Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Warm Chocolate Soother

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Warm Chocolate Soother

So, chocolate…or vanilla? That is the question.

I’d almost always say “chocolate” and yet…depending on the day, the occasion or the item…I may want vanilla. I’d say just about nothing beats this Warm Vanilla Soother.

And yet, last week the boys asked if I could try making my Warm Vanilla Soother into a Warm Chocolate Soother, just for fun. The kids thought it sounded yummy and hey, who am I to argue when it comes to making something chocolatey?

This recipe is almost exactly like Warm Vanilla Soother…just a couple of ingredients added.

Warm Chocolate SootherYum

Warm Chocolate Soother
 
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Author:
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 3 cups whole milk
  • 4 egg yolks
  • ¼ cup real maple syrup
  • 3 Tablespoons brown sugar or sucanat
  • ¼ cup cocoa powder
  • 2 Tablespoons arrowroot powder or corn starch
  • 1 Tablespoon butter
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
  1. In a medium saucepan, whisk together milk, egg yolks, maple syrup, sucanat, cocoa and arrowroot powder.
  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly (I use a whisk) until mixture begins to thicken.
  3. Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla.
  4. Stir until creamy.
  5. Pour into mugs and serve warm.

 

Once this finally cooled down enough to drink, my eight year old proclaimed, “Mom!! It tastes just like you’re drinking a brownie!”

For real?!  Drinking a brownie?  I want to drink a brownie!!!

Mmmm, he was right!

This has the appearance of hot cocoa, but it’s thicker and heartier. Oh. My.

So chocolate…or vanilla? That is still the question.

Maybe we’ll assign days to flavors.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday and every other Sunday will be Warm Chocolate Soother days. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and every other Sunday will be Warm Vanilla Soother days.

Unless I have a hankering for vanilla on a Friday or feel a deep need for chocolate on a Tuesday, which I very well may. I’ll have to be flexible and leave the options open.

Let’s see, today is Tuesday. Which one are you gonna make?

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Gratituesday: Precious Nana

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gratituesdaynov09

Let me tell you a little bit about my Nana.

My Nana is 83 years old, but she acts like she’s 63. (I totally hope I have her genes!)  She can still get down on the floor and play with her great-grandkids, she goes out to lunch with her friends, she goes shopping…she’s so much fun!

withnanasmHere is my family with Nana
the summer of 2008 during a family reunion.

Lately, something really cool has been happening between my Nana and me.

Email. 

She lives in Arkansas, so we only see each other at family reunions every other year or so. Lately, we’ve been emailing back and forth. They are such treasured emails. I’ve been loving it! She writes of memories of me when I was born and she came to help my mom…she tells me sweet things I said to her when I was a little girl…she encourages me as I parent my boys.

It has been the neatest thing. I plan to save these emails from her in a folder because they are so wonderful to read.

One of Nana’s favorite words is “precious”. Nana has told me hundreds of times how precious I am and how precious Matt is and how precious my boys are.

And now we have these precious emails. 

I’m so thankful for my precious Nana. 
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What are you grateful 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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Becoming a Better Help Meet: What does that mean?

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helpmeet

To kick off this series…let’s talk about why in the world we need to be a help meet. And…what is a help meet anyway?

I know for sure that I don’t have all the answers to these questions. The mystery of  “what is a help meet?” can seem deep, heavy and complicated. After much prayer, I found it very helpful and refreshing to just cut out all of the difficult and specific questions in my mind about being a perfect help meet and just look at the simple basics. 

Read chapter two of Genesis. God had created the earth and everything in the earth. He made this man named Adam…and he put Adam in a beautiful garden.

Then God said of Adam, “Aw, he’s all alone with no one to share this beauty with. He needs a helper.” (Genesis 2:20 – LV – Laura’s version, adapted from NIV – New International Version)

So…God brought the entire zoo of animals and birds and fish before Adam. Adam had a nice time naming them all. ( “You are a goat”… “You are a zebra”… “You are a gnu with a silent “g” just for the fun of it and because I said so.”)  But after a while, the chickens were just not cutting it. Adam needed encouragement, he needed someone to help him remember where he put his hatchet, and he was lonely. Adam needed a helper.

