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Friday, January 24, 2014

Daniel Fast 2014: Week Two

Week one of the Daniel Fast went by good.  We had yummy and satisfying meals.  In addition to reading my Bible more and praying, I also lost 6.8 pounds the first week.  What a great jump start on losing weight again!  Thank you Jesus!
 
Let week two begin!
 
Wednesday night - Cabbage and red potatoes with green bell pepper, onion and garlic, green beans and fresh fruit.  This was my first time making this dish and it was yummy!
 
 
Thursday - Cajun red beans and rice.  Not really a fan of this dish.  It was good, but I used too much rice so it was think.  I should of put some veggie broth with it and thin it down some.  We also had peas and fresh fruit with it, and salad.  I had some left over red onion in the fridge from something else so I added some to the salad.  Oh my!  It made the salad taste ten times better!

 
Friday night for dinner we had veggie burgers and seasoned potato fries.  I didn't take a picture since we've had this meal before.
 
Saturday night for dinner we had taco and I forgot to take a picture.  We were just being lazy at home that day and our friends the Robinson's called and wanted to know if we wanted to come over and hang out and have dinner.  They knew we were on the fast and asked what we were having.  I told her tacos and she said that's what they would have too.  So I prepped most of our meal at home and bagged it up to take to their house for dinner.  Shawn and I had tacos/taco salads with veggie crumbles and they had tacos with ground beef.  We also had our chips and their yummy homemade salsa.  We had a great time hanging out with them!
 
Sunday for lunch we had beans and fried potatoes.  I didn't take a picture since we had that meal before.  Then Sunday for dinner we had a treat!  Hee!  Shawn's company had a celebration at Gatti-town for their employees.  We knew about this before the fast so when the fast was called, we decided for dinner on that night we would enjoy the festivities at Gatti-town and extend our fast an extra day.  While I didn't care so much for the pizza and desserts, I did love me some Coke.  In fact, I drank about 7 glasses of Coke that night! 
After we left the restaurant, it was back on the fast for us!
Monday night - veggie lo mien. I used spaghetti noodles, cabbage, carrots, celery, green onion, onions, garlic, bean sprouts, and a little soy sauce. Oh man was this dish ever delicious!! It's definitely one of our favorites. In fact, we are having it tonight for supper and I'm making some fried rice to go with it!

 
Tuesday night - Cabbage casserole. I cooked some cabbage in onions and garlic, then added brown rice, diced tomatoes and tomato sauce. Mixed it all together, put it in a casserole dish and baked it in the oven for a little bit. I served it with boiled potatoes with olive oil and parsley, and green beans. Another yummy dish!


I'm thankful that we are doing the fast and looking forward to the many blessings that God has promised us! Week 3 has already begun.

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Daniel Fast 2014: Week One

Back around Christmas time I was looking on Facebook at some pictures and posts from our pastor's family eating out at steakhouse in our town.  I was reading the comments and our pastor had posted one that said something to the effect of "get your grub on now cause the Daniel Fast will soon be starting".  I commented to that "no comment :/ ".   I told Shawn about it and said that I didn't know if I wanted to do the Daniel Fast this year.  I honestly don't think he wanted to do it either.  His excuse, he hated coming home for lunch every day.  My excuse, I hated the meal planning, the grocery shopping, the hauling the groceries in the house and putting them away, the coming home every night and cooking, the cleaning up of the kitchen when Shawn forgets too, the not being able to run into Walmart and grab a rotisserie chicken cause you don't feel like cooking nights, the not being able to pull into Sonic and get delicious fountains coke every time my taste buds craved them.  You get the picture!

We were even talking to another church member about it and they said that they weren't doing the fast.  Shawn and I discussed it again and we both really didn't want too.  We love our bad-for-us-food too much to give it up.  We are addicted to sodas.  We love going out to eat on the weekends.

Then it happened! On Sunday, January 5, our pastor stood up in front of the congregation and announced that starting Wednesday, January 8, we would begin our 21 day Daniel Fast.  Deflated!  I looked at Shawn and mouthed "I'm not doing it".  He just shook his head and grinned.  After church was over, Shawn said he was doing the fast.  Well obviously he can't live on nuts and raisins and bananas for 21 days.  He doesn't cook and that's all he would eat.  So I gave in and agreed to do the fast too.  Or was it conviction?  Either way, in the back of my mind, I truly enjoy doing the fast.  I knew I needed to do the fast, for both spiritual and health reasons.  I have become lack in my Bible reading and prayer time with God.  Lack is putting it mildly; I just wasn't doing either.  And our weights have gotten out of control again.  This fast will be the jump start that we need to get back on track to losing weight and eating better.  In addition to my weight, I have been having some other health issues that I know once I lose some weight will probably go away.

We didn't start the fast until the evening on Wednesday.  So Monday night I pulled out the "dreaded" black binder that is full of my Daniel Fast recipes and information and sat down and meal planned our breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks for the week.  I wrote out the grocery list of every item I needed to buy for those meals.  Then Tuesday night after work, in the minus one degrees temperature outside, I headed to the grocery store and loaded up the cart full of fresh fruit and produce, whole grains, and proteins (yes I know there is probably a couple items that aren't really Daniel Fast approved, but we do the best we can, and remember - there are no fasting police!).  I dropped two Franklin's at the checkout and back into the minus one degree temperature I went.  The fast is expensive for some, but for us, it's actually cheaper on the ol' pocketbook.  We go out to eat ENTIRELY too much and spend WAY TOO MUCH money!

