In the last several weeks I've made a lot of soup. In fact, a couple weeks ago I told David, "All right, David, let's go eat our soup!" He rolled his eyes and said, "Soup AGAIN?!?!?" It was pretty funny! So when I was making my menu for the next week I was sure to ask him what he'd like to suggest we have for dinner. He said, "You know that chicken soup you made that John ate two bowls of?" I just about died laughing! Well, speaking of soup, I've got a basic soup recipe that can be turned into a few different kinds. I like to make a big batch and then put the leftovers in the freezer.
Basic Soup Recipe . . . with variations
1 onion, finely chopped
1 red pepper, finely chopped
2-3 stalks of celery, finely chopped
heat a large soup pot on med heat with 2ish TBSP olive oil (I usually put in a pat of butter).
Sauté veggies for about 7-10 minutes until softened.
Add 2-3 cloves of garlic.
(Prep these next veggies)
Add 1 c. shredded (or thinly sliced) carrots
1-2 c. potatoes, chopped into small cubes (I've also done lightly colored sweet potatoes)
Cover with chicken broth (I've been buying the organic free range chicken broth from Winco)
Add 2 tsp thyme
salt and pepper to taste
Simmer on low for about 15 minutes, or until veggies are soft
At this point you can add whatever you'd like and just heat the additions. Here are my tried and true faves!
Chicken . . . Add 2 c. chopped chicken breast, 1 can corn (about 2 cups), and about 1- 1 1/2 cups milk or fat free 1/2 n 1/2.
Salmon . . . Add 2-3 cans salmon, or home baked salmon, 1 can creamed corn, and 1-1 1/2 cups milk or fat free 1/2 n 1/2.
Italian sausage soup . . . leave out the potatoes and sauté some italian sausage with the veggies. Either crumble sausage without the skins or slice w/skins. I've been using chicken sausage and liking it really well. I recently used the Trader Joe's sausage and found I couldn't get them out of the skins. Before you simmer the veggies, throw in about 1 c. of pasta. I've made it with wheel pasta, elbow pasta, and star pasta.
This recipe is great for babies! You'll want to add the salt and pepper at the end after you've taken a baby sized portion out. I've been slightly blending up the finished product for Johnathan and he loves it. It's recommended that for babies under the age of 1 that you don't season their food with salt.
I love soup in the winter time, and once you make it a few times it seems so easy! Good luck and let me know what you try!!
Monday, November 16, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
Hospitality
Lately I've been struggling in the area of hospitality and today as I sat at the feet of Jesus I learned a bit about that very thing. Really my struggle has to do with sharing food. :) Yes, I give you permission to laugh. I have a hard time sharing my food. If you watch the show Friends, you may remember a particular episode where Joey is ready to fight to the death with the girl he's on a first date with, all because she took one of his french fries. I don't feel quite this passionate, but why is it that that when I sit down to eat my lunch after everyone has eaten, do the babies come running to have a bite of mine? Or when they've got cheese and crackers in front of them do they want my veggies? Another example, although this is more out of just forgetfulness, is that I don't offer everyone who walks in my door something to drink AND eat. Certainly if a meal is planned that's a different story. Long story short, my mind hasn't been on meeting the physical needs of people who visit my home and at times I find myself resenting my responsibility to meet that need.
Well, Jesus is the One I look to as an example of an extreme host. I read in Matt 14 this morning. Here's the setting: John the Baptist, cousin of Jesus, was just beheaded. Jesus hears of this (although already knew it would happen, right?), and finds some solitude on the lake. People from the nearby town follow him out to the lake, so really, how much solitude can one have with people around? "He went to shore (v.14)." Are you kidding me? If I were in His shoes, I would have rowed farther out on the lake!!!!! Not only did he go toward the people, but He had compassion on them. He healed the sick. This reminded me of the passage in John 4, where Jesus tells His disciples, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work." I wonder if Jesus sought comfort in helping those who were sick physically, and most likely dying spiritually.
