter, eggs, vanilla, buttermilk, and pumpkin puree - mixing until all ingredients are well combined.
  2. Roll dough on a well-floured surface.
  3. Cut out donuts and donut holes (makes about 15-20 of each).
  4. Fry dough in hot oil for about 3 minutes or until donuts are golden brown.
  5. Whisk glaze ingredients together and drizzle over warm donuts before serving.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Donuts

What are your family’s traditional Thanksgiving foods that are a little different from the norm?  I have to admit, not only have I never had a Thanksgiving Lobster on my table, I’m not sure I’ve ever actually eaten lobster, period. I’m a Kansas girl turned Nebraska girl. What can I say?

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Fresh Peach Milkshakes

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It’s story time, children. Please sit down, criss-cross-applesauce, and listen quietly.

Once upon a time, there was a lady who got a new blender. It wasn’t just any blender. It was the blender of all blenders, the Blend-Tec blender that she’d been waiting patiently to purchase.

She was super excited to make a peach milkshake with the fresh peaches she had in her kitchen, and figured that reading all the fine print in the “blender handbook” would be a waste of time. “How hard can it be?” she thought, “It’s just a blender.”

And so, the uninformed lady proceeded to fill the blender to the top with delicious whole milk, slices of fresh peach, maple syrup, and vanilla. With excitement, she placed the lid on the blender and pushed the on button.

Before the lady could say “one Mississippi” the force within the blender sent the lid shooting right off the top. With a shout that sounded something like, “Aaoourrhheeeewwryeeeoo!” the lady quickly smacked the off button. But no matter. Peach milkshake had been sent to the ceiling, to the floor, to the stack of mail beside the blender, to the casseroles sitting on the countertop, to the side of the refrigerator, to surfaces she found three days later, and I think it goes without saying, to the clothes, arms, legs, shoes, and hair of the befuddled lady.

She stood, quite shocked and motionless, for approximately 8 Mississippi’s, before calling in her 12 year old son. With a chuckle, said 12 year old brought in the camera, as moments such as this should be documented and preserved forever in ones memory and computer picture file.

peach milkshakes 1

This picture does not do the situation justice.
“The lady” was covered, the rug was covered, everything was covered. 

Thus lunch-time was delayed, and the kitchen got a much needed scrubbing. The lady soon smelled sour from being drenched with dairy product, and even though she changed her clothes before going to a soccer game, was surprised to find flecks of dried peach stuck to her knees and ankles during half time.

The moral of the story: Read the directions, do not overfill your blender, and do not be surprised to find crusty milkshake residue four feet away on the front of the silverware drawer next Friday.

The end.

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

Everybody hungry for a Peach Milkshake now? Below you’ll find a recipe, which only makes about 2 servings. Trying to make 6 servings at once, no matter how large your blender, is a bad, bad, bad idea. I’m still not quite over it.

Fresh Peach MilkshakesYum

2 cups whole milk
2 fresh peaches, sliced
1 Tablespoon real maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place ingredients in a blender, making sure the blender is only half-full, trust me on this one. Place lid on the blender, plug it in, and give it a whirl until ingredients are well blended.

Fresh Peach Milkshake

Make this milkshake at your own risk.

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

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I have homemade salad dressing recipes for you!

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-images-retro-seamless-pattern-set-image20825059

Yum

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

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

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

Easy Taco Salad with homemade French Dressing

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

Bacon, Egg, and Avocado Salad

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

easiest salad ever

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

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

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

Favorite Simple Homemade Salad Dressing Recipes 2

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

Homemade Salad Dressing Recipes

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

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Coconut Fudge Bars

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Whether it’s because I’m getting older or getting healthier, my body no longer handles sugar well. This is a great problem to have, obviously. I’m really quite grateful, as I used to eat wayyyyyyyy too much sugar. But what is a chocolate lover to do when she has a chocolate craving? Suck on a bar of unsweetened chocolate? Mmmm, no.

Chocolate Whipped Cream on Strawberries to the rescue. Also, last week I played with my Chewy Granola Bars recipe. I used to make them with chocolate chips – but that obviously adds extra sugar. This time, I came up with a dark chocolate variety that is only lightly sweet, super coconuty, and oh so chocolaty rich.

