Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Strawberry Creamsicle Recipe

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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

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

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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!

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

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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!

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10 Oven-Free Summertime Meal Ideas

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You know what’s great about summertime? Pretty much everything, especially the part about it being summer in the summertime.

Summer is my favorite season, mostly because this is when the sun is shining. I heart sunshine.  I also love heat, because here in Nebraska, I spend about 13 months out of the year shivering. Once summer hits, the sun shines daily, and my bones warm up – then I am in my happy place.

While sun and heat rock my world, dripping sweat down my nose and into my cooking pot is not a part of my summertime enjoyment. Well, don’t picture it. It’s just that I remember watching my grandma cook in her 115° kitchen, wiping away sweat before it salted the veggies she was preparing. She never learned to close up the house and use the window air conditioner properly, so all of us almost melted and died from the heat in their house every time we visited during the summer. Her kitchen turned us all into sweaty, sloppy…hold on. Why are we still talking about this? We’re here to talk about great food in the summer that does not heat up the house. Moving right along…

10 Oven Free Meals for Summer

I have so much fun preparing yummy meals for my family in the summer. Why? Because there are so many fresh food options available. Watermelon, peaches, corn on the cob – mmmmm I love the taste of summer. In the sunshine. On a hot day. (Yes, Laura. We get it. You like hot weather. Weren’t you going to tell us some good summer meal ideas?)

Indeed.

Here are 10 great summertime meals that won’t heat up your kitchen:

1. Hamburger patties with cheese, buttered green beans, and tossed salad

Oven Free Summertime Meal

2. Grilled Italian chicken (recipe in Let’s Do This! eCourse), tossed salad, steamed broccoli, watermelon

3. Grilled barbeque chicken, tossed salad, sweet corn, grilled asparagus

4. Baked potatoes in the crock pot topped with slivered ham, shredded cheese, sour cream, and steamed broccoli – cantaloupe on the side

baked_potato_3

5. BLT wraps, sliced sweet peppers, carrot sticks and cucumbers with ranch dip, chocolate whipped cream on strawberries

6. Chicken tacos, spicy avocado dip, pineapple cream dessert

chicken_tacos_2

7. Pasta salad bar with chicken and lots of veggies, blackberries and fresh peaches

8. Taco salad, fresh pineapple

9. Turkey ranch pinwheels, olives, sweet peppers, honey glazed carrots, watermelon

10. Black bean salsa with corn chips, carrot sticks and cucumbers with ranch dip, nectarines

What are your favorite summertime meals that don’t heat up the house? Whose with me in the “I love summer” camp?

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{Healthy} Make-Ahead Meals and Snacks ~ Now on Kindle at Amazon!

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Lookie what just made its way into the Amazon Kindle store:

Healthy Make Ahead Meals and Snacks Kindle

I’m excited to share this with you as I know many of you prefer to read eBooks on your Kindle. Prefer the regular eBook? You can get it here.

Hooray, Amazon Kindle!

 

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Gratituesday: World Cup 2014

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gratituesday[2]

With the exception of the fact that watching soccer games was a perfect Father’s Day gift for Matt, clearly, this week is not a good time for our family to enjoy the World Cup. After all, we’re leaving on a long trip tomorrow. As it turns out, we’ll miss several games while we’re on the road, plus we have a million things to do before we leave. We have to finish packaging up container after container of vanilla to ship out…

world cup 1 (1)

The older boys were at Soul Quest last week, which means there are several loads of laundry to finish up so we can pack. Indeed, we have a huge, long to-do list. World Cup soccer games???

world cup 1 (2)

Yeah. We’re making time.  It’s ridiculous really, how much our family loves soccer. :)  We don’t have cable, so we’re having to go elsewhere to catch games. (The college apartment lobby has been working quite well for us.)  It’s been a fun break in between all the work. When possible, I’ve been throwing together quick meals like fruit and tuna salad to take with us and eat while we watch.

world cup 1 (4)

Ah, family and futbol. It’s too much fun. Laundry, packing, cleaning, vanilla packaging, mowing, gardening, and all the rest? Eh, we’ll get it done. ;)

What would you like to share about this Gratituesday? What are you thankful for?

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No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake {Stevia Sweetened}

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Yes, it’s another recipe with stevia. You know you can sub real maple syrup for stevia, right? As for me, I’m loving the non-sugar treat options. :)  If you’d like to grab some stevia for free, here’s how to do it.

no bake chocolate peanut butter cheesecake

How did this No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake recipe come about? It went a little something like this:

  1. It was a hot day and I didn’t want to heat up the oven to bake.
  2. I had some Chocolate Whipped Cream in the fridge and wondered what would happen if I stirred cream cheese into the bowl.
  3. I decided it would surely be great.
  4. And that peanut butter stirred in would be even better.
  5. And that all of these ingredients together would actually create a delicious cheesecake.
  6. And really, that’s about it.
  7. So that’s the end of my story.

By the way, it’s a pet-peeve of mine to see a sentence begin with the word and. And that’s why I rarely do it. And I feel that my 7th grade English teacher, Mrs. Heaton is surely proud of me for this. And I’m sure you agree.

I also don’t like writing sentence fragments, but the above story made me do both. Yes, I wrote sentence fragments that began with the word and. I must need another piece of cheesecake.

So, No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake. We made this for Father’s Day. I promise that making it won’t change your grammar skills for the worse. Worst. Worser. Never mind.

