Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Moist Chocolate Muffins (With Hidden Spinach, ha)

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These Moist Chocolate Muffins are truly made moist because of spinach. And yes, it’s like a new obsession with me, apparently.

What’s an obsession? Oh, just that I keep blending spinach into my chocolate baked goods because guess what? NO ONE CAN TELL. It adds nourishment, and as an added bonus, it is making all of our chocolate baked goods extra moist. True story.

See, it’s chocolate cake. With spinach. And it’s awesome.

Read these to learn more and to join the craze:

And now, we are adding spinach to our Chocolate Muffins. It changes nothing about the taste of the muffins. It only makes them moist and easy to eat. Alrighty-then. Why have we not been doing this all along?

Moist Chocolate MuffinsYum

Moist Chocolate Muffins (With Hidden Spinach, ha)
 
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Author:
Serves: 24
Ingredients
  • ½ cup melted coconut oil
  • 1 cup milk
  • ½ cup sour cream
  • 2 eggs
  • 3ish handfuls of fresh spinach
  • ½ - ⅔ cup brown sugar or sucanat
  • ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 3 cups whole grain flour
  • 1¼ teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
  1. Place all ingredients into a high power blender, beginning with liquids.
  2. Cover blender and blend on high until the spinach is pureed and all ingredients are thoroughly mixed.
  3. Pour into 24 prepared muffin tins.
  4. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20-24 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean.

 

 

Can you make these muffins without a blender? Yes. But make sure you puree the spinach with the liquids first so that it isn’t chunky in your muffins.

When I mix all of my ingredients together in my Blendtec, I find that the spinach is no longer recognizable and simply adds moisture to the batter! Plus it makes the mixing part of this recipe super easy!

NOTE: I bake for a large family so this recipe is the double version. Cut ingredients in half if you only want to make a regular 12-muffin batch!

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Nourishing Smoothies My Kids Actually Love

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You’ll read in this post about how I have to cheat just a little bit in order to make these smoothies for my kids. But at least these are still nourishing smoothies, and my kids all love them! Even my high schooler.

As you know, Matt and I drink our salads – loading our smoothies with a huge amount of greens, then blending in frozen fruit and milk. We don’t add any sweeteners, and we are good with that. The fruit sweetens these enough for us, and at the end of the day, we are simply trying to get as much nourishment as possible during these days that it’s very difficult to even find time to eat at all.

Our kids though? They aren’t huge fans. Who can blame them? They like their smoothies sweeter than we do. And the truth is the amount of greens that I put in “the adult smoothies” is pretty substantial. Spring mix in that amount does change the taste of the smoothie and indeed, green (greens) and red (fruit) make brown. So our smoothies aren’t pretty. :)

When there is this much sweetness going on at our house,
why would Matt and I need to add sweetener to our smoothies? Ok then.

How to Make Nourishing Smoothies that are Kid Friendly

Back when I “only had four kids” who weren’t all babies at the same time, I took the time to add separate ingredients to my smoothies. Goodness, somehow I even had a freezer full of fruits that we had picked, prepared, and frozen ourselves!! (How in the world did I ever have time to do all that work!?) I sweetened those smoothies with maple syrup or honey, and my kids guzzled them down.

But now.

I know it may sound silly, but as I’ve shared so many times lately, I’m often preparing food with just one hand as I am almost always holding one of our babies. So getting a bunch of different ingredients out of the fridge or freezer to add to the blender? Well, I’ve just found that I have to keep everything to a minimum.

The solution I’ve found is a bit of a cheater method. I buy frozen mixed fruit in bulk from Costco (which is totally not cheating – those good fruits are there to save us all, amen!). Bags of mixed fruit make it easier to give us a variety without pulling out several different bags. One bag. Two or seven fruits. Beautiful!

But here’s the cheat part: I use containers of Vanilla Yogurt. I add around 16 ounces to our blender, along with milk. This covers three ingredients with one grab from the fridge (vanilla, yogurt, and sweetener), so the vanilla yogurt sweetens the kids’ smoothies and flavors them too. Yes, it adds sugar to their smoothies. I’ve decided that I don’t actually care. THIS IS HOW I GET MY KIDS TO EAT SPINACH.

