Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

What Time of Day is Best for Working Out?

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Is there a time of day that is more beneficial for working out? Does working out in the morning prove to be a more effective exercise time than working out later in the day?

Those are questions Jen, from Getting Fit With Jen, hears often. Here’s what she has to say about it:

There are a variety of studies that “prove” different theories on the subject of what time of day is best for working out. Most studies will tell you that working out in the morning is better and more effective. The thought behind this is that early morning exercise will energize you, get your day started right, and boost your metabolism.

Is this true? Sure, working out in the morning can be beneficial in these ways. But what if you’re the type of person who is groggy in the morning? What if getting up extra early for exercise just doesn’t work for you? What if you simply do not have time to work out first thing in the morning?

Occasionally some find that working out at night before bed makes it hard for them to sleep because of the endorphins that have been released during the workout, pumping them up and giving them extra energy. Some people find that working out at night doesn’t affect them negatively and that, in fact, they actually sleep better immediately following a good workout.

I say:  Exercise during a time that works best for you. If morning works for you – great. If afternoon works for you – great. If night time works best for you – great. As long as you are finding time to exercise, no matter what time of day it is, you will reap the rewards!

Read more of Jen’s thoughts on this subject in her post:  Finding Time to Exercise. If you’re interested in having Jen set up a personalized work-out program for you, read more about the services she provides here. I have benefited so much from having her as my “personal trainer”. :)

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Cook Once, Eat Twice (or more) {Eat Healthy ~ Save Time}

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When I make a lasagna, I must cook some meat, add some sauce and spices, layer the noodles with the meat sauce and cheese, then wash a few dishes.

When I make two lasagnas, I must cook some meat, add some sauce and spices, layer the noodles with the meat sauce and cheese, then wash a few dishes.

When I made three lasagnas, I must cook some meat, add some sauce and spices, layer the noodles with the meat sauce and cheese, then wash a few dishes.

I’ve even made up to eight lasagnas at one time. Even then, my job was to (all together now…) cook some meat, add some sauce and spices, layer the noodles with the meat sauce and cheese, then wash a few dishes.

Whether I’m making one lasagna or eight, I dirty the same number of dishes while preparing the food. I take barely any extra time to make extra lasagnas, so for me, it’s a no-brainer. Why would I just make one lasagna when I can make three (or eight)?

(And by the way, I typically only make eight lasagnas at once when I’m feeding a big soccer team. While my boy-filled family does eat a lot, we are not up to eating 1.333 lasagnas each…yet.)

The same “Cook Once, Eat Twice (or More)” concept applies to almost everything I make – Cheesy Beef and Rice, Corndog Muffins, even these Whole Wheat Waffles. Scroll through all of my Make Ahead Meal posts to get some ideas and recipes that will help fill your freezer with healthy convenience foods.

You do realize what will happen though, if you start participating in this “Cook Once, Eat Twice (or More)” system? You will then have a nice supply of healthy, homemade meals to quickly pull out of your freezer and heat up for your family – with little to no effort. Putting a hearty, healthy, delicious meal on the table will become extremely easy. You will no longer be able to use the “I don’t have time to eat or cook healthy food…” excuse.

Just so you know. ;)

Have you tried the “Cook Once, Eat Twice (or More)” kitchen efficiency method? What are some of your favorite healthy foods you like to make for your freezer?

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Raspberry Almond Muffins from Deliciously Organic

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Yesterday’s new recipe try-out from the Deliciously Organic cookbook was Raspberry Almond Muffins.

How did my family like them? Well, the recipe made 18 muffins. I pulled them out of the oven, left to go take a walk, got back, and there were only 5 left. I guess we now know how my family liked them. ;)  At least they left some for me to try. (I loved them too, by the way!)

Be sure to read more about Deliciously Organic here and take advantage of the great deal Carrie Vitt is offering us here for just a few more days.

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Gratituesday: My Gift

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Ever since I lost my mom to ALS in July of 2004, Mother’s Day has been difficult for me. I miss her every day, but Mother’s Day is always harder.

