Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Menu Plan for the Week

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We walked into the house today after church to the delicious smell of pot roast. I quickly made gravy, and we sat down to eat. By the way, see that itty-bitty tiny amount of gravy? There wasn’t much juice in this roast for some reason, so our gravy portions were very small. But hey, how nice is it that our worst problem today at lunch was lack of gravy?

roast

After this week, we will officially have two teenagers in the house. Justus turns 13 on Friday! 

I was disappointed that last week I never got around to making A Moment With Mom’s Potato Soup. She is one of our site sponsors and not only does she share the occasional yummy recipe, she has lots of encouragement to share. Be sure to check out her blog! Here’s hoping I’ll get this soup made Tuesday as planned. :)

Sunday, February 10
Giant breakfast cookies, clementines
Beef chuck roast, carrots, potatoes, gravy, whole wheat butterhorns
High school huddle – Breakfast casseroles, peanut butter chocolate chip muffins, banana muffins, applesauce bread, apples, oranges, pineapple

Monday, February 11
Whole wheat pancakes, blueberries
Chicken salad on whole wheat pita bread, fruit salad
Leftover roast made into stew, cornbread muffins

Tuesday, February 12
Granola, dried fruit
A Moment With Mom’s Potato Soup, baby carrots
Lamb chops, baked potatoes, green beans

Wednesday, February 13
Scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, creamy orange cooler
Quesadillas, sweet peppers, apples
Bbq chicken legs (baked in a 350° oven for an hour), cheesy mashed potatoes, peas, tossed salad

Thursday, February 14
Honey whole wheat bread with peanut butter and honey, applesauce
Easy noodle stir fry with chicken, broccoli, and carrots
Hamburger steak, ranch potato wedges, peas, pineapple, some sort of special Valentine’s Day treat?? Ideas?

Friday, February 15 – Justus’ birthday choices!
(He hasn’t decided yet.)  :)

Saturday, February 16
Homemade poptarts, fruit
Leftovers
Mother-Son Banquet with church family

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Vanilla Shake Time!

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Are you in the process of making Homemade Vanilla Extract, like I am? Have you shooked, shaken, shaked, shooken…um…have you given your homemade vanilla a shake in a while?

If not, might I encourage you to get out the vanilla that you are brewing and give it a good shake? It’s all a part of the lovely extracting process. 

There, now wasn’t that fun?

Carry on.

And if you aren’t making Homemade Vanilla, I highly encourage you to look into it following these very simple directions on how to make homemade vanilla extract!  It’s super easy and very fun. Then you, too, can say that you got your vanilla shaked, shooken…{cough}…that you shook your vanilla. :)

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My Grocery Store Visit – Compromising and Feeling Peace

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This afternoon Elias, Malachi, and I made a trip to the store. Once we got home and the boys had unloaded all of our food onto the kitchen counter, I thought it all looked so pretty that I just had to take a picture. Plus, I thought you might enjoy hearing some of what went through my head while I was shopping today.

Well, at least you might enjoy the food thinking part of what went through my head while I was shopping. You don’t want to know all the vast amount of other thoughts that whizzed through my noggin as I pass from bananas to eggs like:  “Shoot, I kind of need bandaids, but they are clear on the other side of the store and I don’t want to go all the way over there, so I don’t think I need bandaids that badly today.” Which quickly was replaced by, “Why must they have the lacy women’s undergarments displayed RIGHT BY THE FOOD???” And upon seeing said lacy apparel to my right, I said out loud, “Look over to the left, boys!! I think that’s Phineas and Ferb on those boxes of mac and cheese!” We then make it safely by the bras with my boys’ attention diverted because they are now focused on the idea of eating a cheesy Perry the Platypus. (Side note:  I kindly called the store manager about this issue once, and while they were very nice about it and listened to my thoughts on the matter, they are bound by coorporate policy to have the store set up as it is. At least I tried.)

Well, anyway. Back to the food.

I loaded our cart full of goodies today – and most of the items were not organic. I used to cringe at this. But here’s the deal:  It’s February. This is not the best time of year for me to obtain organic produce. After all, I live in Nebraska. It’s cold here.  I have an Azure Standard order coming next week, but in the meantime, we need fresh fruits and veggies at our house. So there you have it.

grocery_store_2

I typically at least try to avoid non-organic produce on the dirty dozen list, focusing on oranges and pineapple this time of year. But today? Well, today, I just wanted a bigger variety of fresh fruit for my family, and nothing organic was available. We wanted apples. There were no organic apples. So I got regular ol’ Galas. And then the boys saw a big display of strawberries. We all started drooling, even though really, non-organic strawberries in February aren’t much to drool over. Neither are blueberries. But I got them both. And we can’t wait to eat them with our breakfast tomorrow!