Oh yeah. Because I put fresh spinach into my Blendtec when I make these too. Not as much as I do when I make smoothies for Matt and me. But enough to be sure they all get a nice serving of fresh greens. Between the tasty fruits and the sweetened yogurt – every single one of my kids will drink a big cup full of smoothie and some of them ask for more.

They even know there’s spinach included and I think they are kind of proud. (And probably relieved that they aren’t being forced to eat a salad with dinner.)

These cups hide weird smoothie colors

If I add greens to the blender along with frozen blueberries and strawberries, the dark color of the berries hides the greens. But if I add greens to the blender along with bananas and peaches, the smoothies turn out…not pretty. No matter! All the kids drink their smoothies better from cups with lids and straws anyway. These cups make it fun (except for when they argue about who gets which cup, oy).

Nourishing Smoothies My Kids Actually Love

Here’s “the recipe” even though we all know that measuring ingredients into a smoothie isn’t a real thing. So add the words “give or take” to any of these as you make smoothies based on what you have and what you can put into your blender with one hand.

Nourishing Smoothies My Kids Actually Love
 
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Author:
Serves: 5 servings
Ingredients
  • 2 cups fresh spinach
  • 3 cups frozen fruit (any combination of blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, bananas, peaches, pineapple, oranges, or grapes)
  • 2 cups vanilla yogurt
  • 2 cups milk
Instructions
  1. Blend ingredients together in a high power blender until smooth.

 

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Buy a Blendtec; Blame the Baby (wink, wink)

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If you need an “excuse” to take the plunge to buy a Blendtec, my friend Tasha has one for you! Enjoy her story here!

Buy a Blendtec; Blame the Baby (wink, wink)

By Tasha Hackett

Good morning! At least it’s a good morning for me. It’s true I’ve been awake since 4:30 am but I read some Bible while I nursed the baby, exercised, tossed this easy breakfast casserole in the oven, watched funny YouTube videos while I drank my lemon water, showered, and now it’s 7:00 and none of the children have come down yet! Wow. 

I figured this was the perfect time to share with you how I’ve been getting on with my new Blendtec that I bought for the baby. Wink, wink. And not at all because I wanted one since before I was even pregnant. 


First off, making baby food is (to use some of Laura’s favorite words) so SIMPLE and EASY. 

Here’s a favorite. I like to call it: Carrots.

  1. Wash a few carrots (I used four.)
  2. Cut off the tops
  3. Chop small enough to fit in your pan
  4. Use a steamer or simmer with an inch of water (lid on)
  5. When soft, dump into the Blentec and blend. (I used the 30 second button… but I could have saved 20 seconds, it was most definitely smooth after 10 seconds.) 
  6. Pour into these cool baby food trays (or regular ice cube trays!) to freeze. Once frozen, pop into a freezer bag to save and serve when needed. 
  7. Attempt to keep most of the food in the baby’s mouth and laugh when it ends up everywhere.

With my first kid, I used mostly store-bought baby food. He took to it very well. This was extremely convenient with me working full time. And now he is my best eater! He will eat salad. He will eat fish. He will eat mysterious casserole. One of his favorite things with his Dad is to try new and unique foods together. He will eat something because I tell him to even if he finds it to be unpleasant. 

With my second and third kids, I didn’t feed them any purees and practiced what’s called “baby led weaning” where you nurse longer and offer them soft foods and whole pieces of food as they are ready. It was easy. I was home full time and I mostly nursed and didn’t worry at all about food. They tasted table scraps until they had teeth and could chew their own. That was the idea, but when I was sadly forced to wean the girl at 11 months, the only thing she would eat was costly fruit pouches. But… the middle two (at 3 and 4 years) are now SO picky. Actual tears and crying and holding hands up to their mouth and refusing to even taste mashed potatoes. It’s a whole thing that I won’t get into. 

This attitude could very likely be personality. Their mother (me) “didn’t like” eggnog until she was 31 and finally tasted it last Christmas and found out that it is actually delicious! I now make my own year round. On the slim chance good eating is from the feeding of baby puree, I have high hopes for baby number four. Check out this face! 