Matt has always been so considerate each Mother’s Day – spoiling me and making the day special, yet acknowledging and understanding that it is a day that I tend to feel sad. I love his strength and compassion.

We don’t tend to give each other gifts on Mother’s Day or Father’s Day. We’ve never felt much need, and instead, fixing special food has always been our fun tradition. That is why I was so surprised to be presented with this on our way to church Sunday morning:

Receiving a gift at all was surprise enough. Seeing that he picked out a Bible with a cover described as “Pink and Chocolate” – well, does that tell you how well he knows me or what? And did you see what he had engraved on my new Bible?

Isn’t he the sweetest?

My husband shows me great honor in how he continually treats me like his queen. He had all of our boys sign the inside of the Bible, letting it be a gift from all of them.

I feel empowered to rise to the occasion and be the kind of Heavenly Homemaker they deserve and desire. I am honored to be the one God has chosen to make our family’s home more heavenly.

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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Mother’s Day Cake Update – Finally

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My apologies that it took so long to give you an update on what in the world my family was baking for me while I was shut into my office yesterday afternoon. As soon as the mystery dessert was finished baking, we headed out to play some “Mother’s Day Soccer”. My choice. As in, I actually chose playing soccer over taking a nap. Go figure.

By the way, if you would have told me a year ago that this year I would suggest that we play a family game of soccer in honor of Mother’s Day, I would have laughed. But indeed, now that I’m getting fit and learning to enjoy playing with my kids, I just can’t get enough. Soccer on Mother’s Day just seemed like the perfect idea. And it was.

So back to the dessert you’ve been waiting to hear about.

Oh, but another reason I couldn’t update you on this mystery earlier is because after we played soccer, we had a nacho and movie night – with popcorn. Yes, didn’t you know that it’s always good to have nachos and popcorn together? Eh, it worked and it made everyone happy.

We are pretty good popcorn makers around here, always using coconut oil to make delicious popcorn. But this time, we used a fun new recipe from the Deliciously Organic cookbook. It was fantastic. However, we did have a wild ride in the kitchen while I was making it because I didn’t use a big enough pot. You know what happens when you don’t use a big enough pot when you’re making popcorn on the stovetop? The popcorn just keeps popping, and the lid comes off the pan, and popcorn goes absolutely everywhere. Jen was over hanging out with us, and Matt was in the kitchen too – both of them being very supportive while I was standing at the stove feeling rather helpless while popcorn started overflowing and flying. Matt offered some suggestions. Jen handed me a bowl for the flying popcorn, but with it, I only managed to make a bigger mess. Oh, you should have been there to witness the madness. ;)

This is the popcorn that managed to make it into the bowl.

But really, back to the dessert you’ve been waiting to hear about.

If you can believe it, the dessert recipe they picked wasn’t chocolate. I know, shocking. But wow, was it good.

They picked a “Hot Milk Sponge Cake” recipe from my old, worn out Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. Then, like good children, they figured out how to adapt the recipe to use healthier sugars, fats, and flours. Is that not impressive? More on that in another post.

So apparently that’s what all the beating was about. Sponge cakes take a lot of beating. Thus, the beaters were running for minutes on end. :)

Then, if you can believe it, they made a “Broiled Coconut Topping” to go on top. I’m telling you, they outdid themselves. Talk about tasty!


This cake was delicious. My family is the greatest. And without a doubt, I will look up the recipe, ask them about their adaptations, and post it for you so that your family can make it for you sometime. Or so that you can make it for them. Or whatever. ;)

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Menu Plan for the Week – {and a little bit of Mother’s Day mysterious dessert making play-by-play}

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1:25 pm Well, I am currently shut into my office right now, and I don’t have permission to come out until the mysterious dessert my boys are working on has come out of the oven. I can hear the beaters running and if my family knows me at all, I expect to smell something chocolatey any minute now… ;)

Matt and the boys have been doing a great job spoiling me today, making Mother’s Day super special. Check out the lunch I just feasted on:

