Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Free Natural Bug Block or Beesilk Hard Lotion with Purchase – Through the end of June

by Leave a Comment

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

made on bug block stick

I didn’t want you to forget to take advantage of this deal! I keep these products on hand at all time (literally). The Bug Block is especially perfect for this time of year. It was so sweet of Renee from MadeOn to create a great discount just for Heavenly Homemakers readers!

You’ll get a free Bug Block Stick or a Beesilk Stick with a $25 MadeOn purchase. Use the code HHJune.  When your cart totals $25 or more, you can then add either a Bug Block stick or a Beesilk stick to your cart and the stick is then free!

This offer is good through the month of June, so there are just a few days left. Shipping is free on orders of $45 or more.

Grab yours now.  Stock up. Your hands and skin will thank you. The mosquitos? Well, they’ll leave you alone. :)

This post contains affiliate links.

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

What We’ve Been Eating This Week. Did It Include Raspberries???

by 8 Comments

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

I promised you that since I didn’t post a menu plan this week, I would instead show you some pictures of what we decided to eat each day. I already showed you what we ate on Monday. I also whined plenty about how I’ve been very hungry for raspberries but couldn’t find any in my town that weren’t gross or expensive.

Since I’m sure you’ve been simply worried sick about me all week and thought of little else but the fact that I wanted, needed, and desperately desired raspberries, you’ll be relieved to know that Matt found a small, reasonably priced package for me when he was out and about on Wednesday. What a guy. I was even nice enough to share a few of these with Matt and the boys. But only a few. There simply weren’t many left by the time they came into the kitchen. What can I say?

raspberries

Since I had prepped a bunch of fruits and veggies on Monday, it’s been very easy to continue to pull them out each day to go with our meals. Mind you, most of my “prep” consisted of washing the produce and dumping it into a Pyrex container. See how easy it is to eat healthy food? Wash and eat. Wash and eat. Wash and slice. Wash and eat. I can think of nothing easier.

Tuesday morning I made a simple breakfast of Cinnamon Whole Wheat Muffins (this recipe, without the berries, but with cinnamon sprinkled in). It wasn’t a super exciting meal, but it was yummy.

junefood8

We had BLT Wraps for lunch that day. Instead of making them all and setting them out, I simply prepped the filling and let everyone build their own. Easy!

junefood 1

Tuesday night we had Taco Potatoes for dinner. The crock pot baked our potatoes for us, so we didn’t heat up the house. :)

junefood22

After we finished off all the fresh peaches I had bought on Sunday, we sliced up a couple of plums. They were so pretty!

junefood3

Wednesday morning we scrambled eggs, cut up a cantaloupe, and pulled a loaf of Poppy Seed Bread with Orange Glaze from the freezer (recipe in {Healthy} Make-Ahead Meals and Snacks eBook). This is my absolute favorite quick bread. It stays moist even after being in the freezer. Love it, love it, love it! (By the way, if you bought that book prior to this spring, you should note that I now cut the sucanat by more than half in that recipe. It’s still plenty sweet. My shop now has an updated version.)

junefood4

Everyone fended for themselves for lunch, finding leftovers or making a sandwich. We went swimming in the afternoon, so Quick Blender Chocolate Milk tasted great after we got back while we waited for dinner.

junefood5

That morning, I had marinated several pieces of chicken in Italian Dressing (more details in Let’s Do This, Lesson 1). Matt put it on the grill while I made green beans and sliced watermelon. It was crazy deeeee-licious.

junefood6

What have you been eating this week? Isn’t summer food easy to make?

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

7-Minute Strawberry Ice Cream ~ Dairy Free Option

by 14 Comments

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

Healthy food always takes a long time to make, right? Not at my house.  Healthy food always tastes like “health food,” right? Oh, for real.  Healthy food always costs a lot of money, right? Not if I can help it. 

