Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Working Ahead for Healthy Food Convenience

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For the past two weeks during our Funky Fresh Kitchen series, we’ve talked all about getting your kitchen cleaned out and organized, getting rid of unhealthy foods and working toward making your own healthy foods from scratch. One thing I didn’t cover during the series which has become a very imporant way for me to keep my kitchen organized and healthy is making healthy foods ahead of time and freezing them for quick meals.

Whole Wheat Waffles are great to make ahead and
put into the freezer for a quick, healthy breakfast!

Having foods like healthy burritos, whole wheat waffles and homemade pizza pockets in the freezer to pull out for quick meals has been a life saver for me many times. This week, I plan to work on putting a few more healthy foods into my freezer for quick, convenience items. Here’s what’s on my list to try making this week:

At the end of the week, I’ll be back with an update on how my extra cooking times went. I can’t wait to try those new bologna and pepperoni ideas!!

Care to join me in trying to get ahead just a little bit? Think you might have time to make just one extra dish or item for your freezer for some healthy convenience? Leave a comment letting us know what you’re up to in the kitchen. I love hearing new ideas!!

P.S. I’ve got a new “Make Ahead Meals” recipe to share with you later this week!

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Funky Fresh Kitchen – The Make it Yourself Challenge

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What helped me most during our healthy eating journey was realizing that while we were changing the way we purchased and made food, we were not trading Cheesy Velvetta Dip or Jello Pudding for a boring diet of tasteless rice cakes and bland green things that I’d never heard of. I simply found new ways to create our favorite foods. We didn’t have to stop eating peanut butter, pasta, pizza, tacos, cookies, pancakes, mac and cheese and burgers – I just needed to learn to make them in a healthier way.

pudding5sm.JPG

Homemade Creamy Pudding

Look through all of our recipes (scroll through the drop down Recipe Menu at the top of our site) to find long lists of Bread and Breakfast recipes, Main Dishes, Side Dishes and Snacks, Desserts, Condiments, Dairy Products – so many recipes that are easy to make, kid friendly, and healthy – all at the same time! Life does not end once you’ve decided to throw away your boxes of Partially Hydrogenated High Fructose Corn Syrup Red Food Dye #40 (otherwise known as the cereal that claims to be a part of “this complete breakfast”).

I know that not everyone enjoys cooking and creating in the kitchen as much as I love it. I mean…I love it. That has made this transition easier for me. But even if you don’t love cooking, there are some very simple foods you can make that aren’t difficult at all – and they just might replace (in a very delicious way) some of those “foods” you threw out the other day.

Your Funky Fresh Kitchen Challenge for today includes choosing one food item that you can make from scratch that will replace a less healthy option from the store. For instance:

Those are just a few fun ideas to get you started. Look through all of our recipes, or look elsewhere on the web (or in your favorite cookbooks) for a recipe you can make that replaces an unhealthy variety of one of your favorite foods. I promise you that all of the above listed ideas are super easy to make. You can make peanut butter in five minutes with only a food processor and some peanuts. Making your own salad dressings is one of the easiest changes I made in my healthy kitchen. Take a look at this post called Five Minutes to Cultured Dairy for inspiration on making your own yogurt and other dairy products. Making Homemade Mac and Cheese takes the same amount of time as using the boxed stuff. Let go of the unfounded fears that cooking from scratch means that you’ll rub blisters, break nails and faint from exhaustion.

Pick one (or five!) and make it a project. Leave a comment on this post telling us what new recipe(s) you plan to make yourself. (No, it doesn’t have to be a recipe from our Heavenly Homemakers site – you can pick anything that will be best for your Funky Fresh Kitchen!)  Your comment will serve as your entry in the giveaway for one of five $10 gift certificates to our Shop. Then, after you’ve completed your Make it Yourself project, come back and leave another comment sharing the results. (This will be a second entry!)  Share with us – Did you like the new recipe? Did it work well for you? Was it easy to make? I can’t wait to hear about all your Funky Fresh Kitchen projects!

Let the Make it Yourself Challenge begin!

(As for me, for a long time I have wanted to try to make Homemade Beef Pepperoni – a recipe I found at Tammy’s Recipes. I challenged myself to make that this week and YUM! I’ll share more about it next week. I’m so excited – I made homemade pepperoni!!)

