Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Gratituesday: Creamy Orange Cooler

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Wow I love me a good Creamy Orange Cooler!

Over the weekend when I was nursing a sinus infection, I found myself without an appetite. But, I knew I needed to keep some good foods going in so that my body would have something to work with to fight the infection.

Something made me think of a recipe I had tried years ago (like before Asa was even born), and suddenly it sounded SO GOOD. I got out my old recipe book, made several tweaks to the concoction and guzzled it down!!! If I hadn’t been sick and out of energy, I would have done a dance around my kitchen! Maybe I had been hungrier than I thought – or maybe this was just exactly what I needed. Either way, I made another batch the next day!

Creamy Orange Cooler

Creamy Orange Cooler

Gratituesday: Creamy Orange Cooler
 
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Ingredients
  • Juice of 3 medium oranges
  • 2 cups buttermilk
  • 2 teaspoons real maple syrup (or more to taste)
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • a handful of ice cubes (optional)
Instructions
  1. Squeeze juice from the oranges and pour into a blender with remaining ingredients.
  2. Blend until smooth (or until ice is crushed if added).

This drink is so easy to whip up. The buttermilk mixed with the sweet citrus creates an amazingly tangy taste that is SO refreshing!

I also love that this is a new way to get down some cultured buttermilk! (Learn how easy it is to make your own buttermilk here.)  I have a hard time drinking the raw, cultured buttermilk by itself, but in this mixture – I could just drink it straight from the blender!

And yes, I know dairy products aren’t great when you have a sinus infection…but I didn’t care. ;)  I needed something that would go down easily and satisfy my insides. It did exactly that. (Plus I used raw milk, which doesn’t have the same ill effects on the sinuses as store-bought milk does.)

Looking for more healthy, satisfying recipes? Here is a list of all my healthy Bread and Breakfast Recipes.

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Homemade Chewy Granola Bars (without corn syrup!)

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Chewy Granola Bars. No corn syrup. Easy recipe. Grab-and-go snack option. Fantastic.

Chewy Granola Bars - No Corn Syrup

Every homemade chewy granola bar recipe I’ve ever seen includes corn syrup and/or marshmallow cream (not ingredients we feel okay about eating or feeding my family). Even most pre-made granola bars I have seen at the store (even the organic ones) have ingredients I don’t like feeding my family.

I finally figured out a chewy granola bar recipe that we like! It’s easy and includes all natural sweeteners and ingredients! These bars are way cheaper than store bought granola bars! Plus you can customize it according to your family’s taste and allergies! They can be easily wrapped individually to take in the car or packed in a lunch!

Homemade Chewy Granola BarsYum

5.0 from 2 reviews
Homemade Chewy Granola Bars (without corn syrup!)
 
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Ingredients
  • ½ cup peanut butter or sunbutter
  • ⅓ cup honey
  • ¼ cup coconut oil (or another oil of your choice)
  • 1 cup oats
  • 1 cup total of any combination of: sesame seeds, coconut flakes, sunflower seeds, dried fruit, mini chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. In a medium sized saucepan, melt together peanut butter, honey and coconut oil.
  2. Remove from heat and add one cup of oats.
  3. Choose your favorite combination of coconut flakes, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, dried fruit and mini chocolate chips, to equal a total of ONE CUP. (I just got out my one cup measuring cup and poured in the ingredients until the cup was full.)
  4. Pour in and stir well.
  5. Spread mixture into a 8x8 or 9x4 pan.
  6. Chill for two hours, then cut into bars.

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Wrap in plastic wrap for a quick grab and go snack!

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Many have said that these taste similar to the oldie-but-goodie No Bake Cookie recipe we’re all familiar with. How fun that these are quite a bit healthier!

I’ve found that these keep best in the fridge as they get a little bit too soft if left out for too long. What a perfect grab-and-go snack!