1:46 pm Matt just snuck in with a smirk to say, “Apparently the eggs were supposed to be beat separately before adding the other ingredients. Therefore, they have a bowl with 1 cup of flour, mixed with some baking powder and two eggs. Can you figure out something to do with that tomorrow so we don’t have to waste it?” I have two things to say:  I am both excited and afraid to see my kitchen after today. And, I think I’ll be making pancakes tomorrow from that flour/egg/baking powder mixture. It just makes sense. :)

And now, back to the menu plan for this week:

Sunday, May 13
Cereal
Grilled steak, spinach and mushroom rice florentine, cream cheese corn, mystery dessert  ;)
Nachos and a movie

Monday, May 14
Whole wheat pancakes (apparently)
Chicken nuggets, peas, baby carrots
Cheesy beef and rice, green beans

Tuesday, May 15
Fried eggs on toast, strawberry coconut smoothies
Creamy mac and cheese, steamed broccoli
Lasagna, tossed salad

2:01 pm I hear beaters again. I can not wait to find out what those boys are making. And I also really hope that I taught everyone well enough not to pick up the beaters before turning them off first!!

Wednesday, May 16
Chocolate chocolate chip muffins, apples
Crunch ranch chicken, stir fried rice and veggies
Roast, carrots, potatoes, gravy

Thursday, May 17
Scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, oranges
Pigs in a blanket, green beans
Creamy crockpot chicken and rice, carrots

Friday, May 18
Mini apple pies, turkey bacon
Easy noodle stir fry, milkshakes
Homemade pizza, fried okra

2:07 pm The beaters are still going! What are they making in there????

Saturday, May 19
Whole wheat cinnamon rolls, bananas
Leftovers
Chicken alfredo, steamed veggies, asparagus

2:12 pm Seriously, the beaters…still. How long can beaters run without burning out the motor?

2:13 pm If they don’t hurry up, I’m going to have to sneak out because um…I need to potty.

2:14 pm Ah, the beaters are off! Can I come out yet?

Apparently not.

While I’m still here in the office, I’ll show you a picture of Carrie Vitt’s (from Deliciously Organic) amazing Loaded Baked Potato Soup that we made yesterday.


Wow, that soup was good! Matt added some dehydrated red peppers in his bowl and loved the kick. The rest of us loved it with sour cream and cheese. It was easy to make, and everyone in the family devoured it. I liked that it called for chicken broth, giving me a meatless meal and a new option for stretching a chicken for six meals. If you haven’t yet, be sure to look into the deal Carrie put together for all Heavenly Homemakers readers. Get her amazing cookbook along with some healthy and family friendly meal plans at a great price!

2:18 pm Elias just came in to ask, “I can’t tell you pacifically, but if you were making frosting, would you use brown sugar or sucanat?”

I told him, “Brown sugar, and there’s organic brown sugar in the pantry”, but are you sure it doesn’t call for powdered sugar?”

And ‘pacifically’? Be still my heart. The cuteness abounds.

2:20 pm Elias came back in to say, “If you smell that burned smell, don’t worry.”

Okay, I’ll try. ;)

2:28 pm Beaters again. What in the world???

I’d say this post is “to be continued…” I’ll be back later with an update on what the boys made for my Mother’s Day dessert.

Hope you’re having a blessed day. There’s no doubt that I am. Even if I do have to ignore that burned smell coming from the kitchen. ;)

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Strawberry Coconut Smoothies from Deliciously Organic

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Remember how I told you that I can open the new Deliciously Organic cookbook I received recently, and that I can make just about any recipe in it, since each one calls for the healthy ingredients I typically use and have on hand? Wow, have I been having fun. I love reading (and drooling over) these simple, yet tasty recipes that are full of such nourishing foods.

During the next week, I’ll be sharing some of our experiences from our Deliciously Organic taste-testing. I can’t share the recipes with you because they aren’t mine to share. But remember, author Carrie Vitt has put together some very generous deals for you so that you can get your own copy of this great cookbook for a big discount!