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Funky Fresh Kitchen – The Toss it Out Challenge

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I’m not generally a proponent of wasting food. But I’m here today to challenge you to do a little bit of selective pantry cleansing. This may be a little bit painful – but I’m here to hold your hand (and walk with you to the trash can). You can do this. We’re all in this together.

One of the most difficult things for me to do when we began our Healthy Eating Journey was to throw out and stop purchasing foods that I was able to get for little to nothing with coupons. Skippy Peanut Butter, Hamburger Helper, Poptarts, Rice-a-Roni – these and many more were all frequently in my pantry until six years ago when we began to learn the importance of eating real, whole foods. I shed tears, I got heeby-jeebies in my gut, I grieved my old way of life and way of thinking about “food”.

It was a roller-coaster time for me because at the same time I was struggling to clean out my food stash, I was also excited about eating better. I was thrilled to be learning ways to feed my family healthier foods. I was hopeful about the improvements in our health that came with eating nutrient rich foods, instead of pre-packaged foods that were hurting our bodies.


Why did I think I’d miss boxed mac and cheese when
for the same amount of time and effort, we can have this???
Creamy Mac and Cheese

During that transition, many boxes and bags made their way to our trash can. (It helped when ants got into some open boxes of cereal – praise the Lord for blessings that come in the form of little black pests.)  Some of our unopened packages of processed foods were given to our local food pantry. Little by little, I transformed our kitchen.

Some of the main ingredients I was focused on getting rid of right away were:  High Fructose Corn Syrup and Hydrogenated Oils. I began reading labels, and if those ingredients were in the foods in my home, out they went. Later, I transitioned our noodles and rice to be of the whole grain variety, then I made changes with our dairy products and meat. Slowly but surely, my kitchen became funky, fresh and healthy.

If you’re on a healthy eating journey, I’d like to encourage you to make just one more change today. Throw out something in your kitchen that shouldn’t be there. (Um, don’t toss your husband’s favorite goodies without asking first – this post is supposed to be inspirational to your health, not detrimental to your marriage.)  ;)

Let’s walk together to your food stash. What’s in there that isn’t helping you and your family to be healthy? I’m not asking you to throw out everything that isn’t a real, wholesome food unless you’re absolutely ready to take that plunge. Today I’m just asking you to throw out one thing (or set it aside to give away).

In an upcoming post I’ll share all kinds of exciting information about how to replace those bad-for-you foods with delicious good-for-you foods!!! But today we’re just taking a step toward a Funky Fresh Kitchen by throwing out one thing that isn’t good for us. Picture me (and all the rest of the gang who hangs out here) cheering you on while you do it.

Leave a comment on this post letting us all know what you’ve tossed out!!! Use that awesome basketball ability you’ve been hiding all these years and skillfully shoot those boxes of unreadables across the room into the trash so that you can replace it with something delicious and better for you. Share with us what you’re tossing!!! We want to be inspired by you. (Plus, your comment here will be entered in the drawing for our five $10 Heavenly Homemakers Shop gift certificates giveaway!!)

Hey, while we’re on the subject of cleaning out the pantry (and fridge), I’d love to hear how you’re coming on creating your Funky Kitchen. There are still some $2.00 Funky Kitchen coupon codes to be had…get ’em while they last!

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Gratituesday: A Funky Fresh Freezer Full

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I know the Funky Fresh Kitchen series has only just begun, but I sure do hope that you’re having as much fun as I am having!!! You all make this blogging thing a blast – I hope you know that. :)

This week for Gratituesday I wanted to share some of the fresh kitchen produce that we’ve been enjoying and working to preserve. Fall is always such a busy time, but the work is so rewarding as the wholesome food keeps filling our pantry and freezers.

We bought 12 dozen ears of organic corn at the farmer’s market and worked together to make a sticky, corn mess all over the kitchen – and also to put it up for winter. ;)

We ended up with about 30 quarts of sweet corn, maybe not enough for the entire year, but hopefully enough to last us until we can eat fresh corn next summer!

I ordered a big box of blueberries from Azure Standard (since blueberries don’t really grow well here in Nebraska). We ate as many fresh berries as we could, but then needed to freeze the rest for smoothies.

Why is it that looking at all these bags of good produce makes me so happy?!

