Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting
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Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!Hopefully, you’ve knocked out cooking your whole chicken and making chicken broth, plus made a double batch of Black Bean Chicken Nachos for the freezer. If you’re just joining us for the Freezer Cooking Challenge, that’s great! You can get started here.
Today is going to be just as easy as yesterday when it comes to prepping a meal for tonight’s dinner along with putting a meal (or two) into the freezer for another time. All you need to do is throw chicken into the crock pot, cover with bbq sauce, and let the crock pot do your work for you. Once your chicken is done, use a portion as part of tonight’s dinner. Allow the rest to cool, then put into a jar or freezer bag. Place it in the freezer (clearly labeled) for a day you don’t have time to cook.
Here’s the recipe you’ll need for today: Crock Pot Barbecue Chicken Breasts
As you can see, I chose to serve our Bbq Chicken on buns with cheese melted on top. We had a busy evening with soccer practices, so setting these out on the table with fresh pineapple, carrots, and cucumbers made a quick meal for us to grab on the fly. The rest of the chicken is now in the freezer, waiting for another day when I can pull it out to use.
I hope you’re beginning to see how easy freezer cooking can be! Coming up next: Bacon Wrapped Cream Cheese Chicken (recipe in {Healthy} Make-Ahead Meals and Snacks eBook)
How are you doing with the challenge so far this week?
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!
Did you know some people grind their own flour? When I first heard that from a friend about 14 years ago, I thought the very idea was crazy. Really? People do that? Why? How? Who has the time? Only crazy healthy-nutty people would go to the trouble of grinding their own flour. And their food probably always tastes nasty, because whole wheat flour is really heavy and strong flavored. Bleh.
That was back in “my poptart and pepsi days” as I now lovingly call the time I didn’t understand much about nutrition. Obviously, I also didn’t understand that real food tastes really delicious. I was just doing the best I could with what I knew, and we can’t help what we don’t know, right? My eyes were opened to a better way after our youngest son was born with chronic eczema. I’m so thankful for the world of healthy eating God has opened up to us since then. We all feel so much better now. Food has never tasted better! I mean, I didn’t even know how good butter was back then. Sheesh. I was missing out.
Who is now among the crazy health-nutty people who grind their own flour? That would be me. Yep, we’ve had a Nutrimill now for eight years, and it is still going strong. Who knew grinding flour was as easy as pouring wheat into a machine, turning a knob, and walking away? And the end result? Oh my goodness. I never knew whole wheat flour could taste so good. Freshly ground flour is amazing.
I do recommend making the investment to grind your own grain, as the health benefits and deliciousness to baking with freshly ground flour can’t be beat. But what if you aren’t ready, don’t want to, or aren’t interested? No prob. Let’s talk about other great options…
First, let’s discuss the different options you’ll likely come across at the store. Most whole wheat flour that is pre-packaged at the store has been made from red wheat. This is a darker and heavier flour – not my favorite, but still an okay option. If this is the kind you use, you may need to use a bit less than is called for in some recipes as it tends to be dryer and produce a more dense baked good.
I love and always recommend flour made from white wheat as it is lighter in color, lighter in flavor, and typically more enjoyable to eat. At the store, this is labeled White Whole Wheat Flour.
Is white wheat healthy? Yes. Don’t let the word “white” throw you off. White wheat is simply a variety of wheat that, when ground, makes white whole wheat flour. Both red and white wheat have the same nutritional value, but they taste just a bit different. I prefer the flavor of flour made from white wheat – as do many people.
Below is a picture I took last year when we were in Kansas. You’ll see two fields, side by side, one growing white wheat, the other growing red wheat. See? Both are grains of wheat, but when ground, they turn out a different color and texture of flour.
Next you see a picture of the two different kinds of grain, or wheat berries as we call them. Red wheat berries are on the left, and white wheat berries are on the right:
I almost always grind hard white wheat at my house since we prefer it. I also sometimes grind soft white wheat, which produces a whole wheat pastry flour. Pastry flour can be used in any recipe that does NOT call for yeast. For yeast bread recipes, you must use a hard wheat variety. Read more about red wheat and white wheat here.
