No New Things

So today I was going to blog about the wonderfulness that is my Kose Softymo Cleansing Oil from amazon.  The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I am so often entranced by things.  I am such a typical American consumer, caught up in the world and the things it tells me I need.  I read about something on a blog or in a magazine, and I'm to the store or purchasing it on Amazon before I even realize it.  And I'm often giddy with the chance to try something new.  I love the experience of exploring a new beauty product or making a new recipe.  If I'm sad, I buy some lipgloss.  Going to a party?  I need a new dress.

But at the end of the day, those things are only things.  Things that I let get in the way of my relationship with God.  Things are ok when I remember that they are only things.  But sometimes I forget.  I choose to forget.  How terrible!  How seriously wretched am I! 

So for the next 30 days, I am committing myself to buy no new things.  I have more than enough.  If I run out of something, that's different (if I actually run out of laundry detergent or something practical, not like I'm "almost out" of mascara).  Just to challenge myself to stop being so materialistic and give the focus back to God.  What if instead of walking around Target for an hour I meditate upon His words?  Sit down and just soak in His goodness?

This will be hard for me.  Harder than I even realize yet.  But it needs to happen.  Has to happen.  I need to get out of my own way for once and let Him in.

Tortilla and Black Bean Pie

We had some friends over the other night and I made a very modified version of Martha Stewart's Tortilla and Black Bean Pie.

Here is her recipe:

Ingredients (serves 6):

• 4 flour tortillas (10 inches)
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 jalapeno chile, minced (remove seeds and ribs for less heat)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
• 2 cans (15 ounces each) black beans, drained and rinsed
• 12 ounces beer, or 1 1/2 cups water (I used Bud Light with Lime)
• 1 package (10 ounces) frozen corn
• 4 scallions, thinly sliced, plus more for garnish
• 8 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded (2 1/2 cups)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. With a paring knife, trim tortillas to fit a 9-inch springform pan. Use the bottom of the pan as a guide. Set aside.
2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, jalapeno, garlic, and cumin; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 5 to 7 minutes.
3. Add beans and beer, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium; simmer until liquid has almost evaporated, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in corn and scallions, and remove from heat. Taste and adjust for seasoning.
4. Fit a trimmed tortilla in bottom of springform pan; layer with 1/4 of the beans and 1/2 cup of cheese. Repeat three times, using 1 cup cheese on top layer. Bake until cheese melts, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove side of pan; sprinkle pie with scallions. To serve, slice into wedges.

The tortillas I bought didn't need to be trimmed- they fit right into my springform pan.  Also, because this was originally a vegetarian recipe and we were having company, I added a layer of browned ground beef in (which I suggest seasoning).  I also made some refried beans that I used as the bottom layer to "anchor" the other two layers in.  I also forgot to add the corn into the black bean mixture (that's what I get for rushing around trying to get ready for our friends), so my husband helped me take off the layers and shove some corn in there.  It turned out fine.  :)

I honestly really enjoyed this recipe.  It would have been great with chicken instead of the ground beef.  I had sour cream, salsa, and warm queso out to use as condiments (which was good because the recipe was slightly dry).  And it must have been somewhat good, because the couple Facebooked me and asked for the recipe!  Yay. 

FRIENDS:

My husband and I have been making an effort to have people over more lately.  Now that I am done with school and we have more time, our evenings are pleasantly free.  And since I love any excuse to cook/ bake/ play hostess, it really makes me feel special.  I have enjoyed the last two weeks of guests and am really looking forward to who we will have over in the future.

I recently started doing some workouts from bodybuilding.com.  This has been my first experience lifting weights or even going onto the "boy" side of the gym.  After 4 weeks of 2-3 weekly workouts, I have discovered that I LOVE lifting weights.  It feels so good.  It's satisfying to walk in with a plan (I am using the Jamie Eason Live Fit plan) and complete it well.  Now that I (mostly) have the workout portion of my life under control, I am set to tackle the diet part of my life.

Today I made a recipe suggested from my workout plan.  Target and Walmart were both out of ground turkey and ground chicken, so I had to go to a different Walmart later in the day.

I made a rookie mistake when making my muffins- I had put in all my spices and looked down to realize I was holding a tablespoon instead of a teaspoon.  Not really sure how that happened...I tried to scoop out the extra, but the muffins are a little spicy.  Zing! 

Here is the recipe (from bodybuilding.com):

Turkey Meatloaf Muffins

Calories: 80
Fats: 2 grams
Carbs: 4 grams
Protein: 11 grams

 

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs ground turkey (or chicken)
• 3 egg whites
• 1 cup quick cooking oats
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 2 tsp dry yellow mustard
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp chipotle pepper spice
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp garlic powder (2 cloves minced)
• 1 small onion (finely chopped)
• 2 celery stalks (finely chopped)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Spray muffin pan with canola or olive oil.
3. Mix all your ingredients together in one large bowl.
4. Roll the mixture into balls and place in muffin pan. Muffins should be about the size of a racquetball.
5. Bake for 40 minutes.
   Makes 12 muffins.
   
