Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

What? I Don’t Need Anything At the Store???

by 3 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

I went from the craziest, busiest, most exhausting school year yet, followed by a houseful of company celebrating our oldest son’s high school graduation, to an entire week of quiet. I wasn’t sure whether to laugh, cry, do cartwheels, clean the house, take a nap, read a book, watch a movie, or catch up on emails.

I decided to skip the cartwheels (our health insurance wouldn’t have appreciated the risk taking), forget cleaning (at least for a few days), and ignore my inbox (eh, what’s 400 unanswered emails?). I had some uninterrupted writing time (bliss!), took many walks with Malachi while he rode his bike, read Farmer Boy to Malachi, did some special projects in the kitchen (you’ll read about them soon), and found my brain again (mostly, sort of, probably not really).

Why the quiet? Three out of our four boys went to Wisconsin on a week-long mission trip with our church youth group. That left Matt and me with our 10 year-old, plus a college student who had moved in for the week. I missed our older boys, but the week was very refreshing. I mean, our tiny little laundry pile amazed me all week long. (And then the older boys came back with trash bags full of stink, filth, and ticks – pictured below. Not the ticks. Just the laundry.)

laundry

I barely cooked all week because leftovers go a long way when the teenagers aren’t here to make me forget what leftovers are.

I am so used to buying mountains of food that without thinking two weeks ago, I ordered our normal amount of food from Bountiful Baskets which included a regular basket of fruits and veggies, two specialty fruit and veggie baskets, 25 pounds of nectarines, 48 whole wheat hotdog/hamburger buns, and 100 wraps. What? If the boys had all been home it would have just been another day of bringing home groceries for the week (or two). But instead, last Saturday I brought home this:

bountiful basket may 222

bountiful basket may 221

…and then on Sunday all the teenagers left for the week. Thank goodness for friends we could share nectarines with, a freezer for buns and wraps, and a college age young man who stayed with us for the week and was happy to eat whatever we put in front of him.

I will say that having all that great produce – plus the buns and wraps – made it very easy to put simple no-brainer meals on the table this week. I was ready for a kitchen break. I got one.

So now the older boys are back for the week. (They’ll be gone again to a church camp next week – such is our all-or-nothing summer.) I’m eager to cook for them again, and to fill them with green stuff that they likely aren’t getting much of while they’re away from home.

I don’t have an official menu plan made, but I thought I’d share a few dishes I plan to make while they’re home:

Well, that was fun. Hopefully you’ll see some ideas there you can use this summer. I love summer food SOOOOOO much. Mostly because I love summer. And food.

All of that to say that when Matt was heading to Walmart to grab some paint on Friday, he asked if I needed anything. Typically I need a cart full (to go with our Bountiful Basket, Azure Standard, and online orders). This time I just stared at him blankly. I didn’t need a thing.

Oh wait. Yes I did. I keep making the BLT Chopped Salad without the feta cheese because I keep not having any on hand. So Matt got us some feta cheese. It was the most exciting grocery shopping list ever.

Anyway, yay us. We saved a bundle on groceries this week. The boys are back in town (sing it with me…). Let us commence eating enormous quantities of food.

What summer food are you enjoying so far this season? Been grilling much? Have anything to pull from a garden yet?

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 and My Husband…the Price Matcher

by 3 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

I’ve been laying low this week while I recover from being sick. Therefore, making a trip to the store would have been a bad idea for me. But dude – avocados can be price-matched for 29¢ this week!!!!! We couldn’t pass this up. Plus, we needed other groceries. Thus, I prepared a careful list and sent my willing husband to the store (armed with a teenage son for back-up). They shopped, they price-matched, they scored good deals.

groceries mar21

They also bought pizza.

groceries mar 211

Four of them to be exact. Fine by me. Matt added veggies to some of them before putting them in the oven and we all enjoyed the treat (and the night off from cooking).

He ended up heading back to the store over the weekend because we needed food for High School Huddle this Sunday, plus there were no avocados the first time he went. Missing the 29¢ avocados just seemed too sad. Second time around, he brought home a bag full – plus more strawberries, more clementines, and some blueberries. The groceries were all put away before I could get in and take a picture, so I thought I’d share this one instead:

malachi's straw
This was Malachi drinking his Homemade Chocolate Milk earlier this week. Or…attempting to drink his chocolate milk. It was a fun lunch-time experiment he chose to do. To answer the inevitable:  Yes he is wearing a suit coat, shirt, and tie. Yes it was mid-week. Yes it was lunchtime. Yes we were home having a regular school day. No I don’t make him dress up for school. He dresses like this most days because he loves it. Come to think of it, I believe this was St. Patty’s Day – as it looks as though he is wearing his green shirt/tie combo. The cuteness is a killer, am I right? Remember when he always dressed as a cowboy? Oh, my baby.

