Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Twelve More Pounds of Strawberries and a Whole Lotta Green Food

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It wasn’t very long ago that our family didn’t go through many fruits and veggies in a week. Even during the first few years of our real food journey when I was learning more about nutrition, I never made fruits and veggies a big part of our meals.

healthyeatingjourney

Slowly but surely, we’ve added more variety of produce to our diet. Gradually, we’ve noticed our bodies crave more and more fresh food. It’s pretty fun actually! (Don’t be thinking we’re all that though because we also still like chips. Meh.)

I love strawberries

I’ve probably already been pretty clear about how excited our family is that it’s strawberry season again! We recently went through 16 pounds of them in less than a week because they were in our house for the first time in months and we could not stop. As we ate the last few berries from that stash, we all started freaking out about being back down to zero strawberries again. (I exaggerate. No one was actually freaking out. Not even me. I was perfectly calm. Who even cares about strawberries?)

The next day, I went to the store with a plan to price-match a good deal on strawberries. While there, I found that the store had two-pound containers at a better deal than the one-pound price-match. I only put 6 containers in my cart because I’m nice and wanted to leave some berries for the other customers. Twelve pounds of strawberries ought to hold us for a few days, I think.

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I’ve officially decided this is my favorite time of year to buy food. Oodles of goodness is starting to become available again at good prices. Not only did I get a cart full of strawberries, I also got pears, avocados, asparagus, mixed greens, cantaloupe, and spinach. You’ll see in the picture that I also got cream and cottage cheese. The cream is for the berries and the cottage cheese is going to taste marvelous with the fresh pineapple I got last week.

The post without a point

I would appear that I’m just rambling here, showing you all my berries and other fresh produce. What am I actually trying to say?

  1. Buy fresh produce!
  2. Eat fresh produce!
  3. Have fun trying new fresh produce items.
  4. Challenge yourself to enjoy more fresh produce than you might typically eat each day.
  5. I love strawberries.

If you aren’t eating many fruits and vegetables, you aren’t fueling your body with enough nourishment. Period. I care about this so much that if you came to my house, I would actually share my strawberries with you. Now that is a true friend.

Don’t just nod and smile and walk away. It’s time to commit. Leave a comment here telling us about some of your favorite fruits and vegetables, and let us know what you’re going to buy at the store next time you go. Increase the fruits and veggies, friends! Let’s do this!

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Easy Low Sugar Key Lime Melt-Away Cookies

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I actually have no idea what makes something key lime rather than simply lime. I’d look it up, but there are fresh lime cookies to eat and also there is a lot of laundry to do since we have been gone all weekend. I would have just called these lime cookies, but key lime sounds more exciting.

Key Lime Cookies

Oh wait. I just looked it up. Did you know there are actually Key Limes? You probably did, so before you tease you have to remember that I am from Nebraska where there are no lime trees. Nebraska limes grow on trucks and in grocery stores.

Key limes are apparently great for cooking and baking because they are extra juicy and full of aroma and flavor. I will admit that I don’t know what kind of limes I used in these cookies. Therefore, maybe we should call these Easy Low Sugar On-Sale Lime Melt Away Cookies?

Either way, add these cookies to the collection of Low Sugar Cookies we’ve been enjoying here. These cookies are so much fun since all we have to do is use the base recipe, then add different flavors! Lime is just as amazing as the others.

Want to try the other varieties of these cookies?

Easy Low Sugar Key Lime Melt-Away CookiesYum

4.0 from 1 reviews
Easy Low Sugar Key Lime Melt-Away Cookies
 
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Author:
Serves: 24
Ingredients
  • 1 cup melted butter
  • ½ cup sucanat or raw sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • The juice of two limes
  • grated lime rind
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 3 cups of whole wheat pastry flour (give or take)
Instructions
  1. Stir together melted butter and sugar.
  2. Add eggs, vanilla, lime juice, and baking powder.
  3. Grate lime rind into the mix for extra flavor.
  4. Stir in flour until a solid ball of dough forms.
  5. Drop teaspoon-sized balls of dough onto a cookie sheet, about an inch apart.
  6. Bake in a 350° oven for 10-12 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned.

Easy Low Sugar Key Lime Melt-Away Cookies

If you’d like to learn a cool trick to make your lime squeezing easier, grab your limes and some tongs and read this handy information.

Do you live in an area where limes grow in your backyard? If so, I’m happy for you and not even jealous. After all, I live in a state where the wind blows so hard we don’t have to bother fixing our hair. Now who’s jealous?

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What Are You Waiting For? (32 Recipes to Make With Your Kids)

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If you’re waiting for all the stars to align before you feel it is the right time to teach your kids to cook, stop waiting already. (After all, stars are prettier when they’re scattered about.)

Yes, there are moments you need to just get in the kitchen and get the job done without any helpers. But if you know your kids are ready to learn to cook, it’s time to stop making excuses about not doing it. It must be done. Now is the time. Stop making excuses. Don’t think I can’t hear you. ;)

32 Recipes to Make With Your Kids

Today I’ve made you a list of fun recipes you should look through and make with your kids. In no particular order, here are 32 easy-to-make recipes. I encourage you to click around and look at them with your kids. Let them help pick out something to make – then go for it! Helping to pick the recipe will likely make them a little more excited. :)

32 Recipes You Can Make With Your Kids

The Kids Cook Real Food eCourse made all the difference for my son Malachi. He became much more interested in learning to cook – and then learn he did!! I also recommend you grab a couple of our resources here: Learn to Cook and Teaching Your Kids to Cook books. Together, they offer 222 pages of activities, instruction, lessons, and recipes!