   Serving Size:
   Women: 2 muffins
   Men: 4 muffins

Fake Butterfingers

Is anyone else out there as addicted to Pinterest as I am? I love the site and frequent it daily. I have the app on my phone. My sister and I send pictures and ideas via text message multiple times a week. Instead of browsing the web for cooking/ craft/ beauty ideas, I simply pull up the "Everything" tab and have it all at my fingertips.

Last night I attempted the butterfingers recipe from Plain Chicken's blog. Thank you, Plain Chicken and Pinterest!!! (http://www.plainchicken.com/2010/11/homemade-butterfingers.html?m=1). I loved that the recipe only called for three ingredients (hey, I am still a poor college student).

I went to my parents' for our weekly NCIS night and set the ingredients out on the counter- a jar of honey roasted peanut butter and a bag of candy corn. My sweet momma came up and asked "Oh, you're making butterfingers?". I was amazed at her powers of deduction, because I would have never guessed that! Ever! My mom is a genius.

I could only find a 24 oz bag of candy corn at my baby Target store (which meant that after I measured out two cups I had some to snack on, yum). Baby Target also did not carry the candy coat. Boo. I drizzled melted chocolate chips on top of some of my pieces, but it wasn't that good. I wouldn't recommend that.

On a side note, dark chocolate can be dairy free. But I have yet to find any dark chocolate, dairy free chips. Which is probably a sign to just stay away, but I love it so.

I found that the candy corn cooled very quickly and also got very hot, so be careful to stir quickly and use pot holders. I had to swap out my spatula for a wooden spoon to keep up with the rough consistency.




I was very happy with this recipe and would make it again. I actually really enjoyed eating mine plain and may not even bother with the candy coating in the future. If you plan on shaping the mixture for pops or using a cookie cutter, you might want to grease your hands slightly.




To change the subject to one of my favorite subjects... The hubs is currently in North Carolina for Rescue School. It sounds pretty awesome. The military has given him some great opportunities, and I'm so thankful God has lead us down this road. God really knows what He's doing. Someday maybe I will learn to be patient and trust Him. That's the goal anyway.

He sent me this picture of him rappelling after a morning lecture. Looks awesome. I wish I was getting paid to go rappelling! I also wish I got paid to sit on my couch in my flannel pj's watching Wizards of Waverly Place, but that's probably not going to happen too soon, so I'll hang onto my day job.




He is so cute!!

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Vegan Green Bean Casserole

The main dish at bible study this week was a pasta bar (which was a very fun and new idea). Lee and I decided to make a green bean casserole, which is one of his favorite side dishes.

I found an awesome Pioneer Woman recipe on her website that involved bacon. I think my husband would love it. However, I decided to search for a version that I could actually eat.

I found the recipe by a simple Google search. I just love Google. I pretty much followed the recipe as is. Well, I followed it some. I used frozen onion (which I didn't measure out) and canned mushrooms to save money and to make my life easier as I was cooking at my in-laws' house. I accidentally bought herb and spice chicken bouillon, so I didn't add much other seasoning. I used two cans of green beans instead of one. I also didn't really know what size of fried onions to get, so I used two of the bigger Walmart brand bags. I think those are all my changes...
















I think the recipe said to mix it fast as it would coagulate, but I saw no coagulation occurring. Since the final product was good (better than normal, in my opinion), I think it's ok.

Yay for a successful dairy-free recipe!!!

http://www.godairyfree.org/Recipes/Sides/Green-Bean-Casserole-Vegan.html

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Funfetti Dip

We had a going away party for my sister last week with my dad's side of the family. All of his immediate family lives in our town, so it makes get-togethers fairly easy. We didn't meet until 7:30, so we just indulged in desserts. I made a Funfetti Dip I had seen on Pinterest. The recipe is below.

Since I'm lactose intolerant, I only ate a few bites. (I'm obviously still having an issue cooking like I can't eat dairy). I liked it, but honestly didn't find it that different from just eating icing. However, my husband loved it and ate on it all week. So I will probably make it for him again. It's also good for parties. We ate it with animal crackers. I think you could probably change up the type of cake mix or the dipping item and get pretty creative. You could probably even use it as a special frosting.


http://www.littlebittybakes.com/2011/01/3-2-1-funfetti-cake-batter-dip.html?m=1


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Flood

Our house flooded early last week. I walked in to our office/ storage space to grab a pair of scrubs and experienced a gush of water flowing over my foot. What an early morning surprise!

It turned out that two rooms of the house and some hallway space had flooded. We're still not entirely sure why. We had to rip up the carpet and the house is still drying out. It smells damp and moldy. Since Lee's grandpa built the house 55-plus years ago, there are a few special aspects to that house, including the fact that the windows don't open and some lovely yellow linoleum that looks like carpet.





In a miracle show that only God can be recognized for, the majority of our stuff that was resting on the soaked carpet remained dry. Considering all the supplies my sister had been storing to take to Africa were in there, as well as three boxes of childhood memories, that was pretty dang awesome.

Staying at the in-laws has been pretty fun. I enjoy seeing them and spending time with their dogs. And they have cable! And snacks. It has been a little annoying trying to shuttle my clothes and toiletries back and forth. It seems like I never have what I need in the place I am located. It also has been a pain driving 15 minutes each way to go home and play/feed/ love on our dogs. Other than that, it has been enjoyable staying over here.

Have you ever had a flooded home? What did you do?