Also, I got some “Hormel Naturals” turkey for sandwiches for an upcoming out of town basketball trip. It’s better than the worst – and I bought it without guilt. And I got some Dole peach cups (100% juice) for the same trip. What a fun treat!

Here’s the deal:  We all should be striving for nourishment and good health. Not perfection. Not a guilt trip. Not fear. Not frustration.

We do the best we can. We compromise wisely when we have to. I didn’t compromise by putting poptarts and twinkies in my cart. I compromised by buying some fruits and veggies that were not organic, therefore “less than ideal”. I need not feel guilt. And even if the strawberries are completely flavorless because it is, after all, February – we are going to enjoy them as a special treat in the middle of winter and not worry one bit about it!

Those are my thoughts. Feel free to share your thoughts on this subject in the comments section. Feel free to suck down a strawberry every now and again that isn’t organic. Feel free to trust that God is bigger than pesticides.

Oh, and one more thing:  While we were picking out our pineapple, I told the boys, “You have to pick it up and smell its bottom to see if it is a good one or not.” Elias thought that was way too funny:  “smell its bottom…” Hahahaha.

Yeah, be thankful that most of this post shared what goes through my head – not what goes through the head of my eleven year old son. :)

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Cooking Ten Pounds of Hamburger Instead of Just One

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I was a part of an interesting conversation with friends recently in which some of us (including me) were saying, “If you’re going to cook one pound of ground beef, it doesn’t take any additional effort to cook ten pounds.” You know me – I’m always trying to convince people that cooking healthy food doesn’t have to be crazy time consuming. Especially when you practice the Cook Once, Eat Twice or More method.

But one of our friends, who knows a lot about cooking for large groups, said, “Actually – yes it does. It takes very little effort to cook one pound of hamburger. But you get ten pounds or more in a pot, and that’s a lot more muscle power and effort!”

Ha! She makes a great point. 

So what do you think I went home and did? Well, I went to bed, because it was late. But then what do you think I did the next day? No doubt, I got eleven pounds of hamburger out to thaw. I had an experiment to do!

hamburger_1

Yes. I know. I’m a geek. Hey, at least I got 11 pounds of cooked meat out of the deal.

I put ten pounds of meat into two separate pots because I wanted some with onions and some without. I began cooking the meat at 9:52.

hamburger_2

I find that cooking hamburger meat is quite easy. Every once in a while, I’d go stir it and break up the larger chunks. Otherwise, the meat is smart enough to cook all by itself. Therefore, while the meat was cooking, I mixed up Whole Wheat Tortillas and grated some cheese. If I was going to have eleven pounds of meat, well then, I was going to make some Meat and Cheese Burritos for the freezer.

tortillas

This was a quadruple batch of tortillas.
No, I didn’t make them all while the meat was cooking, but I did get a good start.

How long did it take for these ten pounds of meat to cook from start to finish? Drum roll please…23 minutes. I even surprised myself with that one. I thought it would take a little longer than that. By the way, I always took the lids off for the pictures, but I did cook the meat with the lids on. That always helps meat to cook more quickly, and keeps the flavorful juices from evaporating away!

hamburger_3

Next, I put one pound of meat into a pan and began to cook it. Again, in the meantime, I continued to work on that quadruple batch of tortillas I was making.

hamburger_4

From start to finish, it took 14 minutes to cook one pound of hamburger meat.

What did I learn during this experiment? 

  • It takes 14 minutes to cook one pound of hamburger; 23 minutes to cook ten pounds. (Although technically, I suppose I only had five pounds in each pot. But still. Much time saved.)
  • It does take slightly more effort to mush up the meat when cooking a larger amount, but barely.
  • It feels so productive to get so many pounds of meat cooked at one time.
  • I can get all kinds of other work done while the meat is cooking. (I already knew that, but it was worth saying anyway.)
  • All of my friends are smart. (I already knew that too, but it was worth saying anyway.)

What did I do with all of that cooked, ground meat? I made three meals worth of Burritos, two meals worth of Sloppy Joes, and three meals worth of “grab the cooked meat out of the freezer whenever you need it” meat. 

How do you usually cook your hamburger meat? In larger batches or just as needed?

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Can You Lose Weight (or Keep from Gaining Weight) When Eating Whole Foods?

