I’ve had multiple people ask me what air fryer I recommend. I’m finally getting around to sharing!

(I’m sharing my recommendation with Amazon links to make it easier for you to find. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)

What Air Fryer I Recommend

A few years ago, Matt and the kids got me this air fryer for Christmas. We have given this a big workout and WE LOVE IT.

The one drawback:

It isn’t big enough for our family. Ha, but do they make air fryers big enough for our family?? Others with large families – I’d love to hear what you use!!

I’ve been looking into this so that I can save time in the kitchen. This 10-quart air fryer looked pretty great, so I recently picked it up at Sam’s. WE LOVE IT.

There are fancier air fryers out there, but the simpler the better in my opinion. That’s why I’m drawn to this brand.

What we make in our air fryer

I’ll admit: most of what we make in our air fryer is from a bag. :) Chicken nuggets, fries, tator tots, and sweet potato fries.

Surprising items: We love to rewarm pizza in our air fryer. We also use it to warm up these burritos. And…we toast bread or bagels for 3 minutes in our air fryer. So we no longer use a toaster at all – we use our air fryer for all toasting needs!

Occasionally we make green beans in the air fryer like this.

Do you have an air fryer? What kind do you like? What do you make in your air fryer?

Currently, there are 10 of us at home for the summer. Here’s a look at the groceries I bought and how much I spent in May.

I’ve been surprised this month by how little I was able to spend to keep us all fed!

May 2022 Grocery Spending

Walmart Pick-Up 

Sorry I forgot to take pictures before putting Walmart groceries away!! :) But here are lists of what I got:

May 7 –

• Onion
• Cilantro
• Strawberries
• Blueberries
• Lunch meat for kids’ field trips
• Juice bottles for kids’ field trips
• Avocados
• Bananas
• Yogurt for these smoothies
• Frozen strawberries and bananas
• Mixed greens
• Spinach x2
• Ice cream x4
• Crackers

Total: $74

May 23 –

• Apples (3 pounds)
• Strawberries (4 pounds)
• Avocados
• Bananas
• Spring Mix
• Spinach x2
• Milk x3
• Cream
• Half and Half
• Ice Cream x4
• Cake Mix x4
• Canned Pears x6
• Canned Pumpkin x6

Total: $97

Sam’s Club

You may recall that I have both a Costco and Sam’s membership. I love them both for different reasons. During May, I was only able to shop at Grand Island (instead of Lincoln) so I did the majority of my shopping at Sam’s.

My favorite Sam’s feature: Scan & Go!!!!! Oh my goodness, this is such a fantastic option! My shopping trips look like this:

I love that I simply scan each item into the app on my phone as I’m filling my cart. Then all I do is “swipe to pay,” show the exit worker the code on my phone, then head out to my van. It is sooooo easy and saves me so much time compared to having to take everything out and repack it as I go through a checkout line!

This Sam’s trip I got:

• Chicken thighs x2
• Hamburger patties (which I won’t buy again because while they tasted good, they were pretty pricey for only 8 patties)
• Popcorn chicken
• Beef hotdogs
• Sausage links
• Bagels
• Rolls (for sliders!)
• Hotdog buns
• Hamburger buns
• Pizza kit
• Tortilla chips
• Cases of canned pineapple, peaches, and mandarin oranges
• Case of applesauce squeezies
• Case of yogurt
• Corndogs
• Taquitos
• Orange Chicken
• 1/2 and 1/2 x2
• Heavy whipping cream
• Cottage cheese
• Avocado mash for baby girls
• 3 pack of Applesauce jars
• Watermelon
• Apples
• Kiwi
• Strawberries x2
• Raspberries
• Blueberries x2
• Spinach
• Mixed greens
• Goldfish crackers (we baggie these up to take in the diaper bag for church snacks)
• Cheese and peanut butter sandwich crackers to take on walks this summer
• Oatmeal
• Coffee x2
• Coffee creamer for our boys and for guests
• Dressing for marinating chicken
• Colby jack cheese slices
• Cream cheese
• Butter
• Mayo
• Mac and cheese
• Turkey lunch meat
• Apple juice

Total: $572

Other

• Local Grocery Store: $45
• Farm Milk: $50

Grand total for all our May groceries: $838

This was way under budget, so that felt good! I didn’t skimp, but I have been focused on making meals that are less expensive overall. I believe the main reason for coming in so far under budget is that I have been intentional about making meals with what we have on hand instead of putting in frequent Walmart pickup orders.

So there you have it. I’ll be starting my June shopping in just a few days, and I plan to keep track of what I get and how much I spend so I can share with you!