Most of the guests I feed at my house don’t even suspect that I’m serving them healthy food. In fact, I fed this simple Strawberry Ice Cream to someone last week, and all he knew was that I was handing him a dish full of homemade ice cream. All he knew was that it tasted delicious, he loved it, and he asked for seconds. He was impressed that I had “taken the time” to actually make homemade ice cream. He had no idea it was made in 7 little minutes. He had no idea the dessert didn’t have any added sugar (I used stevia). He had no idea the health benefits of what he was eating. He just thought he was eating really good ice cream. Boom.  Score one for healthy food that doesn’t appear to be health food.

Yes, from start to finish, this ice cream just takes about seven minutes to make. No ice cream freezer necessary – all you need is a strong blender or food processor. By the way – those seven minutes it takes to make this treat? Well, it’s not like it takes 7 minutes of work on my part. I just put the ingredients into the food processor and walk away. God bless the person who invented food processors so that I can check email while I’m making ice cream.

7-Minute Strawberry Ice CreamYum

4 cups (give or take) frozen strawberries
1 can (13.5 ounces) chilled coconut milk or 1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
10 drops liquid stevia or 1 Tablespoon real maple syrup or 1 Tablespoon honey

Blend all ingredients together in a food processor or blender until smooth and creamy. Serve right away. Makes 4-8 servings.

7-Minute Dairy Free Strawberry Ice Cream

Have you tried the Cool Pineapple Cream Dessert recipe yet? This is pretty much the same recipe, except for the obvious switch from pineapple to strawberries. I found that when using pineapple, I didn’t need to add anything else to sweeten the treat. Strawberries are a little more tart, so adding a tiny bit of stevia made this perfect.

Next I plan to make this treat using frozen peaches. Then maybe frozen blueberries. Then frozen raspberries.

Health food? You can keep your rice cakes. I’m having ice cream.

What’s your favorite “healthy food” to serve that doesn’t appear to be health food?

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

My June Amazon Subscribe and Save Order, Plus Other Groceries That Came To My Doorstep

by 22 Comments

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

It was very fun to come home from our trip to a living room full of boxes to open! Thank goodness we have a young man living with us this summer since we were out of town when our monthly Amazon order came in. Bless his heart – I had forgotten to warn him that the UPS man drops by with boxes very frequently at the Coppinger house. :)

nu naturals

The boys had a good time opening the boxes to discover what Mom had ordered this month. Besides our Amazon order, we had a box from NuNaturals (watch for a giveaway later this week!). Plus, we decided to give NatureBox a try.

nature box2

That was a super fun box to open! We tried some of the snacks yesterday afternoon and really enjoyed them. Having those snacks come to our door (free shipping!) is a treat. Whether or not we chose to keep our subscription or not remains to be seen, but we thought it would be fun to try it out. Have you looked into NatureBox?

Now on to our Amazon Subscribe and Save order. FYI: If you want to learn more about why I love Amazon Subscribe and Save and how I use this wonderful tool to save tons of money for my family, read this post. Remember, I have an Amazon Deals page that I work to keep updated with all the latest deals I find on real food groceries and homemaking items.

This month, I splurged a little on beverages. Typically, we drink water, water, water…and milk at our house. Okay, and one of us drinks a little coffee. But do you remember the post about how I get a soda fix without added sugar? My Amazon order shows you the most cost effective way I’ve found to keep these fun drinks on hand. What you see in this picture will last us for a LONG time. The Switch sodas will be lovingly rationed out for the next few months.

amazon order june 1

Oooh. Aaah. Toilet Paper.

Next, you’ll see that we bought cases of sliced black olives and coconut milk. Having items like this on hand are so helpful so that I can just grab them when I need them. These cases were on sale for a great price, plus Amazon was offering coupons at the time. I got super good deals and stocked up! For the record, I prefer regular coconut milk instead of lite – but I couldn’t pass up the price. :)  The coconut milk coupon is still good, by the way…as is the sliced black olives coupon.

amazon order june 2

Last but not least, I went a little crazy buying cases of my favorite brand of tuna. We go through at least 6 cans each time we eat tuna – so buying 72 cans seemed like a good idea, especially for cool, summertime meals.
amazon order june 3

Have you learned how to take advantage of Amazon Prime/Subscribe and Save deals with coupons yet?  You’ve got to join me, especially if you like buying in bulk!

