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From Traveling to Camping to Potlucks, Gardening, and Saving Money – These Are My Favorites, and It’s Not Too Late

February 11, 2016 by Laura 9 Comments

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

Before I start writing this, let me remind you: I’m not going Paleo. An exclusive Paleo diet doesn’t work for me, for my family of growing sons, or for my already enormous grocery budget. I wrote all the details about how I love-paleo-recipes-but-am-not-going-paleo here.

What I also shared there and on almost every post I’ve written the past few years is my love of nourishing food. My focus is not on the DO eat and DON’T eats as much as it is on this: Our bodies need nourishment!!! Let’s not make it hard. Let’s just eat good food. And please somebody hand me a strawberry. (Seriously. Last night I dreamed I got a price-match on strawberries. I was so excited that I bought a cart-full and then I woke up and there were actually no strawberries in my entire house. I was so sad, but then I made coffee and all was right in my world again. But if strawberries don’t hurry up and be in season, I don’t even know what.)

strawberries

I dream of strawberries!!!!!

Today I want to remind you about the package of free resources being offered right now by PaleoDork. THEY ARE FREE and they are going away at midnight Friday. I’ve spent the last several days working my way through these books and videos – and you guys? It doesn’t even matter what you think about the Paleo diet. Maybe you eat that way or maybe you’re like me and eat those foods with a side of potato or bread. But these sources are worth having – and they are FREE so just go get them. There’s not even a catch.

If you’ve been waiting, I understand. But you can’t wait anymore because Feb. 12 is it for this offering. If you don’t get this now, you won’t be able to get it later. Want to see my favorites in this package so far?

Eat Beautiful ($0.00)

I can’t even believe we can get this for free. It has 273 pages of really great recipes. Some are more complicated than I choose to tackle – but many are amazing and perfect for my family. This is the book I’m most impressed with so far as I make my way through the list. The recipes list everything from sweets to main dishes.

eat beautiful

Family Camping Handbook ($0.00)

Katie’s books are always amazing. I’m struck not only by all the great recipes in this but even more with all the great tips and ideas she shares –  like camping with babies and toddlers, making homemade wipes, and ways to save money.

family camping

Apartment Gardening ($0.00)

This book shows that almost everyone can have some sort of garden!! I’m loving how simple this book lays out the basics of gardening. Plus, I’m really hungry for a fresh strawberry, but we’ve been through this already.

apartment gardening

$5 Meal Plan ($0.00)

This one includes 6-weeks worth of really simple recipe ideas that are very low in cost! Enough said, right? Of course I love this one.

5 meal plan

Eating Out and Traveling on the Paleo Diet ($0.00)

This resource is great for our family because we are on the go many Saturdays because of sports. We pack a lot of food to-go, and it’s great to have more sandwich-free options. My favorite part of this book is the fantastic list of 30+ foods to take to a potluck or party. What a great, healthy resource to have on hand!

eating out

I am really enjoying several of the other books too – but these rise to the top for me as I search out great tips and recipes for my fam!

There are over 50 resources in this package, all of which are free. I don’t need and won’t use about half of them, which of course doesn’t matter in the least – I simply won’t download the ones I don’t need.

Hurry to get your free package here – and have fun! Not having to pay a penny for these resources is like a big present handed to every single one of us as we work hard to put great food on the table for our families.

Remember, this offer expires midnight February 12!!!

paleodork.com

This post contains referral links.

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

Valentine Breakfast in Bed? Or Just Breakfast.

February 10, 2016 by Laura 4 Comments

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

heartpretzelssm

Heart-Shaped Pretzels.
I don’t have time to make these this year. Maybe you can.

Valentine’s Day falling on a Sunday this year is messing with me. Some people are like, “Yay, Sunday! I’ll have more time to make it special.” Me? I’m like, “Oh goodie. I get to try to make something special out of our busiest day of the week, which is followed by a day away from home at basketball games, which comes at the end of a crazy busy last ten days.”

