Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

That’s So Random

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I don’t know why I don’t do these random posts more often. Random is often how I think and have conversations. Sometimes I wonder how people (on and offline) can keep up with me. Brace yourselves. Here we go:

  • One night last week when I was tucking the boys into bed I looked around at the mess that is their bedroom and had to ask myself, “Why in the world is there a sucked-on lemon wedge sitting on that library book?” 
  • I really need to re-paint my toenails but I have no idea when I’ll ever get around to it. I think that by the time I have a free minute, it will be winter and I’ll be wearing socks anyway.
  • Today, my friend gave birth to TWINS!! A boy and a girl. The doctor had estimated that the twins were going to be eight pounds each…but they were each just under seven pounds. STILL. I’m so proud of her. Good job Melissa!!!!
  • We’re really enjoying the okra we’re getting from our garden. Anyone else out there like okra? 
  • Speaking of garden…my tomato plants are looking pitiful. I’m getting some tomatoes, but you’d think with 23 plants I’d be overloaded. Not so. I’m mooching tomatoes from anyone who has extra so that I’ll have enough to make and can sauce this year. I’m bummed about my plants, but thankful that God is providing through others.
  • Remember how I talked about my friend who is staying with me this week? May I just reiterate how lovely it is to have another female in my home with me if only for a few days? Last night while I was putting the kids to bed (Matt was at a meeting) she noticed the stuff all over the living room and picked it all up. I live with a bunch of people who don’t SEE things that need to be picked up. They will step over it and trip over it and get a bloody nose by it without ever seeing it or thinking that it should be picked up and put away. But she saw things. And picked it all up. I love her. 
  • A few days ago, Malachi took a battery operated action figure toy into the bathtub with him. After getting wet, that toy is now acting possessed. It has pretty much been talking non-stop since it’s unfortunate dunking. It found it’s way into a pile of clothes in the bathroom and last night while switching laundry, I accidentally stepped on it. In response to being stepped on it said (I kid you not), “You want a piece of me?” Of course I answered it with a confident, “Bring it on”. Matt watched the whole woman-to-toy interchange and just shook his head. It must be fun living with possessed toys and a crazy wife. I think it’s time for that toy to go. At least the wife gets to stay.

Feel free to add a random thought of your own…

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Zucchini Recipes: Zucchini Brownies

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If you know me very well, you know I love brownies. These fudgy brownies to be exact. So while coming up with zucchini recipes, of course I experimented to come up with a zucchini brownie recipe. 

Zucchini BrowniesYum

1/2 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups sucanat or rapadura
1/3 cup cocoa
1 cup shredded zucchini
1 egg
2 cups whole wheat flour

Mix butter, sucanat and cocoa. Stir in zucchini and egg. Gradually mix in flour until well combined. Pour batter into a 9×13 inch pan. Bake in a 350° oven for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

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Since I’m getting vegetable in every moist, chocolaty bite…do you think I can justify eating twice as many?

Just wondering. :)

Be sure to check out these zucchini recipes also: 

AND, if you want even more zucchini recipes, check out Tammy’s Recipe swap today! We really might just all turn into zucchinis.
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This post is linked to the In Season Recipe Swap and Works for me Wednesday.

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Gratituesday: My Houseguest

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Shannen is a friend of mine who moved away a few years ago when she was a freshman in high school. She is now getting ready to enter her senior year of high school and I miss being a part of her life. She comes to town occasionally, but I always wish I could be with her more.

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Last weekend when the opportunity came up for Shannen to come stay with me for an entire week, I have to admit to feeling a bit overwhelmed. I was in the middle of running like crazy back and forth from our county fair, school has started for us, plus this is big-time canning and freezing and preserving season at our house (read:  my kitchen looks like an explosion of green beans, corn, potatoes and tomatoes).

Of course I wanted time with Shannen, so I only hesitated for two seconds before saying, “Sure!”

Looking at it now, I don’t even know why I hesitated for two whole seconds. Um hello? Having a 17 year old girl in my house for an entire week when I am slammed with work? Thank you God for this wonderful blessing sent  from heaven!

Needless to say, Shannen is learning a thing or two about freezing and canning and green bean snapping and potato digging and apple picking. Working side by side has been wonderful. I’ve been able to catch up on the details of her life while we work together. She helps with the kids, helps me fix dinner, helps me with whatever in the world I ask her to do. 

I think I may keep her forever.

I’m so thankful that God knew just what I needed this week. I highly recommend that everyone borrow a sweet 17 year old girl during preserving season. (But you can’t borrow the one I’m borrowing…she’s busy…sorry.)  :)
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What are you grateful for this week? 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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Digging Up and Storing Potatoes for the Winter

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Remember how I talked about planting potatoes? Now it’s already time to dig up the potatoes! It’s one of my  very favorite things to do!

