Proverbs 31 and Crohn's

First of all... yes it has been a while. And honestly this may not be a regular thing. I just need somewhere to write my thoughts and unload what's going on inside my brain... and heart.

What does Proverbs 31 have to do with Crohn's? Let's back up a bit... I'll try to make this as brief as possible..

A few months ago my Crohn's was kicking back up. Once or twice a month, I would have a day where I would be in so much pain everything in me wanted to curl up and lay in bed all day... like someone was twisting my insides. It would go away though and I would feel great the next day.

To speed things up, I went to my doctor, swallowed a camera, camera got stuck, had 2 x-rays, silly camera didn't want to come out, eventually it must have, symptoms got worse, I don't eat a whole lot, my doctor didn't like what she saw, said it was worse, ulcers in many spots, narrowing of intestines, my medication wasn't cuttin' it, bring on the steroid, I needed something stronger...

Sounds like a few years ago, I know. And nothing changed with how I felt about that dreaded medication. I still had no peace.

This was about a month and a half ago. Since then I have been on a search for anything besides the medication. I've looked into diets, natural remedies, talked to people, emailed people, read books and I think I'm on to something.

I'm not going to go into it too much or even try to explain it, but basically our bodies were not created to eat or digest the foods that our modern-day society has to offer. God did not design us that way. He designed us to eat what He created for us to eat... sounds simple.  My disease, I believe, has everything to do with what I eat. And, I can tell when I eat something bad or unnatural it triggers my body to flare up against it.

After researching a lot and praying, we, Jeff and I, are going to take a totally different approach on the way we eat. It only makes sense. We put garbage in and that's pretty much how I would feel... like garbage.

So we are going to start The Maker's Diet... it's a lifestyle, a refreshing and actually biblical way of living. It's not just about food but our life and how we chose to live it each day. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." Our goal in everything is to honor God and bring Him glory. What we eat is part of that. And God has something to say about what we eat, which is what the whole diet is about (Leviticus 11).

So, tomorrow we are going to start. It's a 40 day challenge (and then continuing it for life), broken up into 3 phases with 2 weeks for each. (You can get more details on the website). But the first 2 weeks are for cleansing and detox. To rid our bodies of the nasty it's been subject to, and to decrease inflammation and put our insulin levels back on track. It should be interesting, proabably a little hard, but so worth it to try and bring healing to my body. That's my prayer. 

So what does any of this have to do with Proverbs 31? Well, this wasn't as brief as I thought so this might have to be a 2-parter. Because I really want to write about what I believe God is revealing to me though His awesome word. 

Bacon Some Cookies

I don't bake. Really. I have, I've tried many times, I've failed many times. For example, I made cupcakes once with my friend Katie and when we put the frosting on them it melted right off... yes we should have let them cool... not the point, I failed. I made a cake for my dad's birthday. I thought I'd make it from scratch, by myself, it called for shortening, I didn't know what that was (in my defense I was maybe 10) so I didn't put any in... yeah it couldn't have been more dry. I made a cake for my mom's birthday... you'd think I'd learn my lesson by now... it was a layered cake with chocolate frosting. When I made it, it was about 90 degrees in our apartment, I had to transport it to my parents, by the time I got there...

Yeah... don't talk about it. (In my defense it tasted really good).

So, I don't bake, except for last week when I decided it was baking something or keeling over from the stench of bacon. Which is where the story starts, with bacon.

Last Saturday morning, Jeff and I decided that we needed a decent breakfast because we had a big day ahead of us. We were going to register at two stores for all the baby stuff we need. We thought it might be fun and tasty to make a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich on a bagel. Well I thought it all sounded good minus the bacon, I've never really been a fan. So Jeff fried up some bacon on a skillet, charred it a little, filled the kitchen with the aroma of semi-burnt bacon, and slapped some on his bagel. I made the eggs and have to say for not being a big fan of eggs either (it's the texture) it was actually really good.

