Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Homemade Chocolate Chips

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After talking about the Enjoy Life Dairy, Soy, and Gluten Free Chocolate Chips on sale at Amazon the other day…I decided to make a batch of my own Homemade SF, DF, GF Chocolate Chips to have on hand while I wait for the others to come in the mail.

Homemade Chocolate Chips

I made these chips with coconut oil this time. (You can use butter instead, but coconut oil is a great option if you can’t have dairy. Read more about coconut oil here.)

Can I just say…these chunks of chocolate taste incredible sprinkled into a bowl full of peanuts. Or all by themselves if you need a quick chocolate fix. Or mixed into these easy and healthier Fudge Brownies. Or in these Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins. Or with a glass of milk. 

Or on a Friday afternoon at 2:47 just because.

These homemade chocolate chips make yummy Chocolate Chip Cookies too…but they don’t hold together when baked as well as commercial chocolate chips. They’re just too “pure” I guess, and tend to melt into the cookie. This isn’t a problem with taste…but can be a problem with appearance. 

Just send the ugly cookies to my house. They’ll get eaten. :)

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The little Green Project 2011

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littlegreenproject

Welcome to The little Green Project 2011! 
Saving Green, Eating More Greens, Earning Extra Green,
Going Green, Your Green Thumb, Crafting Something Green

This year, I decided to share a few of my favorite tips in each of the GREEN categories. I could have come up with something new and green, but I got a little bit lazy busy, so old and green it is. But let’s not call it old and green. That sounds like something that got lost in the back of my fridge. Eh, call it whatever you want. Here’s my little Green Project 2011:

Saving Green

My favorite way to save green is to simply not buy stuff in the first place. There is no need to try to keep up with the Joneses. If you don’t have money, don’t spend it. Even if you do have money, consider carefully if you truly need something before spending the money on it. Like socks. I think it’s okay to spend money on socks…if in fact you need socks. I also think it’s wise to spend money on nutritious food. But stuff? Stuff just gets dusty. Or I step on it in the middle of the night and it hurts. Don’t buy stuff.

Eating More Greens

If you haven’t tried my Strawberry Peach Slushie recipe, you really should. There’s green leafy spinach hidden in there and no one ever knows. These slushies are a great way to eat more greens.

And also, if you’re going to be eating greens in a salad, I strongly encourage you to easily make your own salad dressings! It’s unfortunate that most commercial salad dressings have icky ingredients, turning your fresh green salad into junk food. (Not completely, but you know.)  If I want junk food, I’ll eat a Cheeto. (Not that I ever want junk food.)  (Especially Cheetos.)  (The crunchy kind.)  (Laura, will you stop already and go eat a some lettuce?)

Anyway, here’s where you can find my simple, money saving and healthy salad dressing recipes!

Earning Extra Green

I haven’t talked very much on my blog about earning extra green, although I do have a wonderful guest post: How to Find Legitimate Work From Home Opportunities. Otherwise, I have just two tips to share: 

  1. Look into Heavenly Homemakers Affiliate Program. One of the main reasons we set up an Affiliate Program was to give all of you an opportunity to earn some extra money. We would be so honored and excited if our Affiliate Program could benefit you and your family.
  2. Sign up for Swagbucks. Then tell all your friends about it. It’s free. There’s no catch. It’s just a search engine that earns you FREE gift cards. I love Swagbucks and turn most of my earnings into Amazon gift cards. It helps our family buy books and organic groceries…for free. Swagbucks are a wonderful blessing!

Going Green and Your Green Thumb

I’ll combine these two categories because for me, they go hand in hand (or thumb as the case may be). I’m not a gardening expert, but I have been doing this for a few years and have a few gardening tips to share. Here is a link to all of my gardening and preserving posts. We garden organically and in case you want to see my husband holding a bucket of my kitchen garbage (and you know you do), hop over hear to learn how we compost.

Crafting Something Green

Well, of all the green tips I have to share, crafting something green may be where I fall short. I don’t do a lot of crafting at my house, mostly because my boys are a little bit too busy building cities and knocking them over to sit down with glue and glitter. I do have a fun post about how to make Flubber…and since you have to put food coloring in it…use green. There. I came up with a green craft. Hopefully you’ve got something better in mind to share.