So, God put Adam to sleep, took out a rib, and made a lovely person similar to Adam…yet oh so different in many ways.

God brought the lovely person to Adam. Adam, of course, smiled with delight and said (something like), “Aha! This is exactly what I’ve been needing. She’s a knock out!! Thank you God!! She is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. Because she is a part of me, I’ll call her, Woman.” ( LV)

Now God, of course, does not make any mistakes. He knew exactly what he was doing when he made the lovely woman to be the man’s helper. He knew what he was doing when he made the man and the woman alike…and yet so different. He created the perfect combination. He made husband…and wife. God made BOTH man and woman in His image.

And He made the woman to help the man.

Well, I for one feel highly honored. 

God made me, Laura, to be a helper for Matt.  That makes me smile. 

This guy I love like crazy and think is really, really neat? He loves me and asked me to marry him and I get to be the one to help him in this life.

Is that not one of the biggest honors God could have given me?

Ladies, I do believe we have been given the best job in the world! 

***After each post in this series, I plan to ask some questions and pose some challenges to help all of us reflect on our role as a help meet to our husband. I hope you will feel comfortable to leave a comment in answer to the “Share with Us” questions so that we can all be inspired and encouraged by one another. You are also welcome to share your challenges in answering the “Challenge Yourself” questions publicly…however if those reflections are private, please ponder them in your heart or write them in a journal and pray for God to lead you in the way He needs to toward being a better help meet.***

Share with us:  What are some of the basic, everyday things you do for your husband that make his life and his work easier? I know for sure that you do A LOT to help your husbands everyday, so I can’t wait to be encouraged by your comments!! I bet you’ll be encouraged too when you think about all the ways you are a great helper to your husband!

Challenge yourself:  Are there ways you can improve as a helper? What small (or big) things can you do that will help your husband get through each day?  – Don’t beat yourself up about it…just challenge yourself and pray about ways you can be a better helper. 

Yay! God chose YOU to be the best helper for YOUR husband! You make his life better, richer, more fulfilled and more full of joy! As you go about your work today, do it with peace, knowing that you are doing just what God called you to do!

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Menu Plan for the Week

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Welcome to a new week. I have a few things to say to get us started off:

  1. Thank you SO MUCH for linking up and commenting on this post to help raise money for the hurting Haitians.  If you haven’t already left a comment or left a link, PLEASE do! I’ll still donate in honor of your links and comments. 
  2. If you haven’t re-subscribed to my blog, please be sure to do that now!  Remember my week of insanity and how I lost all my subscribers? I need you back. I miss you!!
  3. Speaking of the week of insanity…I never did post the first installment in my Becoming a Better Help Meet series. I was too busy trying to be a good help meet in the midst of freaking out in front of the computer. It wasn’t pretty. First post coming up tonight.

Sunday, January 17
Oatmeal, canned peaches
Beef stew, cornbread muffins
Bean dip with chips, pears

Monday, January 18 (Elias’ 8th Birthday meal choices)
Cream cheese breakfast pastries (From Nourishing Traditions cookbook)
Southside Grille with Daddy
Hamburgers and homemade fries

Tuesday, January 19
Fried eggs on toast, applesauce
Corndog muffins, apples
Chicken and noodles, tossed salad

Wednesday, January 20
Simple soaked pancakes, blueberries
Melting snowflakes, clementines
Taco potatoes

Thursday, January 21
Warm vanilla soother, peanut butter honey toast
Salmon patties, ranch potato wedges, steamed broccoli and cauliflower
Cheesy beef and rice, green beans

Friday, January 22
Mini breakfast pizzas, oranges
Chili with cheese, carrot sticks
Fish and chips, peas

Saturday, January 23
Mom is Great Breakfast Cake
Leftover buffet
BBQ chicken (made with this simple BBQ sauce), baked potatoes, tossed salad

With the tragedy in Haiti last week, I am overwhelmed with all we have to be thankful for. I hope that is your focus right now also. God is so good and we are well taken care of. Please make plans to share what you’re thankful for this week during Gratituesday!
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Find more menu planning inspiration at Organizing Junkie.