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High Five Recipes: Layered Cheesy Salsa Enchiladas

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Layered Cheesy Salsa Enchiladas are about to become one of your family’s favorite recipes!

High Five Recipes 2

Yum

This recipe can not get any easier! Typically, I have all the ingredients on hand for these Layered Cheesy Salsa Enchiladas. So that means I can throw this together at the last minute whenever we need it. Everyone in my family loves this, which is a huge score!

We prefer flour tortillas, but these enchiladas can also be made with corn tortillas if you have a gluten intolerance or if you just like corn tortillas better.

Layered Cheesy Salsa Enchiladas

High Five Recipes: Layered Cheesy Salsa Enchiladas
 
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Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 1 pound ground beef
  • sea salt to taste
  • 2 cups salsa
  • 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided (I use raw white cheddar)
  • 8 whole wheat flour tortillas (or corn tortillas)
Instructions
  1. Brown meat. Stir in salsa and ½ cup of cheese.
  2. Lay 4 tortillas in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish.
  3. Spread half of meat mixture over tortillas.
  4. Layer again with the 4 remaining tortillas.
  5. Spread remaining meat mixture over tortillas.
  6. Top with 1½ cups cheese.
  7. Bake uncovered at 350° for 20-25 minutes.

 
 
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Cheesy Salsa Enchiladas
This dish freezes easily too, making it a great make ahead meal!

Freezing Instructions:  Cover dish well and freeze. Thaw and bake as directed above. Or, if the enchiladas are frozen, bake in a 250° oven for one hour, then at 350° for another 30 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.

Serve these Cheesy Salsa Enchiladas with a tossed salad and fresh fruit. This meal is as simple as can be!

creamy salsa enchiladas

I have several more High Five Recipes up my sleeve (not literally of course, but wouldn’t that be fun to see?). Oh, and actually if you haven’t already, you should go read the story of my sleeves because, well it’s always fun to read about sleeves.

It’s here! Check out our amazing Simple Meals program!

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High Five Recipes: Cream Scalloped Potatoes

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Had I not tasted these potatoes myself (when my friend’s mom made them) and realized that I had just bitten into a bite of comfort food heaven, I would not have believed that these three little ingredients all by themselves could actually create such a wonderful side dish.

All of the other scalloped potatoes I’ve ever made have required quite a bit of work:  prepare potatoes…make a white sauce…layer the potatoes with the sauce…cook covered for a specific amount of time…then uncovered for another specific amount of time.

But this potato recipe?  Scrub and slice potatoes. Sprinkle with salt. Pour cream over potatoes. Bake. Stir every once in a while. Eat. Try to be nice and share. No really Laura…please pass the potatoes.

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Cream Scalloped Potatoes

4-5 medium potatoes
1 1/2 cups cream
sea salt to taste

Scrub potatoes and cut into very thin slices. Spread into a casserole dish. Sprinkle with salt. Pour cream over potatoes.

Bake uncovered at 300° for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, pulling dish out and stirring occasionally. Serve when potatoes are tender and cream has thickened.

The starch from the potatoes naturally thickens the cream into it’s own white sauce! SO simple!

Now, you’re welcome to throw in some onion or even sliced carrots into this dish if you want more flavor. I personally love it with just a generous amount of salt.

This potato dish is inexpensive, healthy and takes very little time to prepare. And it tastes like comfort food heaven. What more could we ask for?

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Healthy Homemade Breakfast Burritos

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Well, I made the kids mad at lunch today. I stood there making 20 breakfast burritos and wouldn’t even let them eat one.

Instead, they had to eat tuna.   I was heartless enough to actually make them wait until next week to eat the Breakfast Burritos. Hey, I’m just trying to get ahead here. Someday when they become the parent, they too might have a Breakfast Burrito agenda and make their children settle for tuna. And then they’ll come back to me and tell me how sorry they are for being mad about the 2010 Withholding of the Breakfast Burritos.

