Goals for 2013

I normally start each year with the typical goals - losing weight, saving money, and reading through the Bible. I never make it. And while I want to do all these things, I don't really want to set myself up for failure once again. This year I've decided to set some new goals, fun goals.

This year I've tried making a lot of new foods. I've had a lot of fun doing it. So I've decided to try a new food each month. I'm going to start the year with pasta. Lance has been asking me to make pasta, and I have pasta attachment for the Kitchenaide.

I would like to have a plan for the whole year before we get to the new year, but I'm not sure what else I want to try. Any ideas? I have already made sour cream, cream cheese, bear claws, and croissants. And I want to stick to food but not gross food. So please help me with ideas.

Is it mine now? Roasted Tomato Sauce

I still have a mound of tomatoes. They are ripening slowly but surely. I had decided I have enough diced tomatoes canned. So it's time for something new. I use a lot of diced tomatoes and tomato sauce for recipes through the winter. I found a recipe for tomato sauce that looked much easier that most and didn't involved blanching, shocking and peeling which I find a pain in the neck (actually feet). I haven't ever made tomato sauce so I'm not sure if it tastes better. But I think it was easier.
The first batch didn't turn out like I wanted so I adjusted and tried again. So does that make it my recipe now? Can I claim it as my own and not give credit to the originator of the recipe? I guess either way I need to. I got this recipe from Alton Brown on foodnetwork.com. But again, I have altered it.

Roasted Tomato Sauce
10 tomatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 cup finely diced onion
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon finely chopped oregano leaves
1 tablespoon finely chopped thyme leaves
3/4 cup chicken stock or white wine
Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Wash and sliced tomatoes in half. Seed tomatoes and place on a foil lined baking sheet cut side up. Mix together oil, pepper, salt, garlic, oregano, & thyme. Drizzle oil mixture over the tomatoes. Sprinkle diced onions over tomatoes. Place baking sheets in oven and baked for 2 hours. At the end of the 2 hours, turn up the oven to 400 degrees for about 30 minutes. Keep an eye on them. They need to be roasted but not burned. (Like I did) I think my second batch I only cooked them for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and put through a food mill. Discard peels and put sauce in a sauce pan. Add chicken stock, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until reduced by half and is the consistency of tomato sauce.



I canned my tomato sauce, but you could also freeze it. It definitely has a different flavor. But I think it will add great flavor to my recipes.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

And the Winner Is...

Due to Facebook being difficult, the giveaway for Best in the West Bakery has been moved here.  The random number generator gave me number 9.  And that person is Marianne Smith.  Marianne, if you will email me your address and which type of cookie you would like, I will mail you a bakers dozen cookies.  My email is countryrunnerk@gmail.com

If anyone has any idea how to configure apps for Facebook, I would love help so that future giveaways can actually be on Facebook.

How Time Flies...

I happened to see my blog when I posted my garden pictures and laughed because the garden doesn't look anything like that anymore. I thought I'd show you the difference.

When I first planted

Now

When I first planted

Now

When I first planted

Now

I have frozen 40 cups of zucchini and have made lots and lots of zucchini bread along with selling & giving away a little bit of zucchini.  Romaine is ready to be harvested. I also harvested spinach today and blanched & froze it.  Not enough to make spinach dip but close.  By the end of the season, I definitely will.  Today I discovered I have two baby cantaloupes.  I'm hoping I have enough time left in the season for those to get ripe.  And tomatoes - I have so many on the vine.  I don't quite have enough ripe to can but hopefully soon.

This is my zucchini & squash patch.  It is a little bit out of control.  The tomato plants look different after cutting them back today.  I only have a couple or so weeks left before out first freeze so I need as many tomatoes to ripen before then.  I cut most of the leaves off so the plants will put it's energy to growing and ripening the tomatoes.  

I Hate to Exercise But Love to Cook

I love being married.  Lots of people say it is hard.  For me it hasn't been.  I think because I got married in my mid thirties, I am more appreciative of Lance and what he is in my life.  As with anything in life, there are always little annoying things you have to put up with.  The little annoying thing in my marriage that I have to put up with is growing.  It is that I have gained weight.  I hate to admit that I have gained 20 lbs since I got married.  So I am working on getting it off.