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

Chocolate or Vanilla? (revisited) Question #55

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This week, with my server going down officially and forever and the effort of switching it over to a new one (which was mostly up to my webmaster/friend, but still) I have been thrown into an amazingly tight knot. I don’t have high blood pressure, but I was thinking it might be wise to monitor it on Monday afternoon. And also on Tuesday. And then again on Wednesday.

By Thursday, my brain was so fried that I put lunch on a pizza stone to warm in the oven…turned on the oven…went into the other room to play a game with Asa…asked Elias about 20 minutes later to turn off the oven because surely lunch was hot enough by now…finished the game…went to put lunch on the table…

AND REALIZED THAT LUNCH WAS STILL ON THE COUNTERTOP ON THE PIZZA STONE.

I hadn’t even put it into the oven.

So, so fried. My brain, not lunch. Lunch was cold.

And you can just guess who didn’t win the game I was playing with Asa. Several times he kindly reminded me that I could still move my game pieces if I wanted to get my pieces to the other end of the game board as was the goal of the game (we were playing Traverse). He must think his mother is a complete Ding Bat. Poor kid.

Anyway, I really like asking these questions over the weekend because they are SUCH a fun way to get to know you better. But my fried brain can not think of one question to ask.

So, I’m copping out and going back to the very first question I ever asked which was the beginning of these wonderful get to know my reader questions.

Many of you are new to my site since then (it was about a year and a half ago when I started these), and even if you already answered it then, you can just humor me and answer it again.

It’s a fun question, and may be relevant to an upcoming post next week. The question was is in all its simplistic glory:

Chocolate…or vanilla?

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Our Healthy Eating Journey, Pt. 2

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 healthyeatingjourney

I suppose if I’m going to tell you about our healthy eating journey…I should start from the beginning.

Matt was raised a “city boy” in California. He was a very adorable little boy, so blonde headed his hair was white. That piece of information is completely irrelavant to this post, but I just felt like saying it anyway. As far as he can remember, his family ate a very basic diet of meat, pasta or potatoes, bread and vegetables. His family almost never had desserts in the house and they hardly ever ate out.

Thousands of miles away…..

I was raised on a farm in Kansas. The first few years of my life, we drank raw milk…not neccessarily because of it’s health qualities…but because we had a milk cow available. I hardly remember drinking it…we probably only had the milk cow until I was eight (ish). After that, we bought our milk from the store. We ate beef and pork that my dad raised. I don’t remember eating a lot of chicken. 

My mom had a garden (which, ironically, I hated helping her with). She grew a million (bazillion) green beans, some tomatoes, onions and peppers for her salsa…and a few other vegetables that none of us liked but her.

Which leads me to the fact that I was pretty much raised on green beans, corn and the occasional pea, because those are the veggies my dad ate. Every once in a while we had salad…but I didn’t learn to like it until I was almost in college. Oh, and we ate carrots when they were cooked with a roast on Sundays.

We were a steak and potatoes kind of family. We always had desserts in the house and ate wheat bread from the store. 

My mom cooked and baked almost all of our meals from scratch. We baked cookies with white flour, white sugar and crisco. We almost always had Kool-aid and pop in the fridge during the summer.

As much as possible, we ate at home…but we went through phases of eating out more often depending on sporting events and crazy busy high school schedules. 

I don’t think my mom would mind me sharing that with the exception of  the last few years of her life, she struggled quite a bit with her weight. As a result, she was often trying different diet plans. 

I was thin, but took an interest in my mom’s diet plans during my high school years…mostly because I was very interested in staying thin. I never (thankfully) developed an eating disorder, but I did get somewhat obsessive about not wanting to eat foods that had any fat in them. I really felt like eating any fat at all would make me fat, therefore I was scared of fat. I made my sandwiches with fat free mayo (blech) and ate fat free chips (cardboard). I would treat myself to fat free candy (my favorites were candy corn and circus peanuts)…feeling like I was “doing well” by eating sweets that didn’t have any fat in them.