Pity party much, Laura? Eh, more like simply trying to find my wits while figuring out the logistics of making Valentine’s Day fun for my fam. Sure we could wait and celebrate on the 15th – except that we can’t because that is Justus’ 16th birthday and we’ll be all about Justus that day.

Making Valentine’s Day special is going to be a family affair this year – which works just fine because our boys are big and capable. We’ve all been in cahoots, and if you recall, we plan to make a big fried chicken dinner together that day. This is ultimately a terrible plan for a Sunday meal for us since it takes so long to prepare and we are all usually starving by the time we get home from church. But whatever. I guess we’ll come home from church, start the chicken frying, then eat our salad course while we wait. I plan to have the mashed potatoes made ahead of time. The boys can make a dessert on Friday before we go to basketball games. There, that oughta do it.

So breakfast.

There will not be time for me to stand at the griddle making our traditional heart-shaped pancakes that morning before church. Plus I’d prefer not to dirty up the kitchen at breakfast, rush out the door, then come home to make fried chicken around a bunch of breakfast mess.

I’ve decided instead to make one of our family favorites: Oatmeal Breakfast Bars – with a few chocolate chips sprinkled in (because chocolate chips turn these into something Valentine-y, right?). I can bake them Friday since I’ll be gone all day Saturday. If I have time Sunday morning, I’ll make strawberry smoothies to go with the bars.

While thinking about breakfast for Valentine’s Day, I remembered a menu planning resource I created a few years ago. This has 31 Real Food Breakfast Ideas, all of which are linked to the recipes you’ll need. Help yourself! Hopefully it will give you some breakfast inspiration if you need it (for Valentine’s Day and beyond)!

31 Days of Real Food Breakfast Ideas

I wanted to also remind you of a fantastic gift for Valentine’s Day that doesn’t involve the kids. (I mean, we love ’em – but Valentine’s Day night we anxiously shoo them off to bed so we can finally have some alone time.)

A MELT Massage For Couples package is so much better than any other gift I can think of. Most other gifts are eaten (chocolate) or die (flowers) and become only a memory. The MELT series is a forever gift. You can enjoy it on Valentine’s Day, the day after that, every other Tuesday, during times of joy, during times of stress… See? A forever gift.

I love (and need!) massages, and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one. Matt and I have really enjoyed the MELT Massage For Couples videos and lessons. As I’ve said before – these are very tastefully done so you don’t have to worry about anything weird. They simply teach great massage techniques to bless your relationship!

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

20% off Vanilla Beans (plus free shipping) for Your Homemade Vanilla Extract!

February 9, 2016 by Laura 1 Comment

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

want 20% off your vanilla beans?

vanilla_beans

Olive Nation (my very favorite place to buy vanilla beans) is offering a 20% discount code when you use the code HOME at checkout. I’ve bought beans other places and none of them compare to the quality of Olive Nation’s vanilla beans. Their prices are better and their customer service is fantastic – so that sweetens the pot.

Why do you need vanilla beans? So you can make Vanilla Extract! We offer ours for sale here, but to save you money, we really recommend you make your own. You will love this stuff!

How to Make Vanilla Extract

Grab your vanilla beans here!

Use the code: HOME to receive 20% off your order at Olive Nation. They love us here at HeavenlyHomemakers!

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

Simple Taco Soup

February 9, 2016 by Laura 1 Comment

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

taco soup 1

I can’t get a good picture of this soup. This is so easy to make and it’s amazing to eat and the picture looks like eh, whatever. So just glance over the picture and know that you need to make this soup.

Here’s my happy little soup secret: This Taco Soup is made with none other than this Real Food “Velveeta” and Rotel Recipe. See, you make that recipe and you double or triple it because it just makes sense because it is so delicious. You eat it with chips, or you boil some pasta and make it into Spicy Mac and Cheese. Or if you’re feeling soupy, you stir in some chicken or beef broth and top it with crunched chips. It becomes Taco Soup and you love it so much you can’t even stand it. Or maybe it’s just me.

