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Keep Your Maple Syrup Cold (Because You Don’t Want to Pour Mold On Your Pancakes)

June 25, 2013 by Laura 47 Comments

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maple_syrupI made a sad discovery last week:  Mold in my maple syrup. {wahhhhhh-aah-aahh}

The label on real Maple Syrup says “keep refrigerated or frozen.” There’s a reason for that. :(

I know this. I’ve told this to others. Keep your maple syrup in the fridge or freezer.  But over the winter, our storage room is as cold as (if not colder than) a refrigerator – so our bulk maple syrup is stored there to save freezer space. Somehow I forgot about it and left it in the storage room even though – surprise, surprise – it is no longer cold in there. (Note to self: It is summer. It is hot. The storage room takes on the temperature of the outdoors. Put your maple syrup back in the freezer to store during the summer.)

When I opened the jar last week, ready to pour some into my serving bottle, I was greeted by an ugly smell and an even uglier green fuzz. Hoping I could salvage at least some of the syrup, I attempted to scrape the mold off the top.

Ever tried to scrape mold off the top of sticky liquid?  You can imagine how well it works.

In addition, the contents in the jar no longer smelled sweet. So even if I could have skimmed mold off the top, it wouldn’t have mattered. The entire jar was toxic.

Sooooo…woe is me. I had to dump it out. (Don’t picture it. It may cause you too much pain.)

I’m writing this to remind you all not to try this at home. Do not let your real maple syrup go bad. Keep it in a cold place! At all times. Especially in the summertime.

Bonus Tip:  A bowl of half-eaten applesauce will also turn green if left in the corner of the Lego Room for three weeks. This message brought to you by my eight year old.

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Gratituesday: Company, Company, and More Company!

June 24, 2013 by Laura 10 Comments

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Shucks, I don’t even have any pictures to share of our recent events. Ah well, words will have to do…

For the past few days, we have been hosting friends from out of town. My boys have had an extra little boy playmate, I have been able to get a baby-girl fix (Ladies, there are hair bows in my house!), and we adults have been catching up on all the latest.

Today, more friends drove into town. They bring with them even more boy playmates (and another little girl with hairbows). I’m guessing I won’t see my youngest boys for the next several days, until they emerge every few hours with their friends to find a bite to eat.

There is much excitement in our house tonight. Food is abundant. Board games are scattered here and there. We are all having a great time.

We are blessed to have so many wonderful friends in our lives and grateful to be able to bless them in our home.

Share how God is working in your life on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for! Please read through the Gratituesday Guidelines so that you understand what kinds of posts you can link up to share here. Posts that are linked but do not fit our Gratituesday theme will be deleted.

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Menu Plan for the Week

June 23, 2013 by Laura 7 Comments

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Our first round of company has arrived! Everything we’ll eat the first few days of this week will be gluten free to accommodate one of our guests. It won’t be hard at all. We’ll just avoid eating breads, and the pasta I’ll use is rice pasta instead of wheat. We were careful to make sure our grill is clean and free of gluten before throwing on any meat. 

Here’s our menu for this week:

Sunday, June 23
Almond flour muffins, raspberries, applesauce
Grilled Italian chicken, green beans, potato salad, creamy coleslaw, sweet peppers, strawberries, kiwi
Cheesy salsa enchiladas (made with corn tortillas), tossed salad, watermelon

Monday, June 24
Easy breakfast casserole, blueberries, clementines, applesauce
Creamy mac and cheese, peas, watermelon, baby carrots
Hamburger hash-brown casserole, tossed salad, steamed broccoli, nectarines

Tuesday, June 25
Scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, pineapple-mango smoothies
Sloppy joes, dill pickles, olives, sweet peppers, strawberries, fresh pineapple
Tuna salad on lettuce with tomato slices, boiled eggs, grapes, baby carrots

Wednesday, June 26
Coconut flour muffins, raspberries, blueberries
Pasta salad bar (chicken, pasta, cheese, veggies, salad dressings), watermelon
Pizza boats, tossed salad, pineapple, grapes

Thursday, June 27
Pancake sausage muffins, cantaloupe
Spanish rice with chicken, grapes, sweet peppers
Pasta alfredo, steamed broccoli and carrots, asparagus

Friday, June 28
Whole wheat waffles, strawberries, blueberries, whipped cream
Hamburger patties, green beans, watermelon, baby carrots, pineapple-mango smoothies
Chicken tacos, avocados, grapes

Saturday, June 29
Cranberry white chocolate chip breakfast cookies, applesauce, kiwi
Leftovers
Lamb chops, baked potatoes, peas, zucchini, tossed salad

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Getting Food Prepared for Company

June 21, 2013 by Laura 29 Comments

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cookie_dough_bites

I love having these Raw Cookie Dough Bites from The Nourishing Home on hand for snacking. 