This low-fat/no fat way of thinking took me into college. While there, I would go in phases of over-eating higher fat foods (like pizza and mac and cheese and cookies), thinking that “well…I’ve already blown it, I might as well eat three more”. Therefore my weight started to fluctuate a little bit. I was very “on” or “off” with the dieting thing…and I thought about (and felt guilty about) food a lot. 

During all of this, I met a very adorble white headed California boy who had grown into a 6’2″ blonde headed soccer player. Wonder of wonders, he thought I was cute too and in 1994, we got married.

To be continued….

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High Five Recipes: Cheddar Ranch Burgers

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These burgers are my favorite way to use my homemade ranch dressing mix . Well, second favorite I guess, next to making the actual ranch dressing for salads. You’ll love how the ranch dressing mix gives these burgers such great flavor!

High Five Recipes 2

Now that the busy-ness of the holiday season is over and it’s a  new year, I’ve been excited to experiment with new simple and healthy recipes to share! I’ve been spending some time working up more High Five Recipes for us because a simple, healthy recipe with only five (0r fewer) ingredients?! Perfect!

These Cheddar Ranch Burgers are SO easy to stir together and cook up for a quick lunch or dinner. My kids (even the ones who usually don’t like meat as much) devour these! Such a fun variation to regular hamburgers!

Cheddar Ranch Burgers

High Five Recipes: Cheddar Ranch Burgers
 
Save Print
Author:
Ingredients
  • 2 pounds hamburger meat (beef, venison or turkey)
  • ¾ cup shredded cheddar cheese ( I use Landmark raw white cheddar)
  • 2 Tablespoons ranch dressing mix (or ½ package ranch dressing pouch)
  • Whole wheat hamburger buns (or regular store-bought buns)
Instructions
  1. Stir all ingredients together in a bowl.
  2. Shape burger into 8-10 patties.
  3. Fry in a skillet or on the grill until cooked through and through.

Cheddar Ranch Burgers
These are the bunless burgers shown in the picture. Really, they are delicious with or without a bun! This is great, since I’m often behind in keeping up with making our homemade buns.

Be sure to try making this Homemade Ranch Dressing Mix to use in your Cheddar Ranch Burgers…SO easy and good for you!

I’ve got several more High Five Recipes in the works! I’ll try to share one every two weeks or so!

Question:  Are you a ranch lover…or not? I’ve visited with several people lately that just don’t like ranch dressing. What is that about?

Do you think I could get away with feeding them these burgers and just call them something else? ;)

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Gratituesday: The Budget

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gratituesdaynov09

Over the weekend, Matt and I finally had a chance to sit down together to go over our 2010 budget. 

I know I’m a bit of a nerd when it comes to looking at the budget with my husband…but in a weird kind of way, it feels like a date of sorts (the kind of date where I’m in my stained bathrobe sporting a pitiful ponytail and there are four loud kids running around with stinky feet).

It’s just nice to sit down with my husband and plan and dream and discuss our daily lives and our future goals. 

I came away from our “budgeting date” extremely thankful for two specific things:

  1. My husband and I are on the same page when it comes to spending, giving and saving money. I know that  marriages can be strained because one spouse likes to spend more money than the other…or one spouse likes to hold back money and not share with those in need. I’m thankful that Matt and I barely have to use words…and then when one of us does, the other just nods…because we think alike when it comes to money.
  2. The bottom line of our budget showed us that after all is said and done, this year we should be able to give a little more and save a little more. It was an incredible relief and blessing to see how God has provided what we need to be able to do these things. 

Always, always God takes care of his children. 
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What are you thankful for this Gratituesday? Big or small…there’s ALWAYS something to be thankful for! Write about what you’re grateful for on your blog, then come link up with us here. Or, if you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re thankful for!

Let’s all share what God is doing in our lives!

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

Snowflake Food Fun

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Depending on where you live, some of you have too much snow. Some of you don’t have enough snow. Some of you want snow. Some of you don’t want snow. Some of you have never seen snow (wow). 