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weight

Before I begin this post, I want to say this:  Being “skinny” is not the goal when it comes to eating a whole foods diet. Our goal is to be healthy, not to have a Barbie doll figure (who, by the way, is made of plastic and is susceptible to having an arm or leg snapped off, just ask my brother). Now let’s begin:

I often receive emails from readers asking me:  “I have some pounds to lose. Can I lose weight while eating whole foods?” or “How do you stay slim while eating such a high fat diet?” or “I want to start eating real foods, but I’m afraid of gaining weight.”

butter

Can I lose weight while eating whole foods?

These questions and fears are very valid and I understand why these emails are coming in. I was afraid of the very same things when I first learned about eating whole foods. For as long as I can remember, we have been told from experts that eating a high fat diet is bad for us. That drinking whole milk and consuming other full fat dairy products is terrible. That butter is a huge no-no. That we needed to eat fat-free yogurt. That we should avoid red meat and focus on lean, white meat. That eggs were horrible and full of cholesterol.

To replace each of these, we were provided with “low fat” and “fat free” substitutes of sour cream, cheese, and milk. We were offered “egg-beaters” to replace eggs in recipes. Margarine became the “healthier choice” because it was lower in saturated fat. And most other processed high fat food companies came out with “low fat” varieties for those who were “health conscious”. (Fat free mayonnaise, anyone?)

I bought into it for years. I think many people did. Most nutrition books on the market still suggest that eating “low fat” varieties of food is the healthier way to go.

Here’s what I learned while eating a “low fat or fat free” diet for many years:  Any time I got into patterns of over-eating – even if it was food that was low in fat – I struggled with maintaining a healthy weight. In addition, I craved more sugar since many low fat foods have sugar added to make up for the loss of flavor that happens when you take naturally occurring fat out of food.

Once I began eating a real food diet, which is higher in real fat – real butter, real cream, whole milk, real sour cream, whole milk yogurt, eggs, beef, lamb (along with whole grains and lots of fruits and veggies) – I found that these foods are so satisfying that my body wasn’t consistently craving what it wasn’t getting! I found that the food tasted so good that I wasn’t constantly disappointed with dry, tasteless food. I found that I had more energy and healthier skin. I found that overall, because I was eating whole food in its original form, I felt so much better than I’d ever felt when I had been eating food that had been stripped of its natural fat.

Cream Cheese Chicken

So can you eat whole foods that are naturally high in fat and maintain a healthy weight, or even lose weight if you need to? Yes!  I’ve watched friends arrive at a healthy weight once they began eating a real food diet. Once they gave up eating processed foods, and even “low fat foods” and began to instead eat a diet of unprocessed, whole foods – the extra pounds just fell off! And I can tell you that for myself, after 15 years of following the latest diet trends (low fat, calorie counting, etc) in an effort to “not gain weight” – eating a diet of real, whole foods (going on eight years now) has been the easiest way I’ve experienced to maintain a healthy weight.

I’m going to say this again:  None of us should have being “skinny” as the goal as we look at this subject. We should be focused on being “healthy”.  Eating a well balanced whole foods diet is healthy. And wow does it ever taste good!

Here are my top five tips (besides eating a whole foods diet) for maintaining a healthy weight:

  1. Don’t Over-Eat: Too much healthy food is still too much food. Eat when you are hungry. Stop eating when you are full. It’s really quite simple. (Except for when it’s chocolate. Then it is difficult. Self control, Laura everyone, self-control.)
  2. Be Balanced:  Sure, I love butter and believe wholeheartedly that it is a healthy fat. But man (or Laura) shall not live on butter alone. Eat a wide variety of whole foods for a healthy balance that will meet all of your body’s needs.
  3. Go Easy on the Sugar:  Yes, even natural sugars like honey, sucanat, and maple syrup. And desserts made with chocolate. But I covered that already.
  4. Exercise:  For so many reasons, just do it. You will not regret it, and your body will love you for it.
  5. Eat Healthy Fats:  Avoid processed, manufactured fats like vegetable oils, crisco, and margarine. Our bodies don’t recognize them, can’t utilize them, and therefore store them in our bodies as fat. Coconut oil, real butter, and palm oil are all fats our bodies can break down and utilize for energy and nourishment.

I hope you will all feel comfortable leaving a comment to share how this journey has been for you. Have you found that eating real, whole foods has helped you achieve a healthy weight? Are you afraid to eat a whole foods diet? Have you been eating a whole foods diet and been happy with the results? 

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Gratituesday: All the Seasons

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This afternoon, leaving my fifteen year old and almost thirteen year old at home to finish school work, I packed up my eleven year old and eight year old, and we headed over to visit our friend who has a three year old, a two year old, and a newborn. The hope was that while my boys played with her little ones and I held the baby, our friend could get a few things done, or maybe just put her feet up for a while!

