Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

God is Bigger Than a Free Range Chicken

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31 Days 300

I love our farm fresh eggs. Raw milk from our neighbor’s cow is fantastic. I go out of my way to bring home grass fed beef, free range chickens, and you should have seen the pastured turkey we ordered at Thanksgiving. Well here, let me just show you again:

huge turkey 1

I believe we can all agree that this fella was one of the healthiest, meatiest, happiest little (giant) free range turkeys around.

There is no question that free range, grass fed, pasture raised animals with college degrees produce a more nutritious food compared to that which is produced from animals raised in less healthy environments. There is also no question that these food products can be very expensive and/or difficult to obtain.

Sometimes, buying these farm raised products is just too far outside of the budget. Sometimes, there’s not a free range critter to be found anywhere close to where you live. So if you are someone who is not able to put free range food on the table, will you please stop feeling bad about it?

God is bigger than a free range chicken, yes? This means that He is also bigger than a chicken that is raised in less than perfect circumstances. By golly, He’s even bigger than the turkey that wouldn’t fit in my pan at Thanksgiving, and that was one huge turkey.

Not able to make a meatloaf with grass fed beef? Raw milk too far outside your budget? Stop feeling guilty. Stop worrying. God knows your desires and your ideals for your family. He will bless your efforts to feed your family nutritious food.

Continue seeking out healthy options that will work for your family. Maybe an affordable free range chicken will find its way to your front porch someday soon. In the meantime, know that just because you don’t have access to the healthiest meat, eggs, and milk in town doesn’t mean you should throw your hands in the air and give up on eating real food. A store-bought egg scrambled up in butter or coconut oil is still loads better for you than any processed food that comes in a box which contains 62 ingredients. Loads better.  It’s still an egg.  That means it’s a real food. Relax.

God is big, bigger, biggest. Take all the complicated details out of the process of switching your kitchen to a real food kitchen, and just focus on going back to the basics – whatever that may look like for you right now.

So what does that look like for you right now? Have you found peace in your circumstances with food sources?

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Let’s Talk About Fat {31 Days of Real Food Reality ~ Day 3}

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31 Days 300Happy New Year! Please pass the butter.

Yes indeed. Many of you have heard me say this many times, but it’s worth saying again because I always love talking about butter, and also because I feel very strongly about this:  If you change nothing else about the way you cook and eat, simply change out bad fats for good fats.

I mean, I am going to continue to encourage you to stop eating so many cookies, but at the very least, bake your cookies using real butter instead of margarine. Make your pie crusts using palm shortening instead of Crisco. Use olive oil instead of vegetable oil when you make salad dressing. And stir coconut oil into muffins instead of canola. These changes require pretty much no effort on your part, will only slightly effect your budget, and will absolutely change the flavor of your recipes for the better.

Have picky eaters at your house? While switching from white to whole wheat pasta might raise someone’s eyebrow at dinnertime, I can almost guarantee that switching from margarine to butter won’t even make anyone flinch. If anything, your family might notice that their cookies and muffins taste better than they used to. I’m telling you that back in my margarine days, my cookies always tasted a little off. They also looked funny, bless their little hearts. But when I started using real butter, my cookies became amazing. (Humbly speaking of course. The cookies speak for themselves.)

Healthy fats: the easiest healthy change…ever!

But wait, don’t we want to avoid eating too much fat??

Even though I believe many people are beginning to grasp the concept that eating fat is not altogether bad, I still can’t get over how often I hear someone talk about how fattening or naughty something is if it is full of butter or cream cheese. Au contraire.  Butter is golden (literally) and offers many wonderful health qualities – because it is a full fat!  The same is true for coconut oil and other healthy fats I’ve listed below.

Our culture has us brainwashed, but don’t think I’m faulting anyone. I was among those that stayed far away from fat (especially butter!) until just a few years ago. I read every label to check “how many grams of fat” were in each serving. If it had more than just a gram or two of fat, I stayed far, far away (and instead snacked on fat free stuff like Twizzlers – sheesh). After all, eating fat would make me fat, right?

No, no, no, no, no. I can attest to this. I have many friends who can attest to this. In fact, now I’m finding that if I’m not eating enough good, healthy fats – I don’t feel well. My skin isn’t as healthy. My hair isn’t as shiny. My appetite is not satisfied. Butter and cream have not made me gain weight – and trust me – I eat a lot of both. (“You want some potato with that butter, Mom?”)

Is this because of my metabolism or my body type? No, I don’t believe it is. Eating good fat can help everyone maintain a healthy weight. On the other hand, when I consume too much sugar or just plain overeat? That’s when my jeans get tight and I feel like junk. But that’s another real food reality post for another day.

