Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Why My Mailbox Smelled Good Today

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I opened my mailbox and smelled vanilla. Hoorah…our new vanilla bean order has arrived! 

It’s amazing to me that these vanilla beans are such good quality that I could smell the vanilla beans through the thick packaging. I can still smell the vanilla scent on my fingers, JUST from opening the package. 

Here they are…my lovely vanilla beans from OliveNation:

I guess you know what’s going on in my house right now. We’re starting another batch of Homemade Vanilla Extract. We’ve also got another big batch that’s almost ready to bottle up for sale! I’ll keep you posted.

So, since the vanilla beans have arrived, you know what else we had to purchase, right?

I found it rather amusing that today at lunch time I said, “Here, let me move all this vodka so you can set the table.” It was a proud parenting moment.

This is the perfect time to get a batch of homemade vanilla extract going so that it will be ready to give as Christmas gifts! My favorite source for high quality and economically priced vanilla beans is OliveNation. You’ll receive free shipping on the vanilla bean order, plus us the coupon code hhm2011 for a 10% discount!!!!

Here are my Homemade Vanilla Extract instructions!

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Gratituesday: We Laughed, We Cried

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This morning I had the blessed opportunity to go out for breakfast with two very dear friends. We rarely see each other and both were in town for a wedding. Visiting between bites of wedding cake yesterday, we realized we needed more time for chatting. Setting our alarms to go off with the roosters, we squeezed in an early breakfast before they headed out of town this morning.

We pretty much skipped all of the “I like your cute shoes” kind of talk and went right to the heart of life:  “How’s your marriage?”, “How’s your spiritual walk?”, “How is God using you?”, “How have you been dealing with the pain from___ since the last time we talked?”

I felt so refreshed and sharpened by our brief but meaningful conversation. These gals know what it is to experience hurt and to let God help them land on their feet. They inspire me to be a better mother, a better wife and to have a stronger relationship with our Lord.

Do you have friends like this? If not, pray for God to provide them. The joy and encouragement from godly friendship is priceless.

What are you thankful for this Gratituesday? Write about it 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!

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please copy and paste the following sentence into your post! Thanks!

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It’s a Freezer Cooking Challenge!!!

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Once A Month Mom

Except for a couple of big bags of Turkey Sausage that I made and froze recently, my freezer holds nothing of convenience. (Unless you count a few packages of soy free chocolate chips convenient. I could conveniently eat chocolate chips for lunch sometime.)

If you’ve been reading here long, you know that I love creating healthy convenience foods for my freezer so that when I’m facing a busy day, my family still has healthy food to eat. You can scroll through this series of posts entitled Make Ahead Meals to learn more about how I make food ahead for the freezer! I can’t say enough about how wonderful it is to take the time every once in a while to work ahead in the kitchen. 

Because my frozen Turkey Sausage (and chocolate chips) are lonely, and because I’ve been working on a big project for Heavenly Homemakers which is taking a lot of my time (yes, I’m going to leave you hanging on this one for now), I’m anxious to spend a few hours this week putting some extra food in the freezer. 

This time for my freezer cooking endeavors, I am very excited to be teaming up with Tricia from Once a Month Mom. Have you been to the Once a Month Mom site? If you’re interested in doing some cooking and baking ahead for your freezer, you MUST take advantage of all the free and wonderful information you’ll find at Once a Month Mom. Her site is full of great tips and recipes that are perfect for making food ahead and freezing it for future convenience.

Once a Month Mom has great menu plans each month all laid out and ready for you, complete with recipes, grocery lists and freezer instructions. You’ll find a plan for Whole Foods Cooking, Gluten Free/Dairy Free Cooking, even a menu for Baby Food Freezer Cooking. 

I have had a lovely time clicking through all of the recipes on the Once a Month Mom site, picking some new and fun recipes to try for my family for my freezer cooking plans this week. Here are the recipes I chose this time:

I can’t wait to start playing with these new recipes (yes, because for me, trying new recipes is like playing with new toys!!). I was hoping maybe you’d all like to “come over and play” along with me this week. Want to?! (Yes, you do. You want to. Say yes.)