We are very excited to have two different families coming to stay at our house – the first for a few days beginning this weekend, and another next week, staying for three whole weeks!! The boys are looking forward to playing with their buddies, and I am looking forward to catching up with great friends I don’t get to see nearly often enough.

So that I can enjoy our visits and not spend all my time in the kitchen, I’ve tried to get a little bit of cooking done ahead of time. Here’s what I’ve made (or plan to make tomorrow):

  • Sloppy Joes (made and in the freezer)
  • Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (made and in the freezer)
  • Raw Cookie Dough Bites (made and in the fridge)
  • Whole Wheat Quick Mix (on my list for tomorrow)
  • Cheesy Salsa Enchiladas (on my list for tomorrow)

One of our guests this weekend needs to eat gluten free, and then the following week, one guest has a peanut allergy. As long as I don’t get my weeks/guests mixed up, we should be just fine. :)

Our local Farmer’s Market hasn’t had much to offer yet in the way of fresh produce. We’ll get there, it’s just still early in Nebraska! Thursday night, I was able to get some fresh greens and two heads of broccoli. We ate all of the broccoli at lunch today. So good!

farmers_market_lettuce

I got stocked up at the store tonight on loads of fresh fruits and a few veggies, plus a few treats to share with our guests. I love all the fresh produce available this time of year. (And no, not all of it was organic. This is all I have available to me right now, so I’m cheerfully going for it!)  Hopefully by the time company comes, we’ll still have some of this available. I mean, when there are fresh peaches in the house…

groceries_6_21

What are some of your favorite meals to feed guests?

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Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

June 20, 2013 by Laura 38 Comments

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flourless_cookie_2

What’s great about having a recipe that is flourless? If you have run out of flour, you can still make this cookie.

Profound.

But there’s more.  Because these don’t have flour in them, they turn out super moist and chewy. Trust me when I say that there is much yum in one of these cookies. (Or in three or more of these cookies if you just can’t control yourself.)

And…if you’re someone who eats gluten free or you’re baking for someone who eats gluten free, these cookies fit the bill. I have no idea what the phrase “fit the bill” means. Are we talking about a dollar bill, or the bill of a hat? Or maybe we’re talking about a duck? I went to school with a boy named Bill. As far as I know, he can eat flour. But I’m guessing he would still really like these cookies.

Anyway, I should look up the phrase “fit the bill” someday when I have spare time, which will be never, since I typically spend my free time rambling about ducks, hats, and my classmates who like cookies. Come to think of it, I don’t remember Bill ever wearing a hat.

Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip CookiesYum

1 cup natural peanut butter (I use homemade)
1 cup sucanat or brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Cream together peanut butter, sucanat, egg, vanilla, and baking soda. Fold in chocolate chips.

Place 1 1/2 inch balls of dough about two inches apart on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. Bake in a 350° oven for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cookies will firm up as they cool, so do not overbake. Allow the cookies to sit on the cookie sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. Makes about 18 cookies.

flourless_cookie_1
You will love how easy these cookies are to make. If you need to, you can prepare this dough up to five days in advance, pulling out the dough and baking as needed. How very handy. You can also mix up the dough, shape it into balls, and freeze them unbaked. Then, when you need a cookie fix or you need to quickly bake cookies for an event, all you have to do is put them on a pan and bake them as directed.

I’m telling you, if you’re looking for an easy, delicious cookie, these really hit the nail on the head (because I just hate to use the phrase “fit the bill” twice in one post).

And for the record, I couldn’t resist. I took the time to look up where the phrase “fit the bill” comes from. Turns out, “Fit the bill” is a British, American and Australian idiom which means to have the qualities or experience which are needed. Thank you online search engine. I already understood what it meant. I just didn’t understand its origin.