While this winter I’m in the “have too much snow” category…I still think snow is beautiful. It truly is lovely and fun and wintery and happy. On one of our snowy days last week, the sun was shining, making the snow look like glitter falling from the sky. It was SO cool!!

Whether you’re in a place that has no snow and you’d like to pretend to have snow…or whether you’re in a place like I am and need to just embrace the snow and celebrate God’s (freezing cold) beauty…here are some fun (and very inexpensive) snowflake creations. All of them involve food…because I can’t help it. It’s what I do.

Melting Snowflakes

meltingsnowflakes6smThese Melting Snowflakes are my favorite way to celebrate snow!! So cute! Find easy directions here. (Those of you in the southern hemisphere…work with me here. I realize it’s 100° where you are. Feel free to cut your tortillas into little sunshines.)

Breakfast Snowcakes

snowflakepancake3smJust add a couple of extra tablespoons of milk to this pancake recipe, then use a spoon or a squeeze bottle (like an old ketchup bottle) to drizzle the batter into “snowcakes”. Great fun snack for kids to make!

Funnel Flakes

funnelcake1smDuring the summer, they’re just regular ol’ Funnel Cakes…but in the winter they become Funnel Flakes. It’s all about the imagination. Use this easy and healthy funnel cake recipe!

The Real Deal

snowicecream7smIf you have real snow and feel like bundling up for a treat, make snow ice cream! This recipe is so simple, so yummy, and pretty good for you too!

Follow it all up with Homemade Hot Cocoa or Warm Vanilla Soother. 

vanillacustard2sm

Kinda makes all this winter weather seem like fun, huh? There’s snow end to the fun you can have with snowflakes if you really put your mind to it! (Feel free to roll your eyes at that one.)

Have any more snowflake creation ideas to share?
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This post is linked to Frugal Fridays.

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Menu Plan for the Week

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Sounds like the weather just about (but not quite) everywhere is a little crazy. Hope everyone is staying warm (or cool as the case may be where you are). ;)

We’ve had the privilege of feeding the York College track team twice this weekend. Many of the sports teams were back on campus early for training, and the cafeteria hasn’t been open. Various families from church have been helping out. I love treating college students to home cooked meals. The students don’t seem to mind either. :)

Here’s our menu for this week:

Sunday, January 10
Oatmeal, peaches
Feeding YC track team – Sloppy joes, sweet baked beans, potato salad, relish tray with ranch dip, orange slices, Donna’s cookie bars (because I needed an excuse to make these again!)
Leftovers from lunch

Monday, January 11
Scrambled egg sandwiches, clementines
Tuna melts, fruit-kefir smoothies
Chicken and rice, carrots

Tuesday, January 12
Homemade whole wheat bagels, bananas
Alphabet soup, homemade soft pretzels
BBQ meatballs, baked potatoes, green beans

Wednesday, January 13
French toast, turkey bacon
Spicy avocado dip and chips, applesauce
Three cheese garlic chicken pasta, steamed broccoli

Thursday, January 14
Warm vanilla soother
Grilled cheese, tomato soup, carrot sticks
Stroganoff, asparagus

Friday, January 15
Banana bread
Chili on baked potatoes with cheese, pears
Homemade pizza

Saturday, January 16
Whole wheat donuts
Leftover buffet
Creamy mac and cheese, peas

If you haven’t already, I’d love to have you share where you are in your healthy eating journey. Check out this post and join the journey!

Also, I’d like all of you to know that when you leave a comment or email me asking me to please share a certain recipe that you see on my menu plan…I DO take your inquiry to heart and file it away in my “to be posted eventually” file. I’m not ignoring your request…just trying to get a round tuit. ;)

Lots of fun coming up this week in the new Healthy Eating Journey and Becoming a Better Help Meet series. (Is plural for series, series? Serieses? Naw, series. Okay, just thinking out loud.)  I’ve got a new High Five Recipe to share too!

Most importantly, be thinking of what you’re grateful for so you can join in on Gratituesday!!!
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Find more menu planning inspiration at Organizing Junkie.

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