Our green beans have been growing well, but have not produced enough for us to put up a year’s worth. Last week a friend of ours called and begged us to please come pick her green bean garden because she had quite enough. The six of us spent about an hour and a half one morning and well, judge for yourself. Do you think we got enough?

We snapped and blanched and snapped and blanched and now we have gallons of wonderful beans in our freezer!!! (Did I mention that we snapped and blanched? I truly was seeing green beans in my sleep for a few nights in a row.)

As I am every year, I am so thankful that God has provide wonderful, healthy food for our family. I’m thankful for my big freezers and that we are healthy enough to work together to get all of these foods preserved.

I’d love to hear what fresh foods have been in your kitchen as we head into fall. Have you been preserving? Have you visited your farmer’s market? (Leave a comment on this Funky Fresh Kitchen post for another chance to win one of 5 $10 gift certificates from our shop.)

What are you thankful for this Gratituesday? Write about it on your blog, then come link up with us here.
If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for!

If you are linking up a blog post for Gratituesday,please copy and paste the following sentence into your post! Thanks!

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

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Funky Fresh Kitchen – Join the Fun!!

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I haven’t attempted to turn a cartwheel since I was in my early twenties. I actually almost pulled a muscle just picturing myself turning a cartwheel today. BUT, I am so excited about the next two weeks I really am tempted to do some flips. After a lot of emailing, planning, organizing and brainstorming, I have a lot to tell you about. Where should I start?

First maybe I should explain what Funky Fresh Kitchen is all about.

Fall is almost here. I don’t know if you are like me, but this time of year I’m always looking for a fresh start. I want to get into a nice, organized routine. I want to set new goals for my family and for my kitchen. I want to enjoy all the wonderful, fresh food of harvest time. I want to start baking again as the weather turns cooler. I want to try new recipes. And I want my kitchen to be funky.

Funky? Yes, funky. Functional, if you really want to be technical, but I like calling it a Funky Kitchen, mostly because it makes me giggle. (Obviously, I’m easily amused.)

Make plans to join us here for the next two weeks of Funky Fresh Kitchen fun! I have new recipes to share, I’ll be offering up some challenges (are you ready to get your game on?), I’ve got some incredible giveaways and there will be some majorly discounted items in our shop.

I’ve got so many posts and so much excitement, I’m going to suggest that you may want to subscribe to Heavenly Homemakers and/or join my Facebook page so that you don’t miss anything. Trust me, you don’t want to miss anything.

The giveaways I have lined up? Well, you may just want to join me in the cartwheel attempts after you hear about these. Are you ready?

Cultures for Health has agreed to give away an Excalibur Food Dehydrator!! It’s true. AND (yes, I am screaming here) Paula’s Bread has offered to give away my most favorite Funky Fresh Kitchen item ever:  a Nutrimill!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Let us all pause now for a moment of synchronized cartwheel turning and screaming.)

And don’t forget the new recipes I’ll be sharing. Some are chocolate and some include broccoli and all of them are easy and will inspire you to make fresh, healthy changes in your kitchen. Goodness, I’m so excited while I’m typing, I’m realizing that I have forgotten to breathe. You are all still breathing aren’t you? Okay good. We can’t all pass out before we even begin all the fun.

Share this post with all your friends on Facebook and in your neighborhood and tell your sisters and cousins and friends at church and college roommates and your bff and your bff’s sisters and cousins and everyone you can think of who could and should join us as we pursue our Funky Fresh Kitchens.

funkykitchencoversmTo get us started, we are offering our Do the Funky Kitchen eBook (which is regularly $4.95) for only $1.00. Yes, a buck. Read my favorite tips and suggestions for achieving a funky (functional) and organized kitchen, fresh and clean for fall.  But hurry – our discounted price of $1.00 will only be available for the first 100 purchasers. As of now, you can purchase Do the Funky Kitchen eBook for just $1.50 – available for the next 150 purchasers!! After that, the price will creep up little by little throughout the week. Take advantage of this deal while you can!

Watch for specials and discounts like this for the next two weeks during this Funky Fresh Kitchen feature.