Simple Taco Soup

Simple Taco Soup
 
Save Print
Author: Laura
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 1 pound hamburger meat
  • 2-4 Tablespoons butter
  • 2 heaping Tablespoons corn starch
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • sea salt to taste
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 10-ounce can diced tomatoes with green chilies (Rotel)
  • 1-2 cups shredded cheddar or colby jack cheese
  • 2-3 cups chicken or beef broth
Instructions
  1. Brown the hamburger meat in a large pot.
  2. Add butter to the meat, melting it throughout the pot.
  3. Sprinkle in corn starch, coating the meat.
  4. Pour in water, chili powder, and salt.
  5. Turn heat up and stir until the mixture thickens.
  6. Add cream, continuing to stir as the mixture thickens. (This all happens quickly in my experience.)
  7. Stir in Rotel and broth, heating for about 5 more minutes.
  8. Remove from heat.
  9. Add shredded cheese, stirring until the cheese has melted and the dip is smooth.
  10. Serve with tortilla chips.
3.4.3177

I know I’ve said it before, but I really, really love making triple batches of Real Food “Velveeta” and Rotel. It’s super easy and it is so versatile! Every few weeks I make it and store it in my fridge to pull out for easy meals. Now we use it to make soup too!

Here are some pictures of your options to entice you:

Real Food “Velveeta” and Rotel, served as a dip:

Real Food Velveeta and Rotel Dip

The very same dip, stirred into boiled pasta and served as Spicy Mac and Cheese: 

Spicy Mac and Cheese

Same dip again, with broth stirred in, served as Taco Soup:

Simple Taco Soup

Do you see why I make big batches of this?? 

If you’d like to take a look at my favorite way to make nourishing broth for soups like this, check out this post:

How I Make Veggie-Packed Chicken Broth and Beef Broth

Have you made the Real Food “Velveeta” and Rotel recipe? What’s your favorite way to eat it?

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

29 Fun Treat Recipes for Valentine’s Day – With NO Red Food Dye

February 8, 2016 by Laura 3 Comments

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

Low Sugar Strawberry Cheesecake Parfait 1

Traditionally we think of red or pink food dye squirted into white frosting to make festive Valentine’s Day cookies and cupcakes. Want to put some fun Valentine meals and treats on the table this year – but want to keep the food real and avoid food coloring?

It is a true fact that food exists that is red without any help from outside sources. There’s also this lovely thing we like to call chocolate. It’s not red, but it certainly says, “I love you,” don’t you think?

Here are 29 great recipes for you that can be turned into Valentine’s Day goodies for your family. You might be able to tell that I am desperately hoping for fresh strawberries to be in season and on sale THIS WEEK.

29 Fun Treat Recipes for Valentine's Day with NO Red Food Dye

Red and Pink Treats (No Food Dye!)

  • Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cookies
  • Homemade Poptarts, cut into hearts, of course
  • Strawberry Cream Muffins
  • Raspberry Oatmeal Bars
  • Chocolate Whipped Cream on Strawberries
  • Strawberry-Peach Slushies
  • Strawberry-Kefir Smoothies
  • Strawberry Yogurt
  • Strawberry-Yogurt Fruit Dip
  • Strawberry Christmas Salad (which obviously becomes Strawberry Valentine Salad on Feb. 14)
  • Low Sugar Strawberry Cheesecake Parfait
  • 7-Minute Strawberry Ice Cream
  • Strawberry Creamsicles
  • Strawberry Shortcake
  • Strawberry Milkshakes
  • Easy Raspberry Syrup (for your heart shaped pancakes)
  • Raspberry Lemon Cream Cups

Don’t forget obvious foods that are red – like tomatoes, sweet peppers, strawberries, grapes, cherries, raspberries, and oranges. Ha. Just seeing if you were paying attention.