The carrots “recipe” can be adapted for any raw vegetables. From what I have researched, by 6 months most foods are totally fine. The experts (which I am NOT) recommend introducing one food at a time to rule out any food sensitivities. I tend to barrel on ahead. Here are some blends I’ve made so far that he’s not opposed to at 7 months: 

  • Green Beans (cooked or can, drained), Banana, Oat flour (be sure the oats have time to soak, dry/raw oats are not so good)
  • Red Bell Pepper (steamed), Baked Chicken (with the skin), Chicken Broth, Basil
  • Sweet Potato (steamed), Yellow Summer Squash, (seeded and steamed), Butter

Don’t make this harder than it has to be! If you’re making dinner, toss some cooked veggies in the blender and then there’s extra to serve the baby for days. I make a new batch of puree maybe once a week and pull a cube from the freezer at each meal. Currently I have five different blends in the freezer that I rotate each meal. Sometimes he only takes a bite or two, but I can toss the extra with no hard feelings. Last night I simply Blendtec-ed (see what I did there? It’s now a verb. I verbed it.) a cup of soup I was serving my family. He loved it! (Cheesy bacon potato)

“But, Tasha, what about fortified cereal?” you ask. “What about the spray on vitamins and iron?” Well… I believe in food. Real food. White rice powder is what I would consider an empty calorie. Not to mention it tastes like the cardboard box it comes in. Iron is good for your baby. But do you know what else has iron in it? Fruits and Vegetables. Peaches, Raspberries, Spinach, Peas, Squash, Coconut, Asparagus… get me? 

I figure as long as my baby makes this face while scarfing down sweet potatoes and spinach, I’m not going to worry about a lack of measurable iron intake. 

What about you? What did/do you feed your baby? Have you noticed a difference what type of eater they are years later? What’s your baby’s favorite puree?

Ready to invest in a Blendtec? Here are Laura’s thoughts on why they are so awesome!

 

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Dear Mama, You Are Worthy

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Hey Mama, Wife, Friend, Aunt, Sister, Daughter, Dearest Child of God: You are Worthy!

Remember my friend Tasha? She’s the one that wrote Does Family Really Come First at Mealtime? She may become a regular voice around here because she’s got a lot of good words to share with us, plus she cracks me up a lot. She and I are raising babies together – Tasha, because she’s a young mom and me, because I’m an old mom raising babies for the second time. Who knew I’d get to be cool enough to hang out with the young moms again?!

Please enjoy Tasha’s words of humor and wisdom…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Mama, You Are Worthy

(Laura’s alternate title: I’m Not Naming Names but Someone Needs an Amazon Intervention)

By Tasha Hackett

Taking care of my baby, I have been surviving on roughly 3-5 hours of sleep per night for a few months. Total hours. Not even all at once. Pretty sure when God made the moon and sun and then the animals and humans he designed us to work in a rhythm that included the humans sleeping at night. I’ve told my husband, Ben, on more than one occasion, “I feel like I’m slowly dying.” 

During the long and seemingly endless nights, sometimes I read the Bible on my phone, and sometimes I remember that I need to change my Subscribe and Save order because I do NOT need another 25LB bag of rice. And sometimes I order a super cute sundress and when it arrives it turns out to be not nearly as cute on me as it is on the model.

One time I opened a package and found boho style parachute pants with peacock feathers designs on them and I did not have a memory of ordering them. Truly! I tried them on, and they fit. But I wondered who had sent them. Amazon knows. My orders show that I did indeed buy them two nights prior. I thought they looked ridiculous. Ben said, “You will wear them.… and let that be a lesson to you.” And wear them I did. With tennis shoes, obviously. Turns out they are the most comfortable pants EVER. My sleep-deprived subconscious apparently knew what I needed. I wore them all day, and all night, and the next day, etc… shhh. Don’t tell my Grandma.

Note from Laura: You, too, can have a pair of pants like these.
Also, if anyone can pull them off, it’s Tasha. Am I right?