You should try making this chocolate milk, but feel free to come as you are. Black tie attire not required for the drinking of this milk. Nor is it a necessity to drink through six straws at once. The rest of us boring folks drink our chocolate milk without a straw while wearing blue jeans.

Meals for this week look a little something like this:

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Fruit and Veggie Side Options (I serve 1-4 with each meal)

Here’s to a great week with great food!

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 – Feel Free to Steal Ideas!

by 7 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Here’s a peek at my grocery store run this week. I was excited to get 2-pound packs of butter for $3.97, so I bought enough to build a tower on my table. There were quite a few price-matches for cheese that I took advantage of. Then I loaded the rest of my cart with fruits and veggies!

groceries march 14

We keep our meals simple at our house. All real food (at least as much as possible) and heavy on fruits and veggies – but simple. Take a look through the following lists and grab some ideas for your week!

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Fruit and Veggie Side Dishes (I serve 1-4 with each meal)

  • Green Beans
  • Broccoli
  • Strawberries
  • Apples
  • Applesauce
  • Peas
  • Sweet Peppers
  • Homemade Pickles
  • Mixed Greens
  • Spinach
  • Blueberries
  • Blackberries
  • Clementines
  • Mushrooms
  • Asparagus
  • Zucchini
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

by 3 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Phew. What a weekend. We loved every minute of our time with our homeschool basketball team competing in the big tournament to end our season. I have pictures and fun memories to share, but I’m too tired to upload and type. ;)  Maybe by Gratituesday I’ll have slept.

Thankfully, I had my menu typed out before we left home. Our bodies are ready for some yummy home-cooked meals!

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Fruit and Veggie Side Dishes (I serve 1-4 with each meal)

  • Apples
  • Bananas
  • Strawberries
  • Pears
  • Green Beans
  • Peas
  • Mixed Greens
  • Spinach
  • Applesauce
  • Cantaloupe
  • Broccoli
  • Carrots
  • Avocados
  • Asparagus
  • Cucumbers
  • Tomatoes
  • Homemade Pickles
  • Sweet Peppers

Tell me what you’ve been up to this weekend!

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 and a LOT of Groceries

by 9 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Goodness. Remind me not to grocery shop at the store until after I pick up my Bountiful Baskets order. Come to think of it – never mind. We’ll eat all of this, and maybe I won’t have to buy as much next week. Maybe.  It is a good thing we have a second refrigerator because we have a lot of food in our house right now. Here’s how this week’s grocery shopping went for me:

On Tuesday night, we picked up our Azure Standard co-op order. I got 5 pounds of carrots, 6 pounds of yams, 5 pounds of peanuts, 25 pounds of red beans, 6 pounds of chicken thighs (not pictured), and 50 pounds of yellow potatoes (not pictured).

groceries feb25

I use roasted, unsalted peanuts (like the ones pictured above) to make delicious homemade peanut butter. If your family wants to avoid hydrogenated oils, but you don’t like the taste of plain, natural peanut butter – try this recipe. It’s incredible!

On Friday, I filled my cart at the store – mostly with price-matching items. I scored some great deals! I got apples, pears, sweet peppers, grape tomatoes, bananas, grapes (two varieties), spinach, mixed greens, baby carrots, cucumbers, and a cantaloupe.

groceries feb 27

Then on Saturday, I picked up my Bountiful Baskets order. Mmmmm! Asparagus, celery, apples, oranges, bananas, lettuce, pineapple, carrots, broccoli, sweet peppers, cucumbers, and avocados came in the surprise basket this time. Plus, I had ordered 28 pounds of green beans. It was perfect timing for these to be offered since we are almost out of our garden-grown green beans from last summer.

groceries feb 28 (1)

I had also ordered heirloom tomatoes and strawberries. It feels like a little taste of summer with these goodies!

groceries feb 28 (2)

I’d say our family is pretty well set for at least one week – if not two. I am so thankful we have such great sources for such great food!