Now let’s talk about which wheat flour I recommend.
My favorite brand of wheat berries and wheat flour is Wheat Montana. They use chemical free, non-GMO grains. They are a very high quality grain, which makes wonderful tasting flour. Look for 100% White Whole Wheat Flour, which they call Prairie Gold.
I was impressed to find a 40 pound package through Amazon (with Amazon Prime/Mom and subscribe and save). That makes it just 68¢ per pound for very high quality flour. (Be sure to click over to the Prairie Gold option if you want the white whole wheat.)
I also like the Azure Standard White Wheat Flour, which is as low as 92¢ per pound. If you are a part of an Azure Standard co-op, you may want to look into this.
Beyond those options, I have seen white wheat flour at Traders Joes, Whole Foods, and other health food stores. I don’t know the prices because I don’t have easy access to any of those stores.
Share what you know about these options. Do you grind flour, or purchase it already ground? What is your favorite variety?
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!Ugly picture alert.
Below is a picture of my container of cooked and frozen salsa chicken. It looks kind of…eh.
Makes you want to get right into the kitchen and make some yourself, doesn’t it? It’s a shame, really, to put that picture at the top of a blog post. Trust me though, when I say that as ugly as that chicken is in its frozen state, it really is a delicious dish. The best part is how easy it is to make this. Ready to get started?
You’ll find the recipe for Black Bean Chicken Nachos here. Simply get your chicken and salsa cooking (double the recipe). This chicken cooks on its own while you work on something else. Then, you can add the beans and serve part of the chicken dish at lunch or dinnertime. Allow the remaining chicken to cool, then, freeze it in a jar or Ziploc bag to pull out and serve another time.
If that wasn’t the easiest freezer cooking you’ve ever done, I don’t know what is.
Below you’ll find a much more attractive picture of this meal. Serve it with fresh fruit, and you’ve got one very easy and family friendly meal – times two, because now you also have one for your freezer. I’m loving this freezer cooking challenge!
How is the challenge going for you at this point? If you haven’t started yet, you can join at any time! Up next, Crock Pot Barbecue Chicken Breasts.
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!![gratituesday[2]](https://www.heavenlyhomemakers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/gratituesday2.png)
Once again, today proved that ministry and school can collide, and that no matter what we’re doing, we can learn something meaningful.
After breakfast this morning, the three younger boys and I mixed a geography/history lesson with our outreach to Gladis, the girl we sponsor through One Child Matters. We did a little research on Honduras, where Gladis is from. We printed out and colored maps and flags to send to her. We talked about the distance between our home and Gladis’ (roughly 1900 miles). And we marveled at how big God is to connect us to her in this awesome way.
I should make something clear: My three younger boys are 9, 12, and 14. They don’t sit and color pictures anymore…ever. But when I told them we were making these pages for Gladis, they ran for the colored pencils – even discussing how colored pencils would be better than markers for this assignment because it would look so much nicer and Gladis could see the maps better. Anytime I mention doing anything for Gladis, their response is always joyful and eager.
Maybe I should ask them to fold and put away their clothes in the hallway/do the dishes/pick up sticks in the yard…for Gladis. Think it would fly? ;)
The end results of our creations are simple. We thought maybe Gladis would have fun coloring the rest of the maps, so we left a lot for her to fill in. But we wanted to show her where in the U.S. we are located (Husker red, of course). Do you see the blue shaded areas on the world map below? That’s to show her that she is there, in Central America, and we are here in Nebraska, USA. We’ll be writing a note at the top of that map, letting her know that we are praying for her, that God is taking care of all of us, and that we are sending our love from our home to hers.
I always wish I could see her face when she receives our packages. I’m told that pictures and maps like this are a treasure to these sponsored kids as they typically don’t have many items like this in their homes. How wonderful that such a simple school lesson for our family will be such a wonderful blessing to Gladis and her family.
