Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

The Month of the Funky Fresh Kitchen! Join Us!

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Our Funky Fresh Kitchen series last fall was so enjoyable, we’ve decided to do it again. Only this time, we have so much planned that we’re going to “party together” the entire month of September!! (And by “party”, I sort of mean work hard…so get out your rubber gloves and a mixing bowl — not to be used at the same time, of course.)

First, what is the Month of the Funky Fresh Kitchen? As summer fades and our fall routines begin, our goal is to inspire you to have a wonderful, fresh start! We want to encourage you to create a kitchen that is healthy and funky (aka functional). It’s time to clean out, clean up, be encouraged, and learn to (or be reminded that you) love your job as a heavenly homemaker!

All throughout the month of September, you can expect to see:

  • Fresh, New Recipes (All are easy, all are healthy, and many utilize a crock pot.)
  • Funky Fresh Freebies! (Including some eBooks from my shop! Some will come and go quickly – so be on your toes!) (Sit back down – that was a figurative statement.)
  • Funky Fresh Challenges (We’re all in this together. Be ready to get your game on. If you have a blog, be ready to link up.)
  • Encouragement and Inspiration (Unless I’ve already overwhelmed you with the obvious “loud excitement” of this post. Really, please do come back…)  ;)
  • because there are GIVEAWAYS!!!

Seriously – the giveaways!! Sprinkled all throughout the many fun (and hopefully helpful) posts this month will be some downright incredible giveaways. Want a sneak peek?

You may remember seeing some of those great giveaways last year at this time, and I am so grateful that so many were willing to work with us again this year as we inspire you toward a Funky Fresh Kitchen!

(It’s possible that I’m using too many exclamation marks in this post, but in all my excitement, I’m not sure I’m capable of editing them out.)  !!!!!!!  (sheesh)

Well now, are you feeling the excitement? Do you feel the love? Do you wish you could give me a chill pill? 

I’m warning you now, there will be a lot of posts this month. Freebies, giveaways, recipes, challenges – they will all be posted at random times, sometimes up to three or four posts each day. Don’t worry – I will keep each post short and sweet. After all, how are you supposed to create a funky fresh kitchen if you’re spending all day reading about it?

If you haven’t already, you may want to Subsribe to Heavenly Homemakers, and/or Like Heavenly Homemakers on Facebook so you won’t miss any posts. Of course, scrolling down through the posts on my blog works too. ;)

Take note:  All throughout September, each time you leave a comment on a post which displays our Funky Fresh Kitchen button (as shown at the top of this post), you will be entered in a drawing for three gift certificates to our Heavenly Homemakers Shop, good for any downloadable items. We’ve got two $25 certificates and one $50 certificate to give away!

Shall we start practicing now? Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win. AND, if you share about this post about the month of the Funky Fresh Kitchen on Facebook, leave another comment on this post for a second entry!

Let the Month of the Funky Fresh Kitchen begin!

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Make Breakfast the Night Before {Eat Healthy, Save Time}

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I know I’ve shared this tip before, but within this Eat Healthy, Save Time series, I decided to say it again:

In an effort to easily and quickly provide a healthy breakfast for my family each morning, sometimes I find it helpful to get breakfast made the night before I plan to serve it.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins and Blueberry Muffins with fruit and milk.
Fast, easy, and a total family pleaser.

This sometimes means that I bake muffins at night after dinner. Or it might mean that I multi-task while making our evening meal and stir together Giant Breakfast Cookies while our dinner casserole is baking. Or, it might mean that I put together an Easy Breakfast Casserole right before I go to bed so that all I have to do is get up in the morning and put the casserole directly into the oven.

 

And shucks, as someone quite goofy but very practical once said, “If you’re making one you might as well make two…” Therefore, you might even decide to make an Egg Casserole to bake in the morning…and make a second one to put into the freezer for another morning. 

