Free Recipe Friday - Roasted Root Vegetables

The weather today is finally feeling more like November.  Today's recipe is a great side dish on these cool and crisp fall evenings.

Roasted Root Vegetables

    •    1 T olive oil
    •    1 red onion, sliced
    •    4 cloves garlic, peeled and cut in half
    •    2 carrots, peeled and diced
    •    1 turnip, peeled and diced
    •    1 yam or sweet potato, peeled and diced
    •    2 parsnips, peeled and diced
    •    1 t dried rosemary
    •    1 t dried thyme
    •    1 pinch salt
    •    1/2 t black pepper
    •    1 T balsamic vinegar, optional


Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a baking sheet pan with nonstick cooking spray. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl; toss to combine. Place mixture on a sheet pan. Bake 30 minutes, turning vegetables every 10 minutes until vegetables are tender and slightly browned. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar before serving.
Makes approximately 8 servings.

Free Recipe Friday - Kid Sushi for Lunch Twist

Last week Trinity Joy and I surprised the kids with a fun lunch. This was really easy and I think it would travel well in a reusable container if you were packing a lunch for school. Trinity was able to help me with almost all of prep work so she loved this recipe. At four years of age she loves to help in the kitchen and to be able to try anything that mommy is doing. Her favourite part of this particular recipe was flattening the bread with the rolling pin. We made Peanut Butter and Jam, Salmon and lettuce and Pizza Sushi. Really the possibilities for fillings are endless. If you have a peanut allergy substitute cream cheese for the peanut butter.

KID SUSHI

2 pieces of bread per person
Peanut Butter and Jam
or
Canned Salmon and Lettuce
or
Pepperoni, Pizza Sauce and Mozzarella cheese
(really any filling will work, hummus, deli turkey, thinly sliced veggies - use your imagination or try different combinations)

Lay a slice of bread on your cutting board and let your child roll over it with your rolling pin. Lots of smashing noises by your child is encouraged! Spread a thin layer of whatever filling you have decided over 3/4 of the bread. We used peanut butter in our photo below. Roll it up starting at the filling edge working towards the plain bread edge. Press to seal the edge. Slice with a sharp knife into sushi bite pieces and serve. This part is best for the adult to do! We served our sushi with chopsticks for the kids and they had a great time. This was a really fun surprise for lunch to shake things up and Trinity was very excited to be able to help me serve a meal.

It Has Been A Year

It is hard for me to believe that one year ago today I was in the midst of the hardest day of my life and I was waiting. Many of you were also waiting for news from Liam's operating room. Can you believe it has really been one whole year? This photo was taken right before Liam and I went into the operating room together. As I look at it, I find it hard to believe that I did not really know how things were going to turn out that day and if I would get the same son back that I had kissed good-bye.

One year ago today on November 5th, 2008 Jason and I sat with family and friends and waited and prayed for Liam and his surgeons, and I was blessed. In the midst of this incredibly difficult time I learned more about my God. His infinite grace, His love for us, His faithfulness, His plans and how they are different from mine, and the way that He continues to work through His people. For the most part we are now on the other side of this difficult journey with Liam and looking back it is easy for me to see God's hands all over our walk in the valley.

Looking back it is quite clear to me all the moments of beauty that He designed to encourage us along the way. Looking back I don't just remember the tears and the heartache, I remember the moments when I felt God's presence through a hug, a warm meal, heartfelt prayers from people we did not know, emails of scripture and encouragement and God's church working at its best. Many of you stood in the gap for us during this time. Times when I felt all prayed out. Times when I no longer had any words to express how I was feeling. Times when I was so tired that I am sure I did not thank-you even though I was so very grateful for all you did. Times when I was so scared that even the tears would not flow. You prayed and you prayed and you prayed and God's peace overwhelmed us. Every time Satan tried to get a foothold, you prayed for us and you loved us and he was no match. As I look back it really was an incredible time that has become an important spiritual marker in my walk with Jesus. Thank-you to everyone who played a part.  God continues to be glorified in this situation, as just this week we have again been asked to speak at McMaster Children's Hopsital Event on December 2nd.  One year ago today I could have never dreamed all that our God had in store.  He truly is amazing!

 If you want to know more about Liam's journey click on Liam's health at the side of this blog under Labels and you can read all the posts about his story (it starts from the newest post so you would have to work backwards to get the story in order).  Here is a link to my first post about our journey which started July 2008.  It is called Breathe.

The Countdown is on for "Shine Your Light" 2009

With only four days left until our family's 3rd annual "Shine Your Light" event, Liam and Caroline were helping me today to prepare our house. For the past few years we have hosted a party at our house on Halloween night for all of our neighbours. I posted about our event last year and you can check it out from the link above. Our worship team plays tunes, church family members come over to meet people, we hand out hot chocolate for parents and candy bags with scripture on them for the kids. It is a really fun time. It is such a natural opportunity to get to know people that live around us and to let them know a little bit more about our family and for us to shine our light in our community.