Also:  By leaving a comment on ANY post with the above Funky Fresh Kitchen button featured, you will be entered to win one of five $10 gift certificates good for anything downloadable in our Heavenly Homemakers Shop. Because the button is featured on this post, comments right here and now will be added to the drawing for our gift certificates! Let the commenting, the Funky Kitchen eBook purchasing, the facebooking and sharing begin!

Watch for frequent updates, new ideas and recipes, discounts and giveaways – you don’t want to miss a thing. Thanks for joining me! It’s gonna be a great two weeks!

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Does Organic Food Make a Difference? (a guest post)

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Welcome guest poster Carrie Vitt, author of the cookbook Deliciously Organic and publisher of popular food blog, Deliciously Organic. Carrie focuses on recipes using unprocessed, organic ingredients with vibrant flavors and simple dishes everyone will love. She is the wife of an Air Force Test Pilot and mother of two daughters.

If you had two girls under the age of two, and your husband, a fighter pilot, was flying cover during a war in Iraq – would you be thinking about converting your diet to organic, whole foods? I wasn’t. My life had enough stress without another distraction. But that’s what happened in 2003.

Two years earlier, after the birth of my second daughter, I began having daily migraines. I was 25. As migraines often are, they were both baffling and debilitating. I often had to lie down in a quiet dark room, which was almost impossible with toddlers to care for.

I was taking several medications to manage the pain. After two years of struggle, my neurologist suggested adding yet another daily medication to my prescription regimen, a treatment that wasn’t working anyway. I kindly rejected her suggestion and drove home thinking:  There must be another way.

That same day, a tiny newsletter article caught my eye. It was about the benefits of organic foods. I knew migraines could be related to diet, so I wondered if changing to organic foods might help. I was at the end of my rope and willing to try something different.

At the time, I was eating lots of vegetables to lose the last 10 pounds of baby weight. I replaced my lettuce with organic – my first step, since lettuce was a food I ate most. Within a week I noticed a significant difference. The frequency of my migraines decreased and it was now easier to take care of my kids. I didn’t need any more encouragement. I next switched all produce to organic with the intent of increasing the amount of pure and untreated food in my diet, while decreasing my pesticide intake. As I dug deeper and learned more, I continued making changes in my pantry and refrigerator.

Over the next year and a half, I converted my family’s diet to whole, unprocessed organic ingredients. I felt like a stranger in a strange land. I had a hard time finding recipes that were equivalent in flavor to what we were accustomed to. Nevertheless, I avoided such ingredients as white sugar, white flour and partially hydrogenated anything. Recipes using whole grains were especially challenging. We weren’t ready to leave the world of paninis, pasta and pizza. As my husband likes to say, “We ate some terrible pancakes during the transition.” This was disheartening because I had grown up with a great love for cooking that I inherited from the women in my family.

I decided that if we were going to eat organic dishes, they were going to taste every bit as delicious as the ones I used before.

Over time, I shared with my friends and family how I overcame my health problems. Many were earnestly interested in learning more or in making changes to their own diets. I continued to tell my story, share my recipes and give encouragement through my blog, Deliciously Organic and my recently published cookbook, Deliciously Organic.

Through organic, unprocessed food our family of four was able to overcome severe asthma, eczema, IBS and migraines. No drugs – just good, natural real food.

If organic, whole foods are something you’ve thought about, I encourage you to give it a try. I hope you’ll discover, as I have, that eating food direct from the source is not only perfectly doable and beneficial but perfectly delicious! And don’t be surprised when your friends and the whole family (including the kids) say, “I can’t believe this is organic. It’s delicious!”

 

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Tattler Lids and Flying Knives

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If you recall, I was sent some reusable Tattler canning lids to review several weeks ago. I wrote the review based on positive feedback I’d heard from my friends about Tattler, but I’ve been waiting for my tomatoes to finally turn red so I could actually can something myself and use my new lids!! Finally, last weekend I was able to play with my new “toys”.

I’m very excited to share, in response to many of you asking about Tattler lids, “Do they really work?” YES! They really work!

Because I was so giddy with excitement over my first canning experience of this season, and because based on this happy jar sealing experience, Tattler and I are going to become extremely close friends, I got a little bit camera happy.

