French Toast

This is my new favorite breakfast recipe...

4 slices of thick whole grain bread (I made mine with this recipe)

2 eggs

2 tbs milk

1 tsp cinnamon

1-2 tbs sugar (or honey, rapadura, sucanat, etc.)

1/4 cup cream cheese

1-2 tbs honey

blueberries or sliced strawberries to throw on top


1. Heat skillet on medium and spray with cooking spray or add a little butter.

2. Beat together in medium bowl: eggs, milk, cinnamon and sugar.

3. Submerge slices of bread into egg mixture until fully covered but not too soggy.

4. Put onto skillet and toast on both sides until egg is fully cooked and lightly browned.

5. Put cream cheese and honey into microwave safe bowl and microwave for about 15-20 seconds. Stir together and pour onto your french toast.

6. Top with blueberries and enjoy!

Homemade Protein Bars

This recipe is super easy, versatile and very tasty!

Basic Recipe:

2 cups Almonds

3/4 cups Peanut Butter

3/4 cups Dried Fruit- I normally use raisins and dates

Honey to taste (This depends on how sweet your PB is)

1/4 cup Coconut Oil (or olive oil)

Nutritional Add-ins:

Flax Seed

Wheat Germ

Dried Unsweetened Coconut

Sunflower or Pumpkin Seeds

Pulse all your ingredients in a food processor until they are the right consistency to form a bar. If they are too dry and crumbly add a bit more honey and oil. If they are too sticky, add oatmeal or more nuts. Then press into an 8" square pan. Cool in fridge until they are hard. Slice and serve.

For a Treat:

Top with melted semisweet chocolate Chips. Let cool in fridge until they are hard before serving.

I never actually measure anything for these bars. I just throw some nuts, dried fruit, nut butter, some honey and then just whatever else I feel like adding. They end up tasting good no matter what.

Enjoy!

Summer Salsa

I recently began participating in a local produce co-op, which is a nice way to get high quality fruits and veggies for a lower price. While the deal is a good one, I still found myself with a big bag of produce that contained a few things that I don't normally buy. In this case, cucumbers and corn. Enter a fancy new recipe! I found a recipe here and modified it to come up with this super delicious summer salsa:

2 medium cucumbers, peeled and diced
1 mango, diced

1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped (I really like cilantro:))

1 small green bell pepper, diced

1 small onion, diced

1/2 cup frozen corn

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon rapadura (or sugar)

1 teaspoon salt

Mix together and serve chilled with tortilla chips. If you give the flavors a little time to meld, say two or three hours, it tastes even better.

I think I'll start using cucumbers more often!

Tornado Relief

Just wanted to fill you in on a Missouri blogger who is hosting a MEGA giveway for tornado relief. Check out Display Your He{ART} to enter.

Parenting Expert

This post is written both as a warning for people who do not yet have kids and as encouragement for anyone with kids who doubts their ability to discern the proper way of dealing with all of the gray areas of parenting.

Hi my name is Lisa Bass and I was a parenting expert....before I had kids! I read the books while I was pregnant and had it all figured out. I knew how to get them to sleep well at night, play happily during the day and never throw a fit or disobey there mama. I'm sure any experienced moms reading this are laughing already. I even remember being judgemental of others who had disobedient children. I wondered why people had such a hard time with it. Come on, its obvious, if your child is having a tantrum for something you said no to, just don't give it to them and they won't try that again. A child's will is much stronger than that. Oh, and if they aren't sleeping well just let them fuss a few minutes and they will fall asleep. Again, my kids didn't get that memo! This is only a tiny sample of what I thought I knew. I was perfectly prepared to have the best behaved, hardest working, smartest children in town. They were also going to sit quietly through church. The nursery is only for kids whose parents' have no control over them. (If you've ever been at church with us you're giggling by now.)

My point in all this. Pride is ugly. The Bible says "God resists the proud" (James 4:6) Ouch. It makes one think they know better than anyone else and it keeps them from seeking out wisdom from others' that have walked the road before. It keeps us looking inward for wisdom instead of looking to the creator of all. It makes it hard for us to admit faults and keeps us from turning around when we have started down the wrong road.

A wise woman I know told me to be wary of any parenting "experts" with a one-size fits all solution, who claim they have all the answers and find it possible for parents to achieve perfection in their own strength. Those weren't her exact words but thats the gist. I think that is some great advice for new parents or parents to be.

Of course, I believe its impotant to teach children right and wrong, to raise them to be hard workers and show them how to have a relationship with Jesus. I'm simply addressing the pride isue here which leads us right into the trap of legalism and keeps us from enjoying God's fullness.

My take on Muesli

Muesli is loosely defined by Wikipedia as "a popular breakfast cereal based on uncooked rolled oats, fruit and nuts." That's pretty broad, but here is how I do it and its a hit with my family!

6 dried figs
6 dates
1/2 cup walnuts
1/4 cup almonds
1/4 cup raisins
3/4 cup oats
1 cup milk
1 cup plain yogurt
3 tbs. honey

Pulse first four ingredients in food processor until coarsely chopped. Add remaining ingredients and then refrigerate 2-24 hours to soften and absorb liquid. (I let mine sit at room temp. for 12 hours in order to remove phytates from the oats.)


Our family scripture this week: Let the words of mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. Psalm 19:14

Blender Waffles/Pancakes...

...a yummy healthy breakfast treat!

This recipe has been adadpted from a recipe I found here...

It is so delicious and easy. The best part about it is that you can incorporate grains that you don't normally eat (or don't really enjoy eating) We like to sneak rice and quinoa into these yummy waffles. This recipe needs to soak overnight, so make sure to mix them up in the evening if you want them for breakfast the next morning.

This recipe is awesome, in that it gives you the benefit of soaked grains, which is a very important preparation step to get rid of phytates, which bind to the nutritious parts of grains so that your body cannot absorb them. Read more on that topic here.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup whole grain wheat flour (or other whole grain flour like spelt or kamut)
1/2 cup rice (or quinoa) You put in whole, uncooked rice. This sounds really weird but, trust me, it works.
1 and 3/4 cups cultured buttermilk (OR 1/2 cup yogurt and 1 and 1/4 cups water)
2 tsp. vanilla
2 tbs. olive oil

Put the above ingredients in your blender and blend on high for 2-3 minutes and then let them sit on your counter for 12-24 hours. (The soaking process only effectively removes phytates at room temperature. At first it feels weird letting buttermilk or yogurt sit out for that long, but I have done it many many times and it tastes great.)

The next morning add the rest of the ingredients:

2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda

Blend for about a minute. If your mixture is too thick to blend add an egg or two.

Pour onto prepard waffle iron and cook according to your iron's directions. If you don't have a waffle iron these also make fabulous pancakes.

Serve with butter and real maple syrup or honey.