It is amazing how we are all are wired up differently, and with this wiring, we all have different things that take us back to childhood. For the last few nights, I have been taking a quick five minute walk in the neighborhood in order to get a whisp of the slightly cool, fresh air and to hear the sound of the crickets. These two things have been my favorite since I was a kid. They remind me of visiting my relatives in Memphis and hearing the calming effect of the crickets at night.
Photo by Katina Horton
About a week ago, I was trying to decide what to make for dinner. My mind landed on the box of pasta that was still in the cabinet. I decided to jazz it up with my two favorite ingredients for most meals: spinach and diced tomatoes.
Here is the recipe:
Total Prepping and Cooking Time:
45 minutes
Ingredients:
1 box of penne pasta
2 jars of tomato and basil pasta sauce
1 tablespoon of thyme
3 tablespoons of parsley
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 can of cut-leaf spinach
1/3 cup of quinoa
1/4 cup of oil
Directions:
Boil a pot of water, adding the oil to the water to prevent the pasta from sticking.
Add the pasta and the quinoa once the water has started boiling.
While the pasta and quinoa are cooking, saute the spinach and diced tomatoes.
Drain the pasta and quinoa in a colander and dump them back into the pot.
Dump all the rest of the ingredients into the pot and stir.
Eat and enjoy!
Food for thought:
What foods do you eat, or activities do you participate in that take you back to your childhood? Would love to hear your comments!
I am reading about six books at one time. This is almost always the norm as of the last couple of years. One of the books that I am reading is entitled, “I Thought It Was Just Me (But IT Isn’t) by Brene Brown. I just recently started this book. This particular read hones in on shame and perfectionism, how they work together, and how we can employ shame resilience.
Although I am only at the beginning part of the book, what stuck out to me is the correlation between shame and performance. We have all been guilty of using shame to get the end result of performance. This happens everywhere, including work, home, and in our churches. However, using shame to get this result only damages both side. It damages the shamer and it damages the one being shamed.
No one is left feeling good about themselves. Why is that? Shame reaches into areas of our lives that stirs all kind of unwanted emotions. In order for people to change, we have to have a motivator for ourselves, not from the pressure of other people via shaming or any other form of pressure. Change will not last in this manner. Consequences are not always enough to produce change. Understanding what our behavior does to others will.
Now, on to the recipe. This recipe that I made two weeks ago is a quick recipe for seasoned chicken breasts that can be made in no time and then placed on buns to make a chicken breast sandwich restaurant-style. Hope you enjoy!
Photo by Katina Horton
Activity: Making Seasoned Chicken Breasts
Total Prepping and Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
Parsley- 3 teaspoons
Onion powder-2 teaspoons
Curry-3 tablespoons
Chili powder -2 teaspoons
Black Pepper – 2 teaspoons
Cumin-2 teaspoons
3 large chicken breasts
1/3 cup of olive oil
Directions:
Rinse off three large chicken breasts.
Cut them up into chunks, season them on one side, and place them in a skillet of oil.
Turn them over after 13 minutes and season the other side.
Eat them paired with sides, alone, or in between two pieces of specialty bread.
A couple of days ago, I starting reading the book entitled, “The Gifts of Imperfection” by Brene Brown. I have only read a little bit so far. However, there is a story that Brene tells in the beginning that deals with a shame reel after she has given a presentation. I am very familiar with that reel myself.
We all have a series of events that happens when shame knocks at our door. When it comes to mine, it is usually trauma-induced. When a traumatic memory comes up, it may or may not be foreknown that this memory was traumatic for me. Not only does shame play itself out, but anxiety comes in.
I feel embarrassed, start self-protecting, anxiety sets in, and then I start wondering if I should be vulnerable and discuss this issue with my therapist. My shame reel plays by replaying how I will tell my therapist, what I will say, how she will react, and what she will say. This will keep playing until I am vulnerable and get the issue out. Shame is reduced at this point.
I think of it like God chipping away at a brick wall of my shame with a hammer when I allow vulnerability to take over.
Katina Horton
“Simple Split Pea Soup” Recipe
Now, on to the recipe. I wanted to make something quick, and with adequate protein, and so, Easter weekend I made what I call, ” “Simple Split Pea Soup” .
This recipe only requires a few ingredients. The longest length of time is spent on the split peas boiling. Other than that, everything else is straightforward. As you are learning by now, I love using the combination of spinach and fire-roasted salsa tomatoes to add into a lot of my concoctions.
Total Prepping and Cooking Time:
1 hour 45 minutes
Ingredients
1 can of cut-leaf spinach
1 can of fire-roasted tomatoes
1 16 oz bag of split peas
3 tablespoons of oil or vegan butter
1 container of vegan broth
onion powder- 3 tablespoons
curry powder- 3 tablespoons
parsley – 3 tablespoons
cumin – 3 tablespoons
chili powder – 3 tablespoons
turmeric- 3 tablespoons
1/2 cup of quinoa
Directions
Boil the bag of split peas for 1 hour 45 minutes after quickly rinsing them off.
