Heavenly Homemakers

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Homemade Real Food Tootsie Roll Candy – Perfect for Kids to Make!

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You don’t have to make this real food tootsie roll recipe into the shape of Legos, but for real. They do taste better this way.

Malachi's Lego Fudge

When I decided to be intentional about helping Malachi learn to cook, I knew I’d need to start him with something simple, sweet, and fun. Hey, Malachi! Want to put your soccer ball away and come make a boring meat and vegetable casserole all by yourself?!! You don’t?!?

My Peanut Butter Honey Fudge recipe seemed like a fun and perfect choice…except for the fact that Malachi hates peanut butter. “Hey, Malachi! Want to come make something that will make you totally gag? You don’t?!?

So I decided to go ahead and use the fudge recipe but adapt it in two ways:

  1. Use almond butter instead of peanut butter.
  2. Cut down the honey to make it less sugary.

He was on board to “try making fudge,” then he remembered his Lego Shape Molds. “Can I make this into Legos, Mom?” Well, yeah!! What a great way to make this project even more perfect for him!

malachi fudge 1

Be sure to admire the messy counter-top behind my kid. Whoever was supposed to load the dishwasher that morning hadn’t done it yet. I figure you’ve seen a messy counter-top before, but if not, I’m thrilled to offer you your first experience with this. #embracethemess #constantdishesandlaundry

malachi fudge 2

malachi fudge 3

malachi fudge 4

malachi fudge 5

malachi fudge 6

Malachi made some of the mixture into Lego Bricks, some into Lego Mini-Figures, then patted the rest into a small container which we cut into squares later. When all was said and done, we decided that these actually don’t taste like fudge at all. But they do taste like an amazing homemade tootsie roll!!!! To eat a tootsie roll made with real food and shaped like a Lego – that Malachi had made by himself?! Well, it was a kids-cooking success!

Homemade Real Food Tootsie Roll Recipe

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Homemade Real Food Tootsie Roll Candy - Perfect for Kids to Make!
 
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Author:
Serves: 24-30 pieces
Ingredients
  • 1 cup almond butter
  • ¼ cup honey
  • ½ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. Measure all ingredients into a small pan.
  2. Melt and stir them over low heat until the chocolate chips have melted and the ingredients are well combined.
  3. Spread mixture into an 8x8 inch dish or press small amounts of the mixture into fun silicone molds.
  4. Place in the refrigerator to chill for about an hour before serving.

Homemade Real Food Tootsie Roll Candy

Use my recipe and instructions for making Homemade Almond Butter if you like. You can switch out the almond butter for Peanut Butter if you prefer.

This Tootsie Roll recipe is what launched Malachi into his new world of discovering that cooking isn’t so bad!

If you’re wanting to pull your kids into the kitchen to launch them into their own journey to learning cooking skills, I recommend that you:

  • Begin with a very easy recipe – like these Homemade Tootsie Rolls!
  • Pick something fun – like these Homemade Tootsie Rolls!
  • Choose something you know your child will like to eat.
  • Be relaxed. (You can do it!)
  • Get out (or have your child help you get out) the ingredients your child will need before you start the cooking process.
  • Be open to your child’s suggestions.
  • Don’t back down. Your kids NEED to learn how to cook.

I’m excited to show you the fun Recipe Card Holder craft! Plus more kid-friendly recipes throughout the rest of this week! As you can tell, teaching my kids to cook has been so boring and sad we can’t even stand it. Eating Homemade Tootsie Rolls is so difficult and turning over a big part of my kitchen workload to my kids has been such a challenge. Somehow I’ll make it through. #yeahright #lovingthis #teachyourkidstocookalready

Psst!

Teach your kids some great cooking skills through the Kids Cook Real Food video series. Learn about it here. The knife skills series is free, but we loved it so much we went through the entire course. Malachi learned a ton and is now so much more confident with his cooking skills!

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Get Your Kids Into The Kitchen This Week! (What Malachi is Learning)

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I tell you, when my older boys were little I had them in the kitchen learning with me all the time. It’s amazing, though, what Malachi has missed out on by being the youngest of four. Poor kid. I read to him less, took fewer pictures of him – basically he has all the “baby of the family” issues. You can see how sad and miserable he is as a result:

pineapple fluff malachi

There. We can’t say I never took his picture.

