RECIPES

I mentioned in a previous blog this week that I LOVE to eat. I would like to share ten of our “favorite” recipes. Some of them are “healthy” and some of them you just have to practice portion control, but ALL OF THEM are SUPER EASY.

1. Strawberry Smoothie – 1 cup of skim milk and 1 cup of frozen, unsweetened strawberries. Place in a blender until smooth. Add artificial sweetener if desired. Yummy!!!


2. Pineapple Upside Down Cake – 1 box of angel food cake mix and 1 can of crushed pineapples in it’s own juice. Add together and bake in a 9x13 inch pan as directed on the cake mix box. *NOTE….pineapple may be substituted with diet or light cherry or any other flavor of pie filling.


3. Company Mashed Potatoes – Instant mashed potatoes, prepared as direction; sour cream; shredded cheddar cheese; salt & pepper to taste. Prepare the instant potatoes. Add the other ingredients.


4. Easy Lasagna – 1 lb. ground round, 1 can of Meat Flavored Hunts Spaghetti Sauce, 1 box of lasagna noodles, bag shredded mozzarella cheese, and bag of shredded cheddar cheese. Brown ground round and drain. Add spaghetti sauce. Spray pan with oil. Spread a thin layer of sauce on the bottom. Place a layer of dried, uncooked noodles. Add a layer of meat mixture. Sprinkle with both cheeses. Continue layering until the pan is full. Last layer should be meat sauce. Pour ½ can of water around the edges and cover with plastic wrap. Place in the refrigerator overnight. Take out and cook for 375 degrees until warm. Add lots of cheese on top and melt.


5. Corn Salad – two cans of nibblet corn, 1 red pepper, small sweet onion, enough mayonnaise to wet the mixture. (approximately ½ cup) Chop up onion and red pepper. Add mayonnaise and mix well. Add one bag of chili & cheese Frito chips just before serving.


6. Hominy Casserole - 2 cans of hominy, peppers and onions, (mushrooms; optional) can of chopped tomatoes and several slices of pre-cooked bacon. Saute peppers, onions and mushroom in a tiny bit of oil. After brown, add hominy, bacon and tomatoes and heat until warm.


7. Baked Pork Tenderloin – line your baking pan with heavy duty foil. Take whole pork tenderloin and rub with Nature’s Own Seasoning (or if you prefer, garlic powder). Place in the foil lined pan and pour half a bottle of Low Sodium Soy Sauce over it. Completely cover with foil and cook in oven at 400 degrees for approximately thirty minutes. Check it half way through cooking and spoon mixture over meat. After thirty minutes, take it out of oven and check to see if it is done. If it is, leave foil off the top and put back in the over until brown. Slice and eat. Very tender and tasty.


8. Baked Salmon – line baking pan with aluminum foil. Wash fresh salmon and lay on foil with skin on the bottom. Season with lemon pepper and rosemary. Cook in oven for approximately 30-40 minutes at 350 degrees.


9. Easy Punch – 1 large can Pink Minute Maid Lemonade and 1 two-liter Sprite Zero. Mix together and serve. (If you do not want pink punch, use regular lemonade and add ½ small pkg. of jello mixture for coloring.)


10. Cheese Ball - 8 oz. cream cheese, 16 oz. shredded cheddar cheese, 1/2 tsp. Tabasco Sauce, 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire Sauce, 1 small chopped onion, approximately 1/2 jar of Bacon Bits and chopped Jalapeno Peppers to taste. Let cheese soften and add all ingredients together. Roll into a large ball or two smaller balls. Roll the ball into chopped pecans. Place in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Serve with crackers of your choice. This is always a requested finger food.

I always welcome new recipes. Being the PW...pastor's wife, everyone is watching to see what dish I bring to the many "church functions".

Now...post your favorite recipe.... especially if it is super easy and even better if it is healthy. Smile.

TEAM PLAYER

Just a reminder from Monday's blog....Be a Great Team Player in all areas of your life and remember... to be on the winning team, you must keep your focus on God.