Well, I guess we’ll never know. Maybe I should just ask Bill. He was, after all, our class Valedictorian.

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Cleaning With a Purpose

June 19, 2013 by Laura 25 Comments

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In case you didn’t know from all the subtle or not so subtle complaints I’ve dropped through the years: I do not like to clean. I do enjoy a clean house, but the work that it takes to make it that way? Ugh. I’d much rather be in the kitchen cooking up a storm or at my computer writing fun articles.

Like many aspects of life that have to be done whether we like it or not, cleaning is necessary. And not just every once in a while. Dishes have to be done daily (hourly?!), floors need to be swept frequently, and please let’s not talk about the bathrooms.

clean_bathroom

Are you kidding? That’s not my bathroom.
I just found the picture online.

I’m not into having a perfect, spotless home. It’s just not my gift, and I am okay with that. I hear God calling me to more important things than using a toothbrush to scrub the crevices around my – actually – I can’t even pretend to know how to finish that sentence. What do people use toothbrushes to scrub around? Well, whatever it is, I’m not into it. If you are, please do go for it! God gives us all different passions and skills.

What I have been recently convicted of, however, is that no longer should my attitude be that of cleaning just to get it done or so that I won’t die of embarrassment when someone comes over and sees the filth. Those really have been my reasons in the past.

While one of my gifts has always been hospitality, recently God has put on my heart that our home is to be open and used more frequently to bless others. He gave us a great, big house with plenty of food and fun to share.

Based on that specific calling from God (because this would never come from me – I’m the one who doesn’t like cleaning, remember?) I have found so much joy recently in preparing my home for the guests God continues to put on our doorstep.

No longer am I cleaning to save myself from embarrassment or so that guests won’t think I’m a big slob. (Can you say, self-focused??)  I am now cleaning my house, preparing our guest room, planning meals, and making comfortable beds so that my guests will feel blessed and comfortable in our home.

Do we all need to feel like our homes are perfect before we open our doors to others? Absolutely not. My guests are not going to walk in and feel like they’ve walked into a show room. Far from it. Nerf bullets may still fly by their faces while we visit, dust will be found in places that I forgot to notice, and someone may likely come across a broken pencil having a party with the crumbs under a couch cushion. An unapologetic smile and a warm, relaxed welcome absolutely trumps all white glove tested territory in a home. I will not allow myself to feel like a failure when someone drops by and I have to scoot boxes, Lego creations, and folded laundry out of the way so that they can find a place to sit.

But as I scrub toilets, get out clean sheets and towels, and vacuum under beds, I will now be doing it with a new and refreshing purpose: so that my guests will feel peace and joy from being in my home. (As well as the occasional breeze from a nerf bullet whizzing by their face.)

Do you enjoy having people in your home? If not, what is holding you back?

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Healthy Food to Pack for a Trip

June 18, 2013 by Laura 28 Comments

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

sloppy_corn_muffins_4

This is a topic that has come up at several Meet&Greets. It would seem as though meeting our family on the road makes people curious about what we’re eating along the way! I don’t blame you for asking. Hopefully you haven’t been terribly shocked or disappointed when I’ve shared that we enjoy treating ourselves to some Chick-fil-A here and there on our trips. :)

As much as possible, I do try to pack healthy food for the road. The difficulty comes when we’re traveling for several days in a row. Homemade food can only last so long, and a person can only eat so many sandwiches. 

We don’t feel worry over eating out occasionally. Although I will say that we certainly don’t love spending money on it and our guts don’t always feel great afterward. But since our family eats very, very well MOST of the time, eating at a restaurant is a special treat that my family enjoys without guilt. We usually try to make it count, as in, we don’t settle for icky tasting (in our opinion) restaurants and usually opt for one we all really like. I mean, if we’re going to eat french fries, we want to enjoy them, right?

So, now that I’ve explained that part, I’d also like to share some ideas for foods I try to pack for the first leg of our trips to at least get us off to a good start. In addition, I’ve made note of ideas others have shared with me. 

