You loved me when I was yet unknown. You saw me, raw, bare, my deepest darkest sin, the depths of my heart. And you smiled, not because I was good but because you are good and your creations are beautiful. Your love is deeper than we can fathom. You forgive more than we know. And yet even the sin that remains unnamed in our hearts, you have already forgiven. Deep, pure love like the racing of a river, it cleanses, it guides, it renews. And so it is this time of lent. Not a time of sacrifice, rather a time of recognizing your abundant, faithful, unwavering love. A time of reflecting on your ministry, your life and the way you've touched and transformed mine. How precious is this time! How I don't want anything to steal your face from my eyes. Father, I pray that we will use this time to be filled up by you, renewed and cleansed through you. That we may look to every day with such joy of knowing that you are... have always been and will be. How you bless me father! How you are the keeper of my soul, the maker of my life! The one my heart longs to adore. Fill us again with passion for you, and strength for the work you put before us. I pray that passion would overtake ritual, that real love would consume us... that we would recognize more of you in every minute of every day. That above all else we would live for you.
This is the prayer of my heart.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Whole Food Breakfast Ideas
As promised... here are a few whole food recipes.
Baked Oatmeal
1 1/2 cups of quick oats
1/4 c. wheat germ
1/4 c. ground golden flaxseed
1/3 c. of honey
3/4 c. milk
1/4 c. of butter
2 eggs
1 tsp of baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 c. of mini choco-chips (opt.)
We mix all dry ingredients into individual food saver bags and seal for busy mornings. So we essentially have prepared, shelf- stable mixes on hand. I use self-stick printed labels on the front of each package with the recipe and baking instructions.
Mix all ingredients and spread evenly into a greased 9X13 baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until edges are golden brown.
My children love assembling, baking and eating this recipe and it's been a great way for me to get my kiddos to eat oatmeal a few days a week.
Basic Whole Wheat Pancakes
(using fresh ground wheat/ or store bought whole-wheat flour)
4 cups of freshly milled soft wheat
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/3 oil
4 eggs
3 cups of milk or buttermilk
Mix together and drop by 1/4 c onto hot skillet
Just made these this morning.... makes a huge batch so be sure to freeze extras. We like these served with fresh fruit and whip cream. Yum!!! Thought Whip Cream was off limits? So did I until I read the labels!!! Reddi-Whip Original Whip Cream only has 15 calories, less than 1 gram of sugar, 1 carb and 1 gram of fat. So enjoy guilt-free!t
* This is another mix we prepare and seal with our food saver. You can ground fresh flour and seal it and while it does loose a little nutritional value, the food saver bags do a great job at keeping it fresh!
For Waffles:
Use the same recipe, just increase oil slightly to 1/2 cup.
Baked Oatmeal
1 1/2 cups of quick oats
1/4 c. wheat germ
1/4 c. ground golden flaxseed
1/3 c. of honey
3/4 c. milk
1/4 c. of butter
2 eggs
1 tsp of baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 c. of mini choco-chips (opt.)
We mix all dry ingredients into individual food saver bags and seal for busy mornings. So we essentially have prepared, shelf- stable mixes on hand. I use self-stick printed labels on the front of each package with the recipe and baking instructions.
Mix all ingredients and spread evenly into a greased 9X13 baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until edges are golden brown.
My children love assembling, baking and eating this recipe and it's been a great way for me to get my kiddos to eat oatmeal a few days a week.
Basic Whole Wheat Pancakes
(using fresh ground wheat/ or store bought whole-wheat flour)
4 cups of freshly milled soft wheat
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/3 oil
4 eggs
3 cups of milk or buttermilk
Mix together and drop by 1/4 c onto hot skillet
Just made these this morning.... makes a huge batch so be sure to freeze extras. We like these served with fresh fruit and whip cream. Yum!!! Thought Whip Cream was off limits? So did I until I read the labels!!! Reddi-Whip Original Whip Cream only has 15 calories, less than 1 gram of sugar, 1 carb and 1 gram of fat. So enjoy guilt-free!t
* This is another mix we prepare and seal with our food saver. You can ground fresh flour and seal it and while it does loose a little nutritional value, the food saver bags do a great job at keeping it fresh!
