Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

How to Make Food Easy!

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It’s time for a brand new challenge! Ready to learn how to Make Food Easy?!

Our Take Ten Challenges were so fun and popular that we decided to create a brand new challenge – this time with a twist!

The Make Food Easy Challenge offers this:

  1. A complete Make Food Easy eBook full of everything you’ll need to easily complete this two-week challenge! (We’ll send it to you right away after you sign up to join!)
  2. Two weeks worth of menu plans and grocery lists.
  3. Simple instructions for spending just a few minutes prepping meat for each week so that you can easily and quickly put your weeknight meals together.
  4. Daily weekday emails during the two-week challenge, telling you just what you need to do each day to quickly prepare your evening meal. (With bonus ideas and recipes!)
  5. Guidance to help you see how one meal leads to another!

Here’s how we’re making food easy:

One meal will lead to another. Like this…

If you’ve made meat for one meal, you’ll set some aside to use for another meal later in the week. If you bake potatoes for one meal, you’ll save the extras to use for a brand new meal later in the week. If you’ve prepped potato toppings for one meal, you’ll pull them right back out later in the week to use for tacos. See how easy and wonderful this is!!?! One meal truly does lead to another, making your daily meal prep incredibly simple and your family meals perfectly delicious!

Once you sign up to join this challenge, we’ll give you the complete eBook, grocery lists, recipes, and everything you need so you’ll be guided through these great ways to learn how to Make Food Easy. Here’s a peek at the first week’s menu and prep-ahead guide:

Here’s a little “map” to help you see how one meal leads to another:

Clear as mud? Don’t worry! The eBook and daily guides walk you through everything you need to know, step by step. Like this example for Day #3 of the Make Food Easy Challenge:

You’ll use the leftover baked potatoes from Day #3 to make a delicious Ham and Potato Skillet on Day #4. You’ll use the leftover Potato Toppings from Day #3 to fill your Tacos on Day #5. Your meat will have already been prepped ahead so that all you have to do each night is pull out what you need and create your quick meal.

See how fun it is to Make Food Easy?!

The Make Food Easy Challenge comes with two entire weeks’ worth of grocery lists, menu plans, prep-ahead guides, daily to-do pages, serving suggestions, recipes, and more.

And I suppose I should mention: Today through October 20 it’s completely FREE!! ($17 value!)

Yep, as we launch this brand new challenge, we want to make it accessible to everyone!

Here are the simple Make Food Easy Challenge details:

  • This Make Food Easy Challenge will run October 21-November 2.
  • Sign up for FREE by Sunday, October 20 and we’ll send you your brand new Make Food Easy eBook, grocery lists, prep guides, and everything you need to be prepared for this challenge.
  • Share this post with your friends so they can sign up too!! Email me a screenshot of your share on any form of social media and we’ll thank you by sending you a FREE copy of our Let’s Do This! eCourse. It’s worth $10 and it teaches you how anyone can get ahead in the kitchen! You’ll love it!!
  • Stick around through the entire two week’s Make Food Easy Challenge. Take pictures of each day’s meal prep or final meal. At the end of the challenge, send me all 10 meal pictures and I’ll send you ANY one eBook from my shop that you want. Yep, you can pick from any of them. (There are 21 to choose from!)

Get this for FREE when you share our new challenge on social media!

Notice how the free stuff just keeps on coming!

We’re giving every one of you up to $52 worth of free products here – are you amazed!?

  • FREE Make Food Easy Challenge package ($17 value)
  • FREE Let’s Do This! eCourse when you share this challenge on social media and send me a screenshot ($10 value)
  • FREE eBook of your choice from the Heavenly Homemakers Shop when you complete the entire challenge and send me picture proof (up to $25 value)

Ready to get started with the fun?!

Sign up here and watch for an email with your Make Food Easy eBook and getting-started instructions. Then watch for emails full of all the simple details you need throughout our Make Food Easy Challenge October 21-November 2.