For years I’ve seen other bloggers post pictures of Golden Lattes. I’d skim the recipe, and stare in disbelief at the list of ingredients: coconut milk, black pepper (!!), turmeric, cinnamon, ginger…it sounded more like a stirfry than a sweet drink.

(Laura’s note: Bethany has done it again! Enjoy this awesome recipe idea!)

And yet…

I couldn’t get it out of my head. These mugs full of golden, frothy goodness. Not only did they look amazing, but their ingredients were so healthy. So many health benefits are tied to ground turmeric, and ginger. They are immune-boosting, and anti-inflammatory, but also just plain delicious. 

I just had to try it.

So one chilly evening, I pulled out a jug of coconut milk, and poured it in a saucepan. I added a crazy amount of ground turmeric, a hesitant shake of black pepper, a large spoonful of other spices, and some honey. I stirred and stirred, and then when it was hot, blended it with an immersion blender to give it some froth.

Then I poured it into a mug, and gave it a taste.

You guys: oh wow. This drink is so unbelievably good. It is as comforting as hot chocolate. It has the spice of a chai tea and the sweetness of a vanilla latte.

We’ve been making these lattes almost every night, and now I’m eyeing bulk ground turmeric. At this rate, we’re going to have to begin purchasing bulk spices. 

Try it! You won’t be sorry!

A few questions…

What if I don’t have all the spices?

It’s okay! Use what you have. When I made my first Golden Latte, I only had pepper, ground turmeric, and cinnamon. So that’s what I used. As time has gone by, I’ve added the other spices to my latte as well!

What kind of milk should I use?

We use coconut milk, but it would be just as delicious if you used dairy, almond milk or another type of milk!

Why is it called a latte when it doesn’t have coffee?

There are many recipes that include instant espresso. You can add some to your latte if you prefer! I just like a nice, caffeine-free drink for the evenings, but a bit of espresso gives it an extra kick if you drink it earlier in the day.

Why black pepper?

You barely notice it, but it does give the drink a nice, spicy kick. Also, did you know that turmeric is WAY more anti-inflammatory when you eat it with black pepper? It’s true! Add a pinch of black pepper every time you cook with turmeric to get its full anti-inflammatory benefits.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Golden Latte Recipe (oh so delicious!)

 

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Author: Laura

Ingredients

• 1 cup milk of choice
• ½ tsp ground turmeric
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ T raw honey or maple syrup
• Pinch of black pepper
• Pinch of ginger powder

Instructions

1. Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth.
2. Pour into a small pan and heat for 3-5 minutes over medium heat until hot but not boiling.
3. Enjoy!

3.5.3251

What’s your favorite hot drink?

God grew us more and more this year – in so many ways. Spiritually, physically, and numerically.

From our house to yours, Merry, Merry Christmas!

What? I don’t make a traditional Christmas dinner at our house? Well, it’s traditional…for us. But it’s not normal for most.

First, let’s talk about how much I love Christmas. I MEAN I LOVE IT. So much. I go all out at Christmas and I don’t feel bad about it. (Though it’s going to look different from past years simply because we have so many kids now! It’s going to have to be smaller simply because we’re bigger. Eh?)

Current family count: 14
2 parents, 6 sons, 4 foster daughters, 1 daughter-in-law, and 1 very serious girlfriend.
This is amazing.
Side-note: If you’re going to date a Coppinger, you need to love babies.

Christmas last year looked like this:

But of course, that was before we filled our “loving room” with people.

And I mean FILLED. It gets nuts. The baby gate can’t handle how crazy this is. I have so much fun spoiling everyone at Christmas and in short: I don’t want to cook that day.

But Laura. You love to cook!

Yes, but not on Christmas day. I don’t want to miss one second of our Christmas fun! And there’s something else:

We eat turkey at Thanksgiving. Sometimes ham. Plus several days of leftovers. So we kind of want something different for Christmas.

What is our traditional Christmas dinner?

Lasagna, baby. It’s a family favorite and after so many years, it is now our Christmas favorite.

My personal favorite thing about lasagna for Christmas is that I can make it weeks ahead of time and freeze it. Then I pull it out and bake it low and slow while we’re enjoying our gifts. Mid-afternoon when we come up for air, we head into the kitchen and eat lasagna with salad and sparkling juice.

It’s easy. It’s delicious. It’s one of our favorite traditions!

I’m chuckling at this picture because it’s an old one from back in the day when one 9×13 pan would be enough to feed our family. Now I usually make huge lasagnas in these. They freeze great. And then we throw the pan away.

(Wow have I changed a little bit from back in the new HeavenlyHomemaker days, huh? Aluminum pans? Chuck it after using it? Yes. I’ve learned that people are a much more important focus and I don’t feel bad about taking some shortcuts so I can instead focus on people.)