Recently, my friend Kelly introduced me to My Fitness Pal.  I have used Daily Burn in the past, but wasn't able to put my recipes in it.  And since we rarely eat out or eat premade food, it just didn't work for me.  My Fitness Pal allows me to put in the recipe and then enter the serving size I ate.  When you start your account, they ask you all kinds of questions and determine how many calories you need to eat per day.  They gave me 1200 calories.  Yikes!  Although burning calories gives you more to eat.  Whoo hoo.  And cooking burns calories!  Double whoo hoo.  I hate to exercise but love to cook.

While trying to balance out my calorie intake for the day, I went looking for a smoothie recipe.   I had purchased 32 lbs of strawberries and split with my mother.  I froze 8 lbs to make smoothies with.  So the smoothie recipe had to be strawberry and since I do not like bananas, it could not contain bananas.  I found a smoothie recipe that I added my touch to and now love.  I took 2 recipes and combined them.  I needed something that would tide me over until lunch.  So the ingredient I used from the second recipe was oatmeal. I put the oatmeal in the blender first and blended it so it was more like flour.  Then I added all the other ingredients.  It gives it a little odd texture but is filling.

Strawberry Pineapple Oatmeal Smoothie
1/4 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup frozen strawberries
3 oz milk
3 oz pineapple juice
1/4 cup vanilla yogurt
1 Tbsp sugar
3 ice cubes

Put oatmeal in blender and blend until fine.  Add the rest of the ingredients and chop ice (pulse) until completely chopped.  Then blend for 30 seconds - a minute.  Pour and drink.

We Are Not the Star of This Show

In our women's Bible study at church, we are reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan.  I left today feeling as though I've been to a funeral.  We read and talked at length about death, the brevity of life and how we are living this short life we've been given.  Francis reminds us that we are not the star of this show.  God is.  He reminds us that we need to be bring glory to the star of the show.  We talked about the things that distract us from glorifying God.  Francis talks about how some of those distractions are worry and stress.

I grew in a household that worry and stress wasn't very evident.  I'm sure that there was, but I wasn't aware of it.  We were taught that God would provide for us and He did.  I never doubted that God wouldn't give us what we needed because I saw Him provide again and again.  We were very poor, but we never went hungry or unclothed.  Because I was brought up with seeing this happen, I don't worry much.  Occasionally I do, but I have to remind myself that God will provide and God is always good.

Lance, on the other hand, hasn't seen God provide in the way that I have.  He tends to worry.  When we first got married it bothered me that he worried so much.  And God showed me one day that He hasn't had as much time to show Lance how good He is.  Since that day, I let God work it out and show Lance He is good.  I want so badly for Lance to know God like I do.  Know that God is good.  And not know just by being told but being shown by God.

As I was thinking about this on my way home, I looked at my own life.  There are so many days that I wish I knew God better.  I see other Christians and wish my relationship with God was like theirs.  I think no matter where we are in life and our walk with Christ, we wish our relationship with Him was deeper and better.  I have been a Christian for 32 years.  I became a Christian at 4 years old.  At that time, I knew I loved God and He loved me.  As I have gotten older, I have understood more of what being a Christian is about and who God is.  It took me a long time to understand that God doesn't accept me and approve of me because of my actions.  God accepts me and approves of me because of who He is.  God is good because of who He is not because of who I am.  And I continue to grow in my relationship with Him.  I look forward to the day when my relationship with Him is so deep that people give God glory for my life.

A friend of mine that is glorifying God with her life....

I Should Have Tied My Hair Up

I finally got my tomatoes in the ground.  Actually not finally.  I know I am behind most people, but I really don't like to put my plants in the ground until after the 12th of June.  And I know it isn't the 12th yet but we are close.  Why the 12th, you ask?  June 12th is the average last freeze date for Pocatello.  And I don't really like running out a couple times a week at night and covering all my plants.  So I wait.  I usually start most of the vegetables from seed in the house, but this year that didn't really work out for me.  I will be buying plants when they go on sale, and the store just wants to get rid of them.

One of Lance's employees gives me tomato plants so I don't have to worry about those.  I accidently bought one too many tomato cages and so I headed off to the farmer's market today to pick up another tomato plant.  The kind man that gives me tomato plants sold me one more.  While I was there I picked up some strawberry plants and a basil plant.  Let's see if I can keep the basil alive this year.  The wind was so bad today, that's about all the farmer's market I could stand.  I really should have tied my hair up before I went.  I was hoping to get some blueberries from Oregon also, but I didn't see any.