We’re going to head into the holiday season stress-free and with all kinds of simple recipes and meal plans at our fingertips!

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Heavenly Homemakers 2011 Recipe Challenge – What Do I Have to Say for Myself?

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Hi. Remember the Recipe Challenge I began back in January of this year? The challenge that I was planning to have completed by the end of 2011? Yes, that one.

Perhaps since there are still three entire days left in the year, none of you have been worried about the fact that I still have several recipes from the challenge list not yet accounted for. I told you I would do it by December 31, after all. Surely I wouldn’t let you down.

Yeah, well.

I’m all for focusing on the positive, so let’s first look at what I did accomplish from this list, shall we?

1. Tator Tots

2. White Chocolate Baking Chips

3. Butterscotch Baking Chips

4. Teriyaki Sauce

5. Onion Soup Mix

6. Chocolate Milk

7. Ketchup

Now let’s look at some of the other items on the challenge list so I can give you my pitiful excuses heart-felt explanations as to why I failed to post lovely recipes and pictures of these foods.

1. Mayonnaise

I worked my tail off on this one and ended up almost despising the very sound of the word mayonnaise by the end of my experience. Clearly, making mayonnaise isn’t my gift. However, now that I have a new immersion blender, it is possible that I will decide to revisit this idea and try again eventually. Like in eight years. (kidding, sort of, maybe, not sure)

2. Corn Tortillas

I gave my best effort on the corn tortillas, and even took pictures once as I went, in hopes that I’d have beautiful corn tortillas to share with you. The little corn tortilla dough balls are indeed lovely, don’t you think? They look like they would make wonderful tortillas.

And at first glance, this rolled out, pre-cooked version looks kind of okay. But don’t ask me how long it took to actually get that thing rolled out – and really, really don’t ask how it turned out once I tried to cook it in a skillet.

Okay, fine. I’ll tell you. It completely crumbled and fell apart and tasted a little bit like…flaky cardboard. After all that work, I was as fond of corn tortillas as I was of mayonnaise. We ate the pieces anyway, because that’s what we do around here. But I’m wondering if the secret to success in making corn tortillas is using a tortilla press. I’m not sure I’m willing to make the investment, since we don’t eat a lot of corn tortillas around here. I roll my wheat flour tortillas with a rolling pin and never have any problems. Your thoughts?

3. Angel Food Cake

My attempt at a healthier angel food cake was a bit disappointing as well. It flopped and became lop sided. I took pictures to prove it. In addition, we were not impressed with the flavor. It was okay, but not fantastic. However, there’s nothing a little fruit and a good amount of whipped cream won’t fix – so we were able to get it down without too much effort.

4. Homemade Ritz Crackers

These were sort of good and kinda tasted like a Ritz Cracker. But I ended up getting them way too salty and ultimately, we didn’t just love the taste. I’ll probably continue to experiment with these because I think I was on to something.

5. White Cake

I have tried different variations of a plain white cake, which ultimately turns brown because of the sucanat I use. The cakes are tasty enough, but usually a little dry. I have decided to simply begin using my Strawberry Shortcake Recipe when I have a need for a plain white cake. It is a little spongier than a typical cake, but it’s moist and very yummy.

strawberry_shortcake

The remaining items on the list:  Twinkies, Fig Newtons, Bleu Cheese Dressing, and Cereal Bars never did happen. If it counts for anything, I did give each of them some thought. I even have some figs in my fridge that will be turned into fig newtons some day. Right now, they are just a “figment” of my imagination. Get it? I am so funny.

So there you have it. The 2011 Heavenly Homemakers Recipe Challenge. I have a growing list going on for next year. Anything you’d like to add to it?

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

Homemade Butterscotch Baking Chips

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Check one more item off the Heavenly Homemakers Recipe Challenge List! We have Butterscotch Chips!

These are more than just a little bit sweet – wowza, these chips are quite sugary. Therefore, I must advise that you don’t eat the entire pan of butterscotch chips all in one sitting. I’m pretty sure you knew that already. I’m also pretty sure you are planning to eat plenty of vegetables before (and after) you make these. Right?