My 3 am Amazon deals haven’t gotten me into too much trouble yet. I pushed the limit last week with the middle of the night purchase of the ever-coveted Blendtec. Yea. That was me. I’m the one in need of an Amazon intervention. I blame Laura. She talks and talks and talks about the Blendtec! Give us a break already! How are we to hold up against such constant nagging persuasion?! Also, it was on sale. Like, SO MUCH on sale. AND. IT’S FOR THE BABY! If I make the baby super yummy and healthy food he will grow strong and healthy and he will thank me someday. And maybe sleep?!?

Here’s Laura, nagging about the Blendtec.
You should get one.
You should so get one.
Get one! Get one now! Hurry up!
Now back to what Tasha was saying about how great it is that she bought a Blendtec…

So. Click. I bought it. Do I love it? Yes. Yes, I do.  In the first three days I made three types of baby food (with all the extra frozen into cubes and bagged for later), ground-up oats and coconut into flour, two smoothies, tomato sauce, ice cream, applesauce, frappuccino, strawberry whipped dessert…

Stevia Sweetened Chocolate Frappe

Buying the blendtec that night was a splurge. I had been considering one for over a year; my defenses were broken down that sleepless night. So, so, sleepless. I know this season of my life is just that. A season. I joke about many things, and I am enjoying parts of life, but I am surviving it one day at a time, one afternoon at a time, one hour… and sometimes the next ten minutes.

This past year of poor sleep has been one of the most difficult of my life. Okay, so I have an Amazon addiction. You want to know a little secret? This is a fairly new addiction. A couple of weeks ago, I decided that I needed help. Like, really needed help.

My physical, emotional, and spiritual red flags were waving. I decided that I would rather pay for that help than save up for a vacation that I had no energy to go on. I now pay someone to come clean my house once a week, I pay a highschooler to come babysit for an hour twice a week, I pay a neighbor to mow my huge lawn, I am meeting weekly with a counselor. …and, I started buying more things for myself. You know why? (I mean, besides the fact that it’s 3 in the morning and I’m scrolling around on Amazon.) It’s because I decided that I am worthy. I am worthy of using my money to buy things for myself. *GASP* 

I am not encouraging you to buy a bunch of stuff you don’t need. Please don’t. But if you are that Mama that scrimps when taking care of herself, is it because deep down you don’t feel like you deserve it? Like somehow you’re not worthy of having nice things? Are you so busy running around that you forgot to eat again? Did you “find time” to shower? 

So it has taken me two weeks to type this out because: motherhood. But tonight I have something amazing to share with you. The baby has begun to sleep. Praising God every morning. Last night was a full 8 hours at once. But with a clearer head, I have something important I wanted to tell you. 

You are so worthy!

I am crying out to you right now, please hear me. Did God send his only Son down here to be born as a tiny, crying, hungry, wet, and bloody baby for us to say, “Oh, I don’t deserve ____.”

Wow, isn’t God amazing?! Jesus came down here to be subject to a mother’s teaching. I guarantee you as a toddler he fell and scraped his knee and cried and Mary took him in her arms and dried his tears. The God of the whole universe came down here to be with us because he wanted you to know, to really really know, how much you are loved. You are his beloved. 

You are worthy of love. You are worthy of being happy. 

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Is it Worth the Money to Buy a Blendtec?

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Today’s the day I discuss with you whether or not I feel like it is really worth the money to buy a Blendtec. (You probably already know the answer.)

What is a Blendtec?

Well now. A Blendtec is a regular blender – but it is NOTHING like a regular blender. I used to regularly spend $25 to purchase cheap blenders at the store, only to have them burn out on me in less than a year. Not only would a regular blender die quickly, but its capabilities were also very limited. Not so with a Blendtec!

Regular blenders make sort-of-smooth smoothies. Regular blenders take a long time to sort-of mix ingredients. But a Blendtec??? This beauty of a blender is such a high powered machine that cream goes from liquid to whipped in less than 20 seconds. I can put big pieces of frozen fruit into my Blendtec and have a perfectly smooth smoothie in just a few seconds! And, the seeds from berries? They get blended in too! So picky kids (and adults, ha!) don’t have to worry about chunks or seeds in their food!

Ultimately, a Blendtec is a regular blender with many more capabilities and much more power. After so many years of using a Blendtec, I still am amazed at how much time it saves me and at how beautifully it blends or whips or purees our food!