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Here are a few tips for digging up and storing potatoes:

  • Once the plant turns crispy and brown and dead, the potatoes under the ground are finished growing. ( I suppose this is obvious.)
  • When the plant is crispy, you can leave the potatoes under the ground for several more weeks and they will be fine. This will toughen them up a little, which is good.
  • On the other hand, if you’re experiencing a lot of rain, you want to get the potatoes out of the ground so that they don’t rot. Rotten potatoes don’t make good french fries.
  • Use a big spade or potato fork to dig up your potatoes. Look for the base of the plant, then dig several inches away from the base. There are likely to be four to eight potatoes with each plant.
  • Occasionally you will stab a potato with your spade or potato fork. This is a bummer…and also kind of funny. Throw those stabbed potatoes into a separate box and eat these potatoes first.
  • Green potatoes can make you sick. Potatoes turn green when they are exposed to light. Some people say to throw away any potato that has even a little green on it. I just cut off the green part and eat the rest. I have lived to tell about it.
  • Russet or kennebec potatoes store the best for a longer period of time. We usually eat up our red potatoes and yukon gold potatoes first and keep the brown potatoes in storage longer.
  • To prepare your potatoes for storing, lay them singularly on a newspaper or old sheet in a darkish room. Cover them with another newspaper or sheet and let them sit this way for about a week. This will help “harden them off”. Their skins will toughen up, which will help them keep longer.
  • After your potatoes have been hardened off, put them into covered boxes or baskets. We usually put about 15-20 pounds in each box. 
  • It is VERY important that the containers for your potatoes do not allow any light in. Light will cause the potatoes to sprout. Without light, potatoes will not sprout for months.
  • Place your containers in a dark, cool room. We have a room in our basement that has been great for storing potatoes. It doesn’t have windows to allow any light in. It is cool but not cold.
  • Cold potatoes will “sugar”. That’s why you don’t put potatoes in the refrigerator.
  • You may want to occasionally sift through your potatoes to check for any that may be rotting. One rotten potato can cause the whole box to rot. It stinks (literally).
  • Potatoes will keep well for several months if stored correctly. Ours usually last until about March, at which time we use the remaining potatoes for our seed potatoes!

Sometime in the next few weeks we’ll be dumping out our potato container to see how it did! I can’t wait to see if we have a whole bunch of potatoes in our bucket (and I’m trying not to get my hopes up just in case they didn’t grow well). I’ll share pics of that experience when we get around to it!
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This post is linked to Kitchen Tip Tuesdays.

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Menu Plan for the Week

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This weekend has been a little bit nutso. We sold concessions at our county fair AND made a very fast trip to Kansas City for a baseball game. How did we do both, you ask? I have no idea. I’ll let you know (if)when I’ve recovered.

Oh YEAH…and also I put up six dozen ears of corn and twenty-one quarts of green beans. And dug up several pounds of potatoes. Sometimes, I think I’m crazy. (Feel free to agree.)

And guess what I just realized? Soccer season (Matt helps coach our college women’s team) starts Wednesday. I think my craziness is about to get crazier.

Here’s this week’s menu:

Sunday, August 9
Breakfast cookies, grapes
Sandwiches, chips, baby carrots, fruit leather
Out with family/friends

Monday, August 10
Simple sourdough pancakes
Tuna topped tomatoes, watermelon
Italian roast wraps, fruit salad

Tuesday, August 11
Scrambled eggs, oranges
BLTs, chips and salsa, cantaloupe
Chicken enchiladas, salad

Wednesday, August 12
Applesauce bread, bananas
Chicken quesadillas, peaches
Cookout with the soccer team

Thursday, August 13
Fruit-kefir smoothies, homemade oat cereal
Salmon patties, strawberry-peach slushies
Lasagna, tossed salad, garlic bread

Friday, August 14
Fried eggs on toast, clementines
Hamburger patties, corn on the cob, tomatoes
Picnic with our homeschool group – Taking Hearty bean casserole, veggie tray, fudge brownies

Saturday, August 15
Breakfast cake
Bean dip with chips, salsa and kreme fresh
Grilled steak, corn on the cob, ranch potato wedges

All craziness aside, I have some fun posts in the works for you this week. Like for instance…at the fair I got to thinking about how I could probably make my own healthier (and CHEAPER) version of a funnel cake. And so I tried it. And it was YUMMY! I’ll share that recipe sometime this week. 

I also figure that with all the craziness, I should spit out a random post for you. Random and crazy go well together.