 And when breakfast has been made, and dishes have been washed the night before? Clean up after breakfast in the morning is a breeze! Kitchen efficiency (and a healthy eating!) just keeps getting easier, doesn’t it? :)

What kinds of breakfast foods have you found to be easy to make the night before?

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Apple Muffin Throw Down

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Remember the Boxed Brownies vs. Homemade Brownies experiment I did? And the Boxed Mac and Cheese vs. Homemade Creamy Mac and Cheese experiment I did? How about my Sunday Dinner Challenge, which took a whopping one minute, forty eight point nine seconds to make? My boys love that I keep making them bring the stop watch into the kitchen for these “races”. It’s that male competition thing they have going on. 

I finally got around to completing another “boxed vs. homemade” experiment in an effort to prove that making homemade food from healthy ingredients doesn’t take a lot of time. I figure that some might still be having a difficult time believing me when I say that it truly doesn’t take a long time to prepare healthy foods. So I’m having fun trying to “prove” my case, and my family is having fun eating the results of my experiments. ;)

This time, I decided to see which took longer to prepare: boxed muffins…or muffins made from scratch. I found some great looking “healthier” boxed muffin mixes from Vitacost. While these were organic, they were still made from white flour and white sugar, although at least I could control the oil I put into them. None of that has anything to do with the experiment necessarily, except just to say that these muffins really didn’t hold much in the way of nutrition. Anyway, back to the point, which I know that those of you who haven’t fallen asleep while reading this post are waiting on pins and needles to hear… 

From the time I opened the boxes, to the time I put the muffin pans into the oven, 6.25 minutes had passed. 

A few weeks later, I mixed up my Applesauce Bread recipe and made the batter into muffins. How long did it take? Right at 7 minutes.  And these had whole wheat flour, honey, and real, unsweetened applesauce in them. Nutrients! For my family for breakfast! What a concept.  This, because I spent about 45 seconds longer making muffins from scratch. 

What other thoughts do you have about what I could experiment with?  My boys are waiting with their stop watch…

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The Night of the Bat

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 The clock had just struck midnight. Why were Matt and I still awake? I’m not sure, but we were not to be awake for long. We were both right at that blissful point of drifting off to a peaceful sleep.

Suddenly Matt said, “Did you see that?”

Um no, I did not see that. I’m not sure if any of you are aware of this, but my eyesight without contacts or glasses is quite poor. Some might say I’m as blind as a bat, which is oh-so-punny since Matt then sat straight up in bed and said, “I think there’s a bat in our living room!” 

For real? Right now? We were both so tired. But what were we to do when indeed, there was a bat in our living room? Matt got up. Team player that I am, I stayed under the covers. We discussed a strategy for getting the bat to go outside, none of which really sounded effective, but all of which involved a box, a broom, and a bath towel. What? You think you could have come up with a better idea?

By the time Matt got to the living room, the bat was nowhere to be found. He decided to go upstairs and close all the doors so as to contain it, and more importantly, keep it from going into the room where the boys slept. Ahhh – there it was! In the upstairs hallway! He slammed all the doors closed quickly, then attempted to watch the pattern of the bat flying back and forth between the hallways walls – you know – like a video game – so he’d know just when to swoop in with the broom. Or the dust pan. Or the box. Or whatever in the world might be the most effective way to get the bat outside.

In the meantime, I was still under the covers, praying for Matt to get rid of the bat quickly. And – I am ashamed to say this – I also found myself dozing off from time to time. It’s okay though. The good wife in me woke up each time I heard the broom hit the wall upstairs and I’d jolt awake to start praying again. Ain’t no one can call me unsupportive. ;)

Back upstairs, Matt had the broom in readyness for swiping. His intent was to “stun” the bat, scoop it into the box, then take it outside. You’ve got to love a man with a plan.

Ah, there it was – the opportunity! Swipe! Oh wow, and not only did it stun the bat, the bat actually fell directly into the box. How very convenient. Matt breathed a sigh of relief, then bent over to close the box. Oh but wait! The bat had a better idea. Up he flew, right toward Matt’s face! 