After coming home and tying my hair, I planted the last tomato and the strawberries.  My plan was to get the basil in a pot, but it started hailing.  I had to laugh while being hailed on because my friends will post pictures of large hail.  I think this was the world's smallest hail.  While it continued to hail on my I looked for a pot to put the basil in.  I didn't have an appropriate pot, so I just brought it in.  I will probably just plant it with the tomatoes later.

You may not be able to see but I've ended up with 7 tomato plants and only one is cherry tomatoes.  Come this fall, I'm going to have a lot of tomatoes.  I have a couple of recipes that call for tomatoes and one that Lance and I love.  But I'm going to have to can a bunch and find a lot more recipes.  The recipe that Lance and I love is Baked Ziti.  I currently 2 halves of it in the freezer for when I don't feel like cooking.  But I'm sure we could stand some more.

Baked Ziti
1 lb dry ziti pasta (I actually use penne)
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced (I use a garlic press)
1 lb ground beef
52 ounces pasta sauce
6 ozs provolone cheese, sliced
1 1/2 cups sour cream
6 ounce mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350. Boil pasta according to package directions for al dente.  Brown ground beef with onions and garlic. Add pasta sauce to meat.  After pasta and meat are done, you will begin layering in a 9 x 13 pan. Layer as follows:
1/2 of the pasta
provolone cheese
sour cream
1/2 of the meat sauce
the other 1/2 of the pasta
mozzarella
the other 1/2 of the meat sauce
parmesan cheese

 Bake for 30 minutes.
Allow to rest for 10 - 15 minutes and serve.

Another Month, Another Plan

I'm running behind this month and it's only the 3rd.  I did some catch up today, and hopefully I can be ahead of the game.  We had a BBQ this weekend and I spent most of the week planning for it.  We hosted about 16 people in our tiny yard all day Saturday.  I was up at 7:30 in the morning setting up and for those of you who know me well or even just a little know that I don't do mornings.  Lance was chosen by Crowdtap to host a McCormick Grill Mates party.  (see my other blog for details about Crowdtap and the party)  I tried two new recipes for the party.  I really liked both, but from the feedback I think the punch was a hit.  Click here for those recipes.

This morning I spent working in the coffee bar at church and finally was able to work on my meal plan for the month this afternoon.  I love the summer months because I grill a lot more and can eat lighter.  Yet I can still throw in a few hearty meals here and there.  So for this month our menu is as follows

June 4 - 8
Tacos (I needed something easy after a big weekend and being late in planning)
BBQ Chicken Salad - I just grill chicken, brush with bbq sauce, shred, and put in a salad.
BLT's
Skillet Lasagna 
Burgers

June 11-15
French Dip Sandwiches
Fresh Take Cheese & Breadcrumb Chicken - this is a Kraft product to bread chicken with.
Skillet Sausage & Rice
Chicken Pasta in Garlic Butter Sauce
Pizza

June 18 - 22
Chicken Fried Steak & Mashed Potatoes
Chicken BLT Taco Salad
Creamy Chicken Bacon Pockets
Tortellini & Alfredo Sauce - I'm just going to buy frozen or refrigerated
Burgers

June 25 - 29
Steak & Sweet Potatoes
Honey Lime Grilled Chicken
Grilled Pork Chops with Garlic Lime Sauce
Grilled Chicken Pesto Farfalle
Pizza

BBQ Recipes

Because the other blog seemed long, I'm putting the recipes from our BBQ in this blog.  These were super easy!  And the fruit salad doesn't have to stay cold which is great for an outdoor party.

Pineapple Punch

1 -12 oz can Pineapple juice frozen concentrate

1/2 -12 oz can Limeade frozen concentrate

4 cups water

1 liter lemon lime soda

Optional: Strawberries hulled to float in punch

Mix all together.  (I quadrupled this recipe)

Fruit Salad

1 lb Strawberries, quartered

1 cup blueberries

1 - 20 oz can pineapple tidbits with juice

1 - 5.1oz box vanilla pudding mix

Mix pudding mix and pineapple with juice until pudding is well mixed in.  Fold in strawberries and blueberries. Chill and serve.

It Was A Nice Sunny Day.

We had our Backyard BBQ yesterday and it was a blast.  We invited a bunch of people from all the different groups we are apart of.  We had 18 people come to enjoy the party with us.  One night I couldn't sleep so I stayed up planning decorations and such.  Once we received the party pack, I was excited to try out the products.  Lance even asked if we could use some of it early.