For those of you who are new to freezer cooking, or for any who might just need a little motivation to get some extra food in the freezer, I thought I’d extend a little challenge of sorts. Here’s how it will work:

  1. Pick a recipe (or more) from Once a Month Mom or from here at Heavenly Homemakers.
  2. Find some time this week to make the recipe(s) for your freezer.
  3. Blog about your cooking experience, if you have a blog, so that you can come link up with us here on Friday when we’ll all report back to share how our freezer cooking went. If you don’t have a blog, you’ll be given the opportunity to share about your freezer cooking in the comments section of our round up post on Friday, so please join the fun whether you have a blog or not!
  4. Each person who links up or leaves a comment on the Friday Freezer Cooking Round Up post will be eligible to win a free recipe ebook of choice ($7.95 or less) from the Heavenly Homemakers Shop.
  5. The more recipes you make and share with us, the more chances you have to win! (But don’t over-do…we would like to keep this fun. Please, we don’t want any reports that women across the world fainted from Freezer Cooking Exhaustion.)

Okay…so  who’s in?!  Look around at Once a Month Mom and at all of our Make Ahead Meals to get some new recipe ideas. Get your Freezer Cooking game on and join us for our fun cooking challenge this week!

What recipes are sounding good to try?? Which ebook might you pick from our Heavenly Homemakers Shop if you win?!

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See My Sourdough Bread! and Menu Plan for the Week

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Well…I did it. I followed along in my Sourdough A to Z eBook and here is the bread I got. Never mind that it took my chilly kitchen twelve hours to raise my dough. That’s all a part of the sourdough bread making process – waiting. Just in case you were wondering, waiting for bread to rise is not very labor intensive. I just started my bread first thing in the morning, did a bunch of other work all day while I left my bread dough alone, and finished it last thing at night. The next day we ate bread. Easy!

I was very pleased with how well the bread sliced. It was a little more dense than we prefer. I think that as I get more used to making this bread, I’ll get a better feel for working with it and I’ll be able to get it to the consistency that we like. Still, within two days, these two loaves were gone. :)

What I’m even more excited about are the Sourdough English Muffins I made from the Sourdough A to Z eBook!!! These could NOT have been any easier to make and my family devoured them! I made enough that we now have some in the freezer for this week, which is an added bonus. I’ll for sure be making these English Muffins on a regular basis. They are fantastic!


I know I already showed you the sourdough muffins I made last week, but they wanted me to show you again so they wouldn’t feel left out of this sourdough posting experience. These muffins were also super easy to make, and my family loved them!

Here is our menu for this week (which, not surprisingly, does include some sourdough items):

Sunday, May 8
Coconut flour muffins, home canned peaches
Dad and the boys grilling for Mama  :)
Whatever leftovers the boys find  :)

Monday, May 9
Whole wheat waffles, blueberries
Taco corn fritters, carrot sticks with ranch dip, applesauce
Cheesy beef and rice, green beans

Tuesday, May 10
Fried eggs on toast, pears
Chicken chef salad with peas, boiled eggs, cheese and homemade dressing
Teriyaki chicken and veggies over rice

Wednesday, May 11
Sourdough muffins, bananas
Homemade pizza pockets, fruit-kefir smoothies
Chicken veggie quesadillas, tossed salad

Thursday, May 12
Sourdough English muffins, scrambled eggs, oranges
Cheeseburger macaroni, steamed broccoli and carrots
Sloppy joes on homemade whole wheat buns, ranch potato wedges, peas

Friday, May 13
Peanut butter honey toast, applesauce
Black bean salsa with organic corn chips, clementines
Italian roast wraps, tossed salad

Saturday, May 14
Whole wheat donuts
Leftovers
OAMM’s BBQ Chicken Pizza, fruit salad

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Say Mmm is a great, free resource to help you with menu planning!

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Only one day left to sign up for the $50 Gift Certificate from FBS Books!

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No More Bricks! with help from BreadClass.com

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Announcing!!! Heavenly Homemakers new Gluten Free Summer eBook! (Plus a Giveaway)

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Yum

Okay, first…for all you NON-Gluten Free people out there – don’t stop reading this post before you even start reading!! (By the way, all of us who are “non-gluten-free”, shall we just call ourselves Gluten-Full?) 