We are feeding a big group of high school kids from our youth group here on Sunday night, and I plan to put out a big plate of veggies and a big plate of fruit along with sliced ham, french bread, and Angeled Eggs. Maybe I’ll need to grocery shop next week after all. :)

Here’s what’s on our menu this week:

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Fruit and Veggie Side Dishes (I serve 1-4 with every meal)

  • Broccoli
  • Carrots
  • Spaghetti Squash
  • Sweet Potato Fries
  • Asparagus
  • Mushrooms
  • Sweet Peppers
  • Cucumbers
  • Clementines
  • Oranges
  • Apples
  • Applesauce
  • Tomatoes
  • Green Leaf Lettuce
  • Mixed Greens
  • Spinach
  • Green Beans
  • Peas
  • Strawberries
  • Bananas
  • Pineapple
  • Cantaloupe
  • Avocados
  • Grapes

We’ll be heading out of state for our end-of-season Homeschool Basketball Tournament on Thursday night. I’ll be saving many of the “packable” fruits and veggies to take along with us to munch on all weekend.

Because I’m sure you’re dying to know:  The toilet is still sitting right outside my kitchen – but looooook! There is tile on our new bathroom wall and floor…

bathroom 8

It looks so very pretty! My husband is a work horse right now. I am thanking him by loading his plate with heirloom tomatoes and fresh green beans.  I do what I can.  ;)

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

5-Piece Cast Iron Set for Less Than Half Off ~ Plus Really Yummy Pancake Recipes

by 4 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Thinking about pancakes cooked on cast iron gives me warm fuzzies. I’m desperate for anything warm and fuzzy right now. Actually, I’m just hungry for pancakes.

I just found this Lodge 5-Piece Cast Iron set. For everything you’re getting with this purchase, it is a really, really good deal!

lodge cast iron set

Isn’t that pretty? Not only is cast iron a great alternative to Teflon – I also think that cast iron makes the best eggs and pancakes ever. :)

Here are links to our family’s favorite pancake recipes. All of them are super easy and cook up great on a cast iron griddle. By the way, I have this griddle, but the large round griddle above looks to be a great option.

Simple Whole Wheat Pancakes

Easy Whole Wheat Pancakes

Quick Mix Pancakes

quick_mix_pancakes

Pumpkin Pancakes

Simple Pumpkin Pancakes

Peanut Butter Pancakes

Peanut Butter Pancakes

If looking at those made you hungry, you might also be interested in a good deal I found on organic maple syrup. ;)  
hidden springs maple syrup

 

Now how many of you are suddenly changing your meal plan to make breakfast for dinner tonight?  Pancakes are just so YUM. And might I suggest you also make Mocha???

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

How to Blanch and Freeze Broccoli

by 17 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

There was this one day when I saw that I could order 20 pounds of broccoli for just $12.50 and we all know how much I love good deals on good produce. Then there was that other day I picked up my order and found that 20 pounds of broccoli filled a box big enough for my 10-year old to play in. This was also the day we had four basketball games and the day I wanted to make heart-shaped pancakes for my family because they might not have known how much I loved them unless I shaped their pancakes into hearts and also because it was Valentine’s Day. I  never bite off more than I can chew.

I also never can make nicely shaped heart pancakes, which is clearly another issue to tackle another day.

So there I was, flipping a triple batch of ugly heart pancakes on the griddle, packing lunches to take to our basketball games, and staring down 36 crowns of broccoli. I love relaxing Saturday mornings.

I started a pot of water boiling on the stove, flipped the pancakes, and started to chop broccoli. I almost (happy valentine’s day) slid the prepared broccoli into the pancake batter, but stopped myself just in time, took a deep breath, and got my camera because that’s how quickly my brain moves on to the next thing. I am a blogger, after all, which means that just at that moment I realized that I should probably document the project so as to share the broccoli blanching details with you.

Matt suggested I also take a picture of the heart pancakes and I was all, seriously? No one wants to see these. So instead you get to look at my pot of boiling water which mostly looks like I’m about to set my kitchen on fire. It’s just steam though, I think.

blanch broccoli 2

How to Blanch Broccoli

Step One:  Boil water. One might wonder at the fact that it takes an entire tutorial to explain this process. Don’t worry. The exciting part is yet to come.

blanch broccoli 1

Step Two:  Wash and cut your broccoli. (Told you it would get more exciting.)

blanch broccoli 3

Step Three:  Place cut broccoli into your pot of boiling water for 2-3 minutes. (This stops the aging process so your vegetables will maintain better nutritional value.)

blanch broccoli 4

Step Four:  Immediately remove broccoli from boiling water and run it under very cold water. (This stops the cooking process.)

Step Five:  Spread the cooled broccoli on a clean towel to dry. I didn’t get a picture of this. I was probably flipping ugly pancakes.
blanch broccoli 6

Label a freezer bag and fill the bag with blanched, cooled, and dried broccoli. Freeze for up to 6 months.