Love is in the air AGAIN!

"For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh."
Mark 10:7, 8

Last night our son proposed to his girlfriend of several years. (Vicki Lee...sorry, but I copied your heading from Valentines. Smile.) Cody and Melanie met his first year of college. This is an exciting time in the "Britton household". We had already staked claims on Melanie, but now it is official. They are so perfect for each other and they share many of the same interests, with God being the most important. I am looking forward to all of the plans that God has in store for this young couple. Please keep them in your prayers...as they prepare for the rest of their lives.

Our daughter got engaged five years ago and is about to celebrate their fourth anniversary. We gave birth to two children, but God gave us four children in all. (We feel very blessed to be able to call our son-in-law and our future daughter-in-law our children too.)

Portion Distortion

“Our bodies are the temple of God” as clearly stated in 1 Corinthians 6: 19-20. I feel like this means that not only should we glorify God in our spirit, but also in our bodies.

I must confess….I struggle with this. I LOVE to eat and being bi-vocational, we are CONSTANTLY on the road, so it is hard to eat right when you are rarely at home.

I am trying very hard to make better, healthier choices. Diets do not work for me, so I have given up on dieting. Right now, I am trying to make wiser choices, without dieting and so far it is working SLOWLY, but as well if not better than dieting. I am hoping that by tackling the food battle with this approach, I am making life changing habits that I can live with for the rest of my life. There is no food that I do not eat, but I try to make wiser choices and I try to use portion control.

Average portion sizes have increased so much over the past twenty years that now when you go out to a restaurant to eat, your single entree will have enough food on the platter to feed 2-3 adults. We have gotten used to the large quantities of food, so even at home our portions have increased. This is called PORTION DISTORTION.

I know that most of you probably already know these simple portion control secrets and possibly even use them, but I like to be reminded of them from time to time, so I am going to share them with you.

• A man's fist = one cup
• A tennis ball = 1 cup
• The cupped hand of a man = 1/2 cup
• A 60 watt light bulb = one fruit or potato serving
• The palm of a ladies hand = 3 oz. protein serving
• A deck of playing cards = 3 oz. of meat
• 1 book of matches = 1 oz. of protein
• A thumb = 1 oz. of cheese
• A tube of lipstick or three dominoes = 1 1/2 - 2 oz. of cheese
• Tip of the thumb = 1 teaspoon
• 1 dice = 1 teaspoon
• 1 handful of nuts or small candies = 1 oz.
• 2 handfuls of chips or pretzels = 2 oz.
• 1 golf ball = 2 Tablespoons of peanut butter
• 1 hockey puck = 1 bagel

Another portion control solution is to use a salad plate instead of a dinner plate and NEVER go back for seconds.

As I mentioned earlier, this is one area in my life that I really struggle with. I am always looking for new ideas. Do any of you have any other portion control secrets or any other helpful hints that I might be able to use? I would appreciate ANY HINTS OR IDEAS!!!

PLAY BALL!!!

We are approximately one month from the Atlanta Brave’s 2011 baseball season. Being from Huntsville, Alabama, all of my family, with the exception of our son-in-law, is Roll Tide fans, however, baseball is the sport of our choice. Our daughter played softball from a very young age all the way through high school and our son played baseball for twelve years so many, many springs were spent at the ball complex.
It is awesome to watch a winning team and how they all work together. No ONE person can carry the load of the entire team; it takes everyone working together. All positions are very important. It does not make any difference how good the pitcher is if he does not have a great catcher, infield and outfield. A great pitcher alone is just a great pitcher, but to be a WINNING TEAM, it takes ALL POSITIONS.

In little league baseball, it amazes me at the end of the season when the all-star team is chosen from opposing teams. This new team of all-stars, while during the regular baseball season played against each other, now put their differences aside, and joins together as a new team.

How awesome!!! In church, shouldn't we all be team players working together?