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

These Pyrex Bowls Are Being Used Constantly!

by 6 Comments

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

pyrex bowls 2

First let me say that I can’t believe this 8-piece Pyrex Bowl Set With Lids is still at Amazon. This is an incredible price. I now have two sets of these bowls in my kitchen, and I can’t remember how I ever lived without them. Take advantage of this 46% discount. You will love these bowls with their handy lids!

Below is an example of one shelf in my fridge, just to give you an idea of how I’m using these sets:

pyrex bowls in fridge2
I love that I can see exactly what I have in these bowls.

I find these are great to store prepped fruits and veggies to pull out and go with our meals or for snacks. In the above picture, you can see that we have a bowl full of grapes, one of sweet peppers, one with sliced strawberries, and one with Chocolate Whipped Cream.

These bowls are great for pasta salads, potato salads, and tossed salads. Of course, they are also great for mixing up muffins and breads. In fact, last night I stirred together all the dry ingredients I needed for our breakfast muffins, put on the lid, and went to bed. This morning, all I had to do was add liquid ingredients and bake the muffins. So handy!

I’m not sure how much longer this , but I really want to encourage you to look into these. I use them constantly at my house, from prep to serve. They are awesome!

This post contains affiliate links.

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

Gratituesday: Everything But Raspberries

by 15 Comments

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

gratituesday[2]

You know how I mentioned that we’d been traveling and that my body is craving fruits and vegetables? And you know how I mentioned that I was really, really hungry for raspberries? Try as I might, I can’t find one decent raspberry in all of York, Nebraska.

Correction:  I can find a decent raspberry. But they are either in a package that also contains moldy raspberries, or they are in a teeny-tiny container that costs $3.48. As much as I’m craving raspberries – for that price, I just can’t do it.

Elias (our 12 year old) and I drove to our two grocery stores today, after striking out at Wal-Mart last night, on a mission to find raspberries. I guess it just isn’t meant to be. Maybe in a few days, after stores re-stock and sale prices re-set???

In the meantime, as the boys and I were unloading our other groceries and talking about all the goodies I bought yesterday on our way back into town, it occurred to me that while I don’t have any raspberries, I do have pretty much everything else delicious under the sun. I shall whine no more. We’ve found great deals on tons of summer produce, loaded up our kitchen once again with wonderful fruits and vegetables – and we are enjoying all kinds of deliciousness. Everything but raspberries? Well, I am just all kinds of blessed.

You can see all the yummy food I picked up last night in this post. Now take a look at what Elias and I found this morning at a local grocery store:

monday6232

Grapes were on sale, plums were on sale, there were organic tomatoes and mushrooms to be had – and look at all those bags of frozen veggies! Those babies were on sale for just 80¢ each! We filled the cart…as you can see. :)  100% juice was on sale, so we stocked up so that we can make fun popsicles the rest of the summer. We grabbed sweet peppers and splurged on a loaf of bread so we could have an easy meal of sandwiches for lunch. Everything but raspberries? Blessed, blessed, blessed.