Here we have my Tattler lids sealed on tomato sauce jars with okra, peppers and cucumbers in the background:

Here we have an extreme close up of the Tattler lids sealed on the tomato sauce jars. I think their smiles look so nice in this one, if in fact Tattler lids can smile (and I think we would all agree that they can, indeed, smile):


Here they are again, sitting next to their box with my water glass to the right, and my bouquet of last week’s birthday flowers in the background:

And here is a picture of three of my boys painting last Tuesday. While I love my Tattler lids, I love my children more. Sometimes I’m guilty of snapping pictures of weird things like butter splattered on pineapple and taking umpteen pictures of canning jars at a variety of angles, and I fail to take pictures of my children painting dots with q-tips.


We have been studying Australia, and came across a special painting style the Aborigines use:  Warlpiri. We decided to try it. Unfortunately, all of our paint colors except red and yellow were dried out and crusty. Therefore, my kids got to paint Warlpiri art using only red, yellow and orange for color choices. All of our paintings looked kind of like an Australian sunset, but it sure was fun.

How does the picture of my boys relate to Tattler and canning tomato sauce? It doesn’t. Although, if you look real close at my pantry doors right behind Elias, you can see a plastic knife stuck through the door handles. I first noticed that Malachi had parked his “weapon of the day” between the pantry door handles while my arms were full of freshly canned tomato sauce jars, which made it impossible to open the doors with my foot, which had been my original plan. After setting all of the tomato jars back down, I may or may not have yanked the knife out with a grimace and flung it into the living room so that I could resume my task.

I bet you didn’t know that sometimes finding my boys’ toys in precarious places all over the house causes me to fling knives into the living room.

Although now that I see a picture of it here, I find the knife through the pantry door handles rather endearing.

Remind me of this cuteness tomorrow after I’ve just tripped over a lightsaber.

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Our Whole Foods Pantry, Freezers and Refrigerator

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Real Food Ingredients Resource Page

After several hours of list making, link finding and price figuring, here is the resource I’ve been promising for such a long time! I’ve tried to include everything that typically can be found in my fridge, freezers, pantry and bulk storage. I obviously don’t have all of these items on hand all of the time, but I do try to keep a good stock of most of these items so that I am flexible to put together a variety of healthy meals, as well as open our home to guests frequently.

I’ve included prices I prefer to spend on each item, but prices vary depending on which site is offering a sale. Keep in mind that prices are going to vary depending on where you live as well. Because I live in a small town with very few whole foods/organic food grocery store options, I buy most of my food from local farmers, from online shops or from Azure Standard, depending on where I find a better deal. (Plus, I try to save up most of my Swagbuck earnings to purchase food occasionally for “free” from Amazon.)

I buy almost all of the listed items in bulk quantities because I know we’ll use it. I also try to purchase just about all of the items in this list in organic form if possible.

Because you are all reading from different locations, I also recommend that you read through the comments on this post in order to find a health food co-op or whole food resources in your area. Also, check out LocalHarvest to find meat, milk, eggs and produce in your area.

Hopefully the linking system I used in each section is user friendly!

And now, without further ado, here is my very long list of grocery items I love to have on hand:

Dairy

In addition to the following products, occasionally I make butter and mozzarella cheese, if I have enough milk/cream/time.

Milk – I am blessed to buy raw, organic milk from local farmers.
Cream – I buy this raw from our milk farmers.
Buttermilk – Homemade
 Kefir – Homemade
 Yogurt – Homemade
Sour Cream – Homemade
Butter – I usually purchase a case of Willow Made Sweet Cream, Salted Butter from Azure Standard if I can get it for $3.50/pound or less. Otherwise, I just buy real butter from the grocery store.
Cheese – I purchase raw organic Landmark white cheddar cheese from Azure Standard. It is $5.50/pound if purchased by the case.

Meat/Eggs/Beans

I purchase most of my grass fed beef and free range whole chickens from a local farm – NorthStar Neighbors. Occasionally, I will get it from Tropical Traditions if they have a great sale.

