Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Homeschool Curriculum and Unhealthy Soccer Snacks! Podcast #2

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It’s podcast time again! Matt and I are still working out some of the kinks, but overall I think we’re getting things figured out. We WILL be asking to boys to “keep it down” in the next room as we record future podcasts. You may or may not hear a little rough housing in the background.  And a bird might chirp here and there. My children I can control (usually)…birds? Not so much.

On a completely different note, and don’t ask me why I feel the need to share this with you, but ever since I lost my mom to ALS six years ago…there have been random moments when I sing or speak that I am able to HEAR her voice through mine. I think the older I get, the more I sound like her. I am her daughter after all. Occasionally at church I’ll be singing away and suddenly notice…WOW, that sounded just like Mom! And then I melt into a puddle right there in the pew because “hearing her voice” makes me miss her so much more.

That’s what happened when I listened to myself at the beginning of this podcast. Not the whole thing…just when I open with the word “Hello!” It completely took me by surprise and I immediately began weeping all over the computer right there in my headset. Whew…I was not expecting that. It’s amazing how the pain fades, yet the tears and yearning are always there. Perhaps God has given me a gift today in being able to “hear” what my mom’s voice sounded like. Yes, it is amazing really.

Thanks for letting me share that. You all are really, really great and I appreciate all of you so much. {She says, as she pauses to blow her nose again. Man, I’m weepy today.}

I really am okay.  :)  {deep breath}  In today’s podcast, I address the question of which curriculum I recommend and how in the world to keep curriculum affordable!! Also, I talk about how to handle it when our kids are handed sugary, food coloring filled snacks after events such as little league games. Isn’t that counter productive to the exercise they just participated in to keep them healthy?!

Sit back and relax…or get some dishes done while you listen. (Actually if you’d like to get some of my dishes done while I sit back and relax and we can listen together…that would be great!)

Heavenly Homemakers Podcast Two

Links refered to during the podcast:

Thanks for taking the time to read and listen to the podcast!

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Healthy Fruit Crisp

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I think that making a fruit crisp is one of the easiest desserts to make. But that may be because of a little short-cut I like to take.  Hey, I’m all for making special treats and doing it the lazy easy way.

Here’s my trick:  You know how a fruit crisp has a “crumb topping”? All the recipes I’ve seen say to “add all the dry ingredients together” then “cut in the butter until the mixture resembles course crumbs”. I am REALLY not a fan of “cutting in the butter” in any recipe. It takes extra effort and makes an extra mess and now that I am all grown up and not in Home-Ec class anymore, I have become a butter cutter inner rebel. I believe we should all take a stand against things we feel strongly about. And so, I hereby stand firm on my belief and I refuse to cut in butter.

I hope you can still respect me after that confession. If you still choose to cut in your butter, we can still be friends.

As a replacement (aka lazy) option to cutting the butter into the dry ingredients in a fruit crisp, I have chosen to simply MELT the butter and stir it into the oat and flour mixture. I KNOW. And check it out…I have still made crumbs:

I love this fruit crisp recipe because you can use any fruit you want. This time, I made peach fruit crisp because it just so happens that I got to go pick some lovely peaches at my friend Kim’s house. Depending on the kind of fruit you use, you may want to add more sucanat (sugar), but I’ll leave that up to you!

Healthy Fruit CrispYum

5 cups sliced fruit (apples, peaches, pears, cherries, blueberries or a combination of all)
2 Tablespoons sucanat or brown sugar

Stir the fruit together with the sucanat and place in a small baking dish (8×8 inch).

Make your Crumb Topping…

1/2 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup sucanat or brown sugar
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
1/4 cup butter (MELTED, for Pete’s sake)
1/4 cup chopped nuts or coconut flakes (also optional)

Mix together oats, sucanat, flour and cinnamon. Stir in melted butter and joy upon joy, it creates crumbs with little to no effort. Add nuts or coconut flakes.

Sprinkle crumb topping over fruit. Bake in a 375° for 30-35 minutes or until fruit is tender and topping is golden brown.

Easy_Fruit_Crisp

If you’ve made and canned Apple Pie Filling, just dump it into your baking dish, sprinkle on your crumb topping and bake. SO easy!