Someday.

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Homemade Breakfast BurritosYum

1 pound turkey sausage, browned
12 eggs, scrambled
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (I use Landmark Raw White Cheddar)
2 cup salsa (more or less to taste)
20 whole wheat tortillas*

*Tortilla Hint:  If you’re making your own tortillas (and if you aren’t, you really should be, because YUM)…try this tip to make burrito forming so much easier! As you roll your tortillas, cook them on just one side, leaving the other side softer and more flexible.  Also, I find it works best to form the burritos within two or three hours of making the tortillas…before the tortillas have been refrigerated.

To put together the burritos:

Stir together scrambled eggs, cooked sausage, cheese and salsa. (I leave out the salsa at first and make up some salsa-less burritos for a couple of boys in my life who don’t like salsa. Then I add salsa to the remainder of the mix and make a few with salsa for the rest of us!)

breakfastburritos2smPlace a nice spoonful of burrito mixture onto a tortilla.

breakfastburritos3smFold in the ends.

breakfastburritos4smFold up one side, and then the other.

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Place burritos in a freezer bag and store in the freezer for up to three months.

To reheat:  Place desired number of thawed or frozen burritos on a baking sheet. Heat in a 350° oven for 10-20 mintues until heated through.

P.S. The children weren’t mad for long. They really like tuna…but just temporarily forgot that fact when they smelled the sausage cooking. They happily ate their tuna and will ever so much more happily eat their Breakfast Burritos some morning next week when I have yet another agenda:  the-hurry-up-and-eat-breakfast-so-that-you-can-start-your-handwriting-and-math…agenda.

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High Five Recipes: Chicken Fried Steak Strips

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You can easily make Chicken Fried Steak into yummy strips which are easy to eat! Now a little tip…

High Five Recipes 2

I do almost all of the cooking around here…not because Matt can’t or won’t cook. I just really, really love to cook and have more time to be in our kitchen.

However, ever since Matt started working at a restaurant, he’s been quite a bit more interested in learning about food preparation – and guess what? My husband has a really great cooking tip for you today.

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Yes indeed, this nugget of Chicken Fried Steak Strip wisdom is brought to you by the Heavenly Homemaker’s Husband! (Maybe you knew this tip already, but I didn’t.)

Here’s what he shared with me the last time I made these Chicken Fried Steak Strips:

If you keep dipping the meat in the flour and then in the milk and then back in the flour and then back in the milk and then back in the flour and then back in the…

It will make an extra yummy, extra crispy coating on the outside of the strip.

My strips were good, but I had just been single dipping. Following Matt’s advice, I am now double and even triple dipping. Now, they are Oh My Goodness Amazing. All thanks to my husband. I love that man. You will too after you try his double/triple dipping advice. But you can’t have him. He’s mine.

Chicken Fried Steak StripsYum

High Five Recipes: Chicken Fried Steak Strips
 
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Ingredients
  • 1 pound beef cube steak
  • 1¼ cups whole wheat flour
  • ½ t. garlic powder
  • ¾ cup milk
  • oil for frying (I usually use Palm Shortening)
Instructions
  1. Cut cube steak into 1 inch strips.
  2. In a bowl, stir together flour and garlic powder.
  3. Pour milk into a separate bowl.
  4. Heat oil in a skillet (350° for electric skillet or medium heat on the stove top).
  5. Dip beef strip in milk, then in flour mixture.
  6. Dip, repeat. Dip, repeat. Dip, repeat. (More or less is fine.)
  7. Place strip in oil.
  8. Cook for about 7 minutes on each side. (Salt to taste.)

Chicken Fried Steak Strips

So let’s review: The more you dip, the better the strip. You’ve gotta try it!

Read a great tip about Preparing Ahead and Flash Freezing your Chicken Fried Steak Strips here!