You can use your prepared broccoli for soups and stir fry. The work is done!

How to Blanch and Freeze Broccoli

If you have a trick for making nicely shaped heart pancakes – do tell. If you have any tasty broccoli recipes, I believe I’ve made it clear that I would benefit. And in case you’re wondering, I slept very well the night of the basketball/broccoli/ugly pancakes.

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 and My First Bountiful Basket!

by 10 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Many of you have told me about Bountiful Baskets through the years, but it wasn’t an option for me until now. Early Saturday morning, this is what I picked up:

bountiful baskets

It was so fun to get such a huge amount of good produce for such great savings. The best deal I got was 20 pounds of broccoli for just $12.50. It ended up being 36 broccoli crowns. That, my friends, is a lot of broccoli. I’ll share more about my broccoli adventures later this week. Be on the edge of your seat for this.

My actual basket order included everything from purple potatoes to asparagus to jicama to an English cucumber. Wow are we set for this week! Plus I had already purchased $80 worth of produce at the store like mixed greens, spinach, strawberries, blueberries, cucumbers, mushrooms, carrots, cantaloupe, apples, and pears. (Remember, we are a family of 6 and three of our boys are teenagers, so we tear through the groceries!)

I decided to share my weekly menu just a little bit differently today to give you a better idea of how I am now (easily!) adding many more fruits and veggies to our days. Ever since I began including 1-4 fruit and veggies sides with our meals, my menu planning has become so much easier. This seems opposite to people who feel that healthy eating is time consuming. Not the way I do it – I promise! Take note that all I have to do for most of the side dishes is pull them out of the fridge and give them a wash. I also try to keep raw veggies sliced ahead of time to make them easy to throw on the table with our meals. Cooked veggies only require a quick steam before serving. Easy, easy!!

Here’s an idea of what a week’s worth of meals looks like for us:

Breakfast

1. Peanut Butter Honey Toast, Applesauce, Blueberries
2. Pumpkin Donuts (pumpkin is a bonus veggie!), Sliced Apples
3. Quick Mix Biscuits, Sausage Gravy, Pears (Justus’ bday choice)
4. Scrambled Cheesy Eggs with Spinach, Strawberries
5. Zucchini Carrot Bread, Applesauce
6. Green Machine Milkshakes (yay, avocado!), Apple Slices, Toast
7. Instant Oatmeal Packets, Blueberries, Clementines

Lunch

1. Taco Salad (mixed greens, tomatoes), Pineapple
2. Tuna Casserole, Mixed Greens or Spinach Salad, Peas, Cantaloupe
3. Pizza Soup (includes carrots and tomato sauce), Clementines, Raw Carrots, Cucumbers, and Sweet Peppers
4. Easy Cheesy Bean Dip with Chips, Avocado, Salsa, Pineapple, Raw Carrots, Cucumbers, and Sweet Peppers
5. Lamb-burger patties, Cheesy Cauliflower Cakes (with spinach added), Sweet Peppers, Homemade Dill Pickles, Green Beans
6. Baked Potatoes in the Crock Pot with Broccoli and Cheese, Peas, Kiwi
7. Pizza Boats, Mixed Greens, Olives, Sweet Peppers, Raw Carrots and Cucumbers, Apples

Dinner

1. Lasagna (recipe in What to Do With the Cow in Your Kitchen eBook), Mixed Greens, Green Beans, Strawberries (Justus’ bday choice)
2. Ham and Egg Breakfast Bowls (with spinach), Fruit Salad (apples, strawberries, pineapple)
3. Calico Beans, Mixed Greens, Raw Carrots, Cucumbers, and Sweet Peppers, Pineapple
4. Easy Noodle Stir Fry with Asparagus, Broccoli, Carrots, Spinach, and Yellow Squash; Cantaloupe
5. Crock Pot Barbecue Chicken Breasts, Mixed Greens, Green Beans, Honey Glazed Carrots
6. Popcorn Chicken, Sweet Potato Fries, Raw Carrots, Cucumbers, and Sweet Peppers
7. Potato Soup (carrots and onions cooked into the broth), Homemade Pickles, Olives, Mixed Greens or Spinach

Now that doesn’t seem so hard, does it? Really, the trickiest part is finding room to fit all the food into the fridge (I have two, thankfully) when I get home from the store – or in the case of this week – when I get home from picking up my co-op order. Preparing and serving it though? That’s a piece of cake cucumber.

Tell me about some of the fruits and veggies you’re serving and eating this week!