Here’s to another great and busy week!

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Zucchini Recipes: Whole Wheat Zucchini Cake

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With all these zucchini experiments you might think that I don’t have any more huge zucchini in my kitchen any more. Oh but you’d be wrong. There’s still a big huge one on my countertop waiting to be played with. I’ve still got a Zucchini Brownie recipe coming for you…and in case you missed them…here are more zucchini recipes you might be interested in:  Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cookies and Bars; Cheeseburger Zucchini Boats; Whole Wheat and Honey Zucchini Bread and Muffins.

This cake was maybe my favorite of all the experiments. It was really, really good (and by was, I mean that every last piece is gone). Of course I happen to think cream cheese frosting makes everything good!

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Whole Wheat Zucchini CakeYum

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups sucanat or rapadura
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups shredded zucchini
2 eggs
1/2 cup butter, melted

Stir together dry ingredients. Mix in zucchini, eggs and butter. Pour batter into a buttered 9×13 inch baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Allow cake to cool completely. Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting. Below are two recipe choices:

Sorta-Naughty (But at Least the Sugar is Unbleached) Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup melted butter
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 t. vanilla
4 1/2 cups organic/unbleached powdered sugar

Cream butter and cream cheese together. Add vanilla. Beat powdered sugar in gradually until you reach the right consistency.

Not-So-Naughty (But Still Really Good) Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
3 ounces cream cheese
1 t. vanilla
4 T. honey

Whip cream until soft peaks form. In a separate bowl, stir cream cheese, vanilla and honey together until smooth. Gently fold in whipped cream.

Either frosting recipe is really good…the latter one is just a bit more natural and healthy.

If you like carrot cake…we all kinda thought this cake tasted a lot like carrot cake. Mmmm!

(If you don’t like carrot cake, then this cake tasted nothing like carrot cake.)  You should totally try it. ;)
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This post is linked to Frugal Fridays.

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Is Agave Nectar Good For You? Should I Soak my Grains? A Bit of Controversy

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We all just want to be healthy and eat healthy, right? (Except for those times we just want to be healthy but eat Cheetos, that is.)

I do quite a bit of research each time I tell you that a certain food is or isn’t good for you. The trouble is that there’s a lot of controversial information out there. 

I know there will always be absolute opposite information about eating butter vs. not eating butter. People creating high fructose corn syrup will try to convince me that their product is “natural” and I will big fat never believe it. But I get SO frustrated about differing information about what I’ve read from sources I’ve believed to be true. (Remember my rapadura vs. sucanat mystery here? I now see that organic sucanat is the same as rapadura even though I originally read and understood that rapadura was better. And sucanat costs less.)

So here are the latest question marks. I bring these up for several reasons:

I think we should all be well informed. I think we all need to eat as healthy as we possibly can. I want to know the truth.  I want you to read it for yourselves. And also I want you to know that I don’t know everything (but you already knew that, right?).

  1. Is agave nectar used as an alternative to sugar good for you?  I thought it was. Because I’d read that it was. And then I read this article from Dr. Mercola. And this article by John Kohler. Shucks. I think I’ll just stick with pure maple syrup instead. 
  2. Is it necessary to soak my grains before making them into bread, pancakes, muffins, etc?  According to my Nourishing Traditions cookbook, soaking grains is a wonderful step to take to break down the phytic acid in grains and make them more digestible. I’ve written a whole post about it encouraging you to do this. BUT according to this article from Bread Beckers, taking this step isn’t necessary. REALLY? I’ve never read any information telling me that it wasn’t necessary!! It’s a long article, but I encourage you to read it. I really don’t know what to think. I have such a hard time wrapping my brain around not soaking my grains. (Thanks Dawn for the emails and links!)

I don’t always take the time to soak my grains, so part of me would love to not feel so bad each time I feed my family “straight” whole wheat. Not to mention the time it would save. On the other hand…I know from experience what my tummy feels like when I eat oats that have not been soaked vs. how my tummy feels when I’ve soaked them. I can tell a digestive difference.

The agave nectar issue isn’t such a dilemma for me. I could take that or leave it since there are so many other healthy and natural sweeteners out there (raw honey, maple syrup, sucanat, stevia). But the soaking grains things has really got me stumped.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and knowledge on these subjects. From your research and learning…What do you know about Agave Nectar? and  What’s your take on soaking grains?

While you’re answering…I think I’ll just go eat a peach. It’s from my own tree and I KNOW it’s good for me.

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The Most Annoying Thing I Ever Loved

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It may have been the best $2.95 I’ve ever spent.