Boil the quinoa for 18 minutes.
While the split peas are boiling, saute the spinach and tomatoes with 2 tablespoons of oil or butter.
Add the saute mix and quinoa to the peas after 1 hour and 10 minutes, along with 1 tablespoon of oil.
Add the broth after 1 hour and 20 minutes, along with all the seasonings.
Let the soup boil for another 25 minutes and enjoy.
The last bean recipe that I posted, “Black Bean Mishmash“, can be found here. Today’s recipe is entitled Vegetarian Bean Party Bowl. Before we get to the recipe, I would like to take you on my reading adventure.
Vegetarian Bean Party Bowl
. Today’s recipe is entitled Vegetarian Bean Party Bowl. Before we get to the recipe, I would like to take you on my reading adventure.
I have been reading “How People Grow” by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend. I was excited because I found this book at Goodwill a few months ago, and I just started reading it a couple of weeks ago. It is one of those self-help books where once you get into it, it becomes very hard to put it down.
Like all self-help books, there are some concepts mentioned that we realize we are currently implementing that are fine. There are others that need fine-tuning. We have some that need some serious help; then there are some that we have known and implement, but the examples given makes things come more to life than they have ever been.
For me, it was the real-life examples of the effects of how the “Body of Christ” works. What I have noticed myself is that in order to reap the benefits of this “Body/community”, trust is of utmost importance, and then real vulnerability is easier to follow. When one person opens the door to honesty, then for sure others will follow.
Here is the Vegetarian Bean Party Bowl:
Activity: Making Vegetarian Bean Party Bowl
Total Prepping and Cooking Time: 35 Minutes
Ingredients:
1 can of vegetarian beans
1 small can of tomato paste
1/2 cup of arugula
1/4 cup of nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons of curry powder, onion powder, cumin, turmeric, and chili powder
1/3 cup of quinoa
1/2 cup of brown rice
1/4 cup of vegetable broth
Directions:
Bowl the ice and quinoa in two separate pots for 20 minutes.
While the grains are cooking, heat up beans in vegetable broth in a skillet for twenty minutes.
Add all ingredients to the skillet, stirring occasionally for another 15 minutes.
With the way that the weather has been within the last few days, it makes one want to snuggle up with a throw and a book, or perhaps a movie, and just relax. Before we get into the black bean recipe, I would like to share a little bit of my reading adventure from the last few months.
I have been reading so many different books within the last few weeks that it’s a wonder that I can keep up with what’s going on in each book.
One book that I am currently reading is entitled, “The Sharper the Knife, The Less You Cry”. Because of taking four years of french in high school, and enjoying every minute of it, I decided to purchase this book at a rummage sale a few months ago. The main character, Kathleen, decides to leave the corporate world, move to Paris, and attend Le Cordon Bleu to pursue her dreams.
There are several different adventures that she has along the way. Some of which involve the relationships between her and her colleagues, her and her boyfriend, and her and her instructors whom she grows to love. This book is filled with French recipes and tons of laughter. Kathleen quickly finds out that life and recipes have a lot in common. As Christians, we are all too familiar with that as well.
Life Analysis
When it comes to recipes, we can have all the ingredients, make the dish exactly as described, and then everything comes out perfect. And such is the Christian life. But then, there are other times that we follow the recipe to a tee, and it turns out a disaster. Perhaps the oil got too brown, we overcooked the rice, or we ended up with meat that was too dry.
God is driving the bus. And we often forget that. Life isn’t a recipe or a secret formula. And although we think we have it all under control, things may fall apart just like the recipe that we knew we followed the directions to a tee. Jeremiah 29:11 tells us: For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (NIV)
Here is the the recipe:
Activity: Making Black Bean Mishmash
Total Prepping and Cooking Time: 35 Minutes
Ingredients:
1 onion
1/4 cup of nutritional yeast
1 can of mixed vegetables
2 cans of organic black beans
1 box of Quinoa w/brown rice & Rosemary
1/4 cup of oil
onion powder -2 tablespoons
garlic powder -2 tablespoons
cumin -2 tablespoons
Directions:
Boil the box of quinoa w/brown rice mixture.
While the quinoa mix is boiling, do the following:
Cut up and saute the onion in a skillet.
Boil the mixed vegetables.
Heat up the organic black beans.
Dump all the cooked ingredients into the skillet with the onion, adding the seasonings and nutritional yeast as well.
Enjoy!