I just have to know…are you a butter cutter inner, or a butter cutter inner rebel like me? Never thought about it before? Yeah, I figured I was the weird one with butter cutter inner issues.

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Gratituesday: The Flipcam

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gratituesday

Justus (our 10 year old) just got himself his very own Flipcam.

He’s been dreaming about it and planning for it for months. The kid LOVES making movies. Lego movies, real life movies, super hero movies…he is a movie producer in the making.

It all started with Justus making small movies using my regular camera (the kind that has a few minutes of video recording on it). He played with it a time or two, then realized that he LOVED creating movies. I let him use it, and he used it often…but inevitably about the time I would have a plate or bowl of something delicious to take a picture of for the website, I wouldn’t be able to find my camera. Or the batteries would be dead. Because the kid loved making movies THAT much.

And then came the day that he dropped my camera. And it broke. Forever.

I’m a blogger; I need a camera, pretty much daily. He felt terrible. He apologized. And he was forgiven. But he still had to give me some money to replace the broken camera. And then Matt and I decided that Mama’s new camera would be Mama’s camera and nobody under the age of MAMA would be allowed to touch it. (Okay, Daddy gets to use it too even though he’s a little younger than Mama.)

Justus understood the new rule, but I think he went through Movie Making Withdrawals. And so, after looking into what he would need, he began to save his money for his very own movie camera. All summer long he mowed lawns (and he mowed and he mowed…). Once soccer season started he began to referee the younger kids’ games. Every bit of money he earned, he saved. Until finally the day came that he could buy his own video camera.

We’re so proud of him. He’s so proud of his camera. And understandably, he’s a little bit protective of it. As hard as he worked to earn it, he’s pretty sure he doesn’t want ANYONE to drop it!! :)

There are movies in the making pretty much constantly around here these days. I’ve even been able to star in a few. (Okay, co-star, who am I kidding?)

So why is this my Gratituesday post today? Because I’m thankful that Justus learned to work hard and save toward a goal. Talk about perseverance! Who knows but that this will be something that Justus can develop into a career someday (although he still really wants to be a chef, so we’ll see!).

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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Switching “from White to Brown”

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simplesteps

In last week’s podcast I mentioned that another great step to make in your journey toward healthy eating is to make the switch “from white to brown”.

And what, you ask, does it mean to switch “from white to brown”? In three major areas, I would suggest starting to move away from refined, highly processed, nutrient void ingredients…and instead choose unrefined, unprocessed, nutrient filled ingredients. These three major areas would be:  Rice, Sugar and Grain. 

Yeah, because guess what?! White flour, white sugar and white rice have pretty much NO nutritional value. When we eat them, they fill our bellies…and that’s about it. Our body really can’t do anything with them since the nutrients have been stripped out of them…which is why they are called “empty calories”. In fact, because our bodies crave nutrients in order to function properly, these “white ingredients” can also be “negative calories” – as in the nutrients stored as reserves in our bodies are then sucked out to help our body function, leaving our reserves depleted. And then what often happens with the white stuff? It turns to fat.  Well, no wonder. It’s bored and has nothing else to do.

In addition, once our bodies are depleted of nutrients, we are much more likely to get sick. Did I mention that eating these nutrient void ingredients can even cause depression? OUR BODIES NEED NUTRIENTS!!!

Now that I’ve made this suggestion…I am also going to reassure you that it really is okay to take one step at a time as you start replacing white ingredients with brown ingredients in your kitchen. This switch “from white to brown” takes a little effort. It may take a while to adjust your family’s taste buds. You also may find that it adds a little more expense. (Remember though that you are investing in REAL whole food – an investment in your health and the health of your family that is well worth the cost and effort!)

But I believe in the end, you will LOVE making this switch. 

