I was craving some seasonal goodness this a.m. but was running too short on time to make Pumpkin Apple Muffins. This healthy, delicious smoothie was easy to make and really hit the spot!
Pumpkin Smoothie
Mix the following in your blender:
¼ cup canned pumpkin
1 chopped banana
¾ cup vanilla soymilk (or 1% milk)
A couple ice cubes
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 TBSP honey
*Optional: A handful of raw spinach or any other leafy green
Purchasing and writing in a brand new Moleskine journal – I love starting new journals, it’s like opening a new page of life!
Preparing the pitch for the On.a.Whim fall giveaway.
Reading through every. single. inch. of the October issue of Shelbyco Magazine out later this week.
Oh yeah, commenting capability is back up at On.a.Whim!
I would love to learn what crafts, projects, recipes, events, etc. say “Happy Fall” to you! I have a certain number in my mind. If you're the ?th person to respond, I'll treat you to a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte!
No two words express southern cooking like "fried" or "butter- milk." Now you can enjoy the indulgence of this delicious pork dish without the heavy caloric load of its pan-fried version. This is the first of two autumn recipes featured in the fall issue ofShelbyco Magazine (out next week!)
Ingredients:
2 cups non-fat buttermilk
4, 6-oz boneless, skinless porkchops
2 cups dried bread crumbs
1 1-oz packet mushroom onion soup mix
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1 cup flour + 1 tsp salt mixture
• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• Coat a non-stick baking sheet with cooking spray.
• Pour buttermilk in a deep baking dish. Submerge chops in buttermilk for at least five minutes.
• Create a "dipping station" with three separate plates.
Plate 1: Flour + salt mixture
Plate 2: Dijon mustard
Plate 3: Bread crumbs + soup mix
• Transfer each chop from Plate 1 to Plate 2 to Plate 3, dipping chop on both sides in each mixture.
• Place chops flat on baking sheet.
• Bake 15 minutes, flipping each chop over halfway through baking time.
• Let chops rest before serving.
Recipe created and tested in the On.a.Whim kitchen.
As soon as the temperature begins to drop, I get an itch for certain types of comfort dishes. My mother’s variation of red beans and rice, which called for black-eyed peas rather than red beans, was a staple in our home when we were growing up. This is my easy, lighter and spicier red-beaned variety.
Ingredients:
1 package Hillshire Farm Lite Polska Kielbasa
2 cans light red kidney beans, drained
1 package Uncle Ben’s boil-in-the-bag brown rice
2 cups water (more as necessary)
1 white onion, finely chopped
2 TBSP olive oil
1 TBSP minced garlic
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. salt
• Heat olive oil in Dutch Oven over medium heat. Add and sauté onions and garlic.
• Add beans, two cups of water, salt and chili powder.
• Bring water to a boil then turn to medium heat and cover.
• Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring frequently and adding water when needed.
• Add sausage. Stir and cook an additional 15 minutes.
• In the meantime, cook rice as directions indicate.
My father taught me to work hard, to bend my shoulder to a task until I finished it, regardless of how wearying or tedious it was. He instilled in me a solid work ethic and an attitude equivalent to what the apostle Paul taught the Thessalonians: if you don't work, you won't eat.
But he never said you had to like it, or if he did, I missed that lesson.
After I had been through several jobs -- gas jockey, short-order cook, house painter, grocery boy, baker's helper -- and found some reason, several reasons, to despise them all, I began to wonder if there was a better way.
There was. The apostle Paul, instructing slaves, became my teacher. His best and most enduring lesson was this: whatever you can do with a clean conscience, you can do to the glory of God. No work is so menial that it cannot be rendered as worship. As I began to knead the reality of that truth into the details of my tasks, my attitude changed dramatically. I found joy in toil. My attitude, once toxic, turned tonic. I was not just inspired for the work; I became, for others, inspiring in it.
What if your work became worship? What if the work of your hands -- repairing lawn movers, scoring pots, paving streets, mending bones, balancing ledgers -- was Eucharistic, a sacrament of God's presence that you gave and received? What if Jesus himself was your boss, the One who watched over you and whom you honored with your with your efforts?
Here's a radical idea: next time you're tempted to complain about your work, praise God for it instead. Next time you open your mouth to gossip about people you work with or smear those you work for, stop yourself and turn in the other direction; pray for them, thank God for them, find the good in them. Next time you want to quit, pour that into worship....
...God wants to establish the work of your hands, but he's asking you to lend a hand.
This season's book list welcomes a bounty of good literature from historical fiction to memoir; from Bonhoeffer to Steinbeck. I'm eager to indulge. Here's the rundown:
1. All That is Bitter and Sweet byAshley Judd
Do not be deceived; Ashley Judd is far more than pretty movie star and kin to country music legends. Turns out she has heart. A lot of it which she is using, along with her smarts, skills and connections to reach the victims of AIDS, poverty and sex trade in Africa, India and beyond. So far this book has challenged my preconceptions and propelled me to live out Micah 6:8 in my own small sphere of influence.