Breakfast on the Road

  • Giant Breakfast Cookies
  • Scrambled Egg Sandwiches
  • Breakfast Burritos
  • Homemade Muffins
  • Warm Vanilla or Chocolate Soother

Lunch/Dinner on the Road

  • Sandwiches
  • Calzones
  • Meat and Cheese Burritos
  • Leftover Homemade Pizza
  • Tuna or Chicken Salad with Pitas or Crackers
  • Tossed Salads with Chicken (either from home or purchased on the road at a grocery store)
  • Chicken Patty Sandwiches
  • Quesadillas
  • Pigs in a Blanket
  • Sloppy Cornbread Muffins
  • Taco Corn Fritters

Snacks

  • Fresh Fruit – lots and lots of fruit! If we eat nothing else good during the day, at least we have fruit. It’s the best convenience food ever! (Grapes, Berries, Apples, Oranges, Clementines, Bananas, and Pears all travel well.)
  • Applesauce – I splurge on individul applesauce cups for a fun treat on a trip
  • Baby Carrots
  • Grape Tomatoes
  • Homemade Granola Bars
  • Mudballs
  • Crispy Cheese Crackers

As much as possible (while doing laundry, packing, and finishing up four hundred last minute details) before leaving for a trip – I try to prep the food so that all we have to do is warm it up, grab it, and go. Phew! It’s a lot of work. But it’s worth it for the money it saves and the gut issues it helps us avoid. :)

Please share your ideas for healthy foods you pack to take on the road while you’re traveling. Also, have you found some good foods to make in a hotel room? Please share!

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Gratituesday: The (Less Than) Perfect Day

June 17, 2013 by Laura 16 Comments

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Our boys’ schedules have been pretty full so far this summer with mission trips and camps. Our oldest two have been gone more than they’ve been home, and their summer fun has just begun. 

I’m thankful to have them home for a couple of weeks after missing them while they’ve been off having grand adventures. Today, I had a great day planned (in my ideal mind). Malachi and I had appointments in Lincoln, which is about an hour away, and all of the boys needed to do some shopping, which required their feet coming along to Lincoln with me so that they could try on shoes.

Therefore, I thought that having all four of my boys together for a special outing sounded like a perfect way to enjoy time together since we’ve been so scattered for the past few weeks.

Uh-huh. Well, parts of it were fine and fun. And of course, I always love being with my kids even when they don’t act like angels. I don’t always act like an angel either, so I can’t fault them for being less than perfect. But wow. Today was a bit of a doozy.

There were too many feet and too many shoes that needed my “here let me feel your toe” expertise all at the same time – not to mention the fact that some of them weren’t looking at price tags before trying on shoes, so even if the toe was in the right place, it didn’t matter because $59 for a pair of shoes was not going to come close to making the cut. Then while one was trying on shorts, the others didn’t seem to know what to do with themselves so they found ridiculous ways to occupy themselves within the racks of clothes. 

That was all before lunch.  You don’t want to know what happened after that. I’m not kidding.

I’m sharing this on Gratituesday because while it’s tough to be grateful for a day that didn’t go the way I wanted it to go, and while I’m a bit discouraged and so tired I can barely type, life could be so much worse. It’s all a matter of perspective and hey, I still got to spend the day with all my boys. I’ve learned through parenting that it’s best to let go of the “ideal” and just embrace reality and be thankful for God’s grace. Today (especially the after lunch part) was a lesson in humility. It was good for me (she says as she chokes down pride).

For the record – and I may feel differently after a good night’s rest – I’m not sure I plan to take them shopping ever again so help me…or until their feet grow another shoe size, whichever happens first. So I think I should be good for about another two weeks.

Share how God is working in your life on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for! Please read through the Gratituesday Guidelines so that you understand what kinds of posts you can link up to share here. Posts that are linked but do not fit our Gratituesday theme will be deleted.

If you are linking up a blog post for Gratituesday, please copy and paste the following sentence into your post! Thanks!

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

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Let Me Clarify: God Comes First

June 16, 2013 by Laura 16 Comments

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First I talked about how God and I have been meeting recently for some very important one-on-one quiet time. I have found this time to be crucial, powerful, and absolutely necessary in my life so that I can be in tune with what He wants me to do with my time each day.

Then I shared that some of you may have a hard time finding quiet time in the midst of crazy schedules and the terrible twos (which is so not limited to two year olds – if only). I understand the difficulty that comes with trying to find personal devotion time each day.