No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake - Stevia Sweetened

No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter CheesecakeYum

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 8-ounce package cream cheese
3/4 cup natural peanut butter (I use homemade)
1/3 cup cocoa powder
Liquid stevia to taste (I use 4 droppers-full NuNaturals brand)

Whip all ingredients together until smooth. Spread mixture into a pie dish (with or without a crust). Place pie in freezer for at least one hour before serving.

We found that no crust was necessary with this cheesecake, mostly because I was too lazy to make a crust. Laziness should never help us make decisions, just like sentences should rarely begin with the word and. But a cheesecake without a crust is still delicious. And that’s all there is to it.

Did you make anything special for Father’s Day? And am I the only one who doesn’t like seeing sentences begin with the word and?

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The Three Day Menu Plan…Then We’re Hitting the Road (Plus, Want Some Vanilla?)

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As I mentioned last week, we’re heading to Nashville this week for a family reunion. I can’t wait to hug my Nana, hold the new babies, see all the cousins, watch the kids get reacquainted and play together…it’s going to be great!

On the way, I’m very excited to meet some of you!! If you live in the St. Louis or Nashville areas, please stop by our Meet and Greet locations so we can have a chance to hang out and visit. Get all the specifics here. I look forward to meeting many of you!

Fruits and Veggies On the Go

We don’t mind the treat of eating out here and there while we travel, and enjoy our fair share of burgers and fries on the road. But to keep our stomachs from rebelling too much, we try to take along some fruits and veggies too. :)

Doing any traveling this summer? Here are some posts you might enjoy.

Our menu this week is short and sweet since we’re taking off on Tuesday. It’s been fun to celebrate Father’s Day with Matt today – making many of his favorite foods.

Sunday, June 15
Peach cobbler (recipe in Oh, For Real cookbook)
Grilled steak, baked potatoes in the crock pot, grilled asparagus and sweet peppers, cantaloupe
Tuna salad on tomatoes and lettuce, watermelon

Monday, June 16
Banana bread, blueberries
Chef salad with leftover chicken, watermelon
Italian roast wraps with tomatoes and lettuce, peas, fresh pineapple

Tuesday, June 17
Scrambled eggs, pineapple mango smoothies (with fresh spinach thrown in)
Pasta Salad Bar – before we hit the road, we’ll each build a big pasta salad to eat on the way for lunch. Easy and nutritious!
Dinner at my cousin’s house – can’t wait!

pasta salad bar 3

One last thing:  We actually made enough Vanilla Extract this time to avoid selling out within a few hours! If you want some, come get it now as we’ll only be offering it for sale through Monday or until supplies last. :)

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Heavenly Homemakers Homemade Vanilla Extract – For Sale Today While Supplies Last

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As you know, we very much encourage everyone to try their hand at making  Homemade Vanilla Extract. It saves money and produces the purest, most delicious vanilla possible! For those of you who don’t care to make your own, or who are currently making some but waiting for it to finish up, we are excited to once again offer a big batch of our Heavenly Homemakers Vanilla Extract for sale today.

Keep in mind as you see the price that this amount covers our expenses, including shipping – and the most important thing:  You can use half the amount of vanilla called for in recipes because this vanilla is so pure and strong. Therefore, this bottle of vanilla will last you twice as long as a typical bottle! Read more here about how to make your own vanilla extract.

We have a limited supply, so this is being offered while supplies last. Typically, we sell out within just a few hours – so act fast if you want some! These prices include shipping, so what you see below is the total you’ll pay. We are only able to ship within the U.S.

4 ounce bottle (only 2 left)
$16.00  
Add to Cart

8 ounce bottle
$29.00 
Add to Cart

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Do You Live Close to St. Louis or Nashville? I Want To Meet You!

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Our family is hitting the road for a reunion next week. Along the way, we’d love a chance to meet you if you live in the St. Louis, Missouri or Nashville, Tennessee areas.

We just have a small window of time while our boys are between church camp obligations, otherwise we’d make more stops along the way to meet even more of you. We have loved our time meeting up with you when we travel!!

denver_m&G

You realize, don’t you, that it was at last year’s Meet and Greets I started liking coffee?  :)

Soooooo, can you come, can you come??? Here are the details:

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St. Louis Area Meet and Greet:  Panera Bread (actually known as St. Louis Bread Company) located at 2079 Zumbehl Rd, St Charles, MO 63303

Our family will be there on Wednesday, June 18 from 10:00 am to 11:30 am

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Nashville Area Meet and Greet:  Panera Bread located at  2534 Powell Ave, Nashville, TN 37204

Our family will be there on Thursday, June 19 from 10:00 am to 11:30 am.

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Come if you can so we can hang out and chat. You are welcome to bring your kids along.  I love meeting them too!

cos_m&g_2

It’s been so much fun to watch your kids interact with my kids during the Meet and Greet times.

A couple of notes:

  • If you live in one of these areas and think it will work for you to be there, would you mind shooting me a quick email? I’d love to have a point person for each location, just in case I need to call and say, “We’re late but we’re coming – watch for the scatter-brained lady with frazzled hair.”
  • If you don’t email me, you can definitely still come. Just show up – it will be so fun to see you!
  • I’ll be bringing along some Oh, For Real cookbooks and printed Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve curriculum in case any of you are interested in buying them without having to pay shipping costs.
  • Sorry for the late notice. I’m just now getting the details of this trip figured out because I’ve only known about this upcoming trip for 8 months. {rolls eyes at self}
  • I promise to talk about more than just the subject of butter when we’re together. Wait. What else is there?
  • Can’t be there on time? Just come whenever you can before 11:30.

St. Louis and Nashville friends – I can’t wait to meet you!

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