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Making Homemade Chocolate Chips…In Detail

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I posted about making homemade chocolate chips a long time ago. Since that time, I’ve received several emails asking for more help and detail about how this works. It seems that many of you who tried the recipe are having trouble getting everything to melt and dissolve and mix like it should.

In light of your chocolate chip frustration…I decided to do a more thorough tutorial about how I make chocolate chips. The words Chocolate and frustration should never be in the same sentence together. Ever.

You can use coconut oil or butter to make your chips. I used butter this time because I’m almost out of coconut oil. Butter doesn’t quite work as well as coconut oil. They tend to be softer with butter…but still oh so good. Especially when you put them in these Chocolate Chip Brownies.

Here again is the recipe:

Homemade Chocolate ChipsYum

1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup rapadura or sucanat (you can use white sugar if you want)
1 cup coconut oil or butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract  (homemade vanilla extract if you have it!)

Begin by placing the cocoa, sucanat and butter (or coconut oil) into a quart sized jar. 

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Fill a small saucepan with two or three inches of water. Place the jar into the saucepan/water. Turn the heat on medium/high to begin melting the butter.

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Stir often. After five minutes, my mixture looked like this:

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After ten minutes, my mixture looked like this:

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It took a total of thirteen minutes for the butter to completely melt. I then pulled it out of the water, added the vanilla and stirred well.

The mixture in my jar looked and smelled SO GOOD that I wanted to drink it. But I didn’t.  That would have made quite a mustache. 

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Pour the mixture into a 9×13 inch pan covered with parchment paper. Spread it as evenly as you can. 

As you can hopefully tell from the following picture, I still have a little sucanat that refused to completely dissove. Can you see the bits of chunkyness? That’s been one of the questions I’ve received from several of you. But…the little bits of chunkyness don’t hurt anything. My chocolate chips tasted just fine!

You like how the ceiling fan is reflecting in the chocolate? 
I’m just trying to show off my terrible photography skills.

Place your pan into the refrigerator for 1-2 hours so that the chocolate can harden. Remove it from the parchment paper and break it into chunks. Store in refrigerator in an airtight container (unless you and your family eat them all first).

Just a note:  These chocolate chips taste wonderful in Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies, but keep in mind that they are very pure and therefore tend to melt and get runny while baking. Chocolate Chip Cookies with homemade chocolate chips taste wonderful, but might look a little bit funny. No matter, ugly cookies taste good too. :)  I recommend eating these chocolate chips plain, mixed with peanuts or in trail mix, in Chocolate Chip Brownies or in Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins.

And now, I do believe I need to use my freshly made chocolate chips to bake brownies. After I eat some green beans and broccoli of course…

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High Five Recipes: Crispy Cheese Crackers

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High Five Recipes 2

Move over little gold fish. There’s a new cheese in town.

Heidi emailed me a couple of months ago asking if I had a good cheese cracker recipe. Well no, I said, but I sure do love me a recipe challenge! It took a bit of trial and error, but I finally figured out a recipe that not only tastes good, but is SO easy.

Who knew a cheese cracker recipe that would qualify as a High Five Recipe!! (Oh, but psst…we’re not counting the tablespoon of water in this recipe as an ingredient…because that would mean there are technically six ingredients in this cracker. I really wanted to make this a High Five Recipe and it just would not work without a bit of water. Just sprinkle it in and look the other way.)

Crispy Cheese CrackersYum

¼  cup butter, softened
¼ t. sea salt
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, room temperature
1 cup whole wheat flour
¼ t. baking powder
1 T. cold water

Use beaters or food processor to mix butter and salt until creamy. Add cheese. Mix well. Gradually add flour, baking powder and water, mixing until dough begins to form a ball. Form dough into a ball with hands.

Roll the dough into 1/8 inch thickness onto a cookie sheet. (I find that placing the dough between two pieces of parchment paper helps me to roll them out more easily.)  Cut the rolled out dough into 1 ½ inch squares. Bake 15 minutes at 350° or until lightly browned. Turn off the oven and leave the crackers inside to crisp up. Store tightly covered.