Now our house smelled a tad like bacon... well really bacon was overtaking the entire house and felt like it was seeping into my pores, so we opened some windows and left to do our registries. We got back home pretty late, hoping the smell would be gone, but, alas, it was not. We tried to ignore it, lit a candle, opened more windows, changed our clothes, turned on a fan. It was all in vain, we still had a bacon-scented home. So our solution... cook something to cancel out the smell. Well it was late and so cooking was out which leaves baking. So we decided to bake some sugar cookies. I bit the bullet, swallowed my fears, and thought the end product was well worth my inevitable failure.

Everything was going well. All the ingredients were mixing together well and it wasn't too hot to melt anything. But this time melting something wasn't the problem... and there's always something that can go wrong with me and baking.

I kinda burned the bottoms, not awful, but still. Maybe I'm too hard on myself, it's not like I caught them on fire or anything.

We thought we'd try baking the next batch for less time...

Much better. We even got crazy and added M&Ms to some of them.

But not too crazy, only one M&M per cookie. I don't want to get all creative and start to like baking now or anything.

You may be thinking this was the end, we baked, we ate some cookies, move along. Oh no, you can't have warm cookies without ice cream.

Let's drool at, uh, I mean look at some more pictures of this marriage between warm cookies and ice cream, shall we?

Yes, I believe two similar pictures are needed to show this true beauty.

So there you have it. I baked, I failed a little, but I redeemed myself with adding ice cream to make it appear flawless. It tasted flawless... and that's really all that matters.

Blue Baby or Pink Baby?

Since I shared the news that I am  having a little bundle of joy, I figured I would share what that little bundle is... yes a baby of course, but is it a boy or girl. Oh the suspense!

We had our ultrasound in February and decided that we wanted to find out whether the baby was a boy or girl, but not right away. We asked the nurse to write down the gender on a piece of paper and put it in an envelope. She also printed two ultrasound pictures, the ones we couldn't look at or it would give it away, and typed on them what the baby was. We gave the envelope to a baker and she was going to make a cake with blue or pink frosting on the inside to be cut at our gender reveal party... What's that? It's a party to reveal the gender of our baby, clever right? I saw a bunch of ideas on different sites and thought it would be fun to have family and friends share with us in finding out the gender. And that's what I'm sharing with you, all about our gender reveal party and what our baby is... is the suspense killing you?

We had the party at our friend's, Stephenie and Bryan's, house. It was fun decorating with blue and pink and thinking of cute little details to make it festive.

 We had little activities for our family and friends to do during the party. They voted what they thought the gender was and they wore the color of ribbon on their shirts.

I was very sure it was a boy

We also played a game where Stephenie asked me a bunch of old wives tales related to my pregnancy and charted the results.

Like I said, I was pretty convinced the baby was a boy. Not that I believe old wives tales... I just had this feeling.
Olivia, Stephenie and Bryan's daughter, predicted that I was going to have a "pink baby"

So, who am I to believe, old wives or a two year old? Good question.

Let's get on with the cake cutting then. Everyone was pretty anxious to cut into it and see.

Boy?

Girl?

Blue baby?

Pink baby?

A GIRL!!!

Not to burst anyone's bubble but we have a little secret... we shared it before we cut the cake... Jeff and I peeked at the ultrasound pictures the night before... gasp... I know. But we really wanted to have the moment we found out what our baby was to be between the two of us. It felt so much more special that way. And we are so glad we did, it's a great memory for us. Plus, we were really able to focus on everyone else and their excitement since we already knew. So... gotcha... we knew the whole time!

The rest of the time we enjoyed cake and cupcakes... so yummy, and talked about how exciting it is to think we're having a little girl.

A daughter... we are so thrilled!

Chicken Bundle of Joy!

I know you've all been on the edge of your seats in my absence from this blog. Since my riveting food diary has been on hiatus for so long I feel there are a few things to catch up on... but on with the food.

So, the dinner featured in this post is probably one of the tastiest, comfort food-like, fills your belly till you're satisfied, eat it every night if you could meals I've learned how to make. Before we got married, Jeff's mom had me over and showed me how to make Chicken Bundles... which happens to be one of Jeff's favorite dinners. And now I have the pleasure of introducing this salivating-inducing meal to you... it had to be a good one to make up for lost time.