Coconut Fudge BarsYum

5.0 from 2 reviews
Coconut Fudge Bars
 
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Serves: 8-10
Ingredients
  • ½ cup peanut butter or sunbutter
  • ¼ cup honey
  • ¼ cup coconut oil (or another oil of your choice)
  • ½ cup cocoa powder
  • 1½ cup rolled oats
  • 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
Instructions
  1. In a medium sized saucepan, melt together peanut butter, honey, coconut oil, and cocoa.
  2. Remove from heat and stir in oats and coconut flakes.
  3. Spread mixture into a 9x9 inch pan.
  4. Chill for 2 hours before serving.
  5. Makes 8-16 bars, depending on how big/small you cut them.

Coconut Fudge Bars

These store best in the fridge, otherwise they are melty and will get chocolate all over your hands and face. If this is not a problem for you, by all means, store them on the countertop. If you want to pack these in a lunch, I recommend wrapping them individually, freezing them, and sending a spoon or fork along to make them less messy for the consumer. If having chocolate all over your child’s hands and face at school is not a problem for you, by all means, send them without a utensil.

These are super rich and only barely sweet. Feel free to add more honey if you prefer.

So tell me:  Are you a dark chocolate fan?

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Cream Cheese Filling For Your Crepes

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Want a Cream Cheese Crepe Filling that will change your life? I’m not even exaggerating (because I never do that). It doesn’t hurt that my Crepe recipe is super simple and delicious too. Need to eat gluten free? Gotcha covered. The crepes are made without flour and of course the filling is gf too. These are all real food and so, so good!

Quick and Easy Crepes

While Matt and I were cooking out at camp a couple weeks ago, we were blessed to work with a very talented lady who has been cooking for campers for years. One of her specialties? Homemade Crepes with cream cheese filling, topped with berries. You should have heard the kids as they walked by the kitchen and saw we were making crepes. “Is it crepe day tomorrow?!? I’ve been waiting all year for this day!”

Seriously, the campers love them. I believe we cranked out over 300 crepes in preparation for “Crepe Day.” Phew, what a job! But it was worth it. The crepes were amazing! The key to making these so great had to be the filling. Cream cheese filling.  Sooooo good!

We used powdered sugar at camp, but when I got home, I played with the idea to make the filling with stevia or maple syrup. Yum, yum, yummy.

Cream Cheese Crepe Filling

Cream Cheese Crepe FillingYum

Cream Cheese Filling For Your Crepes
 
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Ingredients
  • 8 ounces softened cream cheese
  • 10 drops liquid stevia or 2 Tablespoons real maple syrup
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
  1. Beat ingredients together until smooth.
  2. Place about 2 teaspoons of filling in each crepe.

I whip my cream cheese filling ingredients together in my Blendtec, which takes about thirty seconds.

Here’s my super easy Crepe Recipe.  Wholesome, filling, and delicious. And with cream cheese and berries? Heavenly. :)

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Cool Pineapple Cream Dessert – Dairy Free, No Sugar Added – 100% Delicious

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pineapple dessert 3

I found this recipe and decided to make it on Sunday night for our small group. A couple of my friends who were coming can’t eat dairy, so I figured it would be perfect. I had it whipped together and served into cups by the time friends began arriving. And then, it just sat there, looking ever so inviting and refreshing.

Seeing as this is sort of like ice cream, and seeing as the cups of Cool Pineapple Cream Dessert were just sitting there on the counter while my friends and I waited for the burgers to come off the grill so we could eat, and seeing as my stomach was growling as loud as a mack truck – I interrupted our visiting and said something like, “Forget it. I’m not waiting for a burger. I’m going to try one of these. You guys want one?”

And so it was that three of us gals stood in the kitchen, eating our desserts before dinner even began. Hey, the kids were all outside running around. Nobody even knew. Except that I just ratted us out to all of you. But you’ll never tell, right?

Cool Pineapple Cream Dessert. It’s a dessert, it’s a snack, it’s breakfast, it’s lunch, it’s a cool treat in the evening while you’re sitting outside on the porch. This recipe can be whatever you want or need it to be. Why? Because it’s sweet enough to be a dessert, but it’s healthy enough to be a part of your meal. With only three, whole food ingredients, and no added sugar – this recipe is perfect.

My friends and I decided it tasted a bit like pineapple sherbet from the store. If you want this to taste a little sweeter, simply add a few drops of real maple syrup. I thought it was great without any added sugar. In fact, after I was a good girl and ate my dinner, I went ahead and ate two more cups of this goodness, guilt free. I just couldn’t help myself.