One thing that has been nice the past few months is that while the older boys have been at basketball practice on Tuesday/Thursday nights – Malachi has had quite a bit of one-on-one time with the parents. We’ve used these nights to work on special projects – one in particular has been in the area of cooking. (He’s also been dreaming of and planning a state-wide Lego Convention with Matt, because when Malachi has an idea it’s go big or go home.)

I’ve been pulling him down onto my lap (because yay, he still fits!) and together we’ll watch a cooking video from the Kids Cook Real Food eCourse that came out in January. We talk about what we watched. We make plans for what to cook, based on the skills he just learned. We practice the skills together. This kid has made huge strides in just a few weeks!

In fact, he and I got so excited about what he’s learning that we spent part of the month of February writing a little cookbook together! I’m not even kidding. (More about his book later!)

Malachi's Favorite Cookbook small

Score one (or one-thousand) for being intentional. That’s really all it takes: Deciding you’re going to teach your kid something – then actually following through with it. (That is profound parenting advice, right there.)

malachi cutting

Free 3-Part Kids Cook Real Food Videos

This all started for Malachi and me back in January when we took advantage of Katie’s FREE Knife Skills Training Lessons. He learned loads in those lessons alone. Now Malachi confidently cuts everything from apples to strawberries to carrots – and I confidently hand him the sharp knives. (I am totally working myself out of a job.)

malachi cutting berries

I’m so happy to share that Katie opened up access to these FREE video lessons again just for Heavenly Homemaker readers. They are completely free – so grab the videos, grab your kids, then grab some knives. ( <—For your fruits and vegetables. Oh, you know what I mean.)

What You Can Expect This Week

All this week we’ll be focused on getting our kids into the kitchen. Why?

  • Our kids need to know how to cook.
  • Our kids need to know about cooking nutritious foods (not just about putting a frozen pizza in the oven).

Even if you don’t have kids at home, I think you’ll still enjoy the posts during the next several days (because recipes and a craft!!!). Here’s the line-up for this week:

  • Kid (and everyone else) Friendly Recipe: Crustless Pizza Pie
  • Kid (and everyone else) Friendly 3-Ingredient Recipe: Homemade {Real Food} Tootsie Rolls – I am not kidding!
  • Easy 5-Minute Recipe Card Holder Craft Tutorial for Kids and Adults Alike (If I can make it, you can make it. Wait until you see how cute!)
  • Lists of easy recipes (with links) your kids can learn to make on their own
  • And don’t forget that this week only, you have access to the FREE Knife Skills Videos and Lessons.

kids in the kitchen week

A Word About the Kids Cook Real Food eCourse

Registration for Katie’s Kids Cook Real Food eCourse closed right after Malachi and I signed up in January. Since that time, it has benefited our family more than I ever imagined it would. Malachi wasn’t super thrilled to watch the first video with me and get started in the kitchen (because it’s easier to let someone else do the work, right?). But in just a few weeks, he has gone from knowing very little about cooking to being able to do dozens of kitchen tasks. Now each week when a new lesson hits our inbox, Malachi actually gets excited!

“Did we get a new cooking video? I really like those, Mom. You should tell Katie that I really like the videos and the lessons. What’s this new one about?”

That is why I emailed Katie recently – to let her know that her eCourse has been a huge blessing to our family, and to ask her if she would pretty please open up her cart for a few days in Feb/March so more of you can jump aboard this amazingness with Malachi and me. She said “sure!” You need to know that we scored big to be given this privilege, because the cart doesn’t open back up for the general public until May!

What Surprises Me Most About The Kids Cook Real Food eCourse

I’ve been cooking since I was about 8-years old. I’ve been researching nutrition and real-food eating for over 10 years. I consider myself to be pretty good in the kitchen and pretty knowledgeable about food in general.

But I have learned oodles of facts I did not know while working through this eCourse with Malachi.

I didn’t know the thing about the garlic! I didn’t even know the thing about the rice. (I can’t tell you which things because that’s not fair to Katie.) If your kids are taking the course and you read/hear the things about the garlic and the rice, please email me to tell me if you knew. Did you know??

I Have a Bunch of Free Stuff for You To Go With This eCourse

You might remember me saying that I’ve been wanting to put together a Kids Cooking eCourse for years. I was even a little bit disappointed when I heard Katie was making one because I wanted to make one! (<— best read in a whiny voice.) Then I saw what Katie had put together, and I was like, “Well, wow. This is a million times better than I would have/could have done. This is incredible.”