The party went well.  I grilled and enjoyed watching everyone talk and get to know each other.  We had put up umbrellas so no one got too hot with it being a nice sunny day.  We had a rustic theme to our decorations so we had mason jars for the flowers, drinks and ice cream.  We also had burlap looking table cloths.  And a picnic table.

I marinaded chicken the night before in Grill Mates Spice Brandy & Herb Marinade.  I really liked the flavor it gave the chicken.  While grilling I brushed them with Grill Mates Brown Sugar Bourbon BBQ Sauce.  I really like sweet BBQ sauce and it was perfect.  I grill burgers and sprinkled them with Grill Mates Molasses Bacon Seasoning Blend and Grill Mates Steak Seasoning Blend.  I didn't tasted the Steak Seasoning Blend, but the Molasses Bacon Seasoning blend smelled wonderful and tasted even better.

I will definitely buy more Grill Mates products in the future. I especially liked the Spiced Brandy & Herb Marinade.

Excited & Tired

Tomorrow is our McCormick Grill Mates party. I'm excited and tired. I have most everything ready, just a few details like painting my toenails. It looks like we have a good group of people coming. I hope we all fit in my tiny yard.

Lance built me garden boxes and a strawberry box. They are nice added touches to our yard that is beginning to look good. Most of the weeds are gone and the dead spots are getting smaller.
Hopefully next week I can get some of the garden planted.

It All Looks Yummy

We received our party pack from Crowdtap & McCormick yesterday.  It all looks yummy.  I might have to rethink the burgers and dogs.  There is a marinade I might just have to try out.  Lance wanted to use the BBQ sauce last night on our burgers.  I am excited to have everyone over.  We've invited about 25 people and so far 10 people said they can come and 4 are maybe's.


In the party pack was a party guide.  It was telling how to get an excellent party report.  One of the things that you can do to help your report is to decorate.  I'm gonna have to come up with some ideas of how to decorate without spending much money.  I'm too frugal to spend much.  I did see some ideas on Pinterest using cowboy boots and flowers.  I would love for Lance to get an excellent report for this party (10,000 points) and I can dream about getting the top award (90,000 points).

Tomorrow is Lance's birthday and we aren't doing much because most everyone is out of town.  So I may throw in a birthday cake also.  Happy Birthday Lance!

It's A Plan

3 months ago I began planning out a month's dinners.  At first I wasn't sure how it was going to work for me.  But I LOVED it.  It gave me such freedom.  I didn't have to try to figure out every night what I was cooking for that night.  Now I just need to make sure I get the meat out to thaw for each day, and I go shopping Monday morning for any items I need for the week.  I have also felt more freedom to try new recipes.  As we find recipes we really like we put them into the rotation.  Last month we discovered we love baked ziti.

I was sharing with a close friend that I had started doing this, and she loved the idea.  But she doesn't really have the time to sit down and plan out a month.  So the next month, I sent her the menu and all the recipes to go with the meals.  She was excited that her month was planned out.  Because her girls don't like everything that Lance and I do, I'm sure she switched up some of the recipes, but she was for the most part planned out for the month.

After reading another friend's blog, I realized I could share my meal planning with all of you.  You may not want  to have all the meals we will be having, but it may give you some ideas to help with your planning.

Before I give you our plan for the last two weeks of May, I want to share with you how I plan the month.  It may also help you plan.  When I began planning, it seemed big and overwhelming, but I realized if I had a plan of attack it would help.  So I decided we would have a beef dish on Mondays, a chicken dish on Tuesdays, fish or pork on Wednesdays, whatever on Thursdays, and pizza or burgers on Fridays.  Saturdays & Sundays are wing it days. For sides, I buy what is on sale that week and split them among the days.  This helps us eat what is in season because the sales usually follow what is in season.

