Focus

...or the lack thereof.

I have attempted two posts this afternoon, and deleted both. We'll see how far this one gets. Today is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, and tomorrow is the March for Life. Appropriately, but coincidentally, I just finished a novel by Karen Kingsbury, called Shades of Blue. It was typical Christian fiction in some ways, but not typical in others. It is a story about abortion and its aftermath, about grief and forgiveness. The author's original inspiration was the sad song from a few years back by Tim McGraw, "Red Ragtop." It wasn't a book that I "couldn't put down" and I found it very heavy. But it was powerful. I thought some of the characters were more believable than others, and maybe the story was slightly sugar-coated (what Christian fiction isn't?). I thought overall, however, that it was a good fictional treatment of a very difficult issue.

My mom sent me the link to the website for an upcoming documentary about another side of the abortion issue. I encourage you to watch the trailer. It is absolutely heartbreaking.


I have studying to do. We have youth group tonight. The Ravens are playing on TV. Both of us here are supporting them- me because I always do, N because they're playing the Patriots. As I said, focus isn't my strongpoint today. But at least I finished a post!

Tentative Meal Plan

Here it is for the week. The lentil soup is already in the crockpot. Friday and Saturday are "to be determined" still, but I am planning to find something to cook so we have leftovers for early next week.

Monday- Lentil soup (sausage, tomatoes, carrots, onions, garlic)

Tuesday- Spinach and Sausage Quiche (the rest of the sausage)

Wednesday- leftover Pasta with Chicken/Feta/Olives

Thursday- leftovers/on the go

Pasta with Chicken, Tomatoes and Feta

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
salt and pepper
olive oil
1 pound/box rotini (or some other short pasta)
2 cups cherry/grape tomatoes, halved
1 1/2 c. crumbled feta cheese (6 oz)
1/2 c. pitted kalamata olives, halved
1/4 chopped fresh parsley

Pat chicken dry with paper towels, season with salt and paper. Cook in olive oil in skillet until browned and cooked through. Transfer to cutting board and tent with foil. Let rest 5 minutes, slice thinly crosswise and reserve.
Cook pasta until al dente in salted water. Reserve 1 1/2 cups cooking water, drain and return to pot. Stir in sliced chicken, feta, olives, parsley and 1 cup pasta water. The hot water will melt the feta and create a light sauce, so add additional water as needed. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

*Above is the real recipe, that I found somewhere on the internet a few years ago. I cut the chicken up beforehand and then cook it. Not as elegant, but much faster. Plus, with the extra chicken broth they inject into boneless skinless chicken breasts, you end up cooking the chicken in broth instead of actually sauteing it, so it doesn't end up browning very well anyway. Whole wheat pasta works great in this recipe, so because it doesn't generally come in a pound box I use 1 box. More veggies and less carbs is a good thing, right? I use more tomatoes than called for, if I have them, 1/8 cup dried parsley if that's what I have, and less feta if I only have a 5 oz container. I also sometimes use green olives, since they are cheaper and come pitted. Plus they're smaller so you can get away without cutting them in half if you want. They don't have the subtlety of the kalamata olives, but they still taste good.*

This is always a hit around here. In fact, it is essentially the same dish we ate recently at an Italian restaurant at the rehearsal dinner for a friend's wedding. It isn't exactly a quick meal, and it uses several pots. If I'm planning to make this, I have to plan on buying the ingredients, since feta, grape tomatoes and olives aren't regular pantry-stocking items for me. It is a good meal, however. Leftovers work fine, though the tomatoes do end up more cooked when reheated.

Resolutions- meal planning

It's that time of year (or it was a couple weeks ago) when we think about New Year's resolutions. I never do this very formally, but it is something that bounces around in my head as I go about life.

My main/mundane one this year is to get back into the habit of meal planning. It really does make life so much easier when I have some idea of what I'm going to cook, instead of rummaging through the pantry at 4:30 (though some of those meals turn out very well). Planning doesn't have to take much time, either. I tend to beat myself up about it if I am not doing a good job organizing meals, cleaning, or generally keeping up with life. That is another issue, but at least if I can keep up with meals my life will have some semblance of order.

I like to cook, but for some reason I just haven't been very motivated to do it over the past few months. My husband bought me a new cookbook for Christmas, which has given me something new and fun to look at when meal planning. No matter how many wonderful food blogs and recipe websites there are, I still love getting a new cookbook. If they didn't take up so much space, I would probably have many more than I do!

This week, due to traveling and general craziness, has been the first week I've really gotten to any actual planning.
- Monday: Chilli from the freezer
- Tuesday: Quinoa with black beans (from the new cookbook)- very simple (not much different than the typical black beans and rice) but surprisingly unique
- Wednesday: Taco salad- I threw in chopped carrots when I cooked the meat to make it go further (and lower cholesterol/fat, of course), and froze half of the finished and seasoned meat so I will have something quick and easy to pull out when I need it.

That's as far as I got. Baby steps, right?

- Today, I think it will be frozen pizza. (Yes, I'm copping out. Remember, baby steps.)
- Friday- Pasta with chicken, feta and olives. I haven't made that recipe in a while, since it's not the cheapest or quickest, but it's so good.

Sometimes I will cook 2-3 times and plan leftovers the rest of the nights, but rather than do that this week, I designated leftovers as lunches. The pasta should make enough for both, however.

Anyway, we will finally be home over the weekend, so I should have more time to plan ahead. I'm actually little excited about that. Who knows? Maybe I'll try to post my plan each week, to give myself a little accountability (since my wonderful husband is happy and thinks I am doing a fantastic job even when I pull something together at the last minute).

On a more serious note, I very much appreciated this post from Nancy Wilson about contentment. Point number 8 really struck home, but they are all good reminders.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas to all!

I realize that I have been posting about food lately, but Christmas really is about more than that. It is easy to think it is about giving, hospitality, family and friends and many other excellent things. But at the heart it is about Christ's birth to live a perfect life and die on the cross for us when we were dead in our sins. It is about what He did for us to enable us to come to the Father, God in heaven.

Linus tells the Christmas story well:

Key Lime Pie

I was so excited about these I had to share. Yesterday was my husband's birthday, and since he isn't a big fan of cake I always have to figure out what dessert to put the candles in. I had these Mrs. Field's Chocolate Dessert Shells that I had been waiting for a good chance to use and there was a recipe for key lime pie on the back. I love key lime pie, and this was so easy and so good. All it took was a 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk, 1/2 cup of fresh squeezed lime zest, 1 tsp. (plus a little more because I tasted it and wanted more lime flavor), beat, pour into shells and chill 2 hours. You could put whipped cream on top, but they honestly didn't need it. And they look fantastic (I can say that because they were so easy to make, right?)! They were a hit and I know for a fact I will be making key lime pie again in the future.

Holiday Cooking and Baking, part I

I started Tuesday with Preacher Cookies (a.k.a. no-bakes) and spiced pretzels for my wonderful students. Our last class was Wednesday.

I made latkes for supper that night as well, in honor of the first night of Hanukkah. We ate them with sour cream, the first jar of my own canned stewed apples that we've opened, and green salads. The apples were great, and I was so pleased that the jar was still completely sealed and they weren't too mushy as I had worried they could be after processing. The latkes were good too, though I'm not sure they were perfectly fried. I am not an expert in frying things (this is the only case I would do it) and I'm ok with that. I only partially followed the recipe above.

This morning I made gingerbread dough and cut, baked and decorated the cookies with my sister and nieces. They tasted good, some turned out well...



Some not so much.
We still had a good time though!