Want to print out similar pages to do something like this for your sponsored child? Here are the links for where I found ours:
United States Flag Coloring Page
Check out this cool Distance Calculator to discover about how far away your sponsored child is from where you live.
If you’re not yet sponsoring a child, please join us! I’m celebrating this ministry for Gratituesday today, because of the blessing it is to my family. I want you to experience this too. Bless a child – be blessed. What a rich gift.
Now your turn. Share what you’re thankful for! Leave a comment on this post letting us know how God is working in your life. If you’ve written a blog post about what you’re thankful for, leave the link in the comments so we can visit your blog to read about it. We love sharing and reading about God’s blessings!
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!Hope you’re joining us for the Freezer Cooking Challenge! You’ll find this week’s plans here.
Today is the biggest day of our challenge when it comes to time and effort. We’ll be making Chicken Broth, plus shredded cooked chicken for salads and stir fries. We’re doing it first, just to get it out of the way. The rest of the week will be so easy you won’t know what to do with yourself.
The best thing about today is that while it does take several hours to make broth, it doesn’t actually take hours of work on your part. Once you get your chicken and veggies cooking, you can just walk away and let it do its thing. By the end of today, you will have several jars of rich, nourishing broth. Plus you’ll have cup after cup of cooked chicken. Having cooked chicken means you have all kinds of quick meal options. Simply toss your cooked chicken into soup, casserole, salad, or stir fry.
Okay, here we go!
Begin making your Chicken Broth by putting your whole chickens, carrots, onions, and other veggies into a large stock pot. Fill 3/4 full of water.
Cover pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer, leaving lid on. Allow the chicken/veggies/water to cook for 3-4 hours. See a thorough Chicken Broth Tutorial here.
Remove chickens from pot, placing them on a platter to cool for a few minutes before you take the meat off the bones. In the meantime, strain out the veggies and broth. Throw the mushy veggies into a blender, give them a whiz until they are smooth, then stir them into your broth for extra nourishment! Pour broth into other bowls or pans so that it can cool.
Time to debone those chickens.
Confession time: I thoroughly dislike de-boning chickens. I don’t know why, I just don’t like it. So what does a good mother do? She calls in her children and makes them do the job she doesn’t enjoy. The good news: My four boys got right with it and had the meat off those bones in no time as if it wasn’t a job to be despised. Justus (age 14) and Malachi (age 9) left the kitchen afterward while saying the words, “Well, that was fun.”
I’m pretty sure they liked it because he could nibble chicken while they worked. Okay by me. I didn’t have to debone the chickens.
Important: Once the chicken is off the bones, I always throw the bones back into the pot, fill it up 1/2 full of water, and cook it for another few hours to make even more broth. Gotta use those great chicken bones for all they’re worth! While round two of broth was cooking, I got to work with that cooked chicken.
I packaged up three Ziploc freezer bags with cooked chicken to pull out for soups and casseroles. Then I made a big batch of Chicken Salad. I put it into the fridge and had two meals worth ready for quick lunches. Love this! I put the remaining chicken in a glass pyrex storage dish in the fridge to have chicken chef salads this week. The bagged chicken went into the freezer.
When it was all said and done, I ended up with 5-half gallon jars of chicken broth. Some is in my freezer, some is in the fridge for soups this week.
You can tell the difference between batch one and batch two. Batch one was cooked with veggies. Batch two was cooked with bones only. I certainly could have thrown in more veggies for round two, but I was plumb out of carrots and onions at that point. I’ll be sure to use the veggie-less broth to make soup in which I add veggies in.
Take note also that if you are going to freeze broth in jars, be sure to leave 2-3 inches of space at the top of the jar to allow for expansion. Do not put them into the freezer until they have completely cooled.
After today, give yourself a huge pat on the back for a job well done! This day is a little more labor intensive than others will be, but think of all the wonderful meal possibilities you’re creating with just 2 chickens!