But if I would have made one (which I didn’t), I would have geared it around my Teaching Your Kids to Cook and Learn to Cook ebooks. They would have gone hand-in-hand because those books have a lot of basic cooking information and of course – many easy-to-make real food recipes.

Katie’s class is perfectly set up to teach your kids to cook the real foods you regularly make in your kitchen. This means that if your family has allergies, your child learns to make allergy friendly food your family can eat. It means that if your family has favorite recipes, your child learns to make your family’s favorite recipes. This means that no matter what cookbook your child has, he/she can read it and cook from it.

That’s why it’s fun to be able to give you all 212 pages worth of my Teaching Your Kids to Cook and Learn to Cook ebooks FOR FREE when you buy the Kids Cook Real Food eCourse this week. Then you and your kids will have even more great real food recipes to work with!

Free Teaching Your Kids to Cook eBooks

Additional Freebies!

I’ve been creating some simple activities for Malachi to complete as he has been working his way through the Kids Cook Real Food eCourse. They are fun and effective – reinforcing the skills and nutrition tips he’s been learning. So I packaged them up for you to enjoy with your kids too! Get the Kids Cook Real Food Activities Packet for FREE when you buy Katie’s eCourse this week.

Kids Cook Real Food Activities Packet - Free with Purchase

A Special FREE Copy of Malachi’s Favorite Cookbook

Malachi and I had so much fun working together to write a cookbook. Wait until you read, “Malachi’s Best Cooking Tips!” on page 2 of his book. (He actually used the word, “duh!” which I edited out then put back in because he is eleven and adorable and I couldn’t not include it.)

I’m guessing Malachi’s favorite recipes will soon be your child’s favorite recipes. The book includes 16 of his favorites. Of course, now that we’ve completed it and we keep cooking together, he keeps thinking of more. “We should have added that recipe to my cookbook!” Good thing we included extra pages at the back of the book for your child (and mine) to add new favorites as he/she discovers tasty recipes he/she enjoys!

Malachi agreed that we could give this book away for free this week to anyone who buys the eCourse. “People should get these classes, Mom. They’re really good. Tell them it’s really good.” <— Malachi has spoken.

Malachi's Favorite Cookbook Samples2

So Let’s Review

  1. Everyone can sign up this week to enjoy the FREE Knife Skills Training Videos with your kids. Do this now! You’ll love it!
  2. I have some really great recipes and a craft tutorial ready to share with you this week. Homemade tootsie rolls? Absolutely, yes!
  3. The Kids Cook Real Food eCourse is open just for Heavenly Homemaker readers, just through Monday, March 7. It is well worth your money and time investment.
  4. To sweeten the pot, I’m giving everyone who purchases the eCourse a free Learn to Cook eBook (102 pages), a free Teaching Your Kids to Cook eBook (111 pages), a free copy of Malachi’s Favorite Cookbook (15 pages), and a free KCRF Activity Packet (10 pages)!

To get your freebies and to be entered into our drawing, you’ll just need to email me to let me know that you made the purchase. I’ll have your name in a ledger, but I won’t have your email address. So I can check the ledger, then email you back with the goods!

It’s going to be a great week! At home we’ll be starting with Malachi cutting broccoli, carrots, and zucchini for stir-fry. See? Told you I was working myself out of a job. :)

Look forward to fun kid-friendly recipes coming right up!

Learn More About the Kids Cook Real Food eCourse Here.

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My Adventures in Making Homemade Nutella

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Homemade Nutella, anyone?

Nutella

It all began at Asa’s graduation party with two other graduates last May. The moms and I planned it together and they decided to go all out. One of the items on our menu was “crusty bread with different topping options” like meats, cheeses, and nutella (though probably not all at the same time). My friends and I set out a lovely buffet. I was the one in charge of purchasing the condiments, sauces, and Nutella.

grad party 4

Not knowing how many hundreds of people might show up and how many of those hundreds would want to spread Nutella on their bread – I bought four enormous containers of it. We went through exactly 1.5 of those huge tubs, so guess what we’ve been eating since May?

My boys have been so sad about this.