Chicken Bundles are exactly that, bundled up chicken. There are a few steps to it so I'll do my best to go through them as detailed as possible because believe me you'll want to try them for yourselves.

First two different crackers are thrown in the food processor to make a bread crumb mixture. I chose these two. They're pretty much the equivalent to Ritz and Saltines.

This mixture is what the bundles get rolled into... but I'm getting ahead of myself. The chicken mixture has to be made first, to put in the bundle, to then be rolled into the crumbs... yeah if you really want to make these you're better off getting the recipe from me, I'm all over the place.

So, once the chicken mixture is made (chicken boiled, cooled, cut up, added to sour cream, and some other things, and chopped up in the food processor) it goes into these...

Mmmmm.... two crescents pinched together to make a buttery, tasty home for the chicken to be rolled up into and dipped in butter, yes butter, and rolled all around in the crumbs.

oh, my, butter

And there they are. Really anything rolled up in crescent rolls and drenched in butter is ah-ma-zing. They get baked in the oven and come out all golden brown. I never said this was the healthiest meal you could eat... just one of the tastiest!

To go with these I made mashed potatoes and roasted carrots. Oh man, roasted carrots, this post may never end.

In a nut shell the carrots are peeled and sliced

and slathered in olive oil, salt, pepper, and parsley, then roasted in the oven.

This is by far my favorite way to eat carrots.

And, the finale, the whole dish on a dish.

Pour some gravy over it all and oh my good night, it is a good thing, a very good thing.

Now these bundles give me that feeling in my belly that comes pretty close to joy but not as much as a different kind of bundle in my belly.

The other thing to catch up on other than food... Our little bun in the oven has been cookin for 24 weeks now. That's about 6 months. We feel so blessed and excited to meet our baby in July!

 Very excited!

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie...

It truly was amore when I ate the pizza I'm about to show you.

I have never made homemade pizza before... well, I take that back. On the last day of school with my kindergartners (all 3 of them that showed up) we made pizza out of English muffins, sauce, cheese, and pepperoni... uncooked little pizzas... they were actually really good. But I have never made a real-deal homemade pizza so I was excited when my sister suggested it for lunch on a Sunday afternoon to celebrate our dad's birthday.

My sister was in charge of bringing the dough and any toppings she wanted and I was getting /had the rest. Now for the dough, my mother-in-law makes homemade pizza with real-throw-it-in-the-air dough, well I don't really know if she throws it in the air but I wouldn't doubt it... it's really good and tastes like the real thing.
We didn't quite go that route. Instead our dough was Pillsbury, and who can resist that little dough boy? It looks like the crescent rolls only one large sheet of them.

We used 2 cans and so we each made our own pizza. My sister made hers veggie style with peppers, onions, zucchini I think... the works. It was a really pretty pizza.

My pizza was just as pretty, just as creative, and maybe even more unique...

Hiding the pepperoni under some more cheese... a surprise in every bite, an exciting addition to this masterpiece of artistic proportions...it wasn't like that at all, Jeff just thought there should be more cheese on it and the pepperoni was already there, hence the hiding meat. I'm not that creative. And the other side where there's nothing but pure cheesiness... yeah that's all mine. I'm a simpleton, not really the daring type when it comes to pizza consumption. I just really like cheese pizza, it's my thing.

Then it was time to bake them, which didn't take long at all. My sister's came out looking so tasty... even to a plain-Jane like me.

Mine... well I guess it wasn't special enough because there aren't any pictures of it. But I assure you it tasted as good as you can imagine it looked.

And, I did try the veggie pizza, it was good, I like veggies, I like pizza, but together, it's just not my thing. Cheese pizza you will forever be my tried and true.