Chocolate Treats

  • Warm Chocolate Soother
  • Chocolate Whipped Cream on Strawberries (which I realize I mentioned above, but it is both red and chocolate, so it deserves to be in both categories)
  • No-Bake Chocolate Fudge Bites
  • Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins
  • Peanut Butter or Caramel Chocolate Truffles
  • Low Sugar Chocolate Cake
  • Low Sugar Chocolate Cheesecake
  • Dark Chocolate Peppermint Mousse
  • No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake
  • Homemade Chocolate Frappe
  • Chocolate Cheesecake Pie
  • Homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Do you have foods you traditionally make and serve on Valentine’s Day?

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

This Week in Food ~ the Blizzard-Turkey Edition

February 7, 2016 by Laura 8 Comments

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

Today we focus on a blizzard and also on turkeys.

Our week began with several college students coming over after church for lunch on Sunday. We set out a big Build-Your-Own-Burrito Buffet, along with bowls and jars of fruit, and two different desserts. We found this meal to be a perfect way to accommodate allergies and taste preferences – plus it was really easy. Win!

burrito buffet

Monday morning during our breakfast/Bible time, our kids looked outside and what did they see? Oh, nothing out of the ordinary. Just three turkeys strutting through the yard.

turkies2

turkies1

Malachi declared that watching turkeys for five minutes was his science lesson for the day. Good try, Buddy. But it was a fun school connection for him since he’s currently reading The Great Turkey Walk right now. (Have you read that book? It’s a very fun read!)

the great turkey walk

Ironically, I had a turkey thawing in the fridge to bake this week. I’d picked it up during the holidays when it was on sale. For so many reasons, this was a big turkey week at our house.

turkey1The Blizzard

Everything in town shut down on Tuesday when Nebraska received a blizzard that resulted in 18-inches of blowing snow. Matt and the boys had their work cut out for them digging people out for days (Matt runs a snow removal business). Just about the time they got people’s sidewalks cleared, we woke up to more snow on Friday. It was a small amount in comparison, but guess what we found in our yard that morning?

20160205_090803

Turkey tracks!

I guess those turkeys have been wondering around town all week, poor things.

20160205_090811

I’ve tried a couple of the recipes from the Paleo Freebie this week. The first was a Bacon Roast recipe (which I adapted slightly by using stew meat and adding green beans). I cooked it low and slow all morning for Matt and the boys to eat when they came home from moving snow. It got devoured!

paleo1

I already mentioned the Chocolate Ganache I made. Wow. It’s low enough in sugar that I can eat it without feeling crummy. I’m not sure if this is a blessing or not. It is soooo good. (If you got the free Paleo package, the Chocolate Ganache recipe is in the 5-Minute Paleo Recipes book and the Bacon Roast is in the Paleo Crock Pot Entrees book. If you haven’t gotten these yet, it is still available and it is completely free. Sign up here and you’ll get all the recipes! You can read my thoughts on the Paleo diet here.)

chocolate ganache with fruit

Over the weekend, 130 teenagers came to town from all over Nebraska, and even some from Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri. Our church hosted a Youth Rally from Friday to Sunday – one of our favorite (and most exhausting) weekends of the year. Here we are worshiping together on Saturday morning:

20160206_091022

Friday and Saturday nights, 15 teenage boys crashed at our house. Aside from not getting much sleep, it was a fantastic weekend. (I took a nap today and I’m taking tomorrow off to rest too!) Most of their meals were hosted at the church fellowship hall, but we did get to feed our guests snacks each night and breakfast Sunday morning!

youth rally breakfast

Did you have snow at your house this week? Turkeys in your yard? Anything fun to share? I’d love to hear about your week too.

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

FREE! Printable Valentine Learning Activities and a New Kiss-Tac-Toe Game

February 5, 2016 by Laura 6 Comments

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

A couple of weeks ago I introduced our new Heavenly Homemaker’s Learning Zone where I offered a free “Fun With Grammar ~ Valentine Edition” Packet for 2-5 graders. This week, we’ve got a FREE Valentine learning activity packet for younger kids!