We finally finished them off, and now the boys are having Nutella withdrawals. I can’t stand to buy more, so I determined to figure out a healthier option that I can feel better about. Some of you might remember that I attempted Homemade Nutella a few years ago. That was tasty, though still had quite a bit of sugar. I had a terrible time actually finding Hazelnuts this go around – but part of my problem was that the price was throwing me off.

The good news is (now that I’ve attempted this recipe and learned a few tricks) – it takes only a few hazelnuts to make a batch of nutella. So my purchase will go a long way to providing a healthier nutella option for the fam.

nutella2

Malachi’s been my chef-in-training the past few weeks and was very excited to enjoy Nutella again. He joined me in putting together this recipe. Here he is pushing a button. (Cooking is so hard.)

I’m excited that this version of Homemade Nutella is lower in sugar than most. If you prefer, use expeller pressed coconut oil since it is flavorless and won’t effect the taste.

Make Your Own Nutella

My Adventures in Making Homemade Nutella
 
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Author:
Serves: half pint
Ingredients
  • ⅔ cup hazelnuts
  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt
  • ½ cup cocoa powder
  • ½ cup melted coconut oil
  • ½-2/3 cup real maple syrup
Instructions
  1. Lay the hazelnuts on a cookie sheet and toast them in a 350° oven for about 10 minutes.
  2. Remove skins if necessary.
  3. Whirl toasted hazelnuts in a food processor until smooth.
  4. Add remaining ingredients and blend until creamy.
  5. Store in a half-pint jar for up to three weeks.

Make Your Own Nutella

Have you tried making Nutella before?

It’s fun, easy, and yummy – and unlike Homemade Peanut Butter Captain Crunch – this one is worth the small time investment. :)

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My Real Food Purchase Priorities In Order From One to Eight

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If I had to sum up the past 11 years of my personal real food journey, I’d say I have gone from poptarts to psycho to chill. No one liked the psycho phase – not even me. I coped by drinking Pepsi. Do not ask me to make sense of this. Read the details here, if you dare.

Now, I’d like to spend a few minutes answering a much requested question as of late:

“What are your current real food priorities?”

Now that I’ve been doing the real food thing for 11 years – if I had to make a list of the foods I feel are most important to buy and put them in order of highest priority down to lowest, what would that look like? Also, where does organic fall in this list? What about raw? How about grass fed? What about hormones? How about margarine? Oh, c’mon. Everyone knows how I feel about margarine.

(Just in case: DON’T EAT MARGARINE EVER, EVER IN YOUR LIFE, EVER.)

The past few weeks, I have spent quite a bit of time pondering my current food priorities, which no doubt, may look different than yours. If you’ve been reading here for years, you’ve watched my priorities change along with the seasons in my life (psycho to chill ~ little boys to teenage boys ~ small budget to huge budget). I look forward to hearing about your priorities too! For now, here are mine:

1. Fruits and Vegetables

You know I can’t say enough about eating many, many fruits and vegetables every day. I do buy some of them organic if they are available and within my budget – but mostly – I just buy them. Organic is best, absolutely. But I found that I was not buying and eating enough when I was focused on only buying organic produce. I live in too small a town to have enough organic options, plus the cost is prohibitive for my family. We go through pounds and pounds of produce every week. I spend at least $100-$150 on fruits and vegetables alone – every week. I would triple that number if I bought exclusively organic. I can’t, so I don’t.

Organic or not, a big variety of fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables is definitely my highest grocery priority.

feb 5 groceries

2. Healthy Fats

I considered making this my #1 priority, simply because switching to real-food fats is what I always advise as one of the easiest healthy changes a person can make. But seeing as I eat more veggies than butter every day (shocking, I know) – I went ahead with fats as number 2.

I see fats as super important in our diet – and I believe eating the good kind is crucial. Our bodies struggle to digest and utilize hydrogenated oils and chemically created oils. It’s best to avoid them altogether.

On the other hand, coconut oil is a health food rock-star. Real butter is recognized by our bodies and can be very nourishing. Palm shortening is easily digested and a wonderful alternative to crisco. Olive oil is wonderful (but best at low temps) – great for salad dressings.