Even if you can eat gluten, I think you still may be interested in this new ebook. Let me just say…there are Chocolate Mint Truffles involved. Who said truffle (and salad and dip) recipes were only for the Gluten Free among us? :)

The beauty of this newest ebook here at Heavenly Homemakers is that every single person can enjoy it and benefit from its tasty summertime recipes…but we wanted to make sure that all of you who need to eat a gluten free diet will know that all of these recipes are safe and healthy for you too!!

I’ve teamed up with my friend Kimberlee again, who is sweet, fun and also a gluten free recipe expert! She’s been feeding her family a gluten free diet for eight years and her kitchen is overflowing with excellent recipes. Because our Gluten Free and Good For You ebook was such a hit, I asked Kim to help us all out with her best tasting (and healthy) summertime dishes.

And again, just like with our Gluten Free and Good For You ebook, all of these recipes call for normal, everyday ingredients. I wanted to be sure these were recipes that could be used by everyone at anytime, so that none of us have to turn somersaults to find “special gluten free” ingredients many of us have never heard of. 

This way, even if you aren’t used to cooking gluten free foods exclusively, if you are hosting someone or feeding someone who requires a gluten free diet, you’ve got some great recipes that you know will be safe for them to eat! I love the idea of making hospitality toward our friends or family with this food sensitivity a simple possibility!

Gluten Free Summer will go on sale in the Heavenly Homemakers Shop next week, after my hunky editor (yes, that would be Matt) finishes going through it with a fine tooth comb.

In the meantime, we’ll be giving away three copies of Gluten Free Summer ebook. It contains 35 recipes for cool summertime salads, dips, lunches and suppers, beverages and treats…for the gluten free and the gluten full among us. :)

Want a chance to win a copy? Leave a comment here on this post for a chance to win! I’ll draw three random winners on Wednesday, May 11.

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What Health Food Co-op is Near You?

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Join us on Facebook

I’m always talking about Azure Standard, my favorite health food co-op. I love what it provides for my family!

Many of you have been able to join an Azure Standard group near you…hooray! But what if Azure Standard doesn’t deliver where you live? Great as it is, it does have it’s limits. In the past, I’ve discussed health food purchasing options beyond Azure Standard that I recommend, and many of you left a comment on that post, sharing your sources for healthy foods.

But, because of the number of questions I get regarding this topic, I was hoping you’d all help me out by sharing on this post the great real food sources you have where you live, specifically any health food co-ops that deliver to your area. Having a big list compiled here in the comments section would be a wonderful resource for many.

So I’ll start:

I’m Laura. I live in Nebraska. I use Azure Standard. They deliver once a month and carry wonderful produce, bulk grocery items and frozen foods.

(Did you guys know that already?)

Okay, your turn…

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What are Swagbucks?

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Search & Win

I talk about Swagbucks here and there, mostly saying phrases like, “I used my Swagbuck earnings to buy Organic Groceries from Amazon.” This is all well and good if you’ve been reading my site for a few years and know about these Swagbuck thingies I’m talking about. But recently I’ve recognized that not all of you know what I’m talking about, as I’ve heard some questions like,  “Laura, what are Swagbucks?”

Well, it would be my pleasure to tell you. I love Swagbucks. Watch me jump up and down while I tell you that:  It’s basically free money and it has paid for some Organic Groceries from Amazon for my family and free books for school and free Christmas gifts and free other things we’ve needed. You’ve just got to join me in this Swagbuck thing!

“Okay great, but really Laura. What are Swagbucks?”

Swagbucks are “bucks” earned while doing normal internet searches.  Typically, many of us use something that starts with a “G” and rhymes with Schmoogle to do online searches, right? This is wonderful and fine and easy and I’ve learned some great things about gorillas and the continent of Asia while using that search engine. 

But by using the Swagbuck search engine, I learn great things about gorillas and the continent of Asia AND I get free money. Real money. The kind I can use to buy Organic Groceries from Amazon or books or gifts.

I have found it easiest to download the Swagbuck toolbar onto my computer…that way everytime I need to do an internet search (which is about eight hundred times a day) I do that search through my Swagbuck toolbar. Several different times each day, as I do those internet searches, I will see a little picture letting me know that Yay! I just won some Swagbucks!!

All of the Swagbucks I earn accumulate in my account. Once my account reaches a total of 450 Swagbucks, I can turn them in for a $5 Amazon Gift Card. I save my Amazon Gift Cards and use them for items we need, because I can find all kinds of great items through Amazon.