We got home from the store and set out this wonderful spread of food. After traveling and eating fast food, I can’t begin to tell you how delicious this all tasted.

monday6233

Oh beautiful, colorful, delicious plate. God is so good.

monday6234

What’s more? For breakfast we had big bowls of berries with Chocolate Whipped Cream. It was a perfect way to begin our day.

monday623

Well, I actually started my day with an awesome cup of coffee, too. :)  Asa brought back a bag of coffee for me from Ecuador. Oh my goodness: best coffee EVER.

monday6231

This afternoon, Matt went to the garden and brought in a plate full of awesome lettuce. Remember how I shared that a big hail storm took out our garden a few weeks ago? Many of you suggested that it might perk back up. You were right! Much of our garden has bounced back. We are so thankful!

monday6235

This afternoon, I enjoyed a generous serving of Chocolate Whipped Cream in a cup of coffee. Happiness in a mug, I tell ya.

monday6236

Before dinner, we were “too hungry to wait.” Therefore, we sliced up a couple of peaches before I cooked dinner. These were the first peaches of the season we’ve had. Ahhhhmazing. Obviously, two was not enough so I had to slice up more. :)

monday june237

We thoroughly enjoyed the lettuce from our garden with our dinner of Pasta Alfredo with steamed veggies tonight.

monday june238

So what’s all this about wanting raspberries? We are so blessed with an abundance of delicious foods that I have absolutely nothing to complain about and absolutely everything to be thankful for. I’m sure I’ll find a nice package of raspberries for a decent price eventually. Maybe I’ll even find some fresh berries at the farmer’s market this week. But no matter. Today, my table is overflowing with goodness. I have everything I need and then some.

What are you thankful for? Leave a comment to let us know something God has done for you recently!

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

A Look Into What Our Family Did Last Week, and a Few Plans For This Week That Include, But Are Not Limited To, Eating Lots of Raspberries

by 25 Comments

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

We just rolled back into our driveway after driving over 2,000 miles, visiting with 100’s of people, sitting in the van for millions of hours, and eating a few too many French fries. I am so hungry for raspberries, I could tear up a little. Bring on the fruits and veggies to settle my traveling tummy.

I have lots of pictures to share with you from our adventures from last week. Are you ready? Here goes…

Our first stop was St. Louis for a Meet and Greet. I can’t tell you how awesome it was to meet these ladies, visit, and pray together. (Karen, I’m so bummed we didn’t get a picture with you before you left!)

home from trip 14

We left St. Louis around noon Wednesday, and headed south toward Nashville. Along the way, we stopped to have dinner with dear friends from college. Three hours was not even close to a long enough time slot to catch up and visit.

home from trip 15

I did manage to get some baby snuggles in while I was there. As you can see from the picture below, God has decided that none of us will be raising girl children. :)

home from trip 16

We tore ourselves away from our friends and finished the drive to Nashville. There, we stayed with a lovely elderly couple – distant relatives I’d never met. I regret that we didn’t get any pictures with them. They were so sweet to let all six of our long-legged family crash at their place during our stay.

Thursday morning we got up and headed to our Nashville Meet and Greet. It was a wonderful visit, making me wish again I could drive to every city and country to visit with allllll of you! These Meet and Greets are awesome.

home from trip 12

From there, we headed to our family reunion. Our boys had so much fun getting acquainted with cousins they rarely see.

home from trip 9

It was especially fun to see the teenage boys hanging out. It reminded us so much of our generation when we were their age. How in the world did we all become moms and dads of teenagers ourselves, when it seems that it was just a few weeks ago that we were the teenagers???

home from trip 11

Here is my generation of first cousins, standing with our Nana. Wish they could have all been there. We talked fast and furious in order to catch up with everyone. :)

home from trip 3

Somehow, we were able to get our entire group rounded up for a photo. Priceless.

home from trip 4

Actually…here’s part of the crazy that led up to the group picture. I can’t stop laughing when I see it, but that might be because I’ve been in the van way too long the past few days.

home from trip 8

You should be impressed to know that I took my first “selfie” while on this vacation. I’ve never felt the need to take one before now. While sitting with Nana, I grabbed my phone and took a shot. Not too bad, eh?

home from trip 6

Love this beautiful lady. She is my mom’s mom. I have loved connecting with her, especially since my mom died almost 10 years ago.

home from trip 10

After tearful good-byes, we got back on the road Saturday evening, making it back to St. Louis where we stayed the night with cousins. We loved worshiping with them on Sunday morning before heading home.