SO…what’d you come up with for your little Green Project this year? Tell us about anything green:

  • Saving Green
  • Eating More Greens
  • Earning Extra Green
  • Going Green
  • Your Green Thumb
  • Crafting Something Green

You’re welcome to link up an older post if it fits the above categories. You’re also welcome to link up more than one post. If you don’t have a blog, please leave a comment letting us know of your little Green Project! Then let’s all go visit everyone’s blog and learn more about their little Green Project!

If you’re linking up a post, please copy and paste the following link into your post…

Join us at Heavenly Homemakers for the little Green Project!

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Gratituesday: What’s it Like Having Matt Home?

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I’ve been asked questions about our “new lifestyle” quite often and thought I might share with you how the past two and a half months have been going for our family. If you recall, Matt resigned from his restaurant management position in December to work from home full-time. Our desire was for Matt to be able to spend more time with our family and in ministries. We were tired of having regrets. 

So, how about I do a little bit of Gratituesday “Matt’s Home” FAQ? 

If your husband quit his job, how do you have an income?

Our answer to this question has been, “We may not have jobs…but we have work and we have income.” We are self-employed, doing a variety of work that provides income for our family. We’re working very hard…and we get to do most of it side by side. We feel that for us, it has been wise not to “put all of our eggs in one basket”. We have income from several different sources…all of which adds up to enough to meet our family’s needs. We own and rent out storage units; the Heavenly Homemakers site provides income; Matt has a snow-removal business; Matt does odd jobs for people in the community. There isn’t a job, but trust me…God has provided plenty of work. Our needs are always met.

What are your days like?

Each night we discuss what needs to be done the next day. We make lists, we prioritize and we continue to dream and set goals.

Every day is very different depending on what the needs are for the moment. I’m generally home most of the time, just like I was before. If it snows, Matt is gone a good part of the day spending quality time with his snow-blower, or if someone calls on him to help out with something, he heads out to help. If he can, he takes all the boys over to help him with a job someone has called on him to do. Otherwise, he is usually home working on whatever needs to be worked on. We are tag-team teaching the boys, depending on what needs to be done and who is available. Sometimes I have work I need to get done for Heavenly Homemakers, so I go “hide in the office” while Matt jumps in and helps the boys with their work. He loves that he now has the opportunity to take a more active role in their schooling. 

Matt is working on getting his Real Estate License (which is another income source he’ll be able to operate mostly from home), so recently he’s been studying and taking tests online. He’s also been working on marketing our Learn your Letters, Learn to Serve pre-school curriculum and other Heavenly Homemakers resources.

Do you get tired of having your husband home all day every day?

Abso-stinkin’-lutely not!!! God has blessed us during this season while we raise our boys to BOTH be home to parent and train and work. I know not everyone might feel this way or work as smoothly as a couple…but for us, this situation is working very well. Matt makes my life and my days easier, not harder. My stress level has gone down a great amount since he’s been home. He’s a huge help, a wonderful encouragement, and a solid provider. We love being together. God has made us into a great team and are so thankful that we get to work daily as teammates. 

I’m constantly thankful and do not take this blessing for granted. When I run into him in the kitchen or office at 10:56 in the morning or 2:23 in the afternoon, I can’t help but smile and give a shout out to God that my husband is home. (And I usually steal a kiss, because well…he is just right there and I can’t really help myself.)  ;)

What does your future hold?

We really have no idea. We know that God gave us this gift of time together with our family at least for now. Because our schedules are flexible we are able to be open to ministry opportunities God puts on our hearts. We’re really just trying to remain open to whatever it is that God has called us to do right now, and we look forward prayerfully to what God has in mind for our future. There is much to be done for the Kingdom. We’re so grateful that we get to work at it…together.

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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Being a Better Help Meet: Choose Your Friends Wisely

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helpmeet

Who are you spending quality time with? (I mean, besides your toddler and The Cat in the Hat.)

Are you choosing your friends wisely? 