There are other ways to earn Swagbucks and you can read all about it once you set up a Swagbuck account. Beyond doing normal internet searches, the most success I’ve had for earning extra Swagbucks is telling other people about them, so that when they sign up and earn Swagbucks, I do too! Several of you have signed up through my links in the past, which has been a lovely and free way to support our work here at Heavenly Homemakers (so thank you oh so very much!). You can earn Swagbucks by referring others too. Once you sign up, be sure to tell everyone you know so that they can sign up under you and you can earn more Swagbucks! (However, you are not allowed to refer someone else in your own household…just people outside of your home!)

The beauty of Swagbucks is:  There’s no catch and it’s all free.  There’s nothing weird about Swagbucks or any need to feel nervous about joining me in the Swagbuck craze. It’s just a search engine, and you can earn free stuff or gift cards by using it. I’ve been using it for something like two or three years and have not had one bit of trouble or weirdness with it. 

You can sign up for Swagbucks here.  It will take you about two minutes. Or one minute if you’re a fast typist.

Swagbucks is a lovely thing indeed. It’s a wonderful way for everyone to earn some free money to use for things they need! (And P.S. There are other goodies and gift cards you can turn in your Swagbucks for. I just almost always turn them in for Amazon Gift Cards because that is the most helpful for our family.

If you’re a Swagbuck user, what do you turn in your Swagbucks for?

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Healthier Cheese Dip – a Velveeta and Rotel Recipe Knock Off!

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Today, I have written a very heart felt letter to my friend, Velveeta. I hope you don’t mind that I shared it. It’s rather personal, so I hope no one feels embarrassed to read my inner-most thoughts. I’m sure that my friend Velveeta is a friend to some of you too. Truly, if I would have had a daughter, I would have named her Velveeta in honor of my friend.

Okay, totally not really. But still.

Dear Velveeta,

I dearly love you. I grew up eating you and some days, I really miss you. I often visit you in the store, just in case you miss me too. Have you seen me there, lingering by your shelves?

What exactly are you made of anyway? Wait – don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. Reading your label makes me queasy, but when I mix you with a can of rotel, I could gladly grab a bag of chips and eat half the bowl. You are delicious. You are comfort food. You are memories from my childhood. And for goodness sakes you taste incredible alongside a cold glass of Pepsi.

But you are “processed cheese food”. What in the world does that mean? No wait – really – don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. I just want to eat you in ignorance so that I won’t know the full effects of what something such as you can do to the insides of my body.

But alas, since my family began Our Healthy Eating Journey a few years ago, I chose to give you up. I have a new friend now that has a striking resemblance to you, but one that doesn’t make me feel so sick inside.

Those were some good times we had together – you, me and the Pepsi. Please know that I’ll hold the memory of you forever in my heart.

Insanely Yours,
Laura @ Heavenly Homemakers

Well, now you know. Velveeta-Rotel chip dip and I go way back. I miss her. I love her. But there’s a new kid in town, one that is made from real food that I can trust not to turn my gut wrong-side-out. I’ve been tinkering with this dish for the past couple of years and my family loves it! It’s not quite as thick as the Velveeta-Rotel dip, but I would imagine that the ingredients that make that one thick are ingredients you and I don’t know how to pronounce. Just lean over the bowl when you eat this. A little dip running down the chin never hurt anyone.

Don’t leave me hanging. I must know if you are friends with Velveeta too. Do you love her with Rotel? And tell me, is Velveeta a lovely name, or what?

Again, totally not really.

Healthier Cheese Dip - a Velveeta and Rotel Recipe Knock Off!
 
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Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Recipe type: Snack
Cuisine: American
Serves: 4-6 servings
Ingredients
  • 1 pound ground hamburger meat (seasoned with Homemade Taco Seasoning if you like!)
  • 2 cups salsa
  • 1 cup cream
  • 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
  • Organic Corn Chips
Instructions
  1. Brown hamburger meat and season if desired. Stir salsa and cream into the meat, stirring constantly while heating on medium heat for about three minutes. Remove mixture from heat and add shredded cheese. Stir until cheese is melted. Serve with Organic Corn Chips. (You can stir in ½ cup sour cream or 3 ounces cream cheese if you'd like.)
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My Sourdough Has Been Revived!