If you change nothing else about how you eat and feed your family – add more fruits and vegetables and switch bad fats for good ones. I can’t say enough about these two priorities. Our bodies need nourishment and in my opinion (based on research and real life) – fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats are some of the best foods that pack a nourishing punch.

coconut_oil

3. Good Meat and Eggs

I make this a high priority mainly because we go through quite a bit of meat and eggs at our house. Our sons are athletic and active – they need a lot of good protein beyond beans and nuts!

We are blessed to have access to wonderful farm-fresh meats and eggs (at reasonable prices) where I live. I love that my chicken, beef, lamb, and eggs come from animals who are fed well and allowed to roam free. This is important enough to me that if we ever moved to another location, I would search out good meat and egg sources. Buying regular ol’ meat and eggs from the store would be tough for me now that we’ve been so spoiled with the good stuff. I can taste a huge difference! (But I still say that if store-bought is your only option, you never need to fret. God is bigger than a free-range chicken. Amen?)

chicken week 1

4. Whole Grains

Number 4-5-6 could probably be interchanged with one another, but here is where they ultimately landed.

We’ve cut way back on grains – making fruits, veggies, and meat the main focus of our meals. But I still make whole grains a priority because they help stretch our food budget. They also help keep my life in the kitchen simpler. It’s easy for me to whip up (or have the boys whip up) a triple batch of pancakes or a big bunch of muffins or a few loaves of Stir-and-Pour Bread to go with our meals.

It is important to me that our grains be whole and nourishing, not just filling and empty. If at all possible, I do like our wheat, oats, rice, corn, and other grains to be organic and non-GMO. I’m blessed to have a Nutrimill to grind our own flour – which makes our baked goods incredibly delicious.

wheat

5. Healthy Sweeteners

I’ve recently shared that I rarely buy sucanat anymore because of the expense. In addition, I can no longer tolerate much sugar. Seeing as none of us need sugary treats, and our boys get plenty from all their outside activities – I am making fewer dessert-y foods overall.

But I love our raw, local honey. We use real maple syrup on our waffles and pancakes. Sucanat or brown sugar are used in my baked goods. And liquid stevia has become a staple. I keep all of these on hand at all times, usually buying them online.

sucanat

6. Dairy Products

I hesitated putting this one way down here, but when I look at the quality of most of our dairy products – they are usually just straight from the grocery store, which shows that I no longer make this a huge priority. We do buy a gallon of raw, organic milk from local farmers each week. Funny, isn’t it, and my family of big eaters only uses one gallon of milk each week? That’s because we just use it for cooking. None of my boys likes drinking milk, and our natural doctor has recommended that it isn’t a big need. So I don’t make milk a big priority. I love that I can get the good stuff, though!

As for cheese and cream – right now I have chosen to save money by skipping the organic/raw varieties. We buy these items on sale at a regular grocery store.

I should also mention that I do still make our buttermilk from our raw, farm-fresh milk. I only make yogurt and kefir occasionally – mostly in the summer when we’re making more smoothies! (I’ve also been using coconut milk more often for this type of drink – mainly to give our bodies variety of nutrients.)

buttermilk

7. Nuts and Beans

We love making our own Peanut Butter and Almond Butter. I like buying organic nuts if I can, either from Azure Standard or Braga Farms. I buy organic beans in bulk from Azure – though we really don’t go through them very quickly. They aren’t a favorite around here.

peanut butter

8. The Other Stuff

There are many other food items – from spices to baking powder – that I haven’t mentioned here. Just like all the rest – if I find a good organic source for these foods, I go for it. If not, I don’t sweat it as long as it still qualifies as “real food.” We also sometimes buy a convenience food item (like chips!) balancing those with plenty of nourishing options. I feel like I’ve probably forgotten some major food group in this list of priorities – so fire away with your questions!

real_salt

How about you?

I’d love to hear what you consider to be your top priorities when purchasing food for your family!

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Simple Taco Soup

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taco soup 1

I can’t get a good picture of this soup. This is so easy to make and it’s amazing to eat and the picture looks like eh, whatever. So just glance over the picture and know that you need to make this soup.

Here’s my happy little soup secret: This Taco Soup is made with none other than this Real Food “Velveeta” and Rotel Recipe. See, you make that recipe and you double or triple it because it just makes sense because it is so delicious. You eat it with chips, or you boil some pasta and make it into Spicy Mac and Cheese. Or if you’re feeling soupy, you stir in some chicken or beef broth and top it with crunched chips. It becomes Taco Soup and you love it so much you can’t even stand it. Or maybe it’s just me.