Free Pre-K Valentine Activity Packet - Sample Pages

I’ve realized that I enjoy creating fun learning activities almost as much as I enjoy creating recipes! This new packet includes activities to help your younger kids practice color recognition, numbers and counting, same/different, big/small, and more. Pick and choose which activities your child(ren) would enjoy. It’s all FREE!!

Enter your email address below to download your free Valentine Activities Packets:

 Click here to sign up. Easy as that!

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! 

Happy Valentine’s Day Kiss-Tac-Toe

Remember when I made the Merry Christmas Kiss-Tac-Toe printables? Several requested a Valentine’s Day version, which is such a great idea! Malachi and I decided that these are perfect packages to put together to distribute to all his friends at our homeschool Valentine Party!

vday kiss tac toe5

The download comes with four Valentine themed Kiss-Tac-Toe playing cards, printable instructions, and printable gift tags. Malachi and I printed, cut, and created an assembly line to baggie up the games to have them ready to give away. Each bag needs to include 10 Hershey Kisses – 5 each of two different colors. The Kisses are the playing pieces (instead of X’s and O’s). It’s deliciously fun (although harder to play once you’ve eaten the playing pieces).

vday kiss tac toe4

Download your FREE Happy Valentine’s Day Kiss-Tac-Toe Printables Here.

Happy Valentine's Day Kiss Tac Toe Free Download

Next week I’ll share some of our favorite recipes that are pink and red but free of artificial colors – perfect for celebrating Valentine’s Day!

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

Real Food Bacon Ranch Chip Dip

February 4, 2016 by Laura 7 Comments

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

Bacon Ranch Chip Dip

I was looking through Pricematerz.com this week to see what produce I could get for great prices, and what do I see? Oodles of sale prices for chips, frozen pizza, and crackers. It must be Super Bowl Week.

I’d forgotten all about it. For us right now it’s Blizzard Week, and we are in preparation for Youth Rally Weekend (where our church hosts 120+ teens for a fun and spiritually encouraging weekend). Therefore, I’m very much out of football mode. This is not such a shocker, since I’m always out of football mode and don’t even know who’s playing this weekend. Denver? And some other team? Forgive me.

Now that I’m (only barely) caught up on what most Americans are thinking about this week, I’ve decided to share a new chip dip recipe in case you want to make this for your Super Bowl party. It includes bacon, sour cream, cream cheese, ranch dressing mix, and shredded cheese – so you know that means it is delicious. Since the recipe is coming from me – so you know that means it is easy.

Our family tested it with corn chips, potato chips, and baked tortilla chips. We all preferred a different chip – which basically means that anything goes.

Why do we have so many chips on hand? Oh my goodness, you do not want to see my stash of chips right now. It has just a little something to do with my preparations for Youth Rally Weekend where somewhere between 15-20 teenage boys will be staying at our house from Friday-Sunday. They’ll eat their meals at the church building, but it’s so weird that they are all hungry again when they come back here for the night. It’s like they’re normal or something.

For this dip recipe, you’ll need this Homemade Ranch Dressing Mix recipe. Make it by the jar-full because that mix is what makes the world go ’round.

Real Food Bacon Ranch Chip Dip

Real Food Bacon Ranch Chip Dip
 
Save Print
Author: Laura
Serves: 10
Ingredients
  • 1 pound bacon
  • 8 ounces softened cream cheese
  • 3 Tablespoons homemade ranch dressing mix
  • 2 cups shredded cheese (I used colby jack)
  • 2 cups sour cream
Instructions
  1. Cut bacon into ½-inch strips.
  2. Cook the bacon to your liking, then drain.
  3. Stir cooked bacon into a bowl with all other ingredients.
  4. Spread mixture into a 2-quart baking dish.
  5. Bake in a 400° oven for 20-25 minutes or until dip is bubbly and hot.
  6. Serve with corn chips, potato chips, or baked tortilla chips.
3.4.3177

Easy Real Food Bacon Ranch Chip Dip

Are you in Super Bowl Week mode? Or Blizzard Week mode? Or Something Else Week mode? Or all/none/some of the above?