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Ever since I read through GNOWFGLINS Sourdough A to Z eBook, I have been inspired to make bubbles again. Sourdough bubbles that is. I am excited to report that over the past few days, I have worked to revive my sourdough! (Actually, I just started over with a new starter because my original one was very…dead.)

These are my bubbles. Aren’t they simply gorgeous? (Just nod and smile.)

I shared about making Sourdough Starter about two and a half years ago and was very excited to make sourdough breads a healthy habit in my kitchen. Making a sourdough starter is stinkin’ easy (and by stinkin‘, I mean that the starter really does begin sporting a mildly sour funk after a few days). But I really had no idea what to do with my starter after it was started. I played around with making bread a few times, but never got anything more than a few dense loaves that my family didn’t like. And so, my sourdough starter died a long, slow death in my refrigerator because after a few months, I stopped feeding it or trying to do anything productive with it. It’s a sad story really.

BUT, I’m all excited about sourdough again, which is why I created a new starter.  I love that not only does Sourdough A to Z eBook have very thorough instructions about how to make a sourdough starter, it has loads of recipes and ideas with directions for what to do with your sourdough starter. We’re talking cakes and muffins and pita bread and pizza crust and all kinds of great goodies. I never knew there were so many things to make with sourdough! (Forgive me for sounding like I’m writing an over-eager book review. The GNOWFGLINS ladies didn’t ask me to write this. I’m just excited about my bubbles.)

Here’s the front view of my jar of sourdough starter on day three.
Again, see my cute little bubbles?

Because all of these items are made from sourdough starter, they are so much easier for our bodies to digest. I was kinda hoping you’d get excited with me and try getting a sourdough starter going too, if you don’t already have one. Let’s make bubbles together, wanna? Think of the fun we’ll have!!! (Yes, it would appear that I’ve gone a little sourdough silly.)

If you eat a gluten free diet, never fear – Sourdough A to Z eBook even shares how to create and use a Gluten Free Starter!!!!  Yes, we can ALL play at this game!!!

This happens to be a perfect time of year to get a sourdough starter going, as the weather is warm, making for easier and happier bubbles. :)  I was eager this morning and with my new sourdough starter, made delicious muffins based on a recipe in Sourdough A to Z. They didn’t taste one bit sour, in case you were wondering. My boys didn’t even know they were sourdough and ate their typical three to five muffins each. ;)

 Tomorrow I’m going to follow the eBook directions for making a loaf of bread. I’ll share the results whether it’s pretty or not so pretty. Here’s hoping for a successful sourdough bread making experience!

If you want to create a sourdough starter, but aren’t able to purchase the ebook, please click on this link and scroll down to the beginning of the series of posts that describe day by day instructions for how to make a starter. Since the recipes in the Sourdough A to Z eBook aren’t mine to share, I’ll only be able to talk about them and show you pictures of my results, but not print the recipes themselves. 

Okay, here’s hoping for a lovely loaf of sourdough bread at our house tomorrow!!! What’s been your sourdough experience? 

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Gratituesday: Putting Away the Books (but not really)

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Our homeschool schedule usually begins in early August so that we can be done in early May. We like it that when spring fever hits, we don’t have to be stuck behind math books, but can instead be working outside in the garden or playing ball in the yard. 

So, do you know what this week is? It’s the beginning of the end of our school year! Each of the boys just have a few small assignments to finish up, and then they can officially stop learning for a few months. HA! Assignments from books may be finished, but I love that the learning never stops! In fact, we’ve got book lists and project lists already in the works.

Among all the other great things I could tell you about our school year, we’ve had a wonderful year of studying American History. WOW have we learned a lot! (By we, I totally mean me because I am much more knowledgeable about how our country has become what it is.)  (I do think that the boys learned a thing or two as well.)

But now, we’re excited to have a more flexible schedule, to be able spend more time outside, to have more time to play games and to be goofy.

Not that we really need more time to be goofy. Really. We do that pretty well on a regular basis, even while we’re thinking of the best adverbs to fit a sentence. (You don’t want me to share examples.)

And so, let the lazy days of summer, which are anything but lazy, begin. Once again, I thank God for another wonderful year of learning with our boys.

(Our oldest will be a 9th grader next year. I’m choking on my muffin.)

What are you thankful for this Gratituesday? Write about it 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!

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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