Simple Taco Soup

Simple Taco Soup
 
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Author:
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 1 pound hamburger meat
  • 2-4 Tablespoons butter
  • 2 heaping Tablespoons corn starch
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • sea salt to taste
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 10-ounce can diced tomatoes with green chilies (Rotel)
  • 1-2 cups shredded cheddar or colby jack cheese
  • 2-3 cups chicken or beef broth
Instructions
  1. Brown the hamburger meat in a large pot.
  2. Add butter to the meat, melting it throughout the pot.
  3. Sprinkle in corn starch, coating the meat.
  4. Pour in water, chili powder, and salt.
  5. Turn heat up and stir until the mixture thickens.
  6. Add cream, continuing to stir as the mixture thickens. (This all happens quickly in my experience.)
  7. Stir in Rotel and broth, heating for about 5 more minutes.
  8. Remove from heat.
  9. Add shredded cheese, stirring until the cheese has melted and the dip is smooth.
  10. Serve with tortilla chips.

I know I’ve said it before, but I really, really love making triple batches of Real Food “Velveeta” and Rotel. It’s super easy and it is so versatile! Every few weeks I make it and store it in my fridge to pull out for easy meals. Now we use it to make soup too!

Here are some pictures of your options to entice you:

Real Food “Velveeta” and Rotel, served as a dip:

Real Food Velveeta and Rotel Dip

The very same dip, stirred into boiled pasta and served as Spicy Mac and Cheese: 

Spicy Mac and Cheese

Same dip again, with broth stirred in, served as Taco Soup:

Simple Taco Soup

Do you see why I make big batches of this?? 

If you’d like to take a look at my favorite way to make nourishing broth for soups like this, check out this post:

How I Make Veggie-Packed Chicken Broth and Beef Broth

Have you made the Real Food “Velveeta” and Rotel recipe? What’s your favorite way to eat it?

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29 Fun Treat Recipes for Valentine’s Day – With NO Red Food Dye

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Low Sugar Strawberry Cheesecake Parfait 1

Traditionally we think of red or pink food dye squirted into white frosting to make festive Valentine’s Day cookies and cupcakes. Want to put some fun Valentine meals and treats on the table this year – but want to keep the food real and avoid food coloring?

It is a true fact that food exists that is red without any help from outside sources. There’s also this lovely thing we like to call chocolate. It’s not red, but it certainly says, “I love you,” don’t you think?

Here are 29 great recipes for you that can be turned into Valentine’s Day goodies for your family. You might be able to tell that I am desperately hoping for fresh strawberries to be in season and on sale THIS WEEK.

29 Fun Treat Recipes for Valentine's Day with NO Red Food Dye

Red and Pink Treats (No Food Dye!)

Don’t forget obvious foods that are red – like tomatoes, sweet peppers, strawberries, grapes, cherries, raspberries, and oranges. Ha. Just seeing if you were paying attention.

Chocolate Treats

Do you have foods you traditionally make and serve on Valentine’s Day?

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This Week in Food ~ the Blizzard-Turkey Edition

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Today we focus on a blizzard and also on turkeys.

Our week began with several college students coming over after church for lunch on Sunday. We set out a big Build-Your-Own-Burrito Buffet, along with bowls and jars of fruit, and two different desserts. We found this meal to be a perfect way to accommodate allergies and taste preferences – plus it was really easy. Win!

burrito buffet

Monday morning during our breakfast/Bible time, our kids looked outside and what did they see? Oh, nothing out of the ordinary. Just three turkeys strutting through the yard.

turkies2

turkies1

Malachi declared that watching turkeys for five minutes was his science lesson for the day. Good try, Buddy. But it was a fun school connection for him since he’s currently reading The Great Turkey Walk right now. (Have you read that book? It’s a very fun read!)

the great turkey walk

Ironically, I had a turkey thawing in the fridge to bake this week. I’d picked it up during the holidays when it was on sale. For so many reasons, this was a big turkey week at our house.

turkey1The Blizzard

Everything in town shut down on Tuesday when Nebraska received a blizzard that resulted in 18-inches of blowing snow. Matt and the boys had their work cut out for them digging people out for days (Matt runs a snow removal business). Just about the time they got people’s sidewalks cleared, we woke up to more snow on Friday. It was a small amount in comparison, but guess what we found in our yard that morning?