Cool Pineapple Cream DessertYum

4 cups (give or take) frozen pineapple chunks
1 can (13.5 ounces) chilled coconut milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Blend all ingredients together in a food processor or blender until smooth and creamy. Serve right away. Makes 6-10 servings.

Cool Pineapple Cream Dessert

Can other milk options work in this recipe? I don’t see why not. Regular cow milk should work just fine (1 1/2 cups), and I’m guessing almond or rice milk would work – although I don’t have much experience with either of those. Coconut milk gives this extra great nutrients, plus a mixture of pineapple and coconut will help you make believe you are vacationing in Hawaii. Especially if you are eating dessert before dinner, right? Ah the beauty of being a grown up. :)

Ever snuck dessert before dinner when the kids weren’t around to catch you?

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Honey Glazed Carrots – Only 4 Ingredients

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High Five Recipes 2

If it looks like candy, smells like candy, and tastes like candy – it must be candy, right? Yes. Unless it’s a carrot. Then it’s a vegetable. A really, really delicious vegetable.

When a veggie tastes like candy, costs less than candy, and looks as appealing as candy – you have no more excuses to pull out about why you’re not eating vegetables. I’m not sure if you knew this or not, but carrots are also much more nutritious than candy. Yes, it’s true. That’s why you should choose veggies over candy most of the time.

This leads me to share about one of my new favorite ways to serve veggies. Honey Glazed Carrots take only a few minutes to make – so you can’t use the excuse that “it takes too long to make healthy food.” You don’t have to know a lot about cooking in order to make these, so no excuses there. What else is there? Actually, why are we even still talking about this? Just eat the veggies, for goodness sake. Here, I’ll make it easy for you:

Honey Glazed Carrots

Honey Glazed CarrotsYum

5-6 medium carrots
2 Tablespoons butter
1 Tablespoon honey
sea salt to taste

Peel carrots and cut them into “coins.” Steam them for about five minutes or until they are tender. Remove them from the pan. Melt butter and honey together in the pan until it is runny and well combined. Add the steamed carrots to the butter/honey mixture, tossing to coat. Sprinkle with salt. Serve right away.

This recipe tastes a lot like the honey glazed carrots you get at Cracker Barrel, although this recipe is better in my opinion as it’s not quite as sweet. I mean, if I want something super sweet, I’ll skip the veggies and eat candy. Which of course, I will only do rarely and that just leads us back to our original conversation. Again, why are we still talking about this? Just eat the veggies already.

Honey Glazed Carrots – better than candy in every way possible. Won’t rot your teeth, won’t turn your lips blue, won’t give you a sugar high or crash, won’t freak out your insides.

Serve these carrots with Grilled Barbecue Chicken and a salad, and you’ve got a great tasting, super easy, very nutritious meal.

So now you tell me, what’s your favorite kind of candy? Answer: Honey Glazed Carrots. Now we’re talking.

 Find More High Five Recipes here.

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Easy Cheesy Bean Dip

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Need an easy and filling lunch, dinner, or snack?

No Laura, what we actually need is a complicated recipe filled with weird ingredients that our family will hate.

Okay, fine. The question above was rhetorical. Did you know that sometimes I like to be sarcastic? (also rhetorical)

Well anyway, my family loves this recipe and I think yours will too. It’s great to throw together at lunchtime and serve with organic corn chips and fresh fruit. Or, you could smear this dip in a whole wheat tortilla and wrap it up to take on the go. You could take it to serve at a party. You could make it for a game night. You could make it for a simple evening meal. You could make it for breakfast. Really? Well, sure, if you really want to. Would the breakfast police actually show up and arrest you for serving bean dip with your morning coffee? Don’t answer that. It’s rhetorical.

Easy Cheesy Bean Dip

Easy Cheesy Bean DipYum

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup sour cream
4 cups refried beans
3 Tablespoons taco seasoning mix
3 cups cheddar cheese, shredded

Mix cream cheese and sour cream in a large bowl. Stir in refried beans and taco seasoning. Spread mixture into a 9×13 inch baking pan. Sprinkle cheese over the top. Bake in a 350° oven for 25-30 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Serve with organic corn chips and salsa if you like.

What are your favorite quick meals to serve?  (I’d like you to answer that question. That one is not rhetorical.)