How to Make Lasagna Ahead of Time

1. This is the easiest way to make lasagna ahead of time. I make several at once.
2. Freeze it.
3. Cover it with foil, put it into a COLD oven, turn the oven to 250 degrees, and let it bake for 3 hours or until cooked through and through.

So there you have it. We enjoyed turkey at Thanksgiving. We got tired of turkey. I don’t want to mash potatoes on Christmas day. We eat Lasagna.

God bless us everyone.

What’s your traditional Christmas dinner?

Feel like you need to take a Mental Health Day? What should it look like?

To Everyone Who Needs a “Mental Health Day”

Do we all need to take a Mental Health Day sometimes? Absolutely. God calls it a “Sabbath” and I don’t know…it’s like He totally knew we’d all need them, like, regularly. Crazy, right?

I’ll admit that hearing young people claim their need for frequent Mental Health Days has had me a bit concerned. After all, back when I was in college, those weren’t a thing. And now that I’m a mom with incredibly full days and a lot of children who need me, I don’t get to just decide: “Naw. I’m not going to mom today. Imma take a Mental Health Day. I’ll just change that diaper tomorrow.”

But then again, God knew from the beginning that we’d need days of rest and recovery. He instituted the Sabbath and He told us to take one every seven days. So I’ve gotta hand it to all the young people claiming that they need a Mental Health Day. Yes, actually. You do. So do I. Let’s do this!

Ah, but how?

I’m in a season of life that taking any time off during the week feels almost impossible. The amount of laundry that piles up with having six little ones? The amount of food? The number of diapers that get changed every day? The homework that needs to get done with the older ones? The gross floors? The paperwork? The dishes? And oh yeah. I work sometimes – you know, on this blog? Can’t give it up because we rely on the income, plus I love my work and want to do it.

I’m not able to simply “take a mental health day” anytime I feel overwhelmed or exhausted. And young people? I’m not sure you should either, at least in the way I hear that you’re taking them. If you’ve got a paper due, write your paper. If you are scheduled to go to work, go to work. If you put off completing (or starting) that project that’s got to get done by tomorrow – don’t ask for an extension because it’s stressing you out. GO DO YOUR PROJECT. (xoxoxo)

Do we all need to rest?

YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. Again, God tells us to rest – at night and for an entire day, once each week. So hang with me here as I flesh out my thoughts about taking a Mental Health Day…

How NOT To Take a Mental Health Day

If your work and responsibilities are all piling up, leaving you feeling overwhelmed and wanting to check out for the day, don’t:

• Decide to stay in bed in your PJs binge-watching shows all day long (you’ll feel like blah at the end of the day instead of feeling energetic from the “rest”)
• Ignore all your work and get even farther behind than you already are (this will make you want additional Mental Health Days, oy!)
• Sit around eating junk food and drinking junk drinks (because you’ll feel like a junk-ball-of-grease-coated-in-sugar is hanging out in your gut by noon, and then you’ll need to take a Physical Health Day)
• Hang out on social media and Tic-Toc for hours (when did looking at all the great things other people seem to be doing make any of us feel better about what we are or are not doing?)

I love a good Netflix show. I enjoy scrolling Pinterest or Facebook to relax. But if I’m behind on work and feeling overwhelmed, none of those sedentary activities rejuvenates me. It actually tends to make me more anxious as I neglect my responsibilities and focus on things that aren’t important.

What a Mental Health Day should look like

I’m no expert. I’m simply learning more and more how to take good care of myself. Admittedly, taking an entire day to rest is almost impossible during my current season in life. But if I ever feel like I’m melting down, I pray about what God wants me to do to find rest in Him.

That’s the key: Finding rest in Jesus. Not just resting and ignoring my responsibilities. Instead, here’s what I find to be restful and refreshing so that I can keep my mental health healthy:

• Take a long walk or get some other form of exercise
• Take a nap
• Drink extra water
• Sit in the sunshine
• Eat nourishing food that I love – like an apple with this special cheese or a tasty smoothie
• Take a few minutes throughout the day to knock out a few looming projects (it’s amazing how refreshing it can be to know I finally checked some extra chores off my list!)
• Turn on music and open the curtains to let the light shine in while I tackle a normal activity like folding laundry or loading the dishwasher
• Take some time to read a book
• And yes, sometimes as a way of refreshing I may sit for an hour during the kids’ naptime and watch an episode of a favorite show, eat a treat, or do something else that feels like a lovely change of pace from the grind of the normal day-to-day. There’s nothing wrong with this!! As long as it isn’t used as a way to avoid the actual needs our bodies and souls need!