Whap! Instinctively, Matt swung the broom again. Success! And the bat was put into the box and taken outside. Ending score:  Bat 0—My Hero 1.

Matt was more than a little bit pumped up with adrenaline at that point, and as you can imagine, had a difficult time going to sleep, even if it was almost one in the morning by then. Me? Once I knew he had the bat outside, I gave my courageous husband a groggy “Great job, Babe”, then promptly rolled over and conked out. I figured that at least one of us needed a decent night’s rest in order to take care of the kids in the morning. 

Told you I was a team player. ;)

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Covenant Ranch Trucking – Delivering for Azure Standard. Can You Benefit From Their Services?

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You have hopefully noticed this nice ad over in my sidebar:

Proudly delivering for Azure Standard

If you’ve been reading here long, you know how much I love ordering groceries from the health food co-op, Azure Standard.

I just wanted to take the time to explain a little bit about what Covenant Ranch Trucking is to see if they are able to benefit you where you are.

Covenant Ranch Trucking is a family owned, family friendly business that delivers many Azure Standard routes such as:

  • To CO (on the 70 and south of the 70 coming down the 25 into NM).
  • To NM ( north of the 40 heading east into TX)
  • To IA (eastern IA is covered by us. The rest of IA is another family)
  • To TX, KS, MO, AR, OK, IL, IN, and TN
  • One drop in LA (Shreveport) and one drop in OH (Cincinnati)
  • If none of these locations matches where you live, you can read more on this post to see if Azure delivers to your area.

Here is what Mrs. Joseph Wood, who has been working with me on this to get the word out about her family business, has shared with me.

Let me share with you some of the ways we are hoping to be a blessing to others as well as grow the routes and spread Azure Standard.

We would like to give 5.00 GC to those that are willing to share five referrals with us. They can be friends that are interested in Azure, Health food stores, Chiropractors, Homeschool groups or anyone else they would like us to share with. We only ask that they first ask permission to share the persons information with us. We only want to share with those that are truly interested in hearing more. We will also give each of their five friends a GC for five dollars off. (Contact information:  mrsjosephwood at gmail.com)

Azure Standard is unable to compensate drop managers due to federal tax regulations. However, as a company, Covenant Ranch Trucking, we are offering all our drop managers free shipping for their order for each month they meet our average drop total of 3000.00 (that is the average drop on our routes). We will help advertise a drop on FB, on the blog, send catalogs, flyers or assist in any other way. We hope that it is  a blessing to those that volunteer their time to serve in their community. Also, if they refer someone who starts a drop that drops total goes toward their 3000.00 as well! It really is easy to do. Again this is coming from Covenant Ranch Trucking so it is only available on our routes.

We are also always looking for men with integrity who have their CDL to drive for us. We can’t expand without the drivers. We a family friendly company and give our drivers one week off every month to be at home with their families. We also pay extra on our insurance so children and spouses can come along on the routes.

Hopefully many of you will be benefited by their services. I’ve never once been disappointed with Azure Standard, and love that so many of you will have the delivery service of Covenant Ranch Trucking.

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Gratituesday: Freezer Food, Which Was Made to Be Eaten (A Little Post That Laura Wrote To Herself That You Are Welcome To Read If You’d Like)

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Ah, Freezer Food…

I have a blast thinking through which meals will be helpful to have on hand to pull out with a moment’s notice. I spend hours preparing it. I experiment with new recipes that will keep nicely in the freezer. I store the healthy, prepared food carefully away for the “busy days”. I keep note of it in the back of my mind, thankful that it is there in the freezer if I need it. 

And then I hoard it.  I hesitate to use it, even on busy days, knowing that there just may be an upcoming day that’s even busier when I will need that particular frozen meal. So I quickly cook something else, even if I don’t have time, saving the frozen, prepared meals for a “busier day”.