Now for our menu:
May 21 - 25
Monday: Cowboy Casserole (see below for recipe)
Tuesday: Easy Garlic Chicken
Wednesday: Breakfast for Dinner
Thursday: Steak & Potato
Friday: Burgers

May 28 - June 1
Monday:  Steak Quesadillas
Tuesday: Rotisserie Chicken
Wednesday: BLT's
Thursday: Spaghetti & Caesar Salad
Friday: Pizza


Cowboy Casserole
Brown:  1-1 1/2 lbs. ground beef with 1/2 diced onion and optional 1/4 lb. bacon cut up.  While that is browning in a skillet, get a crock pot and add: one can each of Lima beans, butter beans, pork n beans and jalapeno pinto beans (drain all juices except pinto beans). Then add: 1/2 cup each of brown sugar, ketchup, BBQ sauce, 2 TBSP. vinegar, 1 tsp. garlic salt and some salt and pepper.  Drain the meat and add to crock pot.  Stir all together well.  You can serve immediately, or wait a few hours for flavors to meld together.  Serve with cornbread.  Add jalapenos if you like, too.  This can be ready in about 15-20 minutes.  Very hearty meal-sticks to ribs.   (I can't always find the beans that are listed so I find something similar.)

Parties & Rewards.

Lance (my husband) recently joined Crowdtap.  He has done so well on it.  He has already earned two $10 Amazon gift cards, and last week he was chosen to host a McCormick Grill Mates party.  I am so excited!  I get to have another party.  I'm hoping it's as fantastic as I'm picturing in my head.  This is our first party from Crowdtap to host.

For this party, Crowdtap is sending us

• Party Booklet
• Grill Mates® Spiced Brandy & Herb Marinade
• Grill Mates® Slow and Low Memphis Pit BBQ Rub
• Grill Mates® Montreal Steak Seasoning Blend
• Grill Mates® Molasses Bacon Seasoning Blend
• Grill Mates® Brown Sugar Bourbon BBQ Sauce

Since I love to cook, I can wait to try out this stuff!  And Crowdtap rewards greatly for having the parties and reporting on it.  I'm excited to see how our party rates against other parties.  For an accepted report, Lance will get 4,000 points.  For an excellent report, he will get 10,000 points and for a Top Award, he will get 90,000 points!  90,000 points is 4 - $10 Amazon gift cards and halfway to another one.

I am just so excited!  We have been working on our yard for a few weeks.  And this gives us motivation to get the yard looking fabulous!  It's gonna be so nice to have friends and family over to just chill and enjoy time together.

You Get Points

Recently I've become obsessed with a website called Crowdtap.  I get "paid" to give my opinion on lots of different things.  I'm not sure how much influence my little voice has, but I've had fun sharing my thoughts.

The way Crowdtap works is they ask you questions and you get points for answering the questions.  They also give you websites to share with your friends.  Your friends rate the website and you get points.  They also have discussions and you get points for participating in them.  They recently have started giving us challenges. I haven't completed one yet, but have till Monday to finish one.  Basically, you get points and with the points you can redeem them for things such gift cards.  I usually redeem my points for Amazon gift cards.  I am hoping to earn enough to pay for all our gifts this year.

You also earn money for charities, but since they revamped the site I'm not sure how that works.  I need to read more on that.  I think Crowdtap has been my favorite way of earning extra money for our family.  If you'd like to join, the link is Crowdtap

We All Have Our Comfort Foods

In my previous blog, I told you about the time I met Bryan Duncan.  It was then realized that people we see as celebrities are just real people.  He was with his family.  As adults we are aware that celebs are real people, but kids don't always know that.  Seeing Bryan's child in a stroller really stuck with me.  From then on I wasn't so fascinated with celebrities.  I would say about Christian music artists, "We both are going to heaven."

Apparently this attitude is a great one when meeting celebs and volunteering to work concerts.  I have gotten to meet several Christian music artist in the past few years.  While interacting with them, they appreciate being treated like a normal person. (Well at least most of them.)  They also like their privacy.  I wouldn't want all my business put out there for everyone to see.  So why would they.

I am thankful that I am not a celeb.  I am thankful that I get to spend a majority of my time at home with my husband.  I am thankful I get to make dinner at home and don't have to depend on a group of volunteers to feed me.  I'm sure actually positive that most of the time the catering is amazing food, but we all have our preferences on what we eat.  We all have our comfort foods.  A recipe that I have found recently has become one of my new comfort foods is





Chicken & Sweet Potato Chowder
2 Tbsp butter
1 cup sweet onion, chopped
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
28 oz chicken broth
2 garlic cloves, minced.
1 tsp dried thyme
2 cups shredded chicken
1/2 tsp paprika
2 cups half & half
1/4 cup flour
Salt & pepper to taste

Melt butter in medium sauce pan, add onion.  Cook over medium heat until onion is tender.  Just before the onion is tender add minced garlic. Cook about 2 minutes more.  Add sweet potatoes, chicken broth, and thyme leave.  Continue cooking until mixture comes to a boil and sweet potatoes are tender.  Stir in chicken and paprika.  Combine half and half and flour in a medium bowl until smooth.  Gradually add half & half mixture to potato mixture, stirring constantly until mixture comes to a boil and is thickened.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Recipe comes from Land O Lakes.