For Waffles:
Use the same recipe, just increase oil slightly to 1/2 cup.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
I found a great new blog to check out http://www.organicthrifty.com/. This blog proves that you can make good, value driven food choices without breaking the bank. In fact this was one of our first steps in changing the way we ate as a family. We would often buy lots of boxed, processed stuff but felt that organic meats were expensive. It took us considering our values to change our lifestyle. We knew that organic meats and dairy were a better choice for our family, so we started with a commitment to spend the bulk of our grocery budget in those areas. We also knew we wanted to try to eat more veggies and whole grains, so we applied more of our budget toward buying organic as much as possible. And as I began to use my grain grinder I was able to make real bread, muffins, pancakes, and other breakfast foods that we no longer needed to buy pre-packaged. You CAN get your family off the national obsession with sugar. You can prioritize your budget to include organic meats and dairy without it costing you more to go grocery shopping. Most of us just get into a rut and buy the same things when we go shopping, but consider the scenario below:
Great Value Milk $3.99/ gallon
A Box of Cereal $3.79
Total = $7.78
or
Organic milk $5.99/ gallon
A dozen Free Range Farm Eggs $1.79
Total= $7.78
The budget is the same, but the priorities are different. Another thing to think about is that a box of cereal will last a day or two, but a dozen eggs can make a hot breakfast for your children for several days. Our children love hard-boiled eggs, which are fun to eat and a powerhouse of protein. They affectionately call the yolk "cheese" and usually dump the "cheese" in the garbage and eat the whites, but occasionally will eat the yolk. Either way is fine with me, because their diet is low in fat and cholesterol, and because I'd rather have then eat an egg yolk which is a natural god-made food, rather than McDonalds french fries. :)
My next blog will be on whole-food breakfast ideas, so check back soon if you need ideas or encouragement in this area!
Great Value Milk $3.99/ gallon
A Box of Cereal $3.79
Total = $7.78
or
Organic milk $5.99/ gallon
A dozen Free Range Farm Eggs $1.79
Total= $7.78
The budget is the same, but the priorities are different. Another thing to think about is that a box of cereal will last a day or two, but a dozen eggs can make a hot breakfast for your children for several days. Our children love hard-boiled eggs, which are fun to eat and a powerhouse of protein. They affectionately call the yolk "cheese" and usually dump the "cheese" in the garbage and eat the whites, but occasionally will eat the yolk. Either way is fine with me, because their diet is low in fat and cholesterol, and because I'd rather have then eat an egg yolk which is a natural god-made food, rather than McDonalds french fries. :)
My next blog will be on whole-food breakfast ideas, so check back soon if you need ideas or encouragement in this area!
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Hi everyone,
I have been reading and gotten some great new menu planning ideas and resources I wanted to share. One thing I recently read about was to write down the 21 meals you make the most. I love this idea! What a great idea to write down the 21 meals we use the most for nights when you are staring in the pantry and can't think of what to make. My biggest obstacle in the kitchen is finding planning time. Now that I've made the commitment to plan, organizing my recipes in lists helps me make that planning time quicker and easier. I found a website called ListPlanIt.com On their trial tab you can print a few lists for free to try them out. I printed 6 of the favorite recipe page and used one page each for beef recipes, chicken/ turkey, vegetarian, sides, entertaining, and bread recipes. I'm still making my lists, but along with my 21 meals lists, planning is a much easier task! I'm even going to make a list for recipes I want to try, then I plan to organize my recipes behind each list in my recipe binder. So simple! Another idea I've tried in the past is to list our favorite meals by season. Some things I make all year, but certain things like chili, and chicken pot pie are things that we make only in the winter. So it may be helpful to make a 21 meals list for each season too. Happy planning!