Normally I would post about a recent dinner I made. I actually made a casserole dish I was going to share. But I have decided not to, not today anyway. I actually want to talk about the opposite... the lack of dinner, having no food to write about. I so often take for granted the food I have in my pantry, and in my fridge, and in my cupboards, and... well you get the idea. I often think little of the food I have everywhere. Yet, there are people who think so much and often about the food they don't have in their pantry, their fridge and in their cupboards. They don't have a dinner to enjoy with their family every night, let alone a lunch or breakfast... or a snack... or ice cream. To be completely serious ice cream is a treat, a decadence that so many people can't even fathom. And I eat it almost every night.

Now, I'm not writing all this to make myself or anyone feel guilty for indulging in some ice cream or whatever your sweet tooth enjoys. I just think it's necessary to reflect on all of the blessings we are so richly given... and yet so often take for granted. And then on how there are people who are going hungry today all over the world... 963 million people actually.

I fall guilty to saying the phrase, "I'm starving!"  Am I really though? I ate 3 hours ago at breakfast, I'll eat lunch now, in 3 more hours I'll have dinner, a few hours after that I'll have a snack, and then sprinkle in some snacks here and there throughout the day... I am nowhere near starving. According to the dictionary to be starving is to be in the process of perishing or suffering severely from hunger. Not quite what's going on when I get all impatient and agitated because I haven't eaten in a couple hours and I think food should fall from the sky to satisfy my cravings right now... and in a sense it does come that fast, a few steps to my pantry and I'm set.

Oh how naive I can be. How shallow I become when I "need" to eat. How selfish I am when I think of no one but myself at times. People are dying because they simply have no food. Children are dying every 5 seconds because they have no food. What can I do? How can I, in my over abundance, help those in need?

Well, right now, I have to admit, I'm a little hungry. I haven't eaten since breakfast and I won't eat until dinner. Why? I am skipping a meal so a child in need can have one. Our youth ministry is participating in a nation wide event called One Meal One Day. We are skipping a meal and giving the money we would have spent on a meal to Compassion to help feed children who are truly hungry. It's also a way for us to feel, a tiny bit, what children feel every day who are hungry. Every time I think about eating I think of a child who can't and pray God would provide food... that God would send someone to give food to those in need. And through our donations God is using us to give and help provide nourishment and hope to a child in need. Ultimately we pray that children will learn about Jesus and that He is the Bread of Life who can satisfy their souls.We pray that from filling their little bellies the gospel can be heard and that not only are their bellies full but so is their heart. We pray that for each hungry child that is given food the message of Jesus is given as well. We pray that we are the ones giving the food... and giving the life-saving message about Jesus and His love.

Edamame?

Exactly what I thought when I heard edamame for the first time. It was more like eda what? I get it now and am so glad. I had heard about it and thought it sounded cool but never found a recipe with it... until now. I guess I should explain what edamame is. It is a soybean that is packed with protein. It looks like a lima bean but does not taste like one at all... good thing, I'm not a big lima bean fan.

They're cute little guys. So along with this little green friend were 3 other delicious and nutritious ingredients. Scallions, snow peas, and red peppers.

Before adding the goods, I browned pieces of chicken in a skillet.

After browning the chicken the other ingredients were allowed to hang out in the skillet.

I think they all enjoyed hanging out together... they all made each other look so good! Sometimes I think cooking is like art. Now, my artwork is equivalent to a kindergartner and I've come to accept that, so when I cook and it looks so purty I feel I have contributed something to the art world... and to my belly.

After my beautiful-art-in-a-skillet cooked through a bit I added the sauce. It was a combination of orange marmalade, soy sauce, chicken stock, hot sauce, and ginger. Oooo laa laa it just got prettier.

But just wait, that's not all... here it is ready to eat.

Doesn't it look great? I'm realizing I'm showing off this dish like a mom shows off all 74 pictures of her baby doing the same thing in each picture. I don't blame those moms. I'm doing the same thing and spaghetti covered in soy sauce isn't quite as cute as a baby. To each her own, right? 


I really enjoy making oriental-style dishes. They are light, which digest so nicely, yet still full of flavor!

This recipe is from Rachael Ray's Look and Cook cookbook.