How do I use my Blendtec?

I use my Blendtec multiple times each week, and sometimes multiple times each day.

I mix batter in it, whip cream in it, make smoothies in it, whip mini cheesecake filling in it, the list goes on and on. From cakes to muffins to pancakes – the Blendtec takes away my need to stir and mix. Cream goes from liquid to perfectly whipped in less than 30 seconds. Recently I dumped in all the ingredients for these Mini Crustless Cheesecakes and had them in the oven within a grand total of 5 minutes. Beautiful!

Here are some of the recipes I use my Blendtec for regularly:

In addition, I’ve started using my Blendtec to make our Homemade Applesauce. Once the apples are cooked down, it takes 30 seconds to blend them into super smooth sauce – peelings and all!

Why should I spend more money on a blender, bite the bullet, and buy a Blendtec?

In so many ways, my Blendtec makes my cooking and baking effortless. It is extremely high powered, which is reflected in the price. A $25 blender gives only $25 of effort (and in my experience, lasts less than one year in my kitchen). The Blendtec, though much higher in price, comes with a warranty and is so high powered that it turns frozen fruit into liquid in just seconds. Unbelievable!

I highly recommend saving up and investing in a Blendtec. Oh the time and energy you’ll save! I acquired a Blendtec several years ago, and it is still going strong. So my larger money investment has already saved me $25 many times over and will continue to save me for years to come!

While money saving is nice – I consider the time and energy saved even better. The fact that I can dump ingredients into my Blendtec and whip or blend them so quickly and easily truly is a refreshing help in my kitchen. I LOVE not having to spend extra time whipping or stirring. Lazy? Absolutely not. Efficient? You bet!

So is it worth the money to buy a Blendtec?

Oh yes. So very worth it. The Blendtec has changed my kitchen life, and this is no exaggeration. Because I make so much food from scratch, while still striving to keep our recipes as simple as can be, I find the Blendtec to be invaluable! I don’t know how I ever lived without it, and that’s the truth!

What is your blender experience? Have you invested in a high power blender like a Blendtec yet?

Sidenote: My understanding is that a Vitamix is of the same quality as a Blendtec. So while I don’t have experience with those, I do recommend them also!

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My Top 3 Small Kitchen Appliances That Save Hours of Time and Energy

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If my house started on fire, I would grab my family and my Blendtec and get out as fast as I could. Just kidding. I’m not that tied to material possessions. But I felt it was worth a post to share my top 3 small kitchen appliances I feel I can hardly live without.

I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that these gadgets save me hours of time and energy every week. As I’ve worked to simplify my real food kitchen, I have been amazed at how I’ve come to rely on 3 very important appliances.

Could I do without them? Well yes. Grandma survived all her many years of cooking for a large family without any one of the items I’m sharing with you today. But Grandma also didn’t have indoor plumbing for a good many years, and then welcomed it gladly when it became available. I’m pretty sure if she was raising her family now, she would very much enjoy the appliances I love having access to!

My Top 3 Small Kitchen Appliances

If you’ve been reading here long, you can probably guess my top three small kitchen appliances. Just for fun, I added two runners up in my “if I had to choose to keep only 3 small appliances, which ones would I keep?” contest. :)

1. Blendtec

Indeed. If I could only keep one appliance in my kitchen, it would be the Blendtec. I use this multiple times each week, and sometimes multiple times each day.

I mix batter in it, whip cream in it, make smoothies in it, whip mini cheesecake filling in it, the list goes on and on. From cakes to muffins to pancakes – the Blendtec takes away my need to stir and mix. Cream goes from liquid to perfectly whipped in less than 30 seconds. Recently I dumped in all the ingredients for these Mini Crustless Cheesecakes and had them in the oven within a grand total 5 minutes. Beautiful!

In so many ways, my Blendtec makes my cooking and baking effortless. It is extremely high powered, which is reflected in the price. A $25 blender gives only $25 of effort (and in my experience, lasts less than one year in my kitchen). The Blendtec, though much higher in price, comes with a warranty and is so high powered it turns frozen fruit into liquid in just seconds. Unbelievable!

I highly recommend saving up and investing in a Blendtec. Oh the time and energy you’ll save!