They Are Like Flowers

I was walking through the living room and saw that Pandora was playing a song by Duncan somebody.  It made me think of Bryan Duncan.  And that immediately took me back to San Cruz and meeting Bryan Duncan with my cousins.  Those were such good memories.  I would spend part of the summer with my Grandmother in Northern California and she would take me down to San Jose to spend a weekend with my cousins.  My cousins and I (well the girls anyway) would make up dances to songs.  One of the main artists we listened to at the time was Bryan Duncan.  So going to Santa Cruz to the beach boardwalk with them and meeting him was exciting or at least it was for me.

It's funny how some memories stick with you and other stuff is just gone.  And why is the stuff that isn't all that important sticks with you and things you really need to remember have left.  A few other memories I still remember are tips people have passed along to me.  A friend college told me once that when she makes her bed she puts the comforter on so the tag is on the head end of the bed instead of the foot.  That way when she wakes up in the night and the blankets are disheveled she can figure out how to put it back together by the tag. I still use that with the extra blanket on my side of the bed.  Another tip I remember is one I learned in jr. high.  If your pencil has an eraser that is hard and just won't erase anymore, rub it on the carpet until it is soft and erases easily.  The carpet takes off that hard crust that has developed.

These small things I remember aren't important but they make life a little better. They are like flowers.  They aren't that important, but they make life a little better.  I have found while cooking & baking it's those little things that makes the food taste so much better.  My mom's zucchini bread has that small thing that makes it so much better.  I actually don't know what it is, but her recipe tastes so much better than other recipes I've tried.

Zucchini Bread
3 eggs
1 cup oil
2 cups sugar
2 cups grated zucchini, squeeze the water out
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 325.  Grease 2 loaf pans. Beat eggs till they are light, add oil, sugar, zucchini and vanilla.  mix well.  Add remaining ingredients.  Bake 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Due to Popular Demand...

After a bad day, I gave in and made some muffins to lift my spirits.  I had found this recipe years ago.  The recipe was a basic muffin recipe with lots of variations. I printed all of them out and laminated the page.  I made up muffin mix packets and took it all to the beach for a singles beach weekend.  Apparently laminating the page makes you OCD.  My friends teased me about it.  But I have yet to lose it or ruin it.

Making the muffins brings back great memories of trips to the beach.  And makes me long for days spent in the water and grilled fresh off the boat shrimp.

After posting on Facebook that I was making the muffins, several people asked for the recipe. So due to popular demand:

Preheat oven to 375
3 oz semisweet chocolate squares
1/2 cup butter
heat in microwave until melted, stirring frequently

Mix together chocolate mixture
2 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/4 cup Nutella

Spray muffin pan with Pam, pour batter into pan so they are 3/4 full. Before putting into oven drop 1 tsp Nutella on top of each muffin. Bake 25 minutes (I had to bake them for 30). Cool and enjoy.

Temporarily...

Growing up in church, I learned that our bodies are temporary.  I somewhat understood that but not fully.  As I've gotten older my body is beginning to not work like it used to, and I have begun to understand more. I can't do handstands anymore because my back will hurt for the next week.  And back bends are completely out of the question.  And Last night as I lay awake thinking and being frustrated with my body, I got it even more.  My body is not me.  It just where I live for now.

I look forward to the day when I don't have to put up with a body that doesn't work right.  But for now I have to put up with the issues.  I know that as I get older there will be more problems.  But today the problems seem big and hard to deal with.  After a second miscarriage, I am frustrated with my body.  My body that can't seem to carry a pregnancy past the first trimester without medical help.

I understand that God is in control and has a plan.  I just wish it all could be easier.  But as a friend who is battling cancer reminded me, someday we will see the victory in all this pain.

So as I move forward in this flawed body, pray for me.  Pray for Lance and I as we continue in our journey to try to have children.  Pray that the doctors can figure out a plan for my flawed body.  Also, please pray for my friend Jen who has 3 small children and is battling cancer. You can read about her journey at http://jenmcmanus.blogspot.com/ and you can read the letters her husband is writing to her through her journey at http://letterstojen.com/