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While we were picking up school supplies last week, I grabbed this handy little kitchen timer. I thought it might be something nice to try while I work to keep four boys on task and productive and happy during school time.

And so far…it’s working. It’s WORKING! I love it when things work!

When the boys need a break between phonics and math, I have them set the timer for ten minutes. For ten blessed minutes, they go shoot things and defeat things and build things and knock them over and do all the things boys like to do when they have free time. In the meantime, I wash a few dishes…look over papers…close my eyes…whatever I need to do with ten minutes of quiet.

When the timer goes off, they run back in and are ready to hit the math books.

We’ve also used the timer while the boys are reading books so that they don’t ask twenty times, “How much longer should I read?” They just read until the timer goes off (and then they read some more if they want to).

In the evenings we’ve started a “Ten Minute Tidy” to see how many things they can pick up before the timer goes off.

I’m SO GLAD this little gadget is working. But here’s what I’d like to know:

Why in the world do the boys respond so well to a little ticky thing that has a VERY annoying ~BZZZZZZZT~ to let them know that their time is up…when they could just come down the stairs when their mother’s sweet, loving voice calls them down to do math?

It’s another one of those great mysteries.
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This post is linked to Works for me Wednesday.

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Gratituesday: New School Year

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It’s official. We have a 7th grader, a 4th grader, a 2nd grader and a pre-schooler. We began school this week. At exactly one day into it, I can say…so far, so good!

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Here we are at our traditional “take your list, get a basket and pick out your school supplies” day. We try to do this the Friday before school starts to keep the excitement alive!

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I spread out all of our books and organized them for the year…

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See that USA puzzle up there in the picture? Last week when we were putting the final touches on the school room and getting supplies put away…I was getting SO frustrated. I was trying to get the boys to put their folders and notebooks away, but instead they grabbed the USA puzzle, dumped it out all over the floor and started working on it. They were up and down looking at the big wall map, talking about which state went where in the puzzle. I couldn’t get anyone to listen to what I was trying to say!

Just about the time I started to scold them…it occurred to me:  Hello Laura! They are learning and loving every minute of it. They can put their glue sticks away later! 

The instant they finished putting all fifty states back into the puzzle, they dumped it out again and started over. Then they started looking at all of their new books on the shelves and getting SO excited. They could hardly wait for Monday to come. (Actually, I saw Elias sneaking into his math book that day and writing in the first three answers and grinning at me like he’d really pulled a big one over on me!)

I love that the boys get so excited about school and learning! We have our moments...trust me.  If the boys really, really had a choice, they’d play computer games all day long. But I wish you could have heard them this morning as we sat on the living room floor with the globe and maps and colored pencils. You would have thought I was throwing them a party. (A loud party.)

Many of you commented or emailed that you couldn’t believe I was starting school on my birthday. It really was the best way to spend my day:  On the floor…surrounded by boys and books. It doesn’t get much better than that!
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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, please leave a comment letting us know how God is working in your life!

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Menu Plan for the Week

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We’re all set and ready to start school Monday! I’ve been working hard this weekend to get ahead in the kitchen so that I can focus on establishing a good school routine for the boys. I made four loaves of bread (two regular, two cinnamon swirl), a double batch of tortillas, whole wheat graham crackers, crispy cheese crackers, pizza casserole, bagels and mudballs. I sliced carrots into sticks and dug potatoes from the garden (enough to last us this week).

Books are ready, lesson plans are made, house is clean, and everyone is excited! I’ll share more about gearing up for school on Gratituesday!

Here’s what we’re eating this week:

Sunday, August 2
Cinnamon swirl bread, fruit
Roast, carrots, potatoes, gravy
Nachos, watermelon

Monday, August 3 (Happy Birthday to me!)
Honey whole wheat bagels, clementines
Pizza casserole, sweet corn
Out to dinner, cheesecake made by boys

Tuesday, August 4
Scrambled eggs, oranges
Sloppy joes on homemade buns, potato salad, sweet peppers
Roasted chicken, rice and veggie stir-fry

Wednesday, August 5
Sourdough biscuits with butter and honey, applesauce
Spanish rice with chicken, grapes
Spaghetti, tossed salad

Thursday, August 6
Crepes with jelly
Creamy mac and cheese, steamed carrots, strawberry-peach slushies
Beans and rice on tortillas with tomatoes and spicy avocado dip

Friday, August 7
Peanut butter honey toast, pears
Quesadillas, apples, carrots
Hamburgers, onion rings, tomatos

Saturday, August 8
Homemade donuts
Leftovers
Grilled chicken, okra, yellow squash 

Menu Plan Monday is being hosted this week at The Happy Housewife…go check it out for more menu planning ideas!

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