I have been reading and gotten some great new menu planning ideas and resources I wanted to share. One thing I recently read about was to write down the 21 meals you make the most. I love this idea! What a great idea to write down the 21 meals we use the most for nights when you are staring in the pantry and can't think of what to make. My biggest obstacle in the kitchen is finding planning time. Now that I've made the commitment to plan, organizing my recipes in lists helps me make that planning time quicker and easier. I found a website called ListPlanIt.com On their trial tab you can print a few lists for free to try them out. I printed 6 of the favorite recipe page and used one page each for beef recipes, chicken/ turkey, vegetarian, sides, entertaining, and bread recipes. I'm still making my lists, but along with my 21 meals lists, planning is a much easier task! I'm even going to make a list for recipes I want to try, then I plan to organize my recipes behind each list in my recipe binder. So simple! Another idea I've tried in the past is to list our favorite meals by season. Some things I make all year, but certain things like chili, and chicken pot pie are things that we make only in the winter. So it may be helpful to make a 21 meals list for each season too. Happy planning!
Friday, February 5, 2010
Green Smoothies
I recently ordered the book the Green Smoothie Diet and have enjoyed looking through new green smoothie recipes. I purchased a Tribest Personal Blender some time ago from Bread Beckers and have made smoothies for our family, so I was very interested in exploring more green smoothie recipes. The idea is to increase the amount of fruit and veggies in your diet by blending them into a smoothie, and (no they aren't all green). When dark leafy veggies are blended with fruits the smoothie turns our purple easily disguising the spinach. Don't underestimate the taste of these smoothies, they are delicious! Our kids even make their own in the morning because they like them! I just do my part keeping spinach, and frozen fruit available to them and they wander downstairs and make their own smoothies while I'm making breakfast. A big glass of fruit and veggies feel especially decadent when there is 12 inches of snow outside! :)
My big kitchen aid blender recently died, and I'm thinking about replacing it with a smoothie-friendly, high powered Blend-Tec Blender for making big batches. I recently started adding a shot of wheat grass juice to our smoothies and love it!! Wheat grass juice can be purchased frozen from Whole Foods or other natural food stores. It is great for energy and just feels good in your body! It has a green tea type taste... and I wondered the other day if you could dilute it and sip as a tea? Not sure if I'm brave enough to try it or not?!! My husband is much braver than I am and lets it thaw and drinks it straight. Just remember not to drink it on an empty stomach!
Our smoothies recipe
frozen blueberries
Frozen strawberries
fresh spinach
orange juice / water to desired smoothness
opt 1 oz of wheat grass
This morning I also added 1/2 a carrot and it was delicious. It adds sweetness and also tiny bits of texture which makes it feel to me more like a meal.
My big kitchen aid blender recently died, and I'm thinking about replacing it with a smoothie-friendly, high powered Blend-Tec Blender for making big batches. I recently started adding a shot of wheat grass juice to our smoothies and love it!! Wheat grass juice can be purchased frozen from Whole Foods or other natural food stores. It is great for energy and just feels good in your body! It has a green tea type taste... and I wondered the other day if you could dilute it and sip as a tea? Not sure if I'm brave enough to try it or not?!! My husband is much braver than I am and lets it thaw and drinks it straight. Just remember not to drink it on an empty stomach!
Our smoothies recipe
frozen blueberries
Frozen strawberries
fresh spinach
orange juice / water to desired smoothness
opt 1 oz of wheat grass
This morning I also added 1/2 a carrot and it was delicious. It adds sweetness and also tiny bits of texture which makes it feel to me more like a meal.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
The Art Of Laundry
I'm always looking for new ideas to help bring our home into order, so I thought I'd share our method for doing laundry. A few years ago I found these cute baskets on sale at Target. They were actually Hanukkah baskets with a removable blue liner. So I took them home threw the liners away and started thinking about how I could use them. I decided to make these cute tags for everyone in our family, tie them to the baskets and set them on the shelf above the washer and dryer. Now, when I do laundry I can quickly sort, intimates into the appropriate baskets, right as they come out of the dryer, then I set out the baskets for everyone to take and put away. We've loved this idea and had lots of fun making the tags by using letter stickers and card stock. Then I laminated the card stock and applied 3-D stickers for added dimension. I used a grommet maker for the hole and tied the tags on with ribbon.