Here are other bean recipes in case you’re interested:
God is driving the bus. And we often forget that. Life isn’t a recipe or a secret formula. And although we think we have it all under control, things may fall apart just like the recipe that we knew we followed the directions to a tee. Jeremiah 29:11 tells us: For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (NIV)
For the last five days, I have been reading Remember God by Annie F. Downs. It is good. I believe that it is a combination of things that pulls the reader in: the style of writing, the rawness of emotions, and then the fact that it is written in story form. I can’t believe that I am already on page 130 after just a few days.
There are several things that resonated with me while reading this book. I am going to discuss two: I was deep into the story of her Job experience, where everything seemed to go wrong right before Thanksgiving. Why? Because that is exactly what happened to me this year. You can find that whole story here by listening to the podcast: Dancing in the Rain.
The second thing is when she talked about the sweet spot of her life at that time. I heard one particular message on the sweet spot about three years ago, and it still resonates now. Basically, our sweet spot is the spot where we push past our comfort zone into the pain and hard work, but right where God can use this pain and tension for his glory.
I made the recipe below for a Christmas Eve get-together that I had with some dear friends who are just like family to me. Have a blessed week!
Activity: Making Simple Stuffing
Total Prepping and Cooking Time: 45 minutes
Ingredients:
cumin – two tablespoons
basil – two tablespoons
onion powder – two tablespoons
garlic powder – two tablespoons
minced garlic – two tablespoons
two zucchinis
two carrots
one onion
one piece of a celery stalk
two boxes of cornbread stuffing
6 slices of honey wheat bread
2 cups of broth
Directions:
Boil two cups of water with butter.
Saute the carrots, zucchini, and onions.
While the vegetables are sauteing, cut up six slices of bread into cubes.
Season with basil, and then place in the oven for 10 minutes.
Add the two boxes of cornbread stuffing mix and cubed bread cubes to the water.
Add the sauteed vegetables, celery, garlic, seasonings, and broth.
Throw it into a casserole pan at 425 degrees for 25 minutes.
This morning was the Christmas party celebration for my Moms’ Ministry small group. We had a ton of food and a ton of fun. This year has definitely been an eye opener from God to me, in realizing that yes, gifts are nice. They are wonderful. However, the best gifts in life do not come wrapped with a pretty bow. Because of God’s love toward us, we are indeed able to share this gift of love.
There is something about friendship, fellowship, food, and laughs that makes you appreciate all the wonderful blessings that life has to offer. I think the craziest part of the morning was when we played charades, which featured words that centered around winter and Christmas time. The highlights of this game was when I tried acting out Christmas stockings, and did a goofy swirl with my body. Then, we had the other team recreating the nativity scene. What fun!
Last night, it dawned on me that I had signed up to bring cookies and a cold pasta dish to this celebration. What I decided to do was to make spaghetti to eat, and then this morning, my wheels started turning, and that spaghetti transformed into my “Simple Spaghetti Casserole”. You can find the last simple recipe that I made here. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.
God bless!
Activity: Making Simple Spaghetti Casserole
Total Prepping and Cooking Time: 1 1/2 hours
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons of chili powder
1 can of corn
1 can of French cut green beans
2 tablespoons of vegan butter
1/4 cup of olive oil
1 box of spaghetti
1 can of pasta sauce
5 tablespoons of parsley
1/2 cup of vegan or non-vegan cheese
2 tablespoons of onion powder
2 tablespoons of garlic powder
Directions:
Boil one box of spaghetti in five cups of water.
Pour the olive oil into the water so that the spaghetti won’t stick.
Saute the corn and french green beans with butter and chili powder.
Rinse the spaghetti when done, then add the pasta sauce, and simmer for 5 minutes.
Add all of the rest of the seasonings except for the cheese and parsley.
Cook for 10 ten minutes, and then dump into a large casserole pan, at 425 degrees for 25 minutes, completely covering with the shredded cheese and the parsley on top.
Since Christmas time is approaching, churches, organizations, and families everywhere are squeezing in the last of the shopping, get-togethers, and worship preparations. On Friday night, I had the pleasure of attending the “Women’s Christmas Gathering” at another church. One of my favorite things to do during this season is to sing Christian Christmas carols to help me in reigning in my heart, mind, and soul into the reason for this season: reflecting on that precious baby who was brought into the world to bring hope in a weary land.
My second favorite thing to do is to watch Christmas movies on Lifetime, Hallmark, and Netflix. Because of the fact that my free time is mainly in the evenings, and it is usually when I am tired that I’m trying to watch these movies, I end up falling asleep about a third of the way. And of course, on the following day, I am trying to figure out where I left off. Even so, for some odd reason, just having these movies playing, as I am sitting on the couch with a throw in my comfy corner of the couch is enough for me.