The biggest issue with our final stretch of the trip? Figuring out how we could watch the U.S. vs. Portugal World Cup soccer game. Missing it was not an option. :)  We finally made it to Lincoln, an hour from home, just in time for the second half of the game. We hit a Culvers, which had a TV. We ate ice cream and screamed at the TV. Of course, by that I mean that we sat quietly with our hands in our laps each time anything exciting happened. I would have worried that we were disturbing other patrons, but they were enjoying the excitement right along with us.

home from trip 5

I kid you not – I bought a large order of green beans from Culvers before heading out. Who buys green beans at Culvers? This girl, apparently. I was desperate for something green, and I hadn’t eaten ice cream so I was hungry. By the way, Culver’s green beans are delicious.

As we rolled back into town, I ran into the store and loaded my cart with fruits and vegetables for this week. I was so super hungry for raspberries and planned to buy loads of them. Unfortunately, all the raspberries I found were moldy. So, you better believe that I’ll be running to other stores in our area tomorrow on a mission to find raspberries. In the meantime, we have lots of other yummy food to eat on.

home from trip 2

When we walked in the door, I cracked up to see our living room floor covered with boxes. We have a young man living with us this summer, so as boxes came in, he pulled them into our house for us. My Amazon Subscribe and Save order came in, among a few other boxes of food I’d ordered. The boys have been opening them, and later this week I’ll show you pictures of what’s inside. You know you want to see my case of toilet paper.

home from trip 1

Since I just arrived home and don’t have a menu plan created to share with you this week, I thought I would instead share a few pictures throughout the next few days of the food we decide to eat. Sound good? Here’s hoping I find raspberries!!!

Here’s to a great new week!

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

Strawberry Creamsicle Recipe

by 15 Comments

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

Strawberry Creamsicles in Muffin Tins

Tis the season to enjoy cold, sweet treats. Tis the season to find refreshment in a frozen snack after a hard day of work or play. Tis the season to drip syrupy red or blue food dye down the chin, staining the teeth, the tongue, and the swim shirt in the process.

No, wait. Not that last one. Let’s skip the food dye and syrupy fake sweetness of high fructose corn syrup, and instead enjoy a real food treat. Although do feel free to let this Strawberry Creamsicle melt and drip down your chin. After all, what’s summer without messy, sticky chins and swim suits? Seriously, you should watch me eat a slice a watermelon. It’s like I’m a three year old, slurping and grinning and ignoring the watermelon juice as it runs all the way down my neck while I stand at the kitchen sink taking bite after bite. Hey, there’s no shame in enjoying a treat while ignoring the napkin.

Sometimes you just really don’t know what to say or do with the things I tell you about myself, do you? Oh c’mon. Live a little. Grab some watermelon and make some Strawberry Creamsicles. Grin and slurp. Be a kid again.

Strawberry CreamsiclesYum

2 cups frozen strawberries
2 cups whole milk (or coconut milk)
2 Tablespoons real maple syrup (or about 10 drops liquid stevia)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Blend all ingredients in a food processor or blender until smooth and creamy. Pour mixture into popsicle molds or 3-ounce cups. If using 3-ounce cups, place a popsicle stick into the middle of each. Freeze for about 2 hours before serving.

Strawberry Creamsicles

Nothing fake – all natural sweetness, just perfect for a summer treat! I can’t think of anything I’d rather have running down my chin.

#whoneedsnapkins  #lifestooshort  #grinandslurp

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

The “Eating Healthy” and “Save Money” Balancing Act

by 15 Comments

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

We all want to be healthy. We all want to live frugally. We all want the best for our families. We all want food to taste good. We all want great deals on groceries. We all want delicious food, special treats, our favorite snacks…and if they could be free, cheap, come with a coupon, or be buy-one-get-one free – that would be fantastic.

Yeah, pretty much, we want it all. Is that too much to ask?