I also thought I'd share our laundry schedule. We started with a primitive form of a laundry schedule about a year ago when I was first teaching the kids how to do laundry. They were in the learning stage so we set aside a day to do their laundry together. As they've gotten older they've learned to do it independently with just a reminder to change it when the cycle is finished and some help folding. Recently we added linens and towels into the schedule so that everything has a day, and for the first time EVER, I don't feel buried by constant laundry. Getting the laundry done for that day assures that everything runs smoothly and will get done. It amazes me how something SO simple can bring such order and peace.
I also love doing linens on Mondays! It's just a great feeling to get those sheets off the bed and in the washer, and motivates me to get the rest of the house back in order for the week. It's exciting to me to start the week clean and orderly!
Here is our laundry schedule....
Monday- Linens ( sheets/ bath towels) Everyone strips beds every Monday morning and brings
linens down to the laundry room.
Tuesday- Jessica's Laundry
Wednesday - Ryan's Laundry
Thursday - Me and David's Laundry
Friday- Misc. (Robes, Blankets, Kitchen Towels ect. / catch-up on anything running behind)
May your home be blessed with order and peace.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Our Family Eating plan
I love the New Year! I am a planner, I love to reflect, plan and prepare for all of our goals and dreams for the New Year. One thing that has drastically changed for us this year is the way we eat. I was just journaling and thought it might be a good thing to share.
In all honesty I've struggled with whether to keep this blog going or not. A few things have been on my heart. One, I read sometime in the last year that many many moms are being sidetracked by the overuse of blogging and the Internet. It's very similar to spending hours and hours visiting friends instead of tending to all the real priorities in our day. Being a mom is a busy job, and I don't want to pull myself or others away from that to spend more time on the internet. Still, when I pull up this blog I see the things of Jesus and I'm proud of that. We need each other, and we need a place to be encouraged and share. So I will continue to write and share as the Lord lays new things on my heart, but also just use it as a place to journal my own thoughts.
Our new eating plan...
I say new, but really we've always we've always been fairly healthy eaters. We do try to avoid processed stuff, bake our own bread, make our own yogurt and generally drink no softdrinks or caffine. I recently bought David an expresso maker for Christmas and decided to start drinking regular expresso instead of decaf and tonight had a migrane! So guess it's back to decaf in the morning! The truth is our new eating plan has been in the making for several months.. we've been talking about really wanting to decrease the amount of sugar we've been eating. I started reading two books, What the Bible Says about Healthy Living Cookbook and The Yeast Connection. Both spurred me on to talk to David about what priorities we should focus on in our diet, shopping and cooking. We love organic foods, so that was top on our list. Also we decided that we wanted to eat clean, and that we wanted to eat for health. Your priorities may look different, the things is, if you try to eat low fat, low carb, vegetarian, low salt, gluten free, low pollution, local, and seasonal... you may be left eating rice cakes for breakfast lunch and dinner so we had to find what we wanted to eat and why.
This is our list
Less sugar- this includes cereal...only Kashi whole grain, cane sugar sweetened, this also includes looking at some low carb recipes and alternative sweetners. (splenda, stevia, and agave nectar)
Less fat
More greens
Healthy snacks- whole grains, fruits, veggies, cheese, nuts and nutbutters
Good quality organic beef and chicken sparingly (free range, hormone free)
Add fish into our diet
More water
and finally...
No pork, shrimp, shellfish, .....this is the biggest change we made and we had to really think about this choice. Ultimately we decided that since these animals are scavengers we didn't really want to eat them. These are some of our favorite foods, but we decided instead that as a matter of health we would give these up and see how we feel. For us this really was a personal choice to try to eat things that work best with our bodies to promote health. All these changes have been very positive for us so far. We have felt better and healthier, shed a few pounds (always good!!) but most of all we feel very intentional about the things we are eating. I love most of all that we established priorities that we are living by for life. Our kids are proud too, that we are eating more intentionally and have adapted very well to our new changes. I've included their new favorite breakfast treat Yogurt sundays.