Want to know a little secret? Brown ingredients actually have flavor!! It’s amazing what nutrients will do to food – it makes them taste good!! Go figure. :)

Here are some tips to help you transition “from white to brown”:

  • Make the switch gradually. You can make a mixture of white rice and brown rice to help get your family used to it. You can do the same with white flour and whole wheat…white sugar and sucanat. Mix it up a bit…literally.
  • Read through the suggestions about the sugars I recommend here.  There are several different “healthy sugars” that make fantastic treats!
  • Try to find whole wheat flour made from hard (or soft) WHITE wheat. White wheat is a variety of grain that has the same nutrition as red wheat…but white wheat makes a lighter, fluffier flour that is not as hard to get accustomed to. We love hard white wheat at our house. And…I know I’m telling you to switch from white to brown and white wheat is white…but really…white wheat makes brown flour. Really it does. :)
  • Cook your brown rice in chicken broth to make it taste awesome – yum! (I’ll try to post a tutorial on how to easily cook brown rice sometime soon.)
  • Whole wheat pasta really is tasty! Our favorite whole wheat spaghetti is bionaturae. This brand works great for my Creamy Mac and Cheese recipe!

 I’d love for all of you to pipe in and share your tricks for making the switch from white to brown! What works for you and your family? What have been some of your biggest challenges in making the switch?

 

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Menu Plan for the Week

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In case you haven’t checked out Heavenly Homemakers Healthy Discounts Page…I’d really like to encourage you to click on over! There are some great deals posted (and I plan to add more this week)! Eating a healthy diet REALLY is possible for you and the Healthy Discounts Page is here to make your healthy food purchases more affordable. Check out what Serina just wrote on her blog:

I just scored a great deal on US-grown organic almonds. If you have the freezer space and room in your budget to do this, you’ll save a bundle, too. I ordered 25 lbs. of organic almonds from Braga Organic Farms. The cost was $140, plus $10 shipping. Using the coupon code (“home”) for 10% off (found at the Heavenly Homemaker’s Healthy Discounts page), I paid $126 for the 25 lbs. Add the shipping back in and divide by 25, and I only paid $5.44/lb.! If you’ve ever bought (or thought about buying but were scared off by the price) organic almonds before, you know this is a fantastic deal. This is roughly the same as I currently pay for conventional almonds. (Read more of what Serina has to say…)

Almonds, pistachios…and most forms of nuts are a little on the pricey side even if they aren’t organic. But nuts are SO good for you and make a great snack. Buying organic nuts instead of conventionally grown nuts is pretty important in my opinion. I love that Braga Organic Farms has such great prices…and they’ve even provided a Heavenly Homemaker Discount!!

Okay…enough about nuts. Now let’s talk about bamboo. Just kidding. :)  Here’s our menu plan for the week:

Sunday, September 26
Oatmeal, apples
Beef stew with carrots and potatoes, honey wheat muffins
Nachos, peaches

Monday, September 27
Whole wheat waffles, blueberries
Corn dog muffins, kefir-fruit smoothies, green beans
Taco potatoes, pears

Tuesday, September 28
Honey wheat bagels, applesauce
Pizza Pockets, creamy orange cooler, broccoli and carrots with ranch dip
Three Cheese Garlic Chicken Pasta, tossed salad, asparagus

Wednesday, September 29
Scrambled eggs, peach milkshakes
Sloppy Joes on homemade buns, ranch potato wedges, peas
Lamb chops, butternut squash, tossed salad

Thursday, September 30
Giant breakfast cookies, bananas
Salmon Patties, fruit salad, green beans
Shepherds Pie, tossed salad

Friday, October 1
French toast, peaches
Grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup, carrots
Homemade pizza, apples

Saturday, October 2
Fried eggs, cinnamon apple toast
Leftovers
Chicken tostadas, fruit salad

Be sure to download your free fall menu planners here! And…if you’re looking for some great, easy lunchtime menu ideas, you’ll find a free downloadable “cheat sheet” here.

I FINALLY have another post coming in the Simple Steps Toward Healthy Eating series…stay tuned!
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Visit Organizing Junkie for more menu planning inspiration!

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A Smoothie Lunch and a Hot Pepper Eye Update

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Just in case you’re interested, I thought I’d let you know that my hot pepper hands finally stopped burning Tuesday and I can now put contacts in my eyes without pain. My eye (for those of you who were worried) really was completely fine as soon as it got the milk swish. It was my hands that continued to burn and for THAT reason there was no way, no how I was going to put a fiery finger in my eye to insert said contacts. All appears to be back to normal with the eyes and hands and I have vowed never to touch another pepper again for the rest of my life (or until I need to cut up another pepper which could really mean…tomorrow). I will however always and forever wear gloves when cutting peppers.