I like to decorate the house with more of a fun factor than a fear factor so most of our decorations are homemade. Our costumes are often homemade as well, and we raid second hand stores and our craft bins to make things work. Everyone really gets into it, the worship team helps us with lots of candy and they have come up with some pretty stellar costumes over the past few years. It is not every day that kids get to see Mr. Potato Head
(Jason's costume last year) playing the electric guitar. Parents and kids often stick around and dance our driveway and we get a chance to meet them and have some good conversations. I would encourage you to think of what you can do to shine your light in your neighbourhood on Saturday night. Maybe you don't have a worship team to play but you could play CD's or your MP3 player on a stereo. You could sit on your porch and say hello to parents as they bring their kids around. Attach encouraging scripture to your candy or write positive messages with chalk on your driveway. Hand out coffee or hot chocolate...really the possibilities are endless.

Today, as we were starting to set up a couple of girls walked by and they began talking about what a great time they had on our front lawn last year. Trinity was so excited to hear that they had liked it and that they remembered our house. It was a great teachable moment to talk to her about why we do this and to pray with her for our neighbourhood and for more opportunities to love our neighbours. Praying with TJ is always such a blessing as she is so honest before the Lord. Her prayer today was simple "Please Jesus make people come to our party and let them see how much fun you are." And to that I said "Amen."

Free Recipe Friday - Cream Soup Base Mix

Yikes it has been so crazy that I am just getting this post up now! I have seen several of these recipes on the Internet and in different cook books. I know that mine originally came from somewhere but over the last year I have tweaked and changed it so that I now can't remember where I found it. I find this more economical to use in casseroles than canned soups and for me it easy to keep on hand in the cupboard. Most of the recipes I have seen use the powdered bouillon right in the mix (about 1/4 cup) but I like adding my bouillon after so I can decide then if I want to use chicken, veggie or beef depending on what I am making and who is coming to dinner.

CREAM SOUP BASE MIX

2 cups of powdered milk
3/4 cups of cornstarch
2 tsp dried onion flakes
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp basil

Mix and store in an airtight container.

To Use:

Combine 1/3 Cup of dry mix with 1 1/4 cup of chicken or beef stock. (I use the liquid bullion concentrate to make the stock) Cook over medium heat until the base begins to thicken. Now you can use this as your soup base for any soup or use it as you would a creamed can of soup in casseroles. Try some different dried spices if you want to change it up or if you have a specific casserole in mind that you would like to use it for.

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Friendships

I am content. I love mornings like this when I wake up and my mind does not automatically rush to all the things I have to accomplish in the day. Instead, I am reminiscing over events at my house last night.

Last night we had old friends over for dinner. Two families that we use to meet with every week for home church when we lived in Oakville. It seems so long ago and yet last night it felt like it was only yesterday. Even this morning I am still finding it hard to believe that it has been six years since we have seen some of our friends. We now live in different places, attend different churches, have different jobs and different lives I suppose from when we started meeting. We had two children combined when we first met and last night I was amazed to count eleven running around and playing. As I took in the scene, I realized that the thing that what has not changed is God. As I met with my friends and got caught up on everything that has been happening in their lives, it was evident to see that God was still central. All of us are still wanting to learn more about Jesus and what it means to follow Him. It seemed in many ways that we were still close. A bond that is hard for me to describe. It got me to thinking. Why is it different?

I think it is different because our friendship began through God. It was God centered from the beginning. Each week we explored God's Word together, we shared our struggles, our triumphs and many of the every day details of our lives. We worshiped through song and we prayed together and we prayed for each other when we were apart. I will never forget praying for an entire year with my friends as we prepared to adopt two of our children. We did not even know who God had picked for us and yet our friends prayed faithfully with us, for all aspects of the lives of our children, that we had yet to meet. We were not always perfect and didn't always agree on everything but we supported one and other, we served each other and we were there for each other in hard times and in times of celebration.

So even though six years had passed since we had sat together on the couches of my living room, it seemed just like yesterday, as we sat on them again last night. Many things have changed but the connection that God began in our lives had not. That is what is different. I love that about Him.

Free Recipe Friday - Apple Cranberry Amish Bread

At some point you have probably had someone give you some Amish Friendship Bread Starter. I often have some of this in my house because there are so many different recipes that you can make from it. I make biscuits, muffins, bread etc. Did you know that you can make the starter yourself ? You don't have to wait for someone to give you some because you can make your own. If I ever don't feel like keeping it up I just throw it in the freezer and label it with what day it was on. Then when I take it out again I thaw it and just pick up where I left off. So today I decided to share one of the recipes that I have developed that uses the starter. Once you have the starter it is very easy to make and it is also a great gift to share. In the recipe I have put a link to another website where you can not only find the starter but lots of other yummy recipes. Have Fun!

Apple Cranberry Amish Bread

Preheat oven to 325 F.

1 cup Amish friendship bread Starter
1 cup oil
½ cup cold milk
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. vanilla
1 ½ tsp baking soda
2 cups flour
1 small box of instant vanilla pudding mix
1 1/2 cup fresh cranberries
1 large apple peeled and chopped

Mix all ingredients together. Pour into a greased bunt pan.
Bake 1 hour. Test with a cake tester to make sure it is done.