Here are the reasons I attempted Homemade Butterscotch Chips:

  1. Many of you wanted me to do this. I aim to please.
  2. Every single package of butterscotch chips I’ve seen on the market has hydrogenated oil in them. Bleh. It is very important to avoid hydrogenated oils.
  3. I need some Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies.

You will notice that I used organic brown sugar in this recipe instead of sucanat. I did this because I was afraid that the molasses flavor of the sucanat would effect the flavor of these chips, making them not taste like butterscotch. I had some organic brown sugar on hand, so I used it and was pleased with the results.

Homemade Butterscotch ChipsYum

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup coconut oil (I used expeller pressed so as not to have a coconut flavor)
1 cup organic brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a saucepan, melt together butter, coconut oil and brown sugar. Stir continually until all ingredients are mixed well, bringing the mixture ALMOST to a boil, then turning down the heat. Cook and stir some more on low heat until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is a liquid.

Remove the mixture from the heat and stir in vanilla extract. Pour the contents onto a parchment paper lined container. I used a 9×13 inch dish.

Place the dish into the fridge for 3-4 hours to allow the mixture to solidify. Cut or break the butterscotch into small “chips”.

Store them in an air tight container in the fridge.

And would you look at that? These homemade butterscotch chips make fantastic Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies! (I’ll share my recipe next week.)

Are you a fan of butterscotch chips? What’s your favorite way to use them?

Read about making Homemade Chocolate Chips here!

 

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Heavenly Homemakers Recipe Challenge

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One of the most frequently asked question that I hear from many of you through emails is, “Laura, do you think you could come up with a healthier version of _______?”

It would appear that you have become aware of how much I get a kick out of experimenting and coming up with new, healthy recipes in my “spare time”! Yes it’s true. I love playing with ingredients.

Your past requests and challenges have resulted in fun new recipes for Poptarts, Pancake Sausage Muffins, Chewy Granola Bars, Corndog Muffins, Hot Dog Buns, Dressing Mixes, Taco Seasoning,  Funnel Cakes, and many other cool recipe ideas that were inspired by YOU. I love taking family favorite ideas that may normally be unhealthy (like a poptart), and fiddling with the idea until I come up with a recipe that pleases the fam and is healthy(er) too! (It never hurts when the recipe is easy to make and saves money too, huh?)

granola_bars_3

Each time one of you sends in a recipe challenge or an idea, I add it to my list of foods to experiment with. You all come up with so many great ideas!! Yeah, that’s my way of saying…wow my list is really long.

I decided that it would be fun during 2011 to share part of my list with you and have you offer input for your top choices of recipes for me to try. Then all during this year, I’ll play with ingredients and get lots of honey and tomato paste and butter on my face (though not all at the same time) as I experiment to come up with some new favorite recipes to share.

Here is my list of items you’ve requested for me to come up with a “Healthier Version” of:

  1. Tater Tots
  2. Twinkies
  3. Ketchup
  4. Mayonnaise
  5. Corn Tortillas
  6. White Chocolate Baking Chips and Butterscotch Baking Chips (like these Homemade Chocolate Chips, only white chocolate or butterscotch)
  7. Fig Newtons
  8. Teriyaki Sauce
  9. Ritz Crackers
  10. Onion Soup Mix
  11. Bleu Cheese Dressing
  12. Cereal Bars
  13. Angel Food Cake
  14. White Cake (which we’ve already discussed that if using whole wheat flour and sucanat, this cake would really be tan…)
  15. Chocolate Milk

I’m sure I’ve forgotten some of the requests that you’ve sent in, so please feel free to add those ideas if you’d like. And now…I’d appreciate it if you’d all leave a comment letting me know your top two or three recipe choices from the list above so that I know where I should start with this challenge!

And now, if you’ll pardon me…I’m going to go put on my apron and start grinding some flour. Let the Heavenly Homemakers Recipe Challenge begin!

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