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Now that my kids are older, there are days I turn the kitchen over to them completely. They can make a meal from start to finish. How great for all of us!

Do your kids enjoy cooking?

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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.

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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.)

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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!

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

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.

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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!

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

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.

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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?

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

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

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malachi fudge 3

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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!
 
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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.

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

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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My Menu Plan For This Week (Yep. It’s Been a While.)

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Who knew that strawberries rank right up there with butter in my lists of LOVES? I don’t think I realized how much I’ve grown to love them until I apparently became addicted to them last year and have been impatiently waiting for them to come back in season. I’ve been waiting, and waiting…

The time is now. They were on the Bountiful Baskets order form this week for a great price, but since I’m always very reasonable with bulk purchases, I only ordered two. Cases. What? If it makes you feel better, I put three cases in my cart at first, then realized that 24 pounds of fresh strawberries might be a little obsessive. So I cut it down to only 16 pounds. #noshame

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This might have been my favorite BB order ever. 16 pounds of berries, two packages of whole wheat pizza crusts, all the basket goodies – plus I split a case of pink lady apples and a case of carrots with a friend. We now have so much good food in our house!

A little perspective on the strawberries…

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Me taking my first bite of strawberry this season…

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I figured it was a selfie-worthy event.

The first thing we did after unloading all the produce was make the cream cheese goodness for Strawberry Cheesecake Parfaits. We skipped actually making them into parfaits because we were all dying to dig in and there was no time to wait for strawberries to be layered neatly in glasses. Instead we just grabbed bowls and plopped it in. So, so, so, so good. I can’t tell you how good. Get yourself some strawberries and make these.

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Now I have a confession for you. (Like my huge strawberry purchase confession wasn’t enough.)

I didn’t menu plan last week. I didn’t even grocery shop. We handled the lack of grocery shopping just fine. But the lack of menu planning? Oooff. That was tricky.

I have been either away from home or working on two big projects at the computer, which means I when I was home I barely left the keyboard. As a result, my house fell apart around me. I didn’t even take time to think through our meals for each day because the projects had me so distracted. Here’s how we survived: My kids can cook.

Not only can they cook, they can plan a meal and execute making it from start to finish.

I can’t tell you how wonderfully nice this is!! Tuesday I said to Justus (age 16), “I’m leaving for the funeral. I have no plan for lunch but I will be very hungry and drained when I get home. Can you figure out lunch and thaw something and make something and have it ready? Sorry I can’t help you more than that.”

I didn’t know what I’d come home to, but I wish I’d taken a picture. The kid made not one but two different kinds of chicken with green beans and rolls with butter. It tasted like heaven to me. I’m not sure who was more proud: Justus or his mom.

I put the other kids in charge of other meals this week on equally busy days. They nailed it. Now the kitchen…that was an explosive mess that we all dealt with together this morning. But whatever. They planned and executed meals like pros.

I can’t say enough about teaching your kids to cook, and I plan to focus my blog posts around the topic during the next several days. In the meantime, I have got to make a meal plan. The kids pulled it off for me last week, but I’d rather be a little more organized this week. Plus, I’ve got all that gorgeous food pictured up there to play with.

Our Menu Plan

Breakfasts

Lunches and Dinners

Travel Food

We’re heading to Kansas Thursday for our big annual Homeschool Basketball Tournament. We’ll be there three full days, so we’ll eat out some and pack a few meals too.

  • Sandwich fixins
  • Pizza (we’ll bake them at home and eat them cold)
  • Tortilla wraps
  • Strawberry cheesecake parfaits (the to-go version)
  • Sweet peppers, cucumbers, carrots
  • Apples, strawberries, clementines, bananas, blueberries
  • Cashews, peanuts
  • Homemade muffins
  • Cheese and crackers

Here’s to a great week! The sun is shining and I have strawberries. All is right in my world. Hope you’re relishing in your blessings too. :)

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Need a Little Winter Blues Learning Push? March Pre-K and Elementary Activity Packets – Free!

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It’s that time of year. We’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel in many school subjects – which is exciting but also creating a fair amount of “I’m so sick of this already!” winter blues attitude.

What is it about February? I always find that we need to change things up a little bit at this point in the school year. Some subjects we just have to push through, but if there’s a way to add some variety to our day to help us with that push, let’s do it. Learning is learning, whether it’s a part of this regularly scheduled program or not. Our kids can often learn better if we provide them with something out of the norm once in a while.

That’s why I made this:

Free K-5 March Learning Activity Packet

There are 8 fun activity pages included and the lessons are simple and fun. Use them in whatever way works best for your children at their grade level. They are FREE. I’m printing this off over the weekend and handing it to Malachi on Monday. It’ll be a fun change of pace as we head into a new month!

I also created a packet at Pre-K level for the younger kids to enjoy. Talk about weather, practice counting, match spring animal babies to their mamas, and more. It’s also FREE.

Free Pre-K March Learning Activity Packet

We WILL get through winter blues. We will.

Bonus Idea: Make these fun Bird’s Nests with your family as a fun activity and yummy breakfast or snack.

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Gain access to the free March Learning Activities below.

Download one or both. Click here to access these freebies.

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: FREE March Activity Packets for Kids!

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