I think it is very important to spend time with lonely people, hurting people, needy people and struggling people…because people need people and we all at one time or another are lonely, hurting, needy or struggling. This post is not suggesting that you ignore all people who have nothing to offer you at this moment. God calls us to reach out and love on his children.

But what I’d like to suggest to each of us is that if you’re interested in keeping your marriage strong and together, it is wise to spend time with people who can help you and encourage you in those efforts.

Look around you. Who has been married for many, many years? Who outwardly adores her husband? Who speaks kindly of her husband? Who has gone through difficult marriage struggles and landed on her feet beside her man? Who will help you hold your marriage together?

And I’m not just talking to those of you whose marriages are barely holding on. I’m talking to all of us.

Do the people around you engage in “husband or men bashing”? Do your friends prefer to do their own thing, leaving their husbands out of the picture? Do your friends hold marriage as sacred? Do your friends encourage you to put your  husband first? Do your friends challenge you be a devoted wife…no matter what?

You wouldn’t ask financial advice from your broke, scatter-brained uncle, right? Neither should you seek godly marriage wisdom from someone who truly isn’t equipped to offer it. 

Choose to surround yourself with people who can show you how to love. Develop relationships with women who can encourage you as a wife to be the best godly helper that you can be for your husband.

On the flip side…no matter how old you are or how long you’ve been married, make a decision to be a good example to young girls and younger married women around you. Show others how much you love your husband and how grateful you are to be married.

Seek mentors. Be a mentor.

I do believe this is exactly what Titus 2:3-5 is all about. :)

Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children,  to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.

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Menu Plan for the Week

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My crew loves it when I make a huge breakfast of biscuits and gravy with the works! I don’t make this big meal very often…but this week I figured I could make it happen. So, here’s what our Saturday morning might look like…

Come on over if you want. :)

Here’s our menu for this week!

Sunday, March 13
Applesauce bread, bananas
Roast, carrots, potatoes, gravy
Grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup, carrot sticks

Monday, March 14
Whole wheat waffles, blueberries
Salmon patties, mashed potato pancakes, peas
Chicken tortilla soup, fruit salad

Tuesday, March 15
Scrambled egg sandwiches, clementines
Baked potatoes with cheese and kreme’ fresh, peaches
Beefy vegetable soup, soft pretzels

Wednesday, March 16
Cinnamon swirl bread, applesauce
Chicken veggie quesadillas, oranges
Barbecue brisket, cream scalloped potatoes, green beans

Thursday, March 17
Honey whole wheat bagels, apple slices
Meat and cheese burritos, pears
Beef stroganoff, roasted asparagus

Friday, March 18
Peanut butter honey toast, fruit and yogurt
Cheesy salsa enchiladas, tossed salad
Homemade pizza

Saturday, March 19
Turkey sausage gravy, sourdough biscuits, hashbrowns, scrambled eggs
Leftovers
Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas

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Let Say Mmm help you out with your menu planning…it’s free!

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Got Bricks? Lori can help you learn to make beautiful batches of homemade bread!

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Keeping the Kingdom First Mom…Balancing Faith, Family and Frugality

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Make Your Own Larabars

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It’s so easy to make your own Larabars!

Homemade Larabars

Larabars:

  • Are made with all real food ingredients
  • Have no added sugar (unless you add chocolate chips, and who can resist?)
  • Can be made with all varieties of ingredients
  • Are naturally gluten and grain free

Ever since I got to try some Larabars for a review back in March, I’ve been hooked. They are amazingly yummy, incredibly healthy and what do you know…they are gluten free!

I’m amazed that they contain so few ingredients…my favorite Cashew Cookie bar is made of only dates and cashews…that’s IT. And it really does taste like a cookie. Only better.  :)

Ready to make your own Larabars?