Recipes you’ll need for your Blendtec:

2. Instant Pot

I stubbornly refused to get an Instant Pot for several years after they became popular (silly me), and now I am one of the biggest advocates for them! This gem saves so much time and keeps us eating healthy too!

I love that it makes wholesome, rich beef or chicken broth with so little effort on my part. I LOVE that I can cook 7 pounds of frozen hamburger meat in it in just 30 minutes!! And I love the many meals and side dishes I can make in it within just a few minutes.

If you can swing it, get yourself an Instant Pot. I have the 8-quart variety for my large family. Here’s the 6-quart Instant Pot if that fits your needs more!

Recipes you’ll need for your Instant Pot:

Psst: I highly recommend that you bookmark our Instant Pot Recipes page for easy access as we continue to update it!

3. Crock Pot(s)

Yes indeed. I have two large crock pots and I often use them both at the same time. My favorite is this 8-Quart Programmable Crock Pot, but I also have this Basic 7-Quart Crock Pot, which works great too!

I’ve learned many tricks through the years that help me throw VERY quick meals into the crock pot so that later in the day, our meal has cooked itself. (See recipe links below.) What a great way to continue putting real, delicious food on the table on busy days!

Recipes you’ll need for your Crock Pot:

Top Small Kitchen Appliances, My 2 Runners Up

Just for fun, I thought it would be fun to add a couple others to my list of appliances I love and use often!

4. Nutrimill

Could I live without my Nutrimill? I guess. Does it save me time in the kitchen? Not really. But do I love having such a great appliance to help me grind fresh grain for our baked goods? Oh my goodness, YES!

I frequently grind hard and soft white wheat in my Nutrimill, which turns out the most delicious flour, which then turns out the most delicious breads, muffins, cakes, cookies, pancakes, and waffles. Now that I’m so used to baking with freshly ground flour, I’d have a hard time turning back. We’re pretty spoiled! ;)

Details about using flour ground in a Nutrimill:

5. Coffee Maker

Last Mother’s Day, at the recommendation of several who frequently drink coffee at our house and help with our babies, we treated our family to this Bunn coffee maker. It is amazing!!!!!! I’ll never go back.

Recipes to go with your coffee:

I’d love to hear what your favorite small kitchen appliances are. Which ones do you feel you can’t live without?

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Peanut Butter Cup Whipped Cream

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Peanut Butter Cup Whipped Cream? Please pass me a spoon. Maybe two spoons: one for each hand.

If you have a high power blender like a Blendtec, you can make this jewel of a treat in about 30 seconds. Otherwise, you can use a hand mixer to blend ingredients and whip the mixture in about 5 minutes. Either way, your life just got better in a very short amount of time!

The possibilities of ways to serve this Peanut Butter Cup Whipped Cream are practically endless. If all else fails, you must truly eat this all by itself, in a bowl, with a spoon. No need to defend this choice. You simply can’t help yourself.

Other more elaborate Peanut Butter Cup Whipped Cream options include serving it alongside or atop:

And truly, the list goes on and on. I’d love to hear your ideas too!

Peanut Butter Cup Whipped Cream

Peanut Butter Cup Whipped Cream
 
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Author:
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 2 cups heavy whipping cream
  • ½ cup natural creamy peanut butter
  • 3 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 3 Tablespoons sugar or 20 drops liquid stevia
Instructions
  1. Blend all ingredients together in a high power blender until thick and smooth.
  2. Or blend ingredients together in a bowl with a hand mixer until thick and smooth.

 

I like making homemade peanut butter to use in recipes like this:

This Peanut Butter Cup Whipped Cream will make a lovely holiday dessert or add on to your table of treats. Or if you’re like me, you might find yourself making some and eating it in the middle of August or March because there is no reason to hold back. :)

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Easy, Low Sugar, Mini Crustless Cheesecake Recipe (and an amazing Blendtec Giveaway!!)

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This has got to be one of my most exciting giveaways to share with you! Why? Because ever since I invested in a Blendtec my kitchen life has become soooo much simpler! I wish I could give one to every person reading this.