20160205_090803

Turkey tracks!

I guess those turkeys have been wondering around town all week, poor things.

20160205_090811

I’ve tried a couple of the recipes from the Paleo Freebie this week. The first was a Bacon Roast recipe (which I adapted slightly by using stew meat and adding green beans). I cooked it low and slow all morning for Matt and the boys to eat when they came home from moving snow. It got devoured!

paleo1

I already mentioned the Chocolate Ganache I made. Wow. It’s low enough in sugar that I can eat it without feeling crummy. I’m not sure if this is a blessing or not. It is soooo good. (If you got the free Paleo package, the Chocolate Ganache recipe is in the 5-Minute Paleo Recipes book and the Bacon Roast is in the Paleo Crock Pot Entrees book. If you haven’t gotten these yet, it is still available and it is completely free. Sign up here and you’ll get all the recipes! You can read my thoughts on the Paleo diet here.)

chocolate ganache with fruit

Over the weekend, 130 teenagers came to town from all over Nebraska, and even some from Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri. Our church hosted a Youth Rally from Friday to Sunday – one of our favorite (and most exhausting) weekends of the year. Here we are worshiping together on Saturday morning:

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Friday and Saturday nights, 15 teenage boys crashed at our house. Aside from not getting much sleep, it was a fantastic weekend. (I took a nap today and I’m taking tomorrow off to rest too!) Most of their meals were hosted at the church fellowship hall, but we did get to feed our guests snacks each night and breakfast Sunday morning!

youth rally breakfast

Did you have snow at your house this week? Turkeys in your yard? Anything fun to share? I’d love to hear about your week too.

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We eat orange cheese again. At least it’s cheese.

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From grass fed beef to raw, organic milk – I’ve had several requests to share my current real food grocery budget priorities. While I’m working on a comprehensive post that breaks it all down, I’ve discovered some important items to note.

First, I shared that I rarely buy Sucanat any more. I explained all my reasons and shared what we’re doing instead here.

Next, I will let you know that I’ve made some changes in the cheese department.

grated cheddar cheese with block

My extensive research tells me that dairy is best when it is:

  • organic
  • hormone free
  • raw
  • full fat

Our family continues to drink raw, organic milk because we have a fabulous source close-by for just $5.00/gallon. It is affordable and our family generally doesn’t drink much milk. But cheese? In this house, the people like their cheese. We eat it in many of our casseroles, on our pizza, in our tacos and quesadillas, and on our scrambled eggs. Plus, the boys like to eat it plain as a snack.

Solving My Cheese Dilemma

For years, I bought a case of Landmark Raw White Cheddar every couple of months from Azure Standard. I love everything about it – except for the price. It’s not at all unreasonable for its quality. But at $5.59/pound, I’ve recently stopped buying it. We eat at least twice as much as we used to, so this is one of the food choices that I compromise on now.

You know what this means right? This means that our cheese isn’t white anymore. Why manufacturers have decided to change the actual color of cheese is beyond me.

cheese

While it might be considered a compromise, I am okay with it because cheese is still real food. This kind isn’t organic. It isn’t raw. But the ingredient label doesn’t make me gag at the store (which I have been known to do on occasion while reading various labels) – so we’re going to stick with this for now. I pick it up in bulk when I find a good price-match. Cheese freezes well, so my freezer door is full-o-cheese.

If you’d like to read more about our Houseful of Teenage Boys Grocery Budget, you’ll find it here. It’s also worth mentioning that we have a son in college and are about to add a second teenage male driver to our monthly car insurance premium (I can’t talk about it). Good food is worth the investment, no doubt! I’m not trading home-cooked meals made with real food ingredients for boxes of poptarts. I’m simply switching some of our pricier real food choices for less expensive real food choices.

The moral of my cheese story:

Just because something works for you now doesn’t mean it will work for you always. Be willing to re-evaluate your family’s situation and needs. But if at all possible, keep your food real. Some things just aren’t worth the compromise.

Tell me about your cheese preferences. Are you forking it over for the good stuff? Or sitting happy with the less-than-perfect-but-still-real-food cheese?

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This Week in Food…

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Several mentioned that they’d like to read more about and see more pictures of our day-to-day food life. I thought this would be fun, so I started taking notes right away.