That’s all there is to it! I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that my kids will eat the entire pan of these (before Matt and I get some) in one ten minute time frame. They LOVE these! So much for trying to make a snack to “have on hand”. Guess I oughta double the recipe, huh?

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High Five Recipes: Peanut Butter Honey Fudge

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You know me…I love me some fudge. This is by far the easiest fudge I have ever made.  And the healthiest.

Peanut Butter Honey Fudge

Peanut Butter Honey FudgeYum

1 cup natural peanut butter (creamy or crunchy)
3/4 cup honey
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan. Cook and stir over low heat until the chocolate chips are melted and blended in (about 30 seconds).

Spread fudge into an 8×8 inch pan. Refrigerate until solid. Cut into 1 inch squares.
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Now, you might be thinking…3/4 cup of honey?! That’s going to take up a lot of my honey! (Yes, Pooh Bear, you’re right.)

But you cut this fudge into little squares, and it really does go a long way. OOh, and it’s so simple and yummy! (So sorry all you peanut allergy friends out there!)

This is a super simple dessert to throw together real quickly to take somewhere…no baking involved. Hardly any time involved. Very little mess involved.

Oh, and you’ve gotta love a High Five Recipe with only THREE ingredients!! :)

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My Favorite Chocolate Recipe

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Today I’m sharing my favorite chocolate recipe with you. It is SO GOOD. 

I guess that’s why it’s called Death By Chocolate. What a name. I didn’t name it. I’d have named it something like A Little Piece of Chocolate Heaven. Or Just When You Think It Can’t Get any Chocolatier. Or Chocolate Covered Chocolatey Chocolate. 

Well…anyway. Death By Chocolate is a recipe my mom found somewhere when I was a teenager. I remember her serving it when she wanted to make something special for company. She always put walnuts in hers…and I always picked ’em out. :)  I’m not a fan of nuts in my food. But you can put walnuts in yours if you want to. I’ll just pick ’em out if I come over and share it with you. (Which I’d love to do…come over and share it with you.)

As I remember also…the original recipe called for a box of brownie mix…a box of chocolate pudding…and a container of cool whip. The way I make it now…it is all made from scratch. And Oh. My. Goodness. Do try it. You won’t be sorry.

Death By ChocolateYum

Recipe for Creamy Chocolate Pudding
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Recipe for Fudge Brownies (with or without the chocolate chips)
¾ cup heavy whipping cream
½ t. vanilla
1 t. sugar or a few drops of stevia
1 cup pecans or walnuts, optional

Bake Brownies according to recipe. Allow to cool. Make Chocolate Pudding according to recipe. Allow to cool.

In a large glass serving bowl, begin to layer your Death by Chocolate. 

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Cut or crumble brownies into small crumbs or pieces. 
I usually cut mine into one inch squares. 
Place one third of them into serving bowl.

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Pour one third of your pudding over the brownie pieces.
Continue this brownie – pudding layering twice more.

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Choose the cutest person you can find to whip your cream. 
With beaters, whip cream until soft peaks form. 
Add vanilla and sugar or stevia. Mix in with beaters.

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Spread the whipped cream on top of your brownie-pudding layers. 
If you’re talented and have time…put something fancy on top like put chocolate shavings. As you can see…I’m not that talented.

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Oh, but look how pretty that is!! 

This is the very bowl my mom always made Death By Chocolate in. I’m so thankful to have this bowl in my own kitchen now. 

Okay…chocolate lovers! Come up with some excuse to make this!!! Invite someone over. Have a party. Invent a new holiday. You HAVE to make Death By Chocolate!! (Ooh, someone should invent a new holiday…JUST to celebrate CHOCOLATE!)

Anyone else a chocolate lover like I am?!
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This post is linked to Ultimate Recipe Swap.

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