Balancing Eating Healthy With Saving Money

Is it just me, or is it tricky sometimes to balance saving money with healthy eating? Especially as our boys get older, I can not believe how much it costs to feed us well. I believe it would also cost a lot to feed us poorly, simply because we eat so stinkin’ much food at our house all the time, every day, all the time.  We can not believe the lie that eating well is too expensive. Eating junk is expensive too. I’ve done the math.

I don’t have any wonderful new tips to share today as we work to keep our real food grocery budgets low. I don’t have any great online grocery deals to share. Instead, I just want to encourage keeping a healthy perspective when it comes to balancing saving money with eating healthy.

There really is great, real food out there that is not expensive. It’s amazing all the wonderful combinations of real food ingredients we can creatively put together to feed our families while staying under budget. We do not need to become discouraged, caving in to buy margarine because it’s cheaper than butter, or buying a cheese substitute because it’s cheaper than real cheese. We do not need to skip the fruits and vegetables because we are afraid of the price tag. They are not more expensive per ounce than a box of empty-calorie crackers. I’ve done the math.

God is going to continue to provide for you and your family. I believe the food on your table is as delicious as your attitude dictates it to be. The health benefits of eating the best you can within your means, while trusting God? Priceless.

Tired of the same old cheap real food meals of beans, rice, bananas, and carrots? Ask God to give you more creative ideas, to provide you with what you need, and to give you a heart of thanksgiving. I can almost guarantee that our little Gladis, over in Honduras, has very little variety in her diet, yet all of what she eats is real food and wholesome. She and her family are simply thankful to have food, and they do the best they can. Praise God for his provision!

Remembering her when I look into my refrigerator and pantry keeps me in check. Gladis gives me perspective and offers me a chance to appreciate anew the abundance we have. From thousands of miles away, she shuts my complaining mouth and calms my heart of discontent when I feel like whining about the price of strawberries. How blessed we are to have access to the luxury of strawberries.

I pray we find balance as we seek to eat healthy while saving money. I pray we look at what we have through the eyes of gratitude.

Let’s all continue to feed our families the best we can, while enjoying the blessing of real food – whatever it might look like on our individual tables.

Hoping to get your budget on track as you work to balance healthy eating with saving money?
Be sure to check out BudgetFocus as a wonderful resource!

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

Lilla Rose Giveaway Plus How To Get a Free Flexi-Clip

by 256 Comments

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

It’s no secret how much I love my Lilla Rose Flexi-Clips. I wear them almost daily, especially in the summer. They are super easy to use, super pretty, and super easy on the hair. I love how strong my Flexi-Clips are, and how long they last (as in, forever). The clips never pull or tug or give me a ponytail headache.

What’s really fun is that many of the Flexi-Clips have matching headbands. Wear the headband alone, wear the flexi alone, or wear them at the same time. So beautiful!! I can’t stop staring at the photos below:

Freestyle tiara headband flexi giveaway (1)

Isn’t that a gorgeous set? Paula at Lilla Rose is giving this set away to one of you (girl with lovely hair not included). ;)  Here’s what you’ll win:

Freestyle set: One Freestyle headband and one extra small Freestyle Tiara flexi clip

To enter this giveaway leave a comment here letting us know which item you like best.

For additional entries, like Paula’s page on Facebook, follow Paula on Pinterest (awesome video hairstyling tutorials!), and/or sign up for her personal monthly newsletter. Leave a separate comment here for each entry.

I’ll chose one random winners on Monday, June 23. Be watching for a post stating the winners as you will be responsible for contacting me if your name is chosen!

Now, would you like to hear about the great deal Paula is offering this month?

Here’s a great opportunity for all you who have wanted to try Lilla Rose, but have put it off…Paula is offering all new customers a Buy 3 Get 1 Free deal! Just order any 3 or more items off her website, then message her for details on how to redeem a free item of your choice, valued up to $16!

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