Coming up next in the freezer cooking challenge, we’ll be making Black Bean Chicken Nachos….
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!So…freezer cooking this week. Are you in? Most importantly, do you have your chicken? :) You can check out all the plans, download the grocery list, and access the recipes here. Make plans to join us this week!
Here’s our menu plan for the week, which of course, includes a lot of chicken. I also added in some coconut flour recipes since I found such a great deal on coconut flour yesterday:
Sunday, April 6
Homemade instant oatmeal, pears
Sloppy joes, carrot sticks, fruit
Small group fellowship: Nacho bar
Monday, April 7
Green machine milkshakes, coconut flour muffins
Chicken chef salad with tons of veggie choices, crispy cheese crackers
Pizza boats, fruit salad, raw veggies
Tuesday, April 8
Scrambled eggs, quick mix biscuits, kiwi
Black bean chicken nachos, fresh pineapple, sweet peppers and cucumbers
Shepherds pie, tossed salad, strawberries
Wednesday, April 9
Whole wheat waffles, blueberries, whipped cream
Crock pot barbecue chicken breast sandwiches, creamy coleslaw, carrots and cucumbers with ranch, peaches
Tuna casserole, peas, tossed salad
Thursday, April 10
Poptarts, fried eggs, bananas
Taco corn fritters, pineapple mango smoothies green beans
Bacon wrapped cream cheese chicken (recipe in {Healthy} Make-Ahead Meals and Snacks eBook), tossed salad, roasted asparagus
Friday, April 11
Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, applesauce
Turkey ranch pinwheels, chocolate milkshakes, grape tomatoes, carrots and cucumbers
Potato soup, sweet peppers, tossed salad, coconut flour cheddar drop biscuits
Saturday, April 12
Cranberry white chocolate chip breakfast cookies, fried eggs, oranges
Leftovers
Chicken noodle soup, tossed salad
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Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!
Are you ready (to get ready) for our Freezer Cooking Challenge, week two? This time, we’ll be focusing on chicken recipes. Want to know what’s coming up after this week? I’ve updated the post which shares the challenges to come. You’ll want to check it out!
Here’s what I have planned to make next week in an effort to put chicken dishes in the freezer. Want to join me?
If you joined the challenge last week and ran out of Pyrex dishes, you’ll be glad to know that you don’t have to use any casserole dishes this week (unless you want to)! This week, you’ll just need Ziploc type freezer bags and jars. :)
The Grocery List
Miscellaneous items you’ll need:
I’ve created a downloadable and printable grocery list for you here: Freezer Cooking Grocery List Two
Your first assignment is simply this:
Check out the recipes above and purchase all needed groceries. Then, look at your schedule next week to see how you might be able to work out the following:
On Monday, we’ll start by cooking our whole chickens to make Chicken Broth. Wednesday we’ll work on Black Bean Chicken Nachos. Thursday will be our Crock Pot Barbecue Chicken Breasts day. And we’ll wrap up on Friday by making Bacon Wrapped Cream Cheese Chicken. By the end of the week, you will have fed your family very well, plus you will have a freezer full of broth, pre-cooked chicken for salads, stir-fries, and casseroles, plus packages of bbq chicken, salsa chicken, and bacon wrapped chicken for easy-to-heat-up meals!
If that particular schedule doesn’t work for you – no problem! Those are the days I’ll be blogging about my freezer cooking progress with each of those recipes, but you can certainly work at your own pace and in your own time.
Ready…go!
Don’t forget, Let’s Do This! eCourse and {Healthy} Make-Ahead Meals and Snacks eBook are discounted to just $5 for the whole package. The recipes included in that package are some that we use all the time at our house to get ahead!