This really was an “everyone wins” situation. It was great for my boys to play the “big kid” role. The two and three year olds had fun playing with the big kids. In between feeding times, their mama cleaned out her freezer, got caught up on phone calls and paper work, and did a variety of other tasks that were on “the list”. And I think it goes without saying that I loved having a chance to snuggle a newborn for a good long while. ;)

Back in the day when all my boys were tiny, we had a family friend who would invite me to drop my boys off at her house every so often, just so that I could go to the store (or go home and take a nap) by myself. She insisted that someone had done that for her when her kids were little, and that the way I could repay her was to do the same for others when my kids were older and I had a chance. I’ve never forgotten the blessing that friend was to me during that season.

I could say all kinds of goo-goo stuff about how I miss those days of little bitty ones because truly, some days I do. There is something so precious about silly two year old lingo, sticky kisses, and the “I do it myself!” phase. And there is something equally precious about having an eleven year old who can entertain a two year old well enough to produce belly laughs for a good fifteen minutes. (I should have recorded it.)

Every stage has beauty of its own. Every season is a blessing. And no day is perfect – no matter what season you’re in. I don’t miss everything about having babies and toddlers, nor do I love everything about having independent big kids. But I relish the memories and I embrace the day to day. That’s a whole lot better than living with an “if only”, or “I wish”, or the “I can’t wait until” mentality.

Give thanks for today – no matter what season you are in! And if your season will allow it, go let the mama of little ones take a nap or to do something that doesn’t require wiping a nose or a bottom. If you are that tired mama of little ones, ask a friend for some help. I promise – everyone wins! (Spoken by someone who got a wonderful, squishy baby fix today.)  :)

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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Get Your Kids Involved in the Kitchen {You Can Do This! Bonus Tip}

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ECourse1BonusTips

I am very excited that so many of you are taking part in our You Can Do This! The First Five Steps To a Real Food Kitchen eCourse!

As an added bonus – for those of you who are participating in the course and for those who aren’t – each Monday for the next few weeks, I plan to share a Bonus Tip to encourage you along in your Real Food Journey. Remember though, these are just bonus tips. If you take the eCourse, you’ll get loads more information, guidance, downloads, recipes, and worksheets – all for just $5! (Click here to purchase if you are interested.)

Today’s tip is to get your kids involved in the kitchen with you. This will help them learn how to cook, and learn how to make healthy choices.

Just by helping me in the kitchen, my kids have learned how to adapt a recipe to use healthier ingredients. Case in point…

Elias got a new cookbook in his stocking – and all of the recipes are for yummy desserts, his favorite! Simply by looking through the recipes, he can  figure out how to make dishes and desserts using healthier ingredients. He’s only 11. 

kids_in_the_kitchen

This it not because I’ve spent countless hours drilling my kids on how to cook and how to adapt recipes. It’s because they learn simply by being in the kitchen with me, and because truly, adapting a recipe to make it healthier is not really very difficult! (Read more about how to do this here.)

kids_in_the_kitchen_2

Elias and Malachi (age 8) chose a Mint Chocolate Bar recipe and got to work, with very little help from me. They used sucanat in place of sugar, whole wheat flour in place of white flour, and real butter in place of vegetable oil. These are all one-to-one substitutions. See? not hard at all!

Their special treat turned out delicious. And I love knowing that I’m preparing my kids for a healthy future. (Because yes, they do know how to cook more than just desserts.)  :)

 Interested in learning more about our
You Can Do This! The First Five Steps To a Real Food Kitchen eCourse?
We’d love to have you join us!
And don’t forget to take advantage of our
Buy a $10 Gift Certificate for $5 deal.
With it, you can get the eCourse, bonus recipe cards, and another eBook
– all for five bucks!

 

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Menu Plan for the Week

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Thanks for following along all last week as I shared how our menu plan played out each day. And a big thanks to my family who, three times a day – six days in a row, was kind enough to say, “Can we eat this now or do you need a picture first?” Gotta love ’em. :)

You really should be impressed with how well I followed the menu last week. I did tweak it here and there, but overall, I stayed on track pretty well. This doesn’t always happen, trust me. Sometimes what I planned just doesn’t sound good. Sometimes there are other items in the fridge that need to be eaten before I make anything new. And often – I am working on food experiments to share here on the blog (or for my new book), so we eat the food I’ve been playing with so that I can document the correct ingredient measurements and get some pictures. Again, a big thanks to my family who sees a new dish, gets excited, but pauses long enough to ask, “Can we eat this now or do you need a picture first?” :)

Oh dear. If my kids ever come to your house and happen to be there during meal time, you may want to get out your camera and snap a quick picture of the food, just so that they know it’s okay for them grab a fork and chow down. At our house, when Mom puts the camera away, that means it’s “time to eat”. It’s kind of like Pavlov’s dogs. Not that I’m comparing my family to dogs. Or myself to a Russian physiologist. Oh never mind.

