379: Raising Foodies: Recipe Reviews

We haven't done a lot of cooking together in recent weeks, but I have been feeling out some new recipes. I must say, my crockpot is going to be very busy from now on. The biggest cooking feat I have accomplished is:

I made my own yogurt!
YES! You heard right! I done it the other day. You can find the instructions here. I started out with whole milk, but so intend on trying lowfat next time. Also, next time, I believe I'm going to get a vanilla bean to cook it with and see if that makes a difference with the taste. Yesterday I added a tbsp of sugar to a scant cup of strawberry puree, and blended that with 3 C of the yogurt. It become smoothie type consistency, and Jackson and I had it after church last night. Hannah turned her nose up to it, of course. Jackson drank her smoothie. He loves it. I agreed with Jay it had a tart tang to it, but I was ok with it, he was not.

I done a black beans and rice crockpot dish, and it was yummy. Hannah picked at it and overall refused it, and ate her accompanying orange for dinner with it. The second day, I shredded some Monterey Jack cheese, sprinkled it over a flour tortilla, melted it and rolled the beans and rice in it, and BINGO! It was a hit! Hannah loved it and Jackson had it on two different occasions. There was no waste with this very frugal recipe.

For breakfast one morning I done a black beans and eggs breakfast scramble, and it was YUMMY! I'll be fixing that again for sure. Again, frugal, and fast!

"Wendy why are you using so many black beans?"

I fixed half a pound in the crockpot ;o) I spoke a bit about that last week. It's so easy to do, and so much more cost effective than buying canned beans. You just wash them off, throw them in the crockpot, cover with water (3x the amount of beans), and go to bed! You just let it cook 8-10 hours and you're good to go!

I used the premise of this recipe for salmon and spinach. I filled the crock with spinach, laid the salmon fillets on top, added 1/4 C chicken broth around the sides and cooked for two- 1/2 hours on low. It was DELICIOUS. This was my own dinner Tuesday night after soccer practice for after the kids went to bed. They had super secret chicken nuggets. I read Jessica Seinfield's book Deceptively Delicious and I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who has a child that is (especially psychologically) picky with food. I picked up my copy at Target for $9.08 to check your local store and request it if they're out of stock.

The chicken nuggets I made was real, cut up chicken breasts. I took 1 C spinach puree, mixed 1 egg in; in another bowl I mixed 1C panko breadcrumbs with 1/2 C flax meal, and some parmesean cheese. I submerged the chicken in the puree, and pulled the pieces out with a fork dropping them in the bread mixture (I used a small rectangle baking dish). I would roll around the pieces in the bread mixture til covered, and cooked it in a fry pan in batches. I just sprayed the pan with cooking spray, no oil, etc ...

Jackson walked in and said "whatcha fixing?", I said "chicken nuggets, here, have one" .. he pops it in his mouth, says "mmm, this is good", and walks out of the kitchen.

Hannah walks in, asks "whatcha fixing?" I say "chicken nuggets, go on" (I didn't want her to see the puree ... oh well ..) she sees the puree, and starts fanning her face saying "eewww I don't like it can I have a grilled cheese?" to which I say "No."

Granted, the recipe also calls for garlic and onion powder in the bread mixture and I didn't have any, so that would had made them much more flavorful. I was due at church soon, so I left as Jay was fixing their plates. (Jay was oblivious to my antics). I got back that night, and on the way back from checking out the explosion, I said "you left me some of those chicken nuggets didn't you?" and Jay said "they wiped it out". Hannah said "Momma I ate two plates of it!" Jackson said "Mom you knew I liked them". Jay said "the only thing I'd change is to cook them in bigger pieces more like chicken fingers instead of nuggets. They were good".

Ding Ding Ding! We have a winner! WOOOO-HOOOOO!!

Next on the list is using navy beans in a ranch dressing recipe, butternut squash snuck in some grilled cheese sammies, black bean burgers (for me), crock pot mahi mahi, crock pot Garlic chicken, and I think I'm gonna try this recipe with navy beans instead of black beans. The mind is running.

Run over to Grace's Kitchen and see what the younger set is up to!

Life2

Categories pertaining to the "Life of CalvaryGirl"

Peace in times of crisis, part 1

When Jackson was in the first grade (he's in fourth now), the first week of school he broke his arm. Oh, but to know my overachiever child. He didn't just "break" his arm, he literally broke both of the bones in his right forearm in HALF. No he didn't mean to do it but we always pick on him when he does something he does it "big".

I remember that day so clearly, like it was yesterday. We were living in our apartment, and the playground was right across from our building. I could sit on our front balcony and watch the kids play. This day my nephew was over visiting, and being nine, I let both kids go with him to the playground. I was in the hallway sorting laundry, and our neighbor in the building across from us knocked on the door. It was August, so I had the big door open with the screen up in the storm door. He called my name as he was knocking.

I went to the door and he said "I think Jackson has broke his arm", and as he started talking I saw Jackson coming up the stairs with his cousin helping him, Hannah, three and a half at the time, tagging along behind them. Jackson was crying, but not outrageously crying at that point. He looked at me and as he said "mommy my arm" he went to lift it, and two inches from above his wrist, down, did not raise with the rest of his arm- his hand was separated from his arm, holding by skin, and the fact that the bones broke diagonally so there was that keeping the skin below the break and above the break from actually making a 90o angle.