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!Ah, teenagers. Forget everything negative you’ve ever heard anyone say about them. Teens are some of my very favorite people. I’ve got two amazing teens living in my house right now. Watching God grow them into mature adults has been delightful. Trying at times? Sure. But so were some of the baby, toddler, preschool, early elementary, and pre-teen years. I guarantee that at age 40, I’m trying at times too. Teens are no worse or better than any other human being. They just happen to be going through huge changes in life while they become more independent. Some of those changes are great, and some are very, very difficult.
Don’t you remember it? Can’t you look back on your teenage years and remember how difficult some of that was? I remember not knowing how to act as I gave up little girl stuff and became a young woman – relearning who I was. I remember watching others around me and trying to figure out how to avoid doing some of what they were doing, all while trying to still fit in. I remember gaining responsibilities and trying to learn how to juggle them. I remember. I thank God for the people in my life I had to love me through it. Where would I be without them?
To all of you who have chosen to join our ministry here at Heavenly Homemakers and sponsor a child – thank you. Can you just picture the joy on your child’s face when they first found out they had a sponsoring family?
To all of you who are thinking of sponsoring a child but have not yet jumped in: I challenge you to consider sponsoring a pre-teen or teenager.
You certainly can pick a younger child, because oh how they need to be sponsored as well. If that is what will fit your family best – like it did ours at the time we were choosing – go for it! We love that our boys have a “little sister” to love on through prayer and mail.
But it could be that God calls you, instead, to sponsor an older child. A child others have overlooked, perhaps. I envision the joy of that child upon finding out that a sponsor has chosen him/her, and I get weepy. Someone wants to help meet their needs. Someone wants to write letters to them. Someone wants to hear what they have to say. Someone from around the world loves them.
Think of the mentoring possibilities. I mean, with our little sponsored girl, Gladis, we certainly do all we can to encourage her and share Jesus’ love with her. But she’s only four. We look forward to years and years of growing a relationship with her. But those older kids waiting for sponsorship? I bet you could jump right into an endearing relationship in which you help take the load off of the trying teen challenges they face. Picture this! Let the Spirit lead you. Can you see the beauty of how this might work in your family?
If you have a teenager yourself, consider sponsoring one that might become a friend, pen-pal, confidante, and inspiration to yours. The friendship and mentoring possibilities are vast in the case of sponsoring an older child. I pray you consider this. I pray you take on this beautiful opportunity of sponsoring a child in another country.
Whoever you choose, whatever the age, whatever the country – know that this choice you are making is a huge blessing, both to you and to the child you sponsor. Please join this ministry!
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!Heya! We are in our final stretch with week one of the Freezer Cooking Challenge. I have loved hearing from so many of you that have joined in. This is so much fun – cooking together! Too bad we can’t also do dishes together. Or make our kids do dishes together so that we can all just sit and drink coffee together and chat. Yes, I like that plan. Why did I not think of that before?
Here’s what we’ve made so far:
Now, we’re down to Cheesy Beef and Pasta Casserole (recipe in {Healthy} Make-Ahead Meals and Snacks eBook). This casserole has definitely become a family favorite. It is as simple to make as spaghetti, yet it tastes like something super special. That’s probably because I always stir in a lot of love. Love, that is, in the form of cream cheese. It has a love language all its own, right?
To finish up this week’s freezer cooking assignments, all you need to do is get out the remainder of your cooked meat, boil your noodles, stir together all remaining ingredients, spread mixture into pans, top with cheese, put on a lid, label, and you’re done. Phew. Sounds like a lot, but really, it’s as easy as making spaghetti. While stirring in love. And cream cheese.
The night I finished this and served it, we ate it with a simple salad and roasted asparagus. So much deliciousness! I love knowing I’ve got another dish of this casserole in the freezer ready to be served on a busy day.
At this point, hopefully you’ve put together eight casseroles: four to eat this week, and four to freeze for another day. This freezer cooking thing really isn’t so hard, is it?
Stay tuned for upcoming plans for Freezer Cooking Week Two – the week of the chicken. I’ll have a grocery list and game plan ready for you on Friday. :)
Give us an update! How is the challenge going for you this week?
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!