Make Your Own Larabars
 
Save Print
Author:
Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • 1½ cups raw cashews
  • 8 dates (remove pits)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 Tablespoons water
  • ¼ cup add ins like mini chocolate chips, dried fruit, or fresh fruit like blueberries (optional)
Instructions
  1. Grind cashews in a food processor until fine.
  2. Slowly add dates, vanilla, and water and pulse until the mixture forms a dough.
  3. Fold in chocolate chips or fruit.
  4. Press mixture into a parchment paper-lined 8x8 inch pan.
  5. Refrigerate for about one hour.
  6. Cut into 12 bars.

larabars_remade

Need a great source for nuts when you make Larabars? Be sure to check out Braga Farms as a wonderful source for organic nuts! Braga Farms is a fabulous family farm to purchase organic nuts from. You can not beat their quality or their prices! I just placed an order and I can’t wait to get my great box of organic nuts!

These homemade Larabars are great to take on the road for a filling and nourishing snack. Make them with any combination of fruit and nuts for your family’s preferences.

Need more healthy snack ideas? You’ll love this wonderful and helpful eBook full of 227 Healthy Snack ideas and recipes!

[wp_eStore_fancy1 id=6]

 

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Toys for Boys? Are Guns Okay? Podcast #9

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Ah, one of my favorite subjects. Through the years, we’ve been asked many times what we feel are the best toys for boys. Do we allow our boys to play with guns? As Christians, do we feel like this is okay? What about transformers? Swords? Is all that violence good for them?

These are the questions I address in this latest podcast. 

One thing I forgot to mention (probably because I was all wrapped up in talking about how many light sabers we have):  LEGOS! I was addressing other questions, so Legos just didn’t come up. But of all the favorite toys we have in our house…we just LOVE our Legos. They are well worth the investment and make wonderful gifts for our boys. 

But back to the guns and swords (which of course Legos can easily be built to resemble)…

Heavenly Homemakers Podcast Nine

Share your thoughts! Do you have boys? What do you let them play with?

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Dairy, Soy and Gluten Free Chocolate Chips

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Usually, I make my own chocolate chips from sucanat and either butter or coconut oil…making for some much healthier chocolate chips! But I really like having pre-made chocolate chips on hand in the freezer for chocolate chip emergencies. Life can be full of chocolate chip emergencies.

My preferred purchased chocolate chips are:  Enjoy Life Dairy, Soy, and Gluten Free Chocolate Chips. I can only find these at Amazon…and then I can’t find them very often because they are snatched up quickly. I’ve had soy-free chocolate chip conversations with some of you in the past…so wanted to let you know really quickly that there are about 14 cases of these Enjoy Life Dairy, Soy, and Gluten Free Chocolate Chips left right now at Amazon if you’re interested in grabbing some! (There were 15…but well…one is on it’s way to my house now.)

I love using these Enjoy Life Dairy, Soy, and Gluten Free Chocolate Chips when I make Chewy Granola Bars…and just this week, I used some to make Chocolate Chip Muffins (recipe found in our What to Do With the Kids in Your Kitchen eBook).

Ever have a chocolate chip emergency? What’s your favorite kind of chocolate chip? Ever tried making your own homemade chocolate chips?

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Larabars – Why I LOVE Them! And Hey Look, a Coupon!

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This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of LÄRABAR for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I am here today to tell you all about why I love LÄRABARs, and it isn’t even because my name is Laura. Really, I’d love them even if their name wasn’t similar to mine (although my boys might not think they were as cool).

I’m not really one to purchase many pre-made bars and snacks. I only buy them occasionally to take on road trips and to soccer and basketball games. Most pre-made bars don’t do much to satisfy any real kind of hunger, not to mention they usually contain ingredients I would normally consider to be compromise ingredients (yes, even in the organic ones).

But LÄRABARs, now that’s a different story. Some of them contain a total of only TWO ingredients. My favorite LÄRABAR, as a matter of fact, is the Cashew Cookie bar. It contains dates and cashews. That’s IT. And it tastes divine!! At most, a few varieties of LÄRABARs contain nine ingredients. It’s highly impressive that they can make such a delicious bar, with so many different varieties, with so few ingredients.

LÄRABARs are all natural, gluten free, non GMO, Kosher and are free of preservatives, colors and fillers. With the exception of the few bars that contain high quality chocolate chips, most LÄRABARs are dairy free, sugar and sweetener free, soy free and vegan.