Hamburger Meat
Cube Steak
Stew Meat
Beef Roast 
Chickens (whole) – I try stretch these to feed my family six meals!
Chicken Breasts – I typically purchase Smart Chicken brand when it’s on sale at our local grocery store for $4.0o/pound or less.
Deer Meat – from local hunters who like to share
Tuna (canned) – I buy Natural Value Yellow-Fin by the case either from Amazon, Vitacost, or Azure Standard, shooting for $1.50/can or less.
Salmon (canned) – Rubinstein’s Wild Alaska pink salmon from Azure Standard or Roland’s from Amazon
Frozen Fish, sometimes – I live in Nebraska, what can I say? We don’t have fresh fish here. I don’t necessarily trust frozen fish from a regular grocery store, but occasionally I will buy some tilapia or salmon.
Eggs – I buy these from my friend who raises free range chickens.
Red Beans –  Azure Standard – $1.00/pound
Black Beans – Azure Standard – $1.40/pound
Pinto Beans – Azure Standard – $0.88/pound
Garbonzo Beans – Azure Standard – $0.85/pound
Lentils – Azure Standard – $0.49/pound

Grains

Hard White Wheat – I buy this in bulk from Azure Standard – $0.83/pound.
Whole Kernel Corn – Azure Standard or Tropical Traditions – $0.68/pound
Popcorn – Azure Standard, Tropical Traditions or Amazon – $1.25/pound
Rolled Oats – Azure Standard, Tropical Traditions or Amazon – $0.80/pound
Brown Rice –  Azure Standard, Tropical Traditions or Amazon – $1.80/pound
Whole Wheat Pasta – Tropical Traditions or Amazon – around $2.00/pound

I sometimes have Kamut, Millet, Buckwheat, Spelt and/or Barley on hand – purchased from Azure Standard or Tropical Traditions – all less than $1.00/pound.

Baking/Cooking

Coconut Flour – Azukar Organics through Amazon (best price!) or Tropical Traditions when it’s buy one get one free – $3.50/pound or less.
Sucanat – Azure Standard, Vitacost, or Amazon – $2.50/pound or less
Raw Honey – I purchase from a local bee keeper – or I buy it from Azure Standard
Grade B Maple Syrup – Farmers Market, Vitacost, or Amazon – $17.00/quart or less
Cocoa Powder – Azure Standard or Tropical Traditions – $4.25/pound or less
Vanilla Extract – I make my own; read how you can too!
Corn Starch – Azure Standard, Vitacost, or Tropical Traditions – $3.20/8 ounce box
Arrowroot Powder – Azure Standard – $2.57/pound or less
Aluminum Free Baking Powder – Azure Standard or Amazon – $2.65/pound
Baking Soda – Azure Standard or Amazon – $1.00/pound or less
Shredded Coconut – Tropical Traditions– $17.50/gallon pail
Chocolate Chips – Homemade, Vitacost, or Amazon – $4.50/package or less
Butterscotch Baking Chips – Homemade
Active Dry Yeast – Azure Standard or Sams

Herbs and Spices

These are purchased either from Tropical Traditions, Azure Standard or Mountain Rose Herbs. I didn’t link to any specific site for these – where I buy these depends on who has the best price at the time.

Redmonds Real Sea Salt
Garlic Powder
Turmeric
Minced Onion
Onion Powder
Onion Salt
Oregano
Basil
Cayenne Pepper
Black Pepper
Chili Powder
Paprika
Parsley
Cumin
Cinnamon
Nutmeg

Condiments and Sauces

Ketchup – I make homemade ketchup or purchase Muir Glen Organic Ketchup from Amazon, Vitacost, or Azure Standard – $2.70/bottle
Mayonnaise – I like Hain Safflower Mayo from Azure Standard or Vitacost – $5.50/jar or less
Mustard – Azure Standard – $2.35/bottle
Worcestershire Sauce – Azure Standard – $5.00/bottle
Soy Sauce – Azure Standard – $5.50/bottle
Liquid Smoke – Walmart  ;)
Salad Dressings – I make my own, recipes are found here.
Jams and Preserves – Azure Standard, Vitacost, or Tropical Traditions – $3.00/jar
Peanut Butter – I make my own, recipe found here

Fats

Coconut Oil, Virgin (tastes like coconut) – Tropical Traditions, Amazon, Vitacost, or Mountain Rose Herbs – $18.00/quart or less
Coconut Oil, Expeller Pressed (flavorless) – Tropical Traditions, Amazon, Mountain Rose Herbs – $13.00/quart or less
Olive Oil – Azure Standard, Vitacost, or Tropical Traditions – $17.00/25 ounces or less
Butter – Azure Standard (Yes, I’d already mentioned this in the dairy section, but it’s also a fat. Apparently, I love butter enough to mention it twice.)
Palm Shortening – Tropical Traditions, Amazon