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

I’m Going All out on Valentine’s Day By Staying In

February 3, 2016 by Laura 6 Comments

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

A huge thank you to MELT Massage for Couples for sponsoring this post!

fried chicken

Winner, Winner, Valentine Dinner

It was actually my 14-year old son’s idea.

“Mom, you know what we need to do sometime soon? We need to put together a full fried chicken dinner. We need to serve it in different ‘courses’ like with salad and rolls first, then the chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy and all that stuff, then a dessert.”

Wow. He’d been thinking about this, apparently. That and he was obviously hungry for fried chicken. (We roll chicken legs in whole wheat flour and sea salt then fry it on all sides in an electric skillet in palm shortening for about 45 minutes . It is so good.)

We decided that this was a perfect Valentine’s Day meal plan for our family. I told him we’d need to all work together to make it happen and that we could go all out to put together all the courses. Again, let me just say that I am amazed my 14-year old even came up with this.

Balancing Family Time and Couple Time on Valentine’s Day

There was a V-day a few years ago that I planned nothing and did nothing for our sons. Why? Because I assumed they were too old and too boy to care. Would you believe – that afternoon when they all realized that it was Feb. 14 they were all like, “Mom!! You didn’t make heart pancakes this morning! Where was the special red and pink lunch? Aren’t we doing anything for Valentine’s Day this year???”

How silly was I to assume they were beyond caring about my yearly attempt at lopsided heart-shaped pancakes?? My bad.

Ever since that year, I’ve made a few festive foods to make the day special for the boys. I love that they actually care. I love that this year we’re doing a little something different with our Fried Chicken Dinner and that we’ll all be working together to make it special for each other.

So what about making Valentine’s Day special for just Matt and me?

If you’ve read here long, you know that Matt and I don’t buy each other stuff on Feb. 14 and we rarely go out together to celebrate Valentine’s Day. It’s never been our thing. Typically Matt cooks a spaghetti dinner for us without any help from me. I love this. He loves this. It’s been good for our boys to see Dad doing something sweet and special for Mom – even with all six of us sitting around the table.

But later…

It’s fun to plan one-on-one couple time – and believe me when I say that now that our kids are older and busier and stay up later – Matt and I have to be intentional about finding and creating alone couple time.

Through the years, Matt has become my personal master masseuse. I am so spoiled by this. My shoulders would frequently be in knots if it weren’t for him taking the time to give me thorough massages. Me? I’m not as skilled as he, plus I am not even close to as strong physically. But I still give it my best shot. We both know that Valentine’s Day massages await us after our family Valentine time. (Fried chicken and massages. Does life get any better?)

The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Remember when I shared about the MELT video series a few months ago? This is how we have been learning to give the massage of all massages. Matt and I really appreciate that these videos are so tastefully done. We’re learning massage skills and techniques without feeling weird. We continue to access the videos from time to time to learn more or to remind ourselves of what we previously learned. It’s a gift that keeps on giving and will keep on giving because massages? Yes please forever and always. (Fried chicken dinners are also welcome.)

For You and Your Spouse

It’s fun to hear about different couples’ Valentine’s day celebrations and traditions. Some love going out – some love staying in. Either way, ending the night (any night of the year!) with massages is a win for everyone.

If you’re interested in giving your spouse a gift that will last way beyond one romantic dinner or box of chocolates…oh my goodness MELT is where it’s at. I wanted to let you know that the Melt Video Series (which is usually $147) is being offered to Heavenly Homemaker’s readers for just $89 now through February 14. It’s a sweet deal and the final time MELT will be bundled at this price. Think your spouse would love this gift? Definitely check it out!