So, Jesus sought solitude and instead went with compassion to a crowd. The disciples came to Jesus and TOLD Him to send the people away to the nearby town to buy food for themselves. What gall . . . and I would have been right there with them. I can feed 4 people pretty easily. A larger crowd is tough, but it would be a challenge I would love. Try 5,000 people!! NO WAY says Becky! Well, Jesus, being Creator God, was able to think outside the box. :) Jesus told the disciples, "They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!" Lucky for them, He had the answer. He took the five loaves and two fishies that they gave Him, blessed it, and began to break them and gave the food to the disciples to pass to the people. Not only did Jesus find comfort in meeting with people and healing their diseases, but He met their physical need of hunger. This was such a testimony to me and a lesson I took to heart. As I thought about His generosity and desire to meet that need, I realized that one of my hang ups on being so generous is that we're trying to be careful and wise with out money. This led me to ask myself the question, "Who meets your needs? Who is the giver of all good things? Who is it that gives you that money?" There was only one answer, and with that answer came a peace in knowing that as I responded to God's call to be a hostess who meets the needs of her guests, God would meet the need even before it was handed to me. No need to worry about money. I am just one point along the way. God supplies us with something someone else needs. We're just a funnel really. This goes for more than just physical things! God supplies me with love, faith, encouragement, that my husband, children, and people around me need. Now I just need to be sensitive to what the Lord would have me do, and doing His work will be my food!!!
Well, Jesus is the One I look to as an example of an extreme host. I read in Matt 14 this morning. Here's the setting: John the Baptist, cousin of Jesus, was just beheaded. Jesus hears of this (although already knew it would happen, right?), and finds some solitude on the lake. People from the nearby town follow him out to the lake, so really, how much solitude can one have with people around? "He went to shore (v.14)." Are you kidding me? If I were in His shoes, I would have rowed farther out on the lake!!!!! Not only did he go toward the people, but He had compassion on them. He healed the sick. This reminded me of the passage in John 4, where Jesus tells His disciples, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work." I wonder if Jesus sought comfort in helping those who were sick physically, and most likely dying spiritually.
So, Jesus sought solitude and instead went with compassion to a crowd. The disciples came to Jesus and TOLD Him to send the people away to the nearby town to buy food for themselves. What gall . . . and I would have been right there with them. I can feed 4 people pretty easily. A larger crowd is tough, but it would be a challenge I would love. Try 5,000 people!! NO WAY says Becky! Well, Jesus, being Creator God, was able to think outside the box. :) Jesus told the disciples, "They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!" Lucky for them, He had the answer. He took the five loaves and two fishies that they gave Him, blessed it, and began to break them and gave the food to the disciples to pass to the people. Not only did Jesus find comfort in meeting with people and healing their diseases, but He met their physical need of hunger. This was such a testimony to me and a lesson I took to heart. As I thought about His generosity and desire to meet that need, I realized that one of my hang ups on being so generous is that we're trying to be careful and wise with out money. This led me to ask myself the question, "Who meets your needs? Who is the giver of all good things? Who is it that gives you that money?" There was only one answer, and with that answer came a peace in knowing that as I responded to God's call to be a hostess who meets the needs of her guests, God would meet the need even before it was handed to me. No need to worry about money. I am just one point along the way. God supplies us with something someone else needs. We're just a funnel really. This goes for more than just physical things! God supplies me with love, faith, encouragement, that my husband, children, and people around me need. Now I just need to be sensitive to what the Lord would have me do, and doing His work will be my food!!!
Monday, November 9, 2009
"Where do you find comfort?"
This fall I took on a sweet 1 year old girl. She is very loving, giving kisses and hugs all the time. She has a very safe and comfortable life, yet every afternoon when she wakes up from her nap she wails like there's no tomorrow. She doesn't stop until she you pick her up, sit down, and start cuddling. If she gets put down at all within the next 15 minutes it starts all over again. Wake ups are hard for this little one, and that is an understatement!