Yogurt sunday
yogurt plain or vanilla (lowest sugar count you can find without using aspartame) PROTEIN
fresh banana slices - FRUIT
fresh stawberry slices -FRUIT
fresh blueberries- FRUIT
1 TBS (or less) of mini chocolate chips - FUN:)
1 tsp of chopped pecans / walnuts PROTEIN/ HEALTHY FATS
David also recently began making homemade applesauce from organic apples. It's amazing how the kids love real food! They love his applesauce.
6-8 apples
add cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla to taste
can be sweetened to taste if desired with natural apple juice, or your choice of sweetner. Cook until soft. Mash to desired texture.
In all honesty I've struggled with whether to keep this blog going or not. A few things have been on my heart. One, I read sometime in the last year that many many moms are being sidetracked by the overuse of blogging and the Internet. It's very similar to spending hours and hours visiting friends instead of tending to all the real priorities in our day. Being a mom is a busy job, and I don't want to pull myself or others away from that to spend more time on the internet. Still, when I pull up this blog I see the things of Jesus and I'm proud of that. We need each other, and we need a place to be encouraged and share. So I will continue to write and share as the Lord lays new things on my heart, but also just use it as a place to journal my own thoughts.
Our new eating plan...
I say new, but really we've always we've always been fairly healthy eaters. We do try to avoid processed stuff, bake our own bread, make our own yogurt and generally drink no softdrinks or caffine. I recently bought David an expresso maker for Christmas and decided to start drinking regular expresso instead of decaf and tonight had a migrane! So guess it's back to decaf in the morning! The truth is our new eating plan has been in the making for several months.. we've been talking about really wanting to decrease the amount of sugar we've been eating. I started reading two books, What the Bible Says about Healthy Living Cookbook and The Yeast Connection. Both spurred me on to talk to David about what priorities we should focus on in our diet, shopping and cooking. We love organic foods, so that was top on our list. Also we decided that we wanted to eat clean, and that we wanted to eat for health. Your priorities may look different, the things is, if you try to eat low fat, low carb, vegetarian, low salt, gluten free, low pollution, local, and seasonal... you may be left eating rice cakes for breakfast lunch and dinner so we had to find what we wanted to eat and why.
This is our list
Less sugar- this includes cereal...only Kashi whole grain, cane sugar sweetened, this also includes looking at some low carb recipes and alternative sweetners. (splenda, stevia, and agave nectar)
Less fat
More greens
Healthy snacks- whole grains, fruits, veggies, cheese, nuts and nutbutters
Good quality organic beef and chicken sparingly (free range, hormone free)
Add fish into our diet
More water
and finally...
No pork, shrimp, shellfish, .....this is the biggest change we made and we had to really think about this choice. Ultimately we decided that since these animals are scavengers we didn't really want to eat them. These are some of our favorite foods, but we decided instead that as a matter of health we would give these up and see how we feel. For us this really was a personal choice to try to eat things that work best with our bodies to promote health. All these changes have been very positive for us so far. We have felt better and healthier, shed a few pounds (always good!!) but most of all we feel very intentional about the things we are eating. I love most of all that we established priorities that we are living by for life. Our kids are proud too, that we are eating more intentionally and have adapted very well to our new changes. I've included their new favorite breakfast treat Yogurt sundays.
Yogurt sunday
yogurt plain or vanilla (lowest sugar count you can find without using aspartame) PROTEIN
fresh banana slices - FRUIT
fresh stawberry slices -FRUIT
fresh blueberries- FRUIT
1 TBS (or less) of mini chocolate chips - FUN:)
1 tsp of chopped pecans / walnuts PROTEIN/ HEALTHY FATS
David also recently began making homemade applesauce from organic apples. It's amazing how the kids love real food! They love his applesauce.
6-8 apples
add cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla to taste
can be sweetened to taste if desired with natural apple juice, or your choice of sweetner. Cook until soft. Mash to desired texture.
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