Above all, pray.

Taking a Mental Health Day will only be a tiny bandaid to your weariness if you don’t use your time to talk to God and let Him talk back to you. If we are exhausted, feeling depleted, overwhelmed by stress, and overworked – the only real solution to finding rest is to seek God’s Truth and to let Him fill us back up in all of our empty places.

Need a day off? Get dressed and grab your Bible. Sit for as long as you can with it open in your lap, breathing in its Truth and Hope. Let it teach you, enlighten you, and fill you with love. Meditate on it, pray over it, and let it fill you and refresh you.

Taking care of ourselves is important!

But self-care rarely involves online shopping and time on Snapchat. Self-care should be all about letting God give us all that He knows we need. Seeking Him through this is crucial, and yep, we should actually schedule it in. I believe God calls it a Sabbath? But we’ve been through that already. :)

Who needs recipes that use cream cheese? All of us, that’s who. Everything tastes better with cream cheese.

If you disagree with that statement, we can still be friends. In fact, I’ll just take one for the team and eat all of your cream cheese for you. Notta problem.

The idea to share my cream cheese recipes came after a conversation I had with a college student recently. He sat at my kitchen counter and he couldn’t stop dipping into my Strawberry Cheesecake Parfait. He was like, “This is the best whipped cream I have ever eaten in my life!” and I was like, “Well, that’s because there’s cream cheese in it.”

And then we both declared that OF COURSE it was the best whipped cream he’s ever eaten because:

Everything tastes better with cream cheese.

So.

It only makes sense that I now provide you with easy access to all of my recipes that use cream cheese. First, here’s how I find affordable cream cheese:

1. Buy at Aldi.
2. Buy at Costco.
3. Watch for sales and stock up at your local grocery store.

Cream cheese to avoid:

1. Walmart brand cream cheese
2. I repeat, never buy the Walmart brand cream cheese.

Some off-brands of cream cheese are just as wonderful as the Philadelphia brand, and I love that these good off-brands cost half as much. But I’ve never been happy with the results of my recipes when using the Walmart brand of cream cheese. And now on to the wonderful recipes!

Recipes That Use Cream Cheese

1. Strawberry Cheesecake Parfait (My very favorite thing to eat in all the world.)
2. Chocolate Cheesecake Parfait (My second favorite, and another huge hit when feeding guests.)
3. Cream Cheese Pastries (You should make these next Saturday.)
4. Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Bread (Every word of that title should make you want to bake this.)
5. Easy Low Sugar Cream Cheese Cookie Cutouts (The best sugar cookie you’ve ever eaten.)
6. Easy Chocolate Cream Cheese Marble Cake (The cake is moist, and then there’s the cream cheese part. Always enjoy with coffee.)
7. Cream Cheese Corn (This is a favorite side dish to share on special holidays. And also on Tuesdays.)
8. Cream Cheese Salsa Dip (You haven’t had chip dip until you’ve had this dip.)
9. Easy Chicken with Cream Cheese Sauce (This makes people cry tears of joy whilst they eat it. Beware.)
10. BLT Wraps (You’ll never go back to a regular BLT again.)
11. Crepes with Cream Cheese Filling (Fix these when you don’t want to work hard, but you do want your family to think you are extra amazing.)
12. Cream Cheese Pumpkin Muffins (There’s an actual wedge of cream cheese in these. Check them out!)
13. Easy Cream Cheese Fruit Dip (Fruit is good. Fruit with this dip is 100% better.)
14. Flaky Cream Cheese Pastry (Made with homemade dough instead of the kind that pops out of a can. So good.)
15. Italian Cream Cheese Chicken (The meal one of my sons requests for every birthday.)
16. Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars (Cookie and cheesecake all in one!)
17. Whole Grain Raspberry Cheesecake Bars (For dessert or for breakfast. Or both in the same day.)
18. Pumpkin Cheesecake Cups (These are a big reason to be thankful at Thanksgiving.)
19. Mini Crustless Cheesecakes (I love having these on hand for grab-and-go snacks!)
20. Chocolate Cheesecake Dessert (It’s like a fancy dessert that is easy to make. Love!)
21. Cream Cheese Fruit Dip (You’re going to need a lot of apples to go with this because people can’t stop eating it.)

Cheesecake Topped Muffins

You can make muffins. Or you can make muffins topped with cheesecake. I think we all know the right choice to make.

• Easy Chocolate Cheesecake Muffins
• Easy Banana Cheesecake Muffins
• Easy Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins
• Easy Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Muffins
• Easy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Muffins
• Easy Blueberry Cheesecake Muffins

What are your favorite ways to use cream cheese?