The last recipe that I featured was “Simple Beans and Zucchini Soup. You can find that recipe here. Today, I have included a recipe for chili that I made a few days ago. It’s called “Simple Everything Chili”. Why the name? I literally dumped everything in it to make it work. Send me a line letting me know if you decide to make it.
Activity: Making “Simple Everything Chili”
Total Prepping and Cooking Time: 2 1/2 hours
Ingredients:
4 tablespoons of cumin
4 tablespoons of turmeric
4 tablespoons of onion powder
5 tablespoons of chili powder
3 tablespoons of garlic powder
5 tablespoons of parsley
2 cans of vegetable soup
2 cups of pinto beans
1 cup of lentils
1/2 cup of nutritional yeast
2 cups of vegetable broth
Directions:
Dump the pinto beans into a pot of water, boiling them for 1 1/2 hours.
Add the lentils to the pot, boiling it for an additional 40 minutes.
Add all the rest of the ingredients plus 2 cans of water, boiling for an additional 20 minutes.
I had a busy weekend. However, it was a good kind of busy. I got a chance to enjoy my mom and niece who were visiting. I did plenty of cooking. However, I also had a lot of down time. Yesterday, I ended up watching a Hallmark movie that had a really good story line.
The main character’s sister, Alice, had died suddenly from heart issues. Alice’s death prompted Lois to go back to her hometown first for the funeral, and then secondly, to take care of the affairs of her estate. Instead of taking care of these things, and then going right back to her high-powered attorney job, she decided to stay for a while.
This visit was more than what she had bargained for. All the memories from her sister’s car accident came to the forefront. She also had to deal with the fact that she had become estranged from her sister over the years. Alice’s friends knew more about her life than Lois did.
It took her awhile to reconcile the fact that the car accident that Alice was involved in was indeed not her fault, nor Peter’s. Lois kept thinking that if she hadn’t been out with Peter, her boyfriend, then her sister wouldn’t have ended up disabled.
Towards the end of the movie, Lois discovered that Alice had birthed a child during her college years. She was finally able to meet her niece and the adoptive parents, and find true forgiveness for herself and Peter.
In life, we are a lot like Lois, we think that “if only” we would have done or not done something, then things wouldn’t have turned out as they did. It is part of the bargaining stage of grief. However, Satan also uses it as a foothold to keep us stuck in life. He wants us to pride ourselves into thinking that we are in control of all of life’s details. The truth of the matter is that we are not. God is. We will not know all the reasons that he decides for things to be the way they are.
I love making bean concoctions. The last one that I made can be found here. Below is a recipe that I made a little over a week ago.
Activity: Making Simple Beans and Zucchini Soup
Total Prepping and Cooking Time: 35 Minutes
Ingredients:
cumin – 2 tablespoons
chili powder – 3 tablespoons
onion powder – 2 tablespoons
turmeric – 2 tablespoons
2 zucchinis
1 cup of brown rice
2 cans of kidney beans
1 can of pinto beans
2 tablespoons of butter
Directions:
Boil one cup of brown rice.
Cut up two zucchinis into chunks.
While the brown rice is boiling, saute the zucchini.
Heat up the beans in a large pot, along with three cups of water.
I have been reading a variety of books lately. Along with this fact, I’ve also been listening to a lot of sermons. Sometimes, I have listened to so many sermons, and read so many books at one time, that I start to second guess myself as to which book or preacher said what. At this point, I usually have to go back and double check that I am giving the right author credit.
In this season of my life, I have been hearing God’s small voice repeatedly encouraging me along the way. I can picture myself taking off at the starting point with my number on, and God on the sidelines with his flag shouting, “Keep running! You can do it! ”
Earlier today, I was reading more of the book on leadership by Brene Brown. The chapter that I am now focusing on is dealing with empathy. Later this evening, I listened to a sermon by Joyce Meyer. As God would have it, she was also preaching on empathy. The key points that were stated from both is the following:
Empathy means being able to connect through the emotion that someone else is feeling.
Empathy doesn’t mean giving advice.
Having empathy shouldn’t lead to a comparison game of who has had the worst suffering.
A few nights ago, I decided to make what I call Simple Chicken Burgers. They turned out super moist and required very few ingredients.
Here is the recipe:
Activity: Making Simple Chicken Burgers
Total Prepping and Cooking Time: 25 minutes
Servings: 6
Ingredients:
1/3 cup of oatmeal
cumin (1 tb)
onion powder (1 tb)
garlic powder (1 tb)
1 16 oz. pack of ground chicken
2 tablespoons of flax seed meal
3 tablespoons of water
Directions:
Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a skillet.
Dump all of the above ingredients into a bowl.
Make burger patty shapes with your hands.
Place the six patties into a skillet, or as many as you can at once. (use 2 skillets if necessary)
Take the burgers out when they are brown on both sides.
Top with hummus and garnish with basil or spinach if you like.