I took one look, looked at our neighbor, and said "can you stay with him out here a minute?", he said yes, and that was when I went outside of myself and the Lord took over through my body. It sounds funny to read that, but really, that is what it was like. By myself, I would not have been able to stay calm as I saw my son's arm broke in half, already turning purple within minutes of the accident. The accident? His cousin pushed him as he was going across the monkey bars, he fell, and his arm was 90o to the ground, and the impact of his body on his arm caused it to snap.

As I turned around from my neighbor, I reached for my phone, called Jay and said "stop what you're doing, Jackson has broke his arm we're headed for the hospital right now". Jay, being Jay, says "are you sure it's broken?", to whcih I answer "I'm looking at it, and his hand is dangling from the rest of his arm", and he said "Okay, I'll meet you there". As I go to grab my keys and a towel, all I could say was "Lord, help me ...", and he did. By then our neighbor was helping him back down the stairs to my car, the mother of the other little boy they were playing with was taking my nephew and Hannah to her apartment, we get him settled in the back seat, and off we go.

I call my sister to tell her what happened, and God gave me the grace to have that conversation (may He have the glory for that), as that was not a time for conflict resolution between the kids, I just needed to let her know what was going on so she knew where her son was as I was babysitting while she worked. Jackson was crying louder now as the adrenaline was starting to wear and the pain was starting to settle in. I was captive in my own front seat driving when all I wanted to do was take him in my arms and "make it all better", maybe even cry with him a little.
However, as I was talking calmly to him, and he was still semi rational, it dawned on me. I needed to look at the road, instead of in the back seat. The whole time I know I was praying under my breath, I believe that was the only way I was really remembering to breath. As I was talking as soothingly as I could, the Lord led me to call one of my friends (a good friend) in another state. We had prayed a number of times on the phone and she has a VERY soothing voice, especially when she prays. I called her, and put her on the phone with Jackson. They had spoken before, she wasn't a stranger at all to him.

The sobs stopped as soon as he got on the phone with her. She prayed with him the rest of the ride to the hospital, about fifteen minutes. THAT is a good friend! He was SO calm, and SO settled after that, it was nothing short but the work of God.

It was peace, in a time of crisis, for this mother.
Stay tuned for part two this Wednesday :)

Message to our children

I love King David. Out of all of the people in the bible, I am drawn to David most. The Lord saw fit to show him at his best, and at his worst. Though David he shows the potential we have as humans to be righteous, pleasing to God, on the mountaintop, as well as in the valleys, at our worst with sin in our lives taking rule. Having clinical depression, I relate with David greatly because after reading about him you can see the same highs and lows in him that a Christian dealing with clinical depression would have in their own lives. David "makes it real".

I'm reading in Chronicles now, and run into David's charge to Solomon for when he will become King over Israel. I am wowed each time I read about David, and this time is no exception. David tells Solomon what we all should be telling our children (and remember for ourselves!):

1 Chronicles 28
9And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.

20And David said to Solomon his son, Be strong and of good courage, and do it: fear not, nor be dismayed: for the LORD God, even my God, will be with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee, until thou hast finished all the work for the service of the house of the LORD.

What comfort and security is to be found in these verses! David in these verses was leaving a legacy of holiness to his child, assurance of the faithfulness of our God. He not only tells him how good God is, but how HOLY he is as well. Oftentimes we tend to forget to remind our children how HOLY God is.

Lately I have been reminding our children when things are not going well for them, how what they are experiencing could possibly be the result of unconfessed sin in their life that they have not repented from. In my own life it has been hard enough to keep that in the forefront of my own life, I want to train my children to have that thought second nature unlike their mom's experience. I don't want them to forget that our God will not tolerate sin in our lives, and when we walk in sin and with self centered prideful attitudes, we lose our fellowship with God and our prayers will be hindered.

Likewise, I want them to be confident of the faithfulness of our God. This is why it is important to always remind them when God's faithfulness is being revealed in our lives. We experienced the loss of an infant family member just a number of months ago, that we were very close with and spent an unordinary amount of time with. That tragedy was devastating to our family and I've felt as if I lost one of my own children. It's one thing to experience the loss of an infant as an adult, but imagine what goes through the mind of a tender 6 year old girl's heart when thinking about God allowing a baby to die. Imagine feeling helpless as you watch her go through the motions of grief, not really knowing what do to but praying without ceasing! Yet, time heals all hurts. It is when I see her able to look at the baby's picture, and not burst into uncontrollable tears, I am able to show her how God has helped her in her grief. How God has given her peace in her heart to be able to start thinking about how much she loved the baby, without having the overwhelming thoughts of how much she misses it.

God is so good, so faithful, and so true to us. We don't know why God allowed the baby to die, but we do know he done it for His glory. That, we can count on. He started a work in us the day the baby died, and one day we might be able to minister to another family that experienced the same thing we did. One day my daughter might be able to comfort a classmate that does not know Christ, who experienced the loss of an infant in their life. I want my children to understand and be confident that when they seek the Lord, they will find Him. That as long as they are seeking Him, He will finish the work He started in them until the day He returns.

*CG