Eat Healthy Fats!

Why don’t healthy fats make us fat? 

Real food fats are absolutely pure and whole. When we eat them, our insides are like, “Yes! I know what this is. I know what to do with this!” Our bodies can easily digest real fats. Out bodies can utilize every last bit of what is in them. Healthy fats nourish us.

On the other hand, when we eat trans fats, hydrogenated oils, margarine, and vegetable oils that have been factory created – our bodies struggle to know exactly what to do with these unrecognizable fellas. Those fats have been significantly changed from their original form, and many of them were never intended to be consumed in the first place. We eat them and our bodies become sluggish while they try to figure out exactly…what…to…do. It’s as if our insides are then saying, “Whoa? Who are you? You confuse me. I’m not sure which part of you, if any, I can use to fuel this body. Off with you. Head to the hips. Or the gut. Or just fly around in here wreaking havoc on this weary body.”

So are you saying that I should eat a bowlful of coconut oil every morning for breakfast?

Yeah, um no. We don’t want to over eat fats any more than we want to over eat any food. I’m simply saying that we should not be afraid of healthy fats, and we should eat them without reservation to fuel our body’s needs. Foods like cream, cheese, meat, coconut oil, and eggs are naturally full of fat. On purpose.  Our bodies need the nutrients they each provide.

On the other hand, most vegetables, fruits, and grains are completely fat free. On purpose.  They also provide our bodies with needed nutrients. Isn’t it cool how all natural food comes to us in a perfect way to fulfill a purpose within us? When we eat a lovely balance of all varieties of food, we can then fuel our bodies in the way that will keep us going strong!

Let’s hear it for a healthy, well balanced diet of real food!

The best sources of fat to nourish our bodies are:

  • Coconut Oil
  • Real Butter
  • Meat
  • Eggs
  • Whole milk from animals or coconuts
  • Cream
  • Avocados
  • Olive Oil
  • Palm Oil

Each of the animal fats listed above are most beneficial if from a grass fed or free range animal. But don’t sweat it if that’s not happening for you yet. Just focus on eating real food and do the best you can.  Don’t forget that God is bigger than any of your worries.

Whew! That’s a lot of information. We’ll talk more about nourishment tomorrow. For today, share with us:  How are you coming with switching to healthy fats? What are your favorite sources for healthy fats?

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One Step at a Time {31 Days of Real Food Reality ~ Day 2}

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31 Days 300

It’s an exciting time! The holidays are over, and many of us are looking forward to starting fresh and becoming healthier!

Looking forward to chucking all of the processed foods in your house, eating three vegetables with every meal, transforming your refrigerator so that it only contains homemade condiments, keeping up with meal planning consistently, packing healthy lunches every day for your kids, making all of your own baked goods using only whole grains and unprocessed sugars, and never touching store bought candy again for the rest of your life? That’s awesome! These are all wonderful goals. Hoping to do it all by tomorrow? I love your ambition, but chill out with a piece of chocolate. That may not be reality.

As someone who is encouraging you to eat a healthy diet, let me be clear. When I say, “chill out with a piece of chocolate,” I totally mean, “relax while you munch a radish.” Obviously. But my point is that if you try to make too many good changes at once, setting 42 healthy living goals in an effort to completely transform your life overnight, you may become so overwhelmed that within two days you’ll decide that there’s no way you can keep up with this healthy, real food business. At the very least, you’ll likely freak out the people around you, giving them the impression that life as they know it and their loved one’s sanity (that would be yours) just got thrown out with the Fruitie Magrooties.

Let me remind you that every healthy change you make is a wonderful step in the right direction. Usually, taking one step at a time makes the transition from junk food to real food much more doable as opposed to making many drastic changes all at once. People who go from all to nothing (or nothing to all, as the case may be) are much more likely to get frustrated, become overwhelmed, and give up before they even really get started.

You didn’t learn to count, add, subtract, multiply, divide, reduce fractions, and master hyperbolic trigonometry all in the same day did you? Neither will you transform your kitchen and eating habits all in the same day. Or week. Or month.

Take small steps toward switching from processed food to real food. Begin to cut out the bad slowly, while introducing the good at a pace that is doable for you and your family. Why not make a list of healthy habits you’d like to begin, then prioritize them in order of importance to you? Or start with the easiest ones first. Once you get the hang of one, you can tackle another.