So in summary, we’ll be having a fantastic Valentine’s Day which includes none other than fried chicken and ultimate massages, with a few ugly heart pancakes thrown in for good measure. Staying in to enjoy special plans is my very favorite way to celebrate a holiday.

How about you?

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

Melt - facebook

Learn more about the MELT Couple’s Massage sale here. Best date night ever!

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

Easy Low Sugar Orange Melt-Away Cookies

February 2, 2016 by Laura 24 Comments

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

orange sugar cookies

In case by now you’re wondering if I’m obsessed with creating these Low Sugar Melt-Away Cookie varieties, the answer is obvious that of course I am obsessed. After two attempts at creating this here orange flavored variety, I have definitely decided that of all the flavors – orange is my new favorite.

Why two attempts, you ask? Oh well. I just burned the first batch, that’s all. Guys, it is so weird what happens to cookies when you put them in the oven, walk away, and then forget that there is actual life going on outside your office door. So weird. Someone should have warned me about this. We can’t even leave cookies unattended in a 350° oven for 27 minutes. Did you know that???

Set a timer much, Laura?

You know what? Just…I know, okay? I should have set a timer. I used to have one of those clicky, clicky, clicky timers but it got dropped four too many times so its spinner stopped spinning. Then Matt got me a digital timer that was persnickety and sometimes decided to shut itself off because it was selfish and couldn’t care less about the company coming over to eat in exactly 52 minutes. After a few months of this behavior, I declared it to be faulty and went to the store to purchase another one just like it. It, however, had the same exact issues as its brother and that is what tipped me off that maybe that brand couldn’t be trusted.

After that, I decided I could just use the timer app on my phone. This is a great idea except that it takes so many difficult and tedious steps to get to the point of actually setting the timer (find phone, turn phone on, unlock screen, find timer app, open timer app, think about how much time has elapsed since I started this whole process so I can figure out how long to set the timer at this point, so on and so forth). Also, I really hate to touch my phone when I have egg white on my fingers.

I think you can all see now how challenging it has been to accurately time my baked goods. I have mostly resorted to trusting my nose to be my timer. Typically, cookies and casseroles smell “just right” when they are ready to come out of the oven. What more do I need?

Oh yeah, just someone to remind me that I am actually baking cookies in the first place.

So the first batch burned. They were edible, just really, really crispy and not at all picture worthy. Over the weekend, I tried again. Oh my goodness, I will (go to the trouble to) set a timer from now on. It is worth it to pull the perfect cookies out of the oven when they are perfectly perfect in every way.

Easy Low Sugar Orange Melt-Away Cookies

Easy Low Sugar Orange Melt-Away Cookies
 
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Author: Laura
Serves: 24
Ingredients
  • 1 cup melted butter
  • ½ cup sucanat or raw sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • The juice of one medium-sized orange
  • grated orange 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, orange juice, and baking powder.
  3. Grate orange 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.
3.4.3177

grate orange rind

In other scatterbrained related news – the second time I made these cookies, I was talking to a friend and didn’t realize until later (like 9 hours later) that I hadn’t put eggs into the mixing bowl. These still turned out to be my favorite cookies. So eggs in this recipe? Take ’em or leave ’em. These turn out fine either way. This is further proof that I can’t talk and cook at the same time. Like you needed more proof.

Low Sugar Orange Melt-Away Cookies

Want to try the other varieties of these cookies?

  • Easy {Low} Sugar Cookies
  • Low Sugar Lemon Melt-Away Cookies
  • Low Sugar Almond Melt-Away Cookies

Hey, just curious. What kind of timer do you use??

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

Pyrex Storage Set Deal Alert!!

Christine emailed to tell me of this great deal on a 10-Piece Pyrex Storage Set. Get the entire set right now for just $12.63. No guarantees on how long this price will last. I have these, love them, and use them all the time!!

pyrex

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