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 – and What is Up With All the Strawberries?

by 13 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Never, ever, ever have strawberries been available in our grocery stores this time of year that are both tasty and reasonably priced. Typically between the months of October and April, we go strawberry-less.

Somehow though, the past few weeks have brought very tasty strawberries to our stores at a very good price – in January and February. What in the world? Seriously, does anyone know how this can be possible? These particular strawberries are coming from Florida. Are you able to find good strawberries in your area at a good price right now? Shocked as I am, this Nebraska girl is thrilled.

feb 5 groceries

I price-matched (more on that tomorrow!) and got strawberries for just $1.29 per pound. That price is amazing. The strawberries are super tasty, too. As you can see from my huge haul from the store, it was a great price matching week. I loaded up on produce even more than normal. All of the above cost under $100, so I’m very grateful. We will have a great week of delicious food!

Here’s what this week’s menu options look like:

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Fruit and Veggie Side Dishes (I serve 1-4 with every meal)

  • Strawberries
  • Blueberries
  • Apples
  • Pears
  • Cantaloupe
  • Mixed Greens
  • Spinach
  • Romaine Lettuce
  • Green Beans
  • Asparagus
  • Peas
  • Cheesy Cauliflower Cakes
  • Grape Tomatoes
  • Carrot Sticks
  • Clementines

Thanking God for such abundance of wonderful food. How blessed we are.

What’s on your menu this week?

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, a Freezer/Pantry Clean Out Challenge Update, and How I Got Ahead This Weekend

by 7 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

It would appear that my “only buy produce, eggs, and dairy” challenge has also turned into a “see how deep you can dig down into the pantry and freezer to surprise your family with random food choices” challenge. I’m having a lot of fun. My family? I don’t even think they’ve actually noticed.

It’s just food to them. As long as there is plenty and as long as it is tasty, there doesn’t seem to be any argument to eating muffins made with freeze dried strawberries (this recipe, only with almost expired freeze dried strawberries) or an un-named casserole that used up the rest of our turkey and some odds and ends of pasta.

Kids: Mmm, what’s this casserole called, Mom?
Me: Dinner.
Kids shrug and get seconds

I have not made a dent in our store of food, though I am panicking a little bit as it appears we are completely out of the vital ingredient dried cranberries. I’m not sure how we will survive.

I had fun doing some price matching and buying our fresh produce for the week. Actually, most of what you see in the picture is gone already. We plow through it. I’ll probably head back to the store on Wednesday if we can wait that long.

groceries 116

Yes, that is one big sour cream tub.
I like that this brand contains only one ingredient, “cultured cream.”
We go through it pretty quickly, and as a side note:
When I use up the sour cream, the container is perfect for soup when I take meals to other families.

Regarding my plans to get ahead, can I just confess (again) how much I dislike cleaning? I was very willing to spend hours in the kitchen, but finding the motivation to go upstairs to tackle some filth? That is not nearly as much fun. Let’s focus on the fun food, shall we?

First thing, I grabbed out my Oh, For Real book and all spices needed to make Turkey Sausage and Ranch Salad Dressing Mix. Two full jars of spice mixes later, I put 12 pounds of ground turkey with spices on the stove to cook.

weekend 1

While the meat was cooking, I went to work on muffins. I had already put together and frozen Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins the night before, so I started on Banana Muffins and Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins. Super easy!

Realizing I was hungry and about to faint (not really, but I thought I should add some drama), I pulled out tuna salad and a bunch of fruits and veggies. The boys had slept in and weren’t hungry yet for lunch, so I munched alone while jotting notes in my Menu Planning Notebook.

weekend 2

After working on menu ideas for this week, I turned over to the Freezer Section of printables. I decided to start jotting down what I have left in my freezers since I’m working on getting them cleaned. Having a running list will be helpful. I didn’t finish the list, because the turkey sausage was finished cooking and I was done eating. I’ll take my list out to my freezers later to take final inventory.

weekend 3

Yes, I know. Corn isn’t a vegetable. 

Last, I took a few minutes (yep, that’s all it took) to make a double batch of Instant Oatmeal. It filled three half-gallon jars, so we should be set on that for a while. I love having that on hand!

 weekend 4

After the meat cooled, I separated it into freezer bags for easy “almost ready” meals. We’ll be using some for Sausage Gravy this week!

Here’s what our menu choices look like for this week:

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Fruit and Veggie Sides and Snacks (I serve 1-4 with every meal)

By the way, this Easy Veggie Dip continues to be a big hit as we work our way through lots of raw vegetables!

How has your weekend been?

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