Before you know it, you’ll be a whiz at hyperbolic trigonometry. Or rather, you’ll be like me and have no idea what that even is. But by golly, you’ll be drinking plenty of water and eating much less sugar than you used to. And on it goes.

Fruitie Magrooties, it was nice knowing you. Healthy living, here we come!

What is one step you can start taking today that will be doable for you and your family as you work your way toward a healthier lifestyle?

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Somehow I Still Don’t Have Enough Pyrex

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You would think that with my lovely collection of 9×13 inch dishes, I would have plenty of Pyrex. You would think. But when freezer cooking and baking up a storm, I still find that I still run out of needed casserole and storage dishes.

I hold to the truth that buying Pyrex saves me money…because it does. Having healthy meals and snacks prepared and in the freezer keeps our food budget from exploding. It is also worth mentioning that having healthy meals and snacks prepared and in the freezer also keeps my brain from exploding while trying to feed five enormous appetites (plus my own normal person appetite) three meals each day.

That is why I found myself searching the internet today for yet another good deal on glass dishes with lids. These dishes must have lids, otherwise they are not nearly as useful to me.

I was searching for a set of 9×13 dishes with lids, but everything I found was too pricey. Then I came across this:  Pyrex Easy Grab 6-Piece Value Pack, includes 1-ea 3-qt Oblong, 3-cupRectangleStorage, 6-cup Rectangle Storage.Yes! I have all of these pieces and use them alllll the time, so I already know I love them. Having more for casserole making, food storage, and for freezing goodies will be perfect!

pyrex_3

I snatched this set up, and thought you might be interested too. Keep in mind, when you click on the link, the set with blue lids will show up – and that set costs a few dollars more. It’s the dishes with red lids that are the lower price. You just have to select red lids instead of blue when ordering. :)

The top dish pictured is a wonderful 9×13 casserole dish with handles. Super nice! The middle dish is 7×5 – perfect for storing leftovers or prepared veggies or cheese for snacking. The bottom dish is one of my favorites. It’s 8×6 and can be used to bake a batch of brownies or a side dish. It’s also great for storing leftovers and prepared snacks. And they all have lids! (I know. I said that already.)

I have plans for them already once they arrive on my door step. Getting organized and freezer cooking for the new year…here I come! (And thanks to Swagbucks, I hardly have to pay anything out of pocket. Bonus!)

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The Reality Is, We Can’t Do This Without God’s Help {31 Days of Real Food Reality, Day 1}

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31 Days 300

I can share all of my greatest healthy eating tips, impart all of my real food wisdom, and encourage you until I fall out of my chair. But the reality is, if eating real food is important to you, and you want to make healthy changes for yourself and for your family – you are going to first need to take your desires to God.

Think God doesn’t have time to listen to your concerns about your picky kids or limited grocery budget? Feel silly asking God for help when it comes to choosing vegetables over potato chips? Figure there are bigger cares to take before the throne than your transition to whole grains and brown rice? Then let me ask you this:  How long have you been burdened by the desire to be healthier? How many times have you felt frustrated when you feel like you’ve failed, when your family hasn’t jumped on board with you, or when you’ve slipped back into unhealthy eating habits? God loves you no matter what, and sees you through His eyes of grace. But if you desire to make healthy changes, oh yes, He very much cares and will help you. He knows exactly what your limits are, and He knows exactly what you need. He’s got this!

Case in point:  Do you know how long I’ve tried to stop craving and eating too much sugar? (From about the time I turned 6.)  Do you know how hard I’ve worked to have self-control when it comes to chocolate? (I mean, it’s chocolate.)  Do you know how many times I’ve tried and failed to help my picky eaters make good choices? (Why won’t they just put the cauliflower into their tiny little mouths and chew?)

cauliflower

This is going to sound cliché, but what-ever, because it applies to all areas of life, including chocolate and cauliflower:  We can do nothing without God’s help.

If I’ve learned anything the past year, it is that on my own, I am weak and fall short. But when I give up my own control and accept God’s power to work through me, I am incredibly strong. Take it from a (recovering) chocolate, sugar, dessert addict who finally let God take over this weakness a few months ago. I’ve been trying on my own for years. My will power would carry me for a few days, then I’d slip back into my old chocolate-covered habits again. But I’m finally accepting God’s power to work in me with this, which is, without a doubt, so much more amazing than my own pitiful, sugar-coated will power.