So moving on to this week. Last night I made a batch of Whole Wheat Cinnamon Rolls, put them into the fridge just after shaping them, and baked them this morning. If you recall, we had some teenage guests. I figured homemade cinnamon rolls would hit the spot. I added a few tablespoons of orange juice concentrate to the Cream Cheese Frosting – so yummy!

cinnamon_rolls

Here’s what we’ll be eating this week. After I take pictures. (Okay, it’s really not every time we eat…)

Sunday, February 3
Whole wheat cinnamon rolls, fruit
Church meal to feed the youth after the rally:  I signed up for and took cookies and chips
Huddle/Super Bowl Party – taking cheese/crackers, and sliced sweet peppers

Monday, February 4
Honey whole wheat bagels, creamy orange coolers
Veggie soup, cornbread
Easy noodle stir fry with broccoli and carrots

Tuesday, February 5
Peanut butter pancakes, turkey sausage, apples
Grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup, baby carrots
Creamy chicken and rice, carrots, tossed salad

Wednesday, February 6
Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, applesauce
Calzones, fruit smoothies
Cheesy salsa enchiladas, tossed salad

Thursday, February 7
Warm chocolate soother, toast, clementines
Pigs in a blanket, smoothies, baby carrots
Chicken fried steak strips, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas

Friday, February 8
Strawberry bread, bananas
Moment With Mom’s Potato Soup, raw veggies
Crock pot bbq chicken, potato wedges, green beans

Saturday, February 9
Whole wheat donuts, fruit
Leftovers
Italian pasta bake, tossed salad

I want to know how often you take pictures of your food before you eat.  C’mon. Fess up. Even non-bloggers do it I bet. :)

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Cake Boys Videos Are Back! {Episode 8}

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Finally! 

Christmas travels threw us off just a little bit, and then the boys were determined (by popular request) to add a “commercial” to the video. After much work, silliness, and editing – here is Cake Boys Episode 8! (Watch previous episodes here.)

Just beware – Asa scripted this, then our whole family was invited to be a part of the commercial. Acting cheesy seems to be what we do best. The whole thing is ridiculous, if we do say so ourselves, but there’s no doubt about it – we sure do have fun around here. :)

Subscribers, click here to watch.

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Friday Food

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I hope what you’ve learned by having a sneak peek at all of our food this week is that I really try to keep our meals simple. I don’t have time for fancy meals – but I do love to take time to make our food healthy, well balanced, yummy, and fun!

Today’s menu was:

Friday, February 1
Giant breakfast cookies, apples
Taco corn fritters, fruit smoothies
Homemade pizza, fruit

This morning, I cheated and spread the Breakfast Cookies batter into a 9×13 pan to bake. The entire pan was empty when we finished breakfast, plus we had big glasses of milk and clementines.

friday_1

Our Taco corn fritters at lunch were a huge hit. Everytime Matt or one of the boys came into the kitchen to see what I was making, they each said, “Corn fritters?! We haven’t had those for a while.” As in – every single one of them said this to me at a different time as they came into the kitchen. It totally cracked me up. And I guess I learned that I need to make these more often. There were only two left on the platter when we were done. Instead of making fruit smoothies, I simply got out a bowl of baby carrots and some pineapple and called it good.

friday_2

Between meals, we spent the day wrapping up our school work lists for the week, putting final touches on research papers, and preparing our house for guests. This weekend, our church is hosting a youth rally for middle and high school kids. Youth groups came from all over Nebraska (and beyond) for the event. We’ll be housing 6-8 middle school boys tonight and tomorrow night. Soooo, while I didn’t feel that we necessarily needed to have our house spotless for a bunch of middle school boys who would likely not care if I had a little dust or dirt in the corners of a room, we did need to clean up a little bit and get beds and mattresses ready. :)  Our boys were a huge help.  Love them.

Before taking Asa and Justus to the rally tonight, I made Homemade Pizzas. I love that we still have some peppers in our freezer from the garden.

friday_3

And now I will think about snacks for all those boys when they get here tonight. I wonder how long it will be before they find the ping-pong table. My guess is that it will get quite a work-out this weekend. :)

Hope your weekend is off to a good start!

P.S. I don’t think I’ll plan to share our Saturday food with you. Why? Because it will be very, very boring. We have quite a few leftovers, so just picture us eating everything else you’ve seen pictured this week – just warmed up a second time. :)

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