The first post was not meant to bring on the guilt. The second post was not meant to give you an out. The third post (that would be this one) is letting you know that no matter what your season in life, God is gracious, God understands what you’re going through, and God should come first always.

Your time with God may look different than mine. It doesn’t really matter what it looks like as long as it looks like something. Yes?

quiet time

Because obviously, this is how we all spend our “quiet time” each day. 
I couldn’t even type that with a straight face.

Let me remind you of an important phrase I used in the second post:  God understands your need for quiet, and will provide it for you when you ask.

Have you asked?

Take time (there’s that four letter word again) to reflect on how you spend your awake hours each day. We likely all say that God comes first in our list of priorities. But is our life a reflection of that conviction? Mine isn’t always. Sometimes I’d rather play than pray, and that’s just the stinky truth of what sometimes hangs out in my heart as I’m choosing how to spend my time. 

Or, if I fall back on the “I’m so busy” excuse, I’m ultimately choosing my kids, my husband, my kitchen, or even my doggone toilets over God. (Although nothin’ says you can’t become one with the toilet bowl while having some powerful prayer time. Been there, done that, glory hallelujah.)

Some questions to consider:

Is the desire to feed your family healthy food taking so much time that you feel “too busy” for anything else?  While healthy food is important (this is the Heavenly Homemakers site after all) – if the time it takes to prepare the food is taking hours each day and stressing you out, something needs to change. Continue to learn to serve healthy foods that are simple and quick. (My book and this site are full of info and recipes that combine healthy with simple.)  Save the detailed, time consuming recipes for special occasions. Scrambled eggs and fruit are healthy and quick, as are hundreds of other meals and snacks. God first, not food. 

When you find yourself with a few moments to spare, do you turn to your Bible and prayer – or to Facebook, blogs, TV, or you-name-it-whatever-you-love-to-do?  None of those are evil (usually), but neither are they as rich in blessing as time spent with God.

Have you signed your kids (or yourself) up for too many activities?  Ask God to show you if you need to cut back. Running all over town (or out of town) is a time and energy killer. Ask me how I know.

Are you involved with friends and ministries (yes, even really good ones) that keep you on the run so much serving God that you can’t find time to sit with Him? Oh, have I been there. Upon reflection, it turns out that God doesn’t need me to be all and do all. (Surprising fact:  He already is all and does all. Without my help.)  When I have taken time to ask and listen, He puts me in place with just the ministries He would like me to be a part of. Imagine that.

Share with us!  What holds you back? What can you say no to so that you can say yes to God?

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Menu Plan for the Week

June 16, 2013 by Laura 2 Comments

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

After keeping it a secret for weeks, we finally gave Matt his Father’s Day gift this morning. So much fun! 

If you’re interested, we have just six 4-ounce bottles of vanilla extract left. It’s been fun watching them sell and seeing how many different states they are headed to. May they be a blessing in your kitchen. ;)

orangejulius2sm

Here’s our menu plan for this week:

Sunday, June 16 – Happy Father’s Day!
Peach cobbler, milk
Crock pot beef stew, chocolate peanut butter pie
Burgers, sweet potato fries, watermelon

Monday, June 17
Chocolate chocolate chip muffins, strawberries
Snacky lunch – cheese, apples, baby carrots, grapes, crackers, beef sticks
Grilled barbecue chicken, tossed salad, green beans, watermelon

Tuesday, June 18
Giant breakfast cookies, pineapple mango smoothies
Grilled cheese sandwiches, cherry tomatoes, pickles, strawberries
Chicken fried steak strips, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas

Wednesday, June 19
Pancake sausage muffins, cantaloupe
Homemade corndogs, smoothies, baby carrots
Alfredo sauce with pasta, steamed broccoli and carrots, tossed salad

Thursday, June 20
Fried eggs on toast, raspberries, yogurt
Chicken salad on whole wheat pitas, apple slices
Calico beans, pears, carrots

Friday, June 21
Quick mix pancakes, blueberries
Cheddar ranch burgers, potato wedges, asparagus
Chili mac, tossed salad

Saturday, June 22
Creamy orange coolers, scrambled eggs
Leftovers
Italian roast wraps, lettuce, tomatoes, watermelon

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