Do you want to make healthy changes in your kitchen for yourself and for your family? Then confidently tell God your desires. And none of this worried kind of prayer either. “Oh God, I’m so scared that my kids are going to get scurvy because they won’t eat vegetables. Will you please help?” No, no. God already knows our desires and is our absolute helper.  Pray confidently! “God, you know how much I desire for our family to learn to like healthier foods. I know you can work this out for us. I trust You and am excited to see You do this for us!” or  “Father, you know our resources are limited, and you also know how eager I am to honor you by staying healthy. I trust you to provide and to show me how to make this work!”

Pray, listen, and confidently accept His gift of peace in this area of your life.

Setting goals is good. Making plans is wise. Becoming excited about making healthy changes is wonderful. But don’t start this new year by making goals and trying to make changes. Start by asking God to do His work in you and in your family. It’s the first step you should take toward making real food a reality!

Obviously, this can be applied to anything you desire – not just a desire to become healthier.  Care to share some of your desires for this new year?

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Gratituesday: Bonus Family Time

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We’ve been so blessed this holiday season to have relaxing time at home, and to have time with extended family too!

We made a quick trip to Kansas over the weekend to be with my side of the family. Playing with cousins, eating great food, opening presents, and having great visits went all too fast.

Then, we arrived at home to do laundry, re-pack, and head to Iowa to meet more family. So much fun! In fact, we’re having so much fun I don’t have much time to stop and write. Sooooo….I’ll count on you to leave comments and fill in the gaps here so that we can enjoy reading about what you’re thankful for too!

Hope your holiday season has been filled with joy. :)

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!

 

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31 Days of Real Food Reality – Featured January 2014!

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Ready to drop kick the sugar habit? Excited about making healthy changes in the new year? Looking to learn more about how to cook and serve real food? Hoping to continue (or start) replacing processed food with whole food?

Want someone to make it easy for you?

31 Days

Every single day during the month of January, we’ll have a post that will equip, inspire, and encourage you on your journey to real food eating. Why is it called “Real Food Reality?” Because as always, everything about this series will be doable for you. Real food for your real life.  There’s nothing complicated or time consuming about what I’ll be sharing. I’m not going to ask you to stop eating grains or meat or dairy or…chocolate. I’m not going to kill your grocery budget. I’m not going to insist that you eat weird food, make you give up your favorite foods, or heap on any guilt about the fact that you don’t eat a perfect diet.

I’ll share my real food reality with you – and you can simply relax and join the fun. Sound good?

Make your real food goals a reality in 2014!

Before we get started, please share: What is the biggest challenge for you when it comes to eating and cooking real foods?

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Menu Plan for the Week – and a Pickle Tradition

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pickle ornamentWho’s heard of the German pickle ornament tradition (which may or may not be true)? I won a pickle ornament at a white elephant gift exchange last year, so our boys decided that we definitely needed to make this a part of our Christmas fun. Who wouldn’t want to find a pickle hanging on the Christmas tree, after all?

The long and short of the tradition is this:  Christmas Eve night, parents hide the pickle ornament somewhere on the Christmas tree. In the morning, the first child to discover it receives an extra gift. This explains why my kids were interested in this tradition, right? It’s all about a bonus gift.

All was well until Christmas Eve afternoon when it occurred to me that the boys were counting on us hiding the pickle, and I had forgotten all about providing an extra gift for the winner. Thinking quickly, I brainstormed for something that would make the winner feel special but that all the boys would enjoy (after all of their pickle searching efforts). I refused to go back out and buy something. I was done shopping, thank you very much.

Aha! I ran to the computer and created a certificate which entitled the finder of the pickle to pick all of the menu items for New Year’s Day. I made the certificate goofy (shocking) with a bunch of ridiculous disclaimers, printed it, and put it into a gift bag. There. Pickle present done.

Justus (13) was the winner. Here’s what he chose:

Wednesday, January 1
Whole wheat waffles (which the boys are now all calling “Super Mama Waffles” – I guess they are just that good?)
Tilapia, rice, steamed veggies
Spicy pasta (recipe from a friend), tossed salad

If you’re wondering what happened to Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday in our menu plan…I didn’t come up with plans for those days because we’re with family and working together on food prep. :)

Thursday, January 2
Snickerdoodle muffins, apples
Beefy vegetable soup, fruit
Alfredo sauce with pasta, steamed veggies

Friday, January 3
Poptarts, applesauce
Creamy mac and cheese, peas
Calzones, tossed salad

Saturday, January 4
Honey whole wheat bagels, clementines
Rice and veggie stir fry with broccoli, carrots, and chicken
Beefy enchilada bake, tossed salad

Tell me if you’ve heard of the Christmas Pickle!