Fruits and Vegetables

Tomato Sauce, Tomato Soup, Tomato Juice – we grow and can our own supply for each year or I get them from Vitacost when we run out of our home canned goods
Green Beans, Sweet Corn, Peaches, Strawberries, Applesauce – we grow or buy from local farmers and preserve these ourselves each year.
Frozen Peas – Azure Standard – $7.70/5 pounds
All Other Fresh Produce – Azure Standard or local grocery stores

Nuts

Peanuts – Azure Standard or Amazon – $3.70/pound
Pistachios, Cashews, Almonds – Braga Organic Farms 
Dried Fruit – Azure Standard or Braga Organic Farms

Cereal and Chips (purchased rarely)

Cornflakes – Amazon or Vitacost – $3.00/box
Rice Crispies – Amazon or Vitacost– $3.00/box
Corn Chips – Amazon or Vitacost – $4.00/bag

So that you will always and forever have easy access to this resource list, I have added a link at the top of my site called Whole Foods Resources. I’ve also added this pantry button to my side bar, which will link to this post:

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Homemade Pudding Pops

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You know how all your friends growing up always had the cool snacks at their house? (Although I’m sure my friends thought I was the one with the cool snacks.)  One of my friends always had Jello Pudding Pops at her house. Visiting her in the summer was always a treat. Don’t worry – I liked her for more than just her pudding pops. I mean, she also had really cool Cabbage Patch Dolls. No really – I liked my friend for who she was – not just for her pudding pops and dolls (and cool play room and cute puppy).

I can not recreate a Cabbage Patch Doll, nor do I think my boys would want me to. But Beth at Turn 2 the Simple reminded me a few days ago with her comment on my Creamy Pudding recipe that I can recreate a Pudding Pop! I love how tasty these are, how refreshing they are on a hot day – and how they actually offer some nourishment and keep my kids full for a little while.

I simply followed my Creamy Pudding recipes and froze the mixture into pudding pops. EASY!!! I made both chocolate and vanilla. I didn’t try butterscotch, but I think I might next time just for fun!

How to Make Pudding Pops:

Make a batch (or two or three) of pudding. You can use my healthy varieties of Creamy Pudding if you want!

Yum

Pour the pudding into popsicle containers or 3 ounce sized bathroom cups.
Each batch of pudding made about 15 Pudding Pop cups.
I found it easiest to put all the cups on a large cookie sheet for easier transport the freezer.


Allow the pudding to cool and set up (about 45 minutes). Place a popsicle stick in each cup:


Put the Pudding Pops into the freezer for at least 4 hours. I was surprised that it took quite a while for these to be frozen through and through. Oh, but when they were frozen – it took me back to my days as a little girl playing with Cabbage Patch Dolls with my friend, and eating pudding pops on her porch.


Do you have any Pudding Pop or Cabbage Patch Doll memories to share? Oh dear, or are some of you too young to remember Cabbage Patch Dolls?

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Homemade Vanilla for Christmas

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vanilla

In case you were wondering (and I’m just absolutely sure that you were), there are only 164 days left until Christmas.

In the midst of gardening and other summertime activities, Christmas isn’t on my mind very much right now. However, Homemade Vanilla Extract is a wonderful Christmas gift. It takes 4-6 months for your vanilla to be ready to bottle and give away. So, if you’re wanting to get on this project in time to be able to wrap bottles of homemade vanilla and put them under the tree this December – now is the time to get it going!

I love that making homemade vanilla saves money, and is so pure and good to use. It helps that it is completely delicious!

Here are complete instructions for how to make homemade vanilla extract. Trust me, it’s easy and super fun to do! Also, be sure to take advantage of the 10% discount on vanilla beans, offered by my very favorite vanilla bean source, Olive Nation. They are super high quality beans for an excellent price! (Use the code hhm2012 to receive 10% off.) And take a look at these pretty labels that my friend designed! They are customizable, and come in a variety of designs. So fun!

Merry Christmas everyone! (Ugh, it’s too hot and humid to pull that statement off with a straight face.)

Stay cool! (There, that’s better.)

 

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