I say all of that to let you know that I have not suffered any permanent damage…and also to let you know that the folks over at Blogher enjoyed my Hot Pepper in the Eye Remedy post enough to re-post it over on their site. This is a great honor and I’d love for you to head over there and check it out!

In other news (in which I continue to send you away from my blog to read my writing elsewhere)…I have posted again over at Deal Moon, sharing yet another quick, healthy and easy lunch idea.

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New (FREE!) Fall Menu Planners – Downloadable

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Yes, it’s that time of year. The time when apples are ready to be made into delicious apple pies and leaves are beginning to turn colors…school has started and there is a cool crispness in the air. Unless of course you are living in a place that is still 100° with no chance of a break in the heat. Hang in there, my melting friends.

Whether it’s fall weather at your house or you are just pretending that it is…I asked my fabulous designer friend Char to make us some pretty fall menu planners for all of us to enjoy. She did not disappoint! I LOVE these planners (and matching grocery lists)!! They are free to all of you – You are welcome to download, print, share and menu plan to your heart’s content.

Falling Leaves Menu Planner

Falling leaves Grocery List

Fall Apples Menu Planner

Fall Apples Grocery List

Cornucopia Menu Planner

Cornucopia Grocery List

I just can’t get over how much nicer these menu planners look on my refrigerator compared to a piece of paper I rip out of my son’s 2006 assignment notebooks…

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Apple Pie Filling

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Malachi_apple_pie_1

Yum

What started out as seven grocery bags full of apples to trip over in our kitchen is now down to only three grocery bags full of apples to trip over. We’ve shared some (meaning we’ve begged people to take some off of our hands), made applesauce, dried apple rings and now apple pie filling.

Oh yeah, and we’ve eaten a bunch.

This was my first time to try canning apple pie filling and I am pleased with the results. It’s a little time consuming to make, but it isn’t hard. Will the hard work be worth it in February when I make a quick Whole Wheat Pie Crust, pour out the contents of the jar and bake a pie? Oh yes, I think so.

To make Apple Pie Filling you will need:

About 25 medium sized apples
1 1/2 cups sucanat or brown sugar
3 Tablespoons cinnamon
3 Tablespoons cornstarch, arrowroot powder or flour
1 cup water
1/4 cup lemon juice

(This amount makes 3 quart sized jars – enough for three nice sized pies.)

Peel, core and slice your apples.

Add remaining ingredients.

Stir and cook over medium heat for about 30 minutes until
a nice little syrup has formed and your apples are slightly tender.

Scoop apple pie filling into sterilized canning jars.
Hot water bath the pie filling for 25 minutes.

apple_pie_filling_5

To make pie:

Prepare this Whole Wheat Pie Crust and place it in a pie pan. Dump contents of Apple Pie Filling jar into the crust. Use bits of leftover crust to put little cut-outs onto the pie, or make a crumb topping. Bake at 350° for one hour.

Malachi_apple_pie_1

And now a little Q&A…

What kind of apples should I use for this apple pie filling?

I would suggest using the kind you get for free. Those taste best in a pie. Otherwise, granny smith makes a really good apple pie. Some of you want to share your favorite apples for pie making?

Can I freeze my pie filling?

You can certainly freeze this apple pie filling if you’d rather not can it, or if you don’t have canning equipment. I chose to can it because all of my freezers are pretty well full of meat, green beans, corn, strawberries, peaches… Wow God is good!

Can I use this apple pie filling to make an apple crisp?

Oh look – here’s a recipe for a Healthy Fruit Crisp. :)

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Gratituesday: First Podcast!

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gratituesday

Yes, this is the announcement I promised was coming. We have been working very hard for the past several weeks to set up several brand new features here at Heavenly Homemakers (the  Homeschool Curriculum Share Forum and the Healthy Grocery Discount Page) but what we’ve really, really been working hard on is preparing our brand new Heavenly Homemakers Q and A Podcasts!!