Homeschool Convention 450X150

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Win an Annual Plan to Eat Subscription

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plan_to_eat

Plan to Eat is awesome, that’s all there is to it. For everyone who struggles with menu planning, for everyone who is short on time, for everyone who would like to become more organized…for everyone. Plan to Eat allows you to store your recipes all in one place, drag and drop your menu items into a handy calendar, and will even help you formulate a grocery list.

Take a look through this video to learn more about their great online menu planner:

Plan to Eat – The Online Menu Planner from Plan to Eat on Vimeo.

You can help yourself to a free 30-Day trial so you can see how great it is. With the new year coming, I think Plan to Eat can help you get started on the right track!

In addition, Plan to Eat is giving away two annual subscriptions! Interested in winning? Leave a comment on this post for a chance. I’ll draw two random winners on Tuesday, December 31. Be watching for a post stating the winner as you will be responsible for contacting me if your name is chosen.

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31 Days of Praise – Join Me! {With a Fairly Cheesy Illustration That May Inspire You to Vacuum}

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Last night I dreamed about the biggest vacuum cleaner ever. You’ve gotta love the dreams of a homemaker. Yes, sometimes I dream of blenders, too. And also occasionally of butter.

In my dream this time, the huge vacuum came down from the sky and began to hover (no, not Hoover) over my yard. I watched in awe and wondered what exactly it was planning to do. After all, it did have a miracle to work in my home after a lively Christmas holiday in which we had taken several days off from cleaning.

vacuum

The vacuum looked exactly like this, except that it didn’t actually resemble this one at all
because it was a dream and they don’t make vacuums like that in real life. 

The enormous contraption continued to hang out in the air above me, as if waiting for me to do what I was supposed to do so that it could perform its duty. But I was preoccupied with several other matters that were making me uneasy. Worry about my kids had been creeping in as I was trying to figure out how to handle each situation. What to do, what to do? And now I had the problem of a giant vacuum buzzing over my yard.

I finally decided that I would need to stop worrying about all the other matters so that I could instead deal with the monstrous vacuum. Since I couldn’t deal with them both at once, this meant that I had to let go of all the worried thoughts floating around in my head. So I did. And umm (this was a dream, remember), when I let go of the yuck that I was anxious about, it all scattered all over my yard. Don’t try to picture it. 

Burden released, I then turned to the vacuum that I was now ready to deal with. But the vacuum ignored me because it already knew what it was supposed to do, and could now get down to business. It lowered it’s powerful hose, and with its amazing suction force, it quickly sucked up every last bit of my yuck and worry. Then it went away. Eureka!

I saw my problems disappear along with the vacuum as I woke from the dream. And I also remembered that we had watched Despicable Me 2 last night (while eating nachos) and the big vacuum thing that sucked up all the Minions is probably partly where the lovely visual in this dream came from.

So what does any of this have to do with 31 Days of Praise? Well, it’s time to learn to let go of what worries us, and to instead embrace Truth, resting in the peace we receive through Jesus. We can not hold on to both at the same time. 

It’s obviously also time for me to vacuum my house.

I had two books on my Christmas list this year. Yay for me – I received them both! I spent a relaxing afternoon yesterday reading the introduction to both books, and decided I absolutely needed to recommend them to you. I love them already. These books are full of TRUTH!

The Bible is our ultimate source for Truth, right? So keep on diving into the Word. Take time to chew on the words, savoring the words of Jesus and the lessons to be learned.

I believe 31 Days of Praise: Enjoying God Anew, by Ruth Myers, and Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence, by Sarah Young, are wonderful additions to our growth and encouragement as we seek God and learn to listen to Him, praise Him, worship Him, and live a life of peace in Him. Care to join me in reading these books this year?

I read Day One of 31 Days of Praise: Enjoying God Anew this morning, along with all the scriptures that went along with the truths she shared. It was powerful. And I want to say more, but really, I just want you to read it. This stuff is rich.

31 days of praise

Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence, by Sarah Young, includes a short devotional thought for us to read each day of the year. I’m waiting until January 1 to start reading through this book. But a few months ago when I was having a difficult few weeks, a friend of mine who owns this book, shared some of the thoughts she had been reading from this. I was incredibly encouraged to read these truths and to be pointed to scripture that applied to my struggles. I love it.
jesus calling

You may also be encouraged while reading through a series I wrote this fall called Raw. It’s a story of my journey during the past year of truly accepting the peace Jesus longs to give us!

I also plan to begin a series in January to encourage simplicity in eating a Real Food diet. Watch for more info coming soon. But starting the new year at the feet of Jesus is most important of all.  Join me in this journey to Truth!

Have you heard of these books? Read them? Interested in reading them with me?

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