Yesterday, we quickly whipped up her Strawberry Coconut Smoothies to go with our lunch.

The coconut milk in these made this treat so creamy and refreshing. It was only slightly “coconutty” – just right. The kids devoured it, and I suppose it goes without saying that Matt and I did too. ;)

What we’re planning to make next is still up for vote. Our ten year old, Elias, has been pouring over the book, as he often does when he gets his hands on a cookbook with awesome food pictures. Can I again just say how nice it is that I don’t have to look at the recipe and tell him, “No, we can’t make that. It uses too many unhealthy ingredients and I’m not sure how to adapt that one.” Instead, I can look at each recipe he points to and give him a thumbs up.

Now to just find the time to make every single recipe in the book as the kids pick them out… :)

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The Benefits of Exercise (It’s About More Than Weight Loss!)

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I humbly consider myself to be thoroughly kicked in the pants. Good grief – why have I avoided exercise for so many years? Since I began to workout faithfully in January, I feel healthier and more energetic than I have EVER felt!

You know one of the main reasons I avoided exercise? Okay, two of the main reasons? 1) I didn’t really need to lose much weight and 2) I have asthma.

Oh dear – I was really afraid that my asthma would flare up if I exercised? Let me tell you right here and now – and this is the part where I have been kicked in the pants – exercise has made my asthma better, not worse! Beyond that, being at a healthy weight is great, but that’s a silly reason for me to think that I didn’t need to exercise.

Shucks, exercise can certainly help a person lose weight (sweet!), but as I have been working out with Jen, I have learned all kinds of reasons why exercising has been beneficial to me. I’ll let her share about those reasons here in a minute, but first I need to gab and gush about how good I feel.

Here’s the deal:  The past couple of weeks, my family has been passing around a cold  – and I didn’t get sick. This never happens to me. Any time my kids are snotting and hacking, I catch it. Within days, infection typically hits my asthmatic lungs, causing some major issues like bronchitis or even pneumonia.

This time, I began to get a sore throat, then began to fear that sickness and lung congestion would lay me flat. I upped my vitamin intake, drank plenty of water, and worked to get enough rest. And would you believe it? I fought that cold and did not get sick.

You may not understand the significance of this. But trust me, Matt and I are astonished. All of the cardio workouts and the weight lifting I’ve done during the last 4 1/2 months have really built my immune system and strengthened my lungs. I feel strong! I feel healthy. I can fight now!!! (Fight infection, that is – not the children. I do feel strong, but I still don’t feel the need to get on the floor and wrestle, just in case you were starting to picture that…)  ;)

I asked Jen, of Getting Fit with Jen, to give me a bullet list of all the amazing benefits to exercise:

~ Lowers your blood lipid profile (cholesterol)

~ Makes daily living/every day activities easier

~ Reduces your risk for cardiovascular diseases

~ Improves bone health, which helps fight osteoporosis

~ Improves mood and mental health

~ Lowers your blood pressure

~ Transforms your body shape

~ Helps you achieve and maintain a healthy weight

And oh yes, exercise can strengthen your immune system. I realize that exercise isn’t preventing me from ever getting sick again. But I have seen so many improvements in my overall health since beginning our workouts. I’m in this for the long haul!

What benefits have you seen from exercise? If you haven’t been exercising, what improvements would you like to see if you were to start an exercise program?

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Free Shipping at VitaCost on Orders Over $25 (plus $10 Credit)

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Today only, May 10, VitaCost is offering FREE SHIPPING on orders over $25!

They offer over 30,000 vitamins and health food products. We’ve discovered Vitacost to be a wonderful resource for many of the foods we eat on a regular basis. Their prices are usually very reasonable, if not excellent, and the food arrives on our doorstep within just a few days.

If you are a new customer with Vitacost, sign up through this referral link and you’ll receive a $10 credit to use on your first order. (You can also refer your friends through your blog, email, facebook or twitter, and receive $10 of credit for each new customer who makes a purchase through your link! This is a wonderful way to earn some healthy grocery cash!)