During the last week this little girl and her hatred of wake ups was brought to my mind during a moment with the Lord. I was sitting on the couch early in the morning cuddled up with a blanket, weeping. There is a trial in my life, one that is long term apparently, that always brings me to my knees. It challenges me every time I choose to face it, and reminds me of just how weak I am, but more importantly, it reminds me of just how much I need God, His strength, comfort, and all that He is. As I was crying out to the Lord for His comfort, I had this picture in my mind, of getting out of bed each morning and immediately curling up with a blanket in the Lord Jesus' lap. I know that Jesus longs to comfort me as long as I need it, that he doesn't roll His eyes at my big alligator tears, or put off welcoming me into His arms because He has just one more task to accomplish. Here's an excerpt from my journal on that day:
"Thank you, Lord for humbling me this morning, for showing me the picture of my weakness. I love that You are infinitely stronger than I, that you desire to meet my need in such a kind and loving away. I want to meet with You every morning, just like this."
I love that I can have assurance that He'll be there, every morning. Waiting for me.
Since I ended my time in the Psalms, I've started reading through the NT. In Matthew the Lord has confirmed again to me His compassion as He ministered to the people who were (Matt 9:36) "distressed and dispirited." I can identify with that, and the it says that Jesus felt compassion for those kinds of people. Oh man do I need compassion sometimes. Matt 11:28 says "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." Yes! Not only can I come to Him for comfort, but He will give me rest from my burden, my trial. I rest in His truth knowing that He is all that I need.
This morning in my time with Him I read about two blind men (9:27-31) who came to Jesus in order that their sight might be restored. They called Him "Son of David!" They believed that He was God's Son. Jesus then asked them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this (restore their sight)?" I had to ask myself the same question. Do I really believe that if God chose to change my circumstance that He could? I do believe it, and hope with all of my being that He will. Now the question is, will I be content if He doesn't, knowing that He could? That is a much harder question, and is really where my battle lies. I'm so thankful for God's truth, God's comfort, and for a living, breathing, relationship with the all powerful God of the universe. It is in that that I find the patience to be content, and to praise Him in all things.
During the last week this little girl and her hatred of wake ups was brought to my mind during a moment with the Lord. I was sitting on the couch early in the morning cuddled up with a blanket, weeping. There is a trial in my life, one that is long term apparently, that always brings me to my knees. It challenges me every time I choose to face it, and reminds me of just how weak I am, but more importantly, it reminds me of just how much I need God, His strength, comfort, and all that He is. As I was crying out to the Lord for His comfort, I had this picture in my mind, of getting out of bed each morning and immediately curling up with a blanket in the Lord Jesus' lap. I know that Jesus longs to comfort me as long as I need it, that he doesn't roll His eyes at my big alligator tears, or put off welcoming me into His arms because He has just one more task to accomplish. Here's an excerpt from my journal on that day:
"Thank you, Lord for humbling me this morning, for showing me the picture of my weakness. I love that You are infinitely stronger than I, that you desire to meet my need in such a kind and loving away. I want to meet with You every morning, just like this."
I love that I can have assurance that He'll be there, every morning. Waiting for me.
Since I ended my time in the Psalms, I've started reading through the NT. In Matthew the Lord has confirmed again to me His compassion as He ministered to the people who were (Matt 9:36) "distressed and dispirited." I can identify with that, and the it says that Jesus felt compassion for those kinds of people. Oh man do I need compassion sometimes. Matt 11:28 says "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." Yes! Not only can I come to Him for comfort, but He will give me rest from my burden, my trial. I rest in His truth knowing that He is all that I need.
This morning in my time with Him I read about two blind men (9:27-31) who came to Jesus in order that their sight might be restored. They called Him "Son of David!" They believed that He was God's Son. Jesus then asked them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this (restore their sight)?" I had to ask myself the same question. Do I really believe that if God chose to change my circumstance that He could? I do believe it, and hope with all of my being that He will. Now the question is, will I be content if He doesn't, knowing that He could? That is a much harder question, and is really where my battle lies. I'm so thankful for God's truth, God's comfort, and for a living, breathing, relationship with the all powerful God of the universe. It is in that that I find the patience to be content, and to praise Him in all things.
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