It was Matt’s idea. He totally rocks.  Not only is he brilliant for coming up with the idea, but he’s spent HOURS of his (spare?) time researching software, learning software, editing and putting together our very first podcast. And by editing, I mean that beyond all of the regular cutting and pasting and splicing work it takes to put a podcast together to make it flow nicely…I say “um” way too much and he has been trying to cut as many “um”s out as possible. I love him.  Here’s hoping I (um) get better at talking into the air and recording myself so that his (um) editing work becomes much easier.

Our goal with these podcasts is to offer all of you an opportunity to hear the answers to my email questions. My inbox is always overflowing and I appreciate so much the wonderful emails you all send and the questions that come with them. If we were to make a “pie graph” of all the different areas of work it takes to make this blog run smoothly, I would say that answering emails would probably be the largest slice of pie on the graph. We figured that if I’m going to take that much time to answer questions…why don’t I answer them so that ALL of you can hear it and make my time more efficient and productive!!

I can not tell you how grateful I am that all of our dreaming and planning and work has finally come together so that today, we are able to debut our very first podcast!! God is good and we hope that this can be the first of many (weekly? biweekly?) podcasts that will be an encouragement to all of you.

And now, I am excited to introduce to you…Heavenly Homemakers Podcast One! It lasts around 12 minutes – grab some laundry to fold while you listen, or simply kick back and relax. Be sure to ignore the imperfections…we’re still in the process of getting it all figured out!

Heavenly Homemakers Podcast One

As mentioned in the podcast:  Download your free Healthy Lunch Ideas cheat sheet, print it out and keep it in a handy location in your kitchen for lunchtime help!

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!

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

Menu Plan for the Week

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biscuits9sm1.JPG

I’m not sure what it’s like at your house, but at my house today it is potato soup weather. And wear your slippers weather. And oh yeah…don’t forget to take off your slippers and put on shoes before you run to the store weather. I’m trying to retrain my boys to close the big front door when they go in and out…they are very much out of the habit since for the past few months we’ve been leaving it open to let the breeze blow through the house. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve said, “Hey! Close the door behind you!” today, I’d have a nice fat wallet. If they had a dollar for every time they’ve heard me holler and still left the door open, they would also have big fat wallets. As it turns out, neither of us have big fat wallets and the big door is currently standing wide open. ;)

We’ll be feeding the YC ladies soccer team dinner Monday night…lasagna of course. It’s what several of them request (with puppy dog eyes) when I see them and who am I to say no? My boys are also excited that I’m making lasagna…it would appear that I don’t make it enough or something. They throw a party when they hear that lasagna is on the menu. Maybe I should make more lasagna around here? 

Here’s what our menu  looks like for this week:

Sunday, September 19
Oatmeal
Potato soup, raw carrots and broccoli with ranch dressing, honey wheat muffins
Grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches, watermelon

Monday, September 20
Crepes with jelly, oranges
BLTs, peaches, carrot sticks
Lasagna, tossed salad, french bread, butterscotch bars, Lynn’s No-Bake Cookie Bars

Tuesday, September 21
Orange muffins, bananas
Chicken and noodles, carrots
Pizza casserole, tossed salad, corn

Wednesday, September 22
Mini apple pies, cheese
Chili, whole wheat sourdough biscuits
Chicken veggie stir fry with yellow squash, carrots and broccoli

Thursday, September 23
French toast with homemade peach syrup
Cheddar ranch burgers on homemade buns, green beans, fresh tomatoes
Black beans and rice with salsa, corn and kreme fresh

Friday, September 23
Giant Breakfast Cookies, applesauce
Homemade pizza pockets, pears, raw veggies
Chicken Fried Steak Strips, gravy, ranch potato wedges, peas

Saturday, September 24
Scrambled eggs, peaches
Leftovers
Swiss Steak with rice, tossed salad

I hope you’ve taken the time to check out our new Homeschool Curriculum Share Forum and the new Healthy Grocery Discount Page! Coming up in just a couple of days…another fun announcement!

(One of my boys just came in and asked for a some cheese. And I said, “Sure I can cut you some cheese.” Ahahahaha…cut the cheese. Yeah we’re having a big laugh at our house now because Mama is going to go cut some cheese….)

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