Go take a peek around the VitaCost site to see the coconut oil, supplements, and organic foods they offer. I can get lost on that site, for sure! This free shipping deal is a winner – and it ends at midnight EDT.

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The Brownie Experiment – Which Takes Longer to Make, Boxed or Homemade?

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Well, bless my heart. The work I have to do around here for you people is sometimes just too much, you know? I mean, after I labored over the mac and cheese experiment, spending thirty whole seconds of extra time in my kitchen to make the good, homemade, whole grain, Creamy Mac and Cheese, several of you got on your knees and begged asked me to experiment next with brownies to see which took longer – brownies from a box, or homemade brownies. Really. Asking me to bake two pans of rich, gooey, chocolatey brownies? I seriously had to muscle up on this request, you know? Sometimes you all can be soooo demanding.

It’s okay though – {she says, with the back of her weary hand placed pitifully on her forehead} – I love you all enough that I was able to find the strength to serve you in this way. If someone must make two pans of brownies to help prove a point, I will rise to the challenge.

What? I suppose next you’ll ask me to make chocolate cake, or pudding, or fudge or something? Who do you think I am anyway?

Okay. I’m all done pretending to whine now. Seriously, anytime you want to ask me to make brownies, I am alllll over it. I’m happy to “take one for the team” anytime chocolate is involved.

So here’s a little something that hasn’t been in my kitchen for several years now…

Why yes, it did feel a little funny pouring that into a bowl. And then, because I haven’t made brownies from a box for such a long time – I actually had to take the time to read the directions. I felt a little silly and was glad no one was in there watching me struggle to remember and figure out how to make brownies from a box. Except now I just told you about it, so I guess you get to make fun of me anyway.

From box to pan, before going into the oven, it took me right at 4.5 minutes to mix up these brownies. Quick and convenient? Yep, they sure were. (I used Olive Oil in case you were wondering.)

Next, I started to mix up my Homemade Fudge Brownies that I have been making for several years now. I already had some whole wheat flour ground and in the freezer, but I totally don’t feel like that was cheating in this experiment because I almost always have flour ground and in the freezer for brownie emergencies baking. It’s a little something I call “kitchen efficiency” and it totally works for me.

How long did it take for me to mix up the homemade brownies and get them into the pan? 5.5 minutes. Why did it take me an entire minute longer to mix up homemade brownies than it took to mix up the boxed brownies? Because I had to wait for my butter to melt on the stovetop. Yes, the butter was taking its sweet time to liquify. But never fear. While my butter was melting, I got out my other brownie ingredients, washed a few dishes, and talked to my children. All was not lost in that extra minute of brownie preparation time.

Can you tell which pan is homemade and which pan is from a box?

The blue dish holds the homemade brownies, in case you were wondering which pan to dig into first.
Not that you can, however, because they are sort of gone now.

So, did making brownies from a box save me any time? Yes. One whole minute. Score one for boxed brownies.

Did I feel better about using an extra minute of my life to melt some butter and mix up brownies with sucanat and whole wheat flour? Well, of course I did. Plus I got some dishes done while my butter melted.

By the way, do you know why it only took me one extra minute to mix up the homemade brownies? Because I have made homemade brownies so many times that I don’t even have to think about it anymore. Truly, the more you cook from scratch, the easier and faster it becomes. If you’re new to baking and cooking outside of the box, don’t lose heart! It gets easier the more you do it!

And then, it won’t be long until you’re like me and have to cock your confused head to one side while you try to read the directions on the back of a box.

Crazy but true. ;)

I’ve got more experimenting to do, so stay tuned for more fun updates. I think muffins are the next on my list.

So tell me – do you make homemade brownies or boxed brownies? If you haven’t attempted to make them homemade, I encourage you to give them a try. Yes. That’s an order. Hey, it’s chocolate. Who’s going to argue with that? :)

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