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.