I haven’t splattered cream all over my countertops and walls in months. Why? Because I don’t have to whip cream using my hand mixer anymore. Instead, I pour cream into my Blendtec and it whips it for me in less than 30 seconds. It is so, so easy.

I use my Blendtec for homemade applesauce now, throwing cooked apples in peel and all, and it makes beautifully smooth sauce. I use my Blendtec to mix muffin batters, cake batters, cheesecake, and so much more. Of course I use it for smoothies and all the normal blender needs. I use it at least once every day if not three times.

But about the cheesecake! Please allow me to introduce you to one of my favorite new recipes to make:

easy-mini-crustless-baked-cheesecake

I throw the five ingredients into my Blendtec, whip it for a few seconds until it is smooth, pour it into muffin cups, and bake. The stevia sweetens it, the small amount of maple syrup takes away any stevia aftertaste, and I’m left with the most delicious treat!

blendtec1
blendtec3blendtec-2

Here’s the recipe, and check out the wonderful giveaway below!

Easy, Low Sugar, Mini Crustless CheesecakeYum

5.0 from 12 reviews
Easy, Low Sugar, Mini Crustless Cheesecake Recipe (and an amazing Blendtec Giveaway!!)
 
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Author:
Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • 2 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, softened
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 Tablespoons maple syrup
  • 2 full droppers of liquid stevia
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
  1. Blend all ingredients together until smooth.
  2. Pour into 12 muffin cups.
  3. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.
  4. Turn off heat, open the oven door, and leave the cheesecakes in the oven for an additional 20 minutes. (Cheesecakes will puff up during baking but deflate while continuing to sit in the oven.)
  5. Transfer cheesecakes to the fridge and chill for at least two hours before serving.

easy-low-sugar-mini-crustless-cheesecakes

My family likes pouring homemade fruit sauces over the cheesecakes!

 

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30-Second Whipped Cream and Even Easier Applesauce

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When all my kids were little-bitty, I needed to utilize every time-saving kitchen trick I could. Cooking while holding a baby, keeping the toddler from grabbing a knife, and playing referee between the two pre-schoolers – well no wonder so many moms resort to boxed dino-nuggets.

four boys pilgrim

Somehow (my kids and) I lived to tell about it.

Then there were what I lovingly refer to as “the golden years.” That was when my kids were between the ages of 4 and 12. They could all buckle themselves into their van seats, they could entertain themselves without having to be watched constantly, and they began to do more and more of their school work independently. I no longer had to do all the wiping. I won’t go into details (there is no need) but it is a blissfully happy day when the mom no longer has to do all the wiping. You know I’m right.

Parenting was still challenging during “the golden years” but not as relentless as the baby years. I found myself with a little extra time to do things I loved like bake bread every week and can 100+ jars of produce each year. How nice! I could now run circles around my kitchen and have much to show for it.

Then the teen years hit. I still hold to the truth that teenagers are wonderful and amazing, and I love this stage like no other. I constantly marvel watching God grow my children from little boys to young men, and I thoroughly enjoy the fun we have as our boys discover gifts and talents and grown-up personalities.

boys at wedding

But the intensity of parenting needs has increased in ways that have blind-sided me a bit. Their schedules got busier outside our home, which meant that mine did too. Instead of teaching them to read, we are teaching them to drive. Instead of talking about sharing toys, we talk about maintaining purity. What used to be a 20-minute math lesson has turned into two hours of complicated algebra (which they can mostly do on their own ~ XOXOXO Teaching Textbooks). Reading aloud while we lay around on couches and pillows has turned into writing 5-7 page papers in MLA format for college professors.

This is all a part of life and raising kids. God continues to equip and prepare and provide, just as He always has. All I’m really saying here about raising teenagers is this:

I now have less time for cooking for a family who eats five times the amount of food.

No big deal.

Perhaps you’ve noticed a theme with my last few months’ recipe and food posts. While I’ve always been into simple-to-make recipes, now I’ve even more of a need to make real food, fast. Food has to be quick, easy, make-ahead, stir-and-pour, wash-and-serve, heat-and-eat. It’s all still real food. It’s all still delicious. But if I can’t make it without very little brain-energy and time, I just can’t make it. There is no time for kneading or canning right now. My people need me now more than ever.