Hello, Laura?!!? Every day right now is a busy day!!! You’ve found yourself coming and going every day for the past three weeks. You’ve barely had time to sit at the computer and you are getting more and more behind on your work. Apples are coming out your ears, waiting to be made into applesauce and canned for the winter. You desperately need to go check the garden to see what else is ready to preserve. God continues to put people in your life to serve, there is school work to be done, phone calls to return, and you haven’t been able to keep up with the nasty dishes crawling out of the kitchen sink since the end of July.

Exactly what kind of busy day are you waiting for that will qualify as a “good day to pull out some freezer food”?

Um…apparently I have been waiting for the days when we are chasing ourselves off to six soccer games, or well…I don’t know. There truly will be days that are busier than those which I am experiencing right now. But barely. 

On a day when I feel overwhelmed with everything on my “must-do” list – that is the day for the Freezer Food to come out. That is what it is for, after all. 

Here’s a picture of today’s BBQ Chicken Sandwich right before I threw it at my husband
when he came home for ten minutes between soccer practices. 
Fresh tomatoes and sweet peppers from our garden made this a great meal,
all of which I put together very quickly since I utilized my frozen food stash of BBQ Chicken.

Today, I am incredibly thankful that I spent the time a few weeks ago to stock my freezer with ready-to-eat foods. And today, I hereby give myself full permission to USE THEM!

Oh, and if you were worried, I didn’t really throw the sandwich at Matt. I handed it to him carefully so as not to fling bbq sauce and tomatoes, and I even managed to slap a kiss on his cheek as he headed out the door again. 

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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Menu Plan for the Week…Plus Cake Boys Episode 3!

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Here is our menu for this week. But more importantly, below you will find Cake Boys Episode 3! (Watch Espisode 1 and Episode 2 if you haven’t already.)  This time, the boys made a cake for Matt and me as we celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary. It was so very sweet. Be sure to admire my very messy kitchen and cluttery countertops as you watch. Yikes. ;)

Sunday, August 26
Oatmeal, fruit
Cheeseburger macaroni, tossed salad, green beans
Potluck picnic – taking drinks, veggie tray, and Texas sheet cake (made by the Cake Boys – Episode 4 coming up!)

Monday, August 27
Whole wheat pancakes, blueberries
Taco salad
Creamy chicken and rice casserole, carrots

Tuesday, August 28
Honey whole wheat bagels, cantaloupe
Tuna salad on tomatoes, pickles, olives, watermelon
Grilled bbq chicken, corn on the cob, zucchini

Wednesday, August 29
Crepes with jelly, applesauce
Italian roast wraps, tomatoes, lettuce, sweet peppers, green beans
Chicken patty sandwiches, ranch potato wedges, peas

Thursday, August 30
Fried eggs on toast, creamy orange cooler
Hamburger patties, steamed broccoli and carrots
Pizza casserole, tossed salad

Friday, August 31
Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, apple slices
Grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup, carrots
Tacos

Saturday, September 1
Whole wheat donuts, grapes
Leftovers
Steak on the grill, creamy cole slaw, corn on the cob

And now, Cake Boys Episode 3!

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Serving Trumps a Pity Party

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We had finally reached the end of what is typically one of the busiest weeks of the year. 

It was now finally Saturday, and we had been gone all day long at one of our son’s soccer games out of town. The kitchen was a picture of chaos, with coolers and leftovers from our packed lunch sitting in the perfect place for me to trip over while I tried to throw together a late dinner. The crusty dishes from breakfast were still piled high in the sink. Fruit gnats had found our compost bucket, which, I might add, was beginning to smell nasty and fermented. The tomato sauce splattered all over the stove when I poured it into the pot to make spaghetti. 

In the meantime, I was moving super slowly. I felt very, very tired. Plus, for some unknown reason, my left knee – the knee I’ve had trouble with off and on for 22 years since I injured it in high school – was causing me a lot of pain. I wrapped ice around it while I cut up veggies for dinner and just kept moving. Slowly I focused on finishing dinner, getting everyone fed, and getting the kitchen in decent shape so that I could just go to bed. 