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Quick and Easy Shortbread Recipe

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High Five Recipes 2

Three ingredients. A super quick snack. Amazing deliciousness. Supplies you always have on hand…

Wait, you do have butter on hand, right? Okay. I mean, we can still be friends even if you have run out of butter, but don’t let it happen again. This has nothing to do with me and my butter obsession. I’m just looking out for you, that’s all. I have your best interests in mind. Opening the fridge or freezer to find that there is no more butter waiting – well, it is reason to panic. It’ll send a woman into a crazed frenzy, causing her to frantically toss a whole frozen chicken and eight packages of hamburger meat off a freezer shelf, hoping in vain to locate a forgotten pound of butter buried in the back under some frost.

It could be that I got going on that paragraph and couldn’t find a logical time to stop. Just save yourself (or me, apparently) the emotional trauma of running out of butter by always keeping a nice supply on hand.

So butter. You’ll need it for this recipe. You’ll also need flour and sugar. Plus a bowl, a spoon, and a pan. That’s it. Could it be any easier?

Quick and Easy ShortbreadYum

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground hard white wheat for this)
1/4 cup sucanat (or brown sugar if you prefer)
3/4 cup melted butter

Blend all ingredients well. Press mixture into a 9×9 inch baking pan. Bake in a 350° oven for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Cook and cut into 12 squares.

Quick and Easy Shortbread

As you can see, this is a no-brainer recipe. I discovered it as I’ve been working on a brand new healthy snacks eBook. This shortbread can be stirred up and put into the oven within just a few minutes. We love it because it is just lightly sweetened, and deliciously buttery. It is awesome with a cup of coffee or tea in the afternoon.

It is worthwhile to note that this is not a snack you’ll want to hand your kids while they are running into the living room you’ve just vacuumed. This shortbread is a bit crumbly and needs to be eaten while holding ones head directly over a plate while sitting at a table. Trust me. I know these things.

And one more thing. Go check your butter supply. We’ll all sleep better tonight knowing you’re well stocked.

‘Fess up. How much butter do you have right now? 

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Cheesy Cauliflower Cakes

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If it looks like a cheesy hashbrown and tastes like a cheesy hashbrown, it must be a cheesy hashbrown, right? Right. Unless it’s actually cheesy cauliflower cakes.

cauliflower cakes 2

Hey, I wasn’t trying to trick my family. Really, I wasn’t. I was planning to be completely up front and honest about the platter of cauliflower on the table. Is it my fault they just assumed I’d fried up some hashbrowns? And would you believe, when I told them that in fact, there were no potatoes in these – only cauliflower – some of my boys didn’t even believe me? Then my pickiest boy helped himself to seconds. Who am I to argue?

I’ll admit that as hard as I’ve tried, cauliflower is still not at the top of my favorite vegetables list. We all eat it steamed or roasted, but our reactions are usually something like “eh” when it comes to eating cauliflower fixed in those ways. When I found this cauliflower cake recipe and decided to play with it, I was hoping it would at least be just a little better than “eh.” To my surprise, I found myself unable to stop nibbling as I was cooking these for our dinner. These are way, way better than “eh.” I mean, my pickiest boy ate seconds. That is worth stating twice.

I believe these will be a part of our normal veggie rotation. Not only are they tasty, they’re quite easy to put together.

Cheesy Cauliflower Cakes (adapted from this recipe)Yum

Cheesy Cauliflower Cakes
 
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Author:
Ingredients
  • 1 head cauliflower
  • 2 large eggs
  • ¾ cup shredded cheddar or Colby jack cheese
  • 2 Tablespoons dried minced onions
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • Palm shortening or expeller pressed coconut oil for frying
Instructions
  1. Cut cauliflower into florets.
  2. Boil for about 10 minutes or until tender.
  3. Drain.
  4. Mash with a potato masher. (I found that this created what looked like shredded potatoes.)
  5. Stir in eggs, shredded cheese, minced onions, and salt until well combined.
  6. Melt 1-2 Tablespoons of palm shortening or coconut oil in a skillet.
  7. Scoop 2 Tablespoons of mixture into the melted oil, pressing down into a cake.
  8. Fry over medium heat until brown and crispy - about 2 minutes on each side.
  9. Serve right away.
  10. Makes 12-15 cakes.
  11. (To save time, you can skip forming these into cakes and simply fry them up in a skillet in a big batch like you would do with hashbrowns. )

Cheesy Cauliflower Cakes

Even if you don’t like cauliflower, you’ve got to try these. Pretend they’re hashbrowns if it helps. It worked for us!

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