2. The Rest of God by Mark Buchanan
"The world is not dying for another book.
But it is dying for the rest of God."
Thus Author Mark Buchanan invites his readers to join him in setting sail against society's never-ending tide of productivity and output into Sabbath rest. Referenced inthis blogpost,Buchanan's writing is both gripping and enchanting as he draws us through personal life experiences in his native Canada.
3. The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”
Thought to be one of the great American classics, I hope the character's are half as engaging as the Trasks.
5.The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
Three falls ago, Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle kept me entranced. In what is considered her most ambitious undertaking to date, Kingsolver explains World War II era Mexico and the United States from the perspective of a half gringo, half mexican boy. Rich, descriptive language pulls you through this great piece of historical fiction. Watch out though, the faint at heart will find portions too long winded, precluding them from getting to a real gem of a closer.
6. A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanuaken
Prior to conversion, Sheldon's life passion was his wife "Davy," and his entire focus was the perpetuation of their great love affair. Then, through his faith, his intimate friendship with C.S. Lewis and the untimely death of Davy, Sheldon learns even the best of marriages pales in comparison to our relationship with Christ.
7. The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith by Timothy Keller
This was the September selection for book club, and it provided some good discussions on our preconceptions of the Luke 15:11-32 parable. From the author himself:
"Surprising, gripping, and deeply challenging; this book will mess with you. It will mess with your religious self-perceptions, it will mess with the contempt you have toward wayward believers or Pharisaical believers. It will mess you up in the best of ways by showing you that the gospel is only good news if you’re ready to abandon your religion and irreligion."
After two months of intensity - Sister's wedding in August and a huge fundraising event at work last Thursday - I'm starting to feel the joy of routine. Blessed monotony!
Though it's sometimes necessary, I don't like my life to be caught up in a frenetic pace. When it is, I:
• Say things I do not mean.
• Buy things I do not need.
• Eat convenience food like McDonald's. Yuck.
• Act out instead of remembering to be still.
• Don't backup important InDesign files that disappear when the power goes out and the server hasn't had time to update.
• Curse.
• Leave people out unintentionally.
• Get in careless car wrecks with parked cars in a movie theater parking lot that leaves me $1500 in the hole.
• Miss deadlines.
• Cut my own bangs and end up looking like Sister's childhood Raggedy Ann doll.
• Pursue when I know full well my job is to be pursued.
• Lock my keys in my car. Twice. In a month.
• Miss home group.
• Act pridefully.
• Blow up at well-meaning text messages.
• Lose sleep.
• Don't sleep at all.
Over the weekend, some time was redeemed by:
• Pool time with Kathryn and Rollins.
• A phone call from St. George, UT.
• TCBY and candid conversation with Christen.
• Time in the Word.
• A good night's rest.
• A long walk with an increasingly dear friend.
• A powerful worship service.
• Reading good literature.
• This song by Andrew Peterson which is awesome. Well, any song by A.P. is awesome, but this one is speaking to me at this very moment. The lyrics remind us to lean into something lasting. Planting trees.
Planting Trees
We chose the spot, we dug the hole
We laid the maples in the ground to have and hold As Autumn falls to Winters We pray that somehow in the Spring
If you're anything like me, you have a stack of jeans in your closet waiting for a pair of legs to walk them around. Yet you always grab for that same, familiar pair. I still have a favorite pair of American Eagle's from HIGH SCHOOL, and that would also be the story of these obscure name-brand skinny jeans I purchased last fall at Francescas.
I've worn them in the snow with knee boots, with sandals and tank top, and with heels and button down. I've worn them so much that the color has worn right off them.
In the hopes of wearing them a little bit more + saving money instead of buying a new pair, I found a new friend:
Rit Dye is super cheap (we're talking under $5), comes in a plethora of fun colors and can be purchased at Michael's or on their amazing website. So, take one more look at the faded version of my favorite jeans before I walk you through their hue-enhancing transformation!
There are multiple ways to dye clothing. You can dye in your washing machine, on the stove top, in a laundry sink, or like I did, in a *clean* mop bucket.
All you do is pour the dye contents as well as a kettle full of boiling water into the bucket where the jeans, which have been dampened, eagerly await.
Then, with gloved hands, continuously twist, turn and spin
the contents like a manual washing machine.
Be careful, the water's H-O-T!
Continue for about 20 minutes or until the dye looks like it has fully seeped into the fabric.
Rinse with warm, then cold water in a sink until the water flows clear, free of dye.
Wring out, wash on normal cycle (cold water) in washing machine, line dry and voilà.
A "new" pair of favorite jeans from just a few bucks and two hours' worth of ingenuity provides endless personal satisfaction. I wish you all the best with your dying endeavors. I'm pretty confident this is just the first of many more for me.