Oh yes, and I also concentrated very hard on feeling sorry for myself. All I could think of was, “I’m sooo tired. My knee hurts. I just want to go to bed.” I couldn’t have smiled if you would have paid me, and I really didn’t feel like answering questions or talking to my family.

And then, someone showed up at our door. 

Oh yeah.  I had forgotten that we had told a young friend of ours he could spend the night with us. But there he was, and what could I do but find some sort of pleasant look to greet him with? I pulled a lopsided smile out from way down deep inside my toes, and welcomed him in.

This friend of ours has some disabilities and special needs, which meant that heading to bed any time soon just wasn’t going to happen. But he is incredibly delightful to have around, and he needed to be served.

I invited him into the kitchen with me (scooting the coolers out of the way as best I could) and began to serve him dinner and visit with him. He shared a fun story about something that had happened earlier in the day, which made me laugh in spite of myself.

Several minutes later, as I fed him and helped him with various needs, it occurred to me that I wasn’t quite as tired as I had been. I had forgotten all about my aching knee. The mess in the kitchen didn’t look so terrible. And in fact, I was feeling quite joyful and energetic.

This young man has taught me many life lessons, and this time was no exception:   If you’re down, feeling sorry for yourself, and otherwise choosing to throw yourself a pity party…consider who you might serve. Looking outward toward meeting the needs of others will take the focus off of “self” every time.

Disclaimer:  Obviously, we all need to make sure we’re taking care of ourselves before we serve others, otherwise we have nothing left to give. The point of this post isn’t suggesting that you give of yourself until you pass out. The point is to stop feeling sorry for yourself. And if you’re having a hard time doing that, find someone to serve. It works every time.

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Get $35 Worth Of Organic Groceries For Just $25 With Free Shipping At Vitacost!

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I am excited to see that today through August 29, Vitacost is offering free shipping on all grocery orders over $25! Plus, if you are a new customer with Vitacost and you first sign up through this referral link, you will receive an email with a $10 credit code which you can use to make your purchase.

Therefore, if you put $35 worth of groceries into your cart, then apply your $10 credit, with the free shipping, you’ll be getting a lot of bang for your buck!

If you’re already a Vitacost customer, the Free Shipping for grocery orders over $25 is still a great deal. Recently, I’ve been watching for and taking advantage of Vitacost’s sales to have some of our favorite foods and ingredients on hand this fall. I love Vitacost’s reasonable prices, and I’m so thankful for online buying options like this since so many of these products aren’t available to me in our small town. :)

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Victorio Food Strainer – Makes Awesome Tomato Sauce!

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After learning how great my new Victorio Food Strainer is at making homemade applesauce, I was super excited to use it to make Homemade Tomato Sauce. I was finally able to experiment with it a couple weeks ago.

The easiest way I’ve found to prepare tomatoes for sauce is to roast them in the oven. Then, instead of running them through the blender like I have in the past, this time, I put them through my Victorio.

Or rather, I had my friend Piper run them through my Victorio. She and her brothers had spent the day with us, and she was happy to come into the kitchen and help me. You know what this proves? It proves that in a house that holds seven boys, sometimes we women need to stick together. And it also proves that the Victorio is easy enough for an eight year old to use! 

She had that tomato sauce strained in no time. And look! It’s so pretty it looks like it came directly out of a jar from the store. Except that it didn’t. It’s homemade and it’s organic and it’s made from fresh tomatoes from our garden!

A few days later, I made some awesome spaghetti sauce (um, if I do say so myself). I really meant to be bragging about the Victorio’s capability to make incredibly smooth tomato sauce, not on my ability to make delicious spaghetti sauce. Really.

 I know several of you have shared that you also decided to invest in a Victorio Food Strainer. Are you pleased with it so far?  I let my friend Jenny borrow mine and she loved it so much she bought one for herself. I’m telling you – it’s an incredible tool for the kitchen if you do a lot of canning!

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