One of the problems in churches today is we sometimes fail to work together as a TEAM. Many times we find ourselves on committees with folks that are not necessarily our friends; sometimes we do not even really know them; and sometimes we may not particularly personally LIKE them……….BUT….we have to learn to put our differences aside and work together. No one position in the church is anymore important than another one; it takes everyone working together. Every team member is important.

In churches, many times a few “gifted” folks seem to carry the entire load. This is not scriptural. You may not be the “pitcher” but you are just as important and the team needs you to be a winner. God gives an example of the importance of team-work in the first chapter of Mark. Jesus chose a small “team” of twelve “common men” as disciples to train and help him carry out the work that God had sent him to do. Jesus was perfect; he could do all things and could have easily carried out all of the work single-handed, however, he chose the twelve men to show the importance of teamwork.

In the beginning, the team of disciples were hardly a winning strong team, but with guidance, hard work and training, all of them with the exception of Judas, grew together to establish a winning team. The Atlanta Braves, or any other team, will not become a winning team without guidance, hard work and training.

Team players are very important whether at home, at church or in our secular world. But, all teams have to train, practice and work together to become a winning team. It does not just happen without a lot of hard work.

In all areas of our lives, let’s strive to be good team-players. I promise the rewards will be worth all of the hard work.

Okay ladies, Let’s Play Ball!!!

"THAT" Mom

I was "THAT" mom today at the grocery store. As I went up and down the aisles at our neighborhood Kroger, Piper went from her pleasant self to her "passionate" self. She did not understand that just because she was done with the shopping didn't mean that her mother was too.

As a passed the baking goods and tried to pick up some chicken, she started calling/chanting/wailing for her daddy. I felt like joining in. I really did wish Wally could appear from frozen foods and relieve me and her of her displeasure.

I gained a few sympathetic glances from some other moms who have been there and done that, but for the most part, no one else would make eye contact with me. I was "THAT" mom.

I could have given in. I could have given her what she wanted. I could have gone ahead and opened the powdered doughnuts (for my Sunday School Class) and allowed her to eat the whole bag.

But I couldn't really could I? I would have just set myself up to be "THAT" mom again next time.

Instead I had to teach Piper THAT she couldn't always have her way, THAT she wasn't in charge and THAT sometimes she would have to do something she didn't want to do. I needed to be "THAT" mom.

The longer I am a mom, the more I understand what Paul meant when he said that women would be saved through child-bearing. My kids teach me so much about our heavenly Father and they constantly keep me on my knees, praying that God would supply all my needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus.

I am still processing today's lessons . . . wondering how God feels when I totally lose "it" with Him, and feeling thankful that He proves I am His by disciplining me. And after my attempt to pay our cell phone bill at the AT&T store, I am also thankful that He hears me when I don't even know how to pray. Let's just say, Passionate Piper made an appearance there too and I will need to go back to pay our bill!

So what has God taught you through your kiddos? I would love to hear your life lessons!

Passionate Piper

In my last post I told you a little about my soon-to-be 2 year-old, Piper. My husband, Wally, used the word "passionate" to describe her the other night and I could not agree more.

Just as she passionately ate that Popsicle, she does everything she does with just as much zeal. When she is happy, she is really happy. When she isn't happy, she really isn't happy. Like a lot of 2 year-old children, she can really lose it LARGE.

Whether she is gently playing with a dolly, giving it tender kisses or throwing the sippy across the room because it was filled with milk instead of juice - she does it passionately.

As Wally and I talked about her the other night, he shared that he was praying that God would redeem her passion for His purposes and glory. I thought that was a perfect, personalized prayer for Piper.

So, this morning, as she "passionately" displayed her displeasure of leaving the house, I prayed as I wrestled her into the car seat, that God would one day use this "passion" to accomplish His means. I prayed that God would turn her "passion" toward Himself and that she would fervently seek Him with all her heart.

This morning as I post I am hoping that you can add some stories of how God has redeemed one of your (or your own's) "old" ways to bring Him renown. Is there a story of how you have seen God use a personality trait from your old sinful nature to use in the new nature in which you now walk?

This mama is looking for a little encouragement here! Please share how you have seen God use the old to make good in the new.