But there is also a big need for food. So I’ve learned:

Any kitchen appliance that saves me time while feeding my family real food is a must-have. Allow me to share my current favorite.

For years, I’d heard from several of you about how awesome a Blendtec is. Their price tag startled me though, so I kept spending $25 on cheap blenders that would give out after about a year. (I use a blender several times every day. After 10-12 months none of the Walmart blenders can handle me anymore. “Get me out of this lady’s kitchen,” they say, just before they die.)

Finally about a year ago, instead of dropping another $25 on a cheap blender, I decided to go ahead and invest in a Blendtec. It made sense after reading how powerful they are, and if felt silly to keep dropping $25 on what I would soon have to put in the dumpster.

I’m never going back to a cheap blender again. The Blendtec has changed my kitchen life, and if you think I’m exaggerating, go back and read the paragraphs above about feeding teenage boys while trying to keep up with their schedules. This blender saves me so much time in the kitchen! It blends a smoothie in 1/5 of the time it took to make smoothies in a cheap blender. I don’t have to take it apart to clean it (and then put it back together) – hallelujah. And my favorite discovery: I can use it to whip cream!

Instead of getting out a bowl and my hand mixer, then whipping cream for several minutes until soft peaks form, I dump the cream into my Blendtec and turn it on. Approximately 37 seconds later, I have whipped cream. It is so easy (even if the pictures below are ugly).

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You know how I’ve been going on and on for the past few years about my Victorio being so wonderful for making applesauce and tomato sauce? I still hold to this and will always and forever use it to make tomato sauce. That appliance is a huge time saver! But if you can believe it, my Blendtec makes applesauce even easier. I didn’t even know it was possible!

See the huge bowls of applesauce below? (Well, the one on the left used to be full of applesauce.) I was able to make those so quickly because of my Blendtec.

Applesauce Cups

I made the applesauce using this method, then just dumped the cooked apples into my Blendtec and blended until smooth. (I edited this post to update you on what is now the quickest way I’ve found to make applesauce.) It actually makes the applesauce creamy, and it takes so little time and very little effort on my part. (By the way, you can read about my cute little applesauce cups here.)

Well, yay for anything that saves time in the kitchen, no matter what season of life we are in. I think good food is important (obviously), but there is more to life than standing on our feet in the kitchen. There are people to love on, events to attend and support, needs all around us to be met. The more we can learn about making real food faster and simpler, the better.

What are some of your favorite time-saving appliances in your kitchen? Do you have a favorite blender?

Psst…I have another fun Stir-and-Pour Bread tip for you tomorrow! We’ll save even more time and money!

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How to Make and Can Applesauce

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***UPDATE***

I no longer peel my apples, nor do I slice them. I simply wash them, core them, cook them as described below, then run them through my Blendtec Blender. It is much healthier and saves so much time to do it this way! And the applesauce is delicious. That’s always nice. :)

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One of the best “fall smells” I can think of is applesauce cooking on the stove. It is SO YUMMY!!!

Here’s a step by step of the easiest way I’ve found to make applesauce. (But be sure to read Canning 101 first if you’re unfamiliar with the basic steps of canning safely!)

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I slice my apples like this, then peel each slice.
I find this to be much easier than peeling the whole apple first and then slicing it.

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As I slice and peel, I put my apples into a big pot. At the bottom of my pot is 5 cups of water and 3 teaspoons of ascorbic acid (powdered vitamin C).

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As I continue to add apples, I stir them into the water/ascorbic acid frequently so that the apples are all coated with the mixture and are much less likely to turn brown.

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Once I have my pot 3/4 full of apples, I put it on the stove…

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and bring it to a boil, then simmer it (uncovered)
for about 30 minutes or until the apples are tender.

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Then, I spoon the tender apples with some of the liquid into my blender (I highly recommend the Blendtec now)
and blend it all up until it is smooth.

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Isn’t it pretty!!! Next, I pour the applesauce
into sterilized jars with a wide mouth funnel.

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I hot water bath my jars for about 25 minutes.

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And like always, after I pull them out of the hot water, I set them on my counter for several hours (or days) so that I can admire them and feel happy about my applesauce. Ahh…..beautiful!

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