We were sent a wonderful variety box of LÄRABARs and have had so much fun sampling the different kinds. They’re full of nuts and fruit…what a delicious combination of goodness!

I’m not sure if you follow “The Biggest Loser” on TV or not, but it would appear that LÄRABARs were featured and recommended on the March 8 episode. Way to go LÄRABAR!

The cost of LÄRABARs is anywhere from $1-$2, depending on where you look. (I’ve actually spotted some at Wal-mart in the pharmacy section!)  This cost might seem high at first glance. I’ve gotta say though…have you ever purchased high quality nuts and fruit? These ingredients cost more than puffed rice and HFCS. I think the value and quality of LÄRABARs is quite high, making the cost well worth it. You could pay almost a buck for a candy bar after all. Why not put that money into something that will fill and nourish you?! :)

Here’s where you can get your LÄRABAR coupon!! It’s good for $1 off 2 bars…an excellent deal!

Have you tried LÄRABARs? Which is your favorite?

Visit Sponsor's Site

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Where to Buy Organic Nuts in Bulk

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Several have asked me recently where I would recommend buying organic nuts in bulk. I’ve been excited to answer that question as earlier in the year while our family was in California, we made a special trip to visit Braga Organic Farms, one of California’s few organic nut growers. Our family has done business with Braga Organic Farms in the past and Heavenly Homemakers is an affiliate of theirs. We LOVE their organic nuts!! It was so exciting to tour their farm and learn how their operation works and to actually see the pistachio trees and organic practices!

Braga Organic Farms has been organic for over 11 years. Every question we asked, they knew the answer (and we asked a LOT of questions). These folks know their organic farming and care a lot about their work! Did I mention that theirs is a family run business? We love that part too!

One of the biggest questions we had, and the subject we covered most while we were there was:  Why Organic?  Is it important to buy organic nuts instead of conventionally grown nuts? What’s the difference?

Instead of answering with words only, Mr. Braga took us outside to show us his fields compared to a neighboring farmer who does not grow nuts organically. Here is a lovely picture of the nut tree rows at Braga Organic Farms:

And another:

What’s impressive about the above pictures is that California had been experiencing an unusually large amount of rain during that time. The soil is so healthy, you can’t even tell that rainfall was far above average.

We then turned around and walked just a few feet to take a picture of the non-organic neighboring farm’s nut tree rows:

 

It was AMAZING to see such a difference in the soil quality at the different farms. As Mr. Braga put it, “Other farmers use pesticides and herbicides to help take care of their trees.  We work hard to care for our soil…then the SOIL takes care of our trees.”

 

Yep, healthy soil makes for healthy trees which makes for healthy nuts. In fact, Mr. Braga told us that because their organic nuts are not typically as large as “regular nuts”, they are more nutrient rich because the nutrients are more consensed. Pound for pound, organic nuts are more nutritious.

So, we asked, why do organic nuts cost more than conventionally grown nuts?

The answers make sense:

  1. Braga Organic Farms uses a high quality compost instead of cheap fertilizers to enrich their soil. The high quality compost costs a significant amount more than cheap fertilizers.
  2. There is more labor involved in their weed control. They mechanically remove weeds instead of using herbicides.

Our family will be ordering our nuts in bulk from Braga Organic Farms from now on. You can buy a smaller quantity if you don’t want a great big box of nuts, but if you have freezer space, bulk is a great way to go to save money, since shipping costs are the same no matter how much you buy. (You can read my thoughts about paying shipping costs here.)

Nuts stay fresh and keep from going rancid in the freezer for up to three years!  I recommend buying in bulk if possible because while the up-front cost may seem like a lot…when you break down the cost, you’ll find a price comparable to regular ol’ nuts at the store…only these are organic and super high quality!

Have you found a great source for organic nuts? Do you buy in bulk? Don’t you just love snacking on nuts? (Unless of course, you are allergic to nuts, in which case you had a hard time reading this post in the first place.)  :)

Braga Organic Farms has agreed to give all of us a 10% discount on any purchase now through April 7!! Be sure to take advantage of these great savings! Use the code home to receive the discount.

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