  • Forgot to thaw chicken
  • Warmed up leftovers
  • Kid #3 complained about the casserole
  • Spinach got slimy

As you can see, this is going to be really exciting and we should make this a regular blog feature.

This was our second week of Christmas break. I made it till Thursday afternoon before I said to Matt, “Take them all away from this house as soon as possible.” The lack of routine and the downtime has been so wonderful, but at a certain point the people need a routine. Seeing the desperation in my eyes, Matt whisked them all away to his current work spot where he wore them out hauling off lath and plaster and got them very dirty. Best dad ever.

But this post is supposed to be about food.

I invented a most delicious new recipe for Cream Cheese Chili. I loved it so much that I ate it for lunch the day I made it, at 9:45 that night before bed because I was hungry, and again for lunch the next day. I will make this again and again. The recipe definitely made the cut to be a part of the newest Eat Right Away Packet series. I’m currently trying to finish the Soup Edition, Meatless Edition, and Breakfast Edition. There will be a lot of taste testing going on around here.

cream cheese chili

Thursday I made a plate of veggies with Homemade Ranch Dip, along with a plate of Low Sugar Lemon Melt-Away Cookies to take to our church’s New Year’s Eve gathering because I am the life of the party. Everyone loves to ring in the new year with cucumbers.

veggies and dip

lemon cookies

Friday we headed out of town for a New Year’s Basketball tournament for Justus and Elias. It was our last full day with Asa home (he’s heading out to go on the York College Choir Tour for a week). We stopped into Walmart on our way out of town so I could grab blueberries and blackberries. I was planning to price-match them because I found such a great deal, plus I thought they’d be great travel food. Alas, there was not one blueberry to be found in all of Walmart. Boo. Therefore, instead of showing you a picture of my blueberries, here is a picture of Elias (#32) jumping for the ball at a recent game. I take amazing pictures with my phone.

elias bball

As we get back into a school routine next week, I’m hoping to also get into the swing of taking more food pictures to show you. Make plans now to see pictures of next week’s chicken carcass.

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I’m finally getting around to drawing giveaway winners from the week of Christmas!

The winner of our 227 Healthy Snacks eBook is: Julie C: zoeblessing4u@

The winner of our  Learn Your Letters (and Numbers), Learn to Serve Complete Curriculum Kit is: Donna: dkonvalin@

Winners, email me and I’ll send you your gifts!

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Here’s to a great first week of 2016!

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227 Healthy Snacks eBook ~ Win One for You and One for a Friend!

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As Christmas approaches, I thought it would be fun to give away some of our most popular shop items. Then I decided it would be even more fun if you had a chance to win one for you and one for a friend! We began with Learn Your Letters (and Numbers), Learn to Serve Complete Curriculum Kits. Be sure to enter for a chance to win copies for you and a friend here.

Today, we’re giving away copies of 227 Healthy Snacks eBook!

227 Healthy Snacks 2

 

I think you’ll love these snack ideas and recipes as much as my family does.

This book contains 59 pages full of 227 awesome snacking ideas. These have all become our snacking staples, and they are sure to become yours too!

  • All 227 of these snack ideas and recipes can be prepared ahead of time for easy snacking.
  • More than 200 can be prepared or mixed up in a matter of a few minutes.
  • 145 of them are naturally gluten free or are recipes that can be easily adapted to become gluten free.

And how about the 78 recipes in this book? I can’t tell you how much fun I’ve had creating new recipes for this resource! From homemade Payday candy bar knock-offs to oyster crackers to hearty cookies and bars to several varieties of crackers and so much more – you will love these simple, real food recipes. Just for fun, I’ve even perfected a homemade fruit snack (lightly sweetened with honey)!

227 Healthy Snacks

 

Read more details about 227 Healthy Snacks here.

If you’d like to win a copy of this book for yourself and for a friend, leave a comment on this post. Be sure to tell your friends about it so they can come enter too. It gives you more chances to win, assuming your friend will share one with you if she wins!

I’ll draw a random winner on Wednesday, December 30. Be watching for a post sharing the winners of these Christmas giveaways. You’ll be responsible for contacting me if your name is chosen!

Now think of a friend you’d love to bless. Leave a comment here for a chance to win copies of these books for both of you!

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