Here is all of our groceries for the first week of the Daniel Fast.  I stocked up on a couple things that I know we'll go through pretty quickly. 


So here are our meals for the week.  I'm missing Monday night's picture because I didn't cook that night.  I went to paint at the studio instead so we just had some leftovers for dinner and then for lunch the next day I had a salad and Shawn had more leftovers.  Whatever I fix for dinner at night, we also have for lunch the next day. And then for breakfast, we have bananas, apples and nuts, peanut butter and jelly wraps, or cereal with soy milk.  Most of our dinners also include a salad and fresh fruit salad too.

Wednesday night - beans and potatoes with corn, green onions and garlic.  I used less beans and more broth than normal so it was really soupy, but really yummy.


Thursday night - Whole grain spaghetti with garden veggies (squash, zucchini, onion, yellow bell pepper, asparagus, garlic, and cherry tomatoes).  


Friday night - spicy black bean veggie burgers, seasoned potato fries, Mexican corn, and Mexican quinoa confetti salad.  Yummy! 


Saturday night - veggie chili and peanut butter wraps


Sunday night - whole grain spaghetti with sauce, corn, onion, garlic and zucchini.


Tuesday night - whole grain spaghetti with lemon and garlic sauce with fresh parsley, salad, and fresh fruit salad.


Well, we survived week one with no major breakdowns.  Shawn even commented that food wise, this has been the best Daniel Fast ever.  Maybe too good he said.  Since that comment, I have been measuring out our foods now so that we don't go overboard on our portions.  We've also been having more leftovers too to go with other meals now.  Spiritually I have been reading my Bible every morning and praying more.  God knows our prayers and needs during this fast and I am believing in him for our blessings.  



  

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Snickerdoodle Kids Art: The Heart

Last night I went to Snickerdoodle Kids Art to paint with Kristi and her sister.  I went with an idea in mind, but knew that it could change the minute I got there and saw what everyone else was painting.

Here is my inspiration...

 
And here is my finished project...
 
 
 
 
About halfway through and it's getting close to 9:00 p.m...we started at 6:00 p.m.!  I figured at this rate, I might as well of camp out there, I'll be here till morning!  Ugh!  This was probably one of the most time consuming painting projects I've done.  And as much as I love chevron, I doubt I do another one!

 
This was my first time painting in the new studio.  While I like it, I didn't like how the tables were set up.  We were practically sitting on top of each other and the whole time I was worried that the lady to the left of me was going to stick her arm in my project!  Of course when I took these pictures though, everyone else was done and had gone home already!


 
Seeing her painting projects hanging up on these cute colored doors makes me want to paint my door each time I hang up a new door decoration.  Wonder how Shawn would feel about that?
 
 
And then there was poor Kristi!  All she wanted to do was paint a fun chevron softball.  The type of paint she was using and her wood were not cooperating and was giving off a crackled finish!  She must of put on FIVE coats of that paint and it still wasn't working.  About an hour into it, she was D.O.N.E.!  I felt bad for her, but at the same time was giggling at her.  Sorry for laughing at you girl!  I hope you'll go back with me to paint again!
 

 
 

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Children's Church Lock-In

Our Children's Church had a lock-in back in December and I took Gavin cause I knew he'd have fun.  We didn't stay the night like everyone else did though...Aunt Stace prefers sleeping in her own bed versus the floor of the church.  Gavin didn't want to stay either.

We had lots of fun playing musical chairs, freeze dance, hot potato, and twister.  They also had a candy cane hunt, and a snowman race.  We had yummy pizza to eat and then some snacks we brought....Gordetto's and chocolate crème Oreos :)  Those are Aunt Stace's fave cookies!







 
I snuck this picture when we were praying for our food.  Gavin cracks me up when he closes his eyes to pray!

 
 
 
Don't they make a cute snowman couple?  Hee ;)
 
 
And "Miss A" made an appearance during devotion time to tell us all about the story of Baby Jesus!
 

Christmas Day Fun

Since Shawn and I had all of our Christmas activities on Christmas Eve, we didn't have anything really have anything planned on Christmas Day.  We slept in and went to lunch at Tepanaki's, a Chinese/Hibachi/Sushi restaurant here in town.  We felt like the family on the Christmas Story...having Christmas dinner in the Chinese restaurant...fa ra ra ra ra ra!  LOL!


  


After lunch we headed to our friend's the Robinson's to hang out for the evening, maybe watch a movie or play some games.  Our friend's the Lantrip's came over too.

We were all sitting around trying to make plans to go bowling the next day cause they had some Groupons for Franklin Lanes.   They had went a week or so ago and wanted us to go too.  Someone suggested since we were all already together, why not just go now.  So we all loaded up and headed to the bowling alley on Christmas night.


Let me just say I am not a fan of bowling.  It's OK, but not really my thing.  A long, long time ago, I was on a league with some friends (I wasn't any good at then either), and I think it burnt me out! 

We had a good time bowling and hanging out with friends.  I bowled one game and over half of those balls were in the gutter.  I really probably shouldn't of bowled, I was wore out from being sick and having surgery, which is why I only bowled one game and everyone bowled 4 games!

Even though bowling isn't my thing, I'd definitely go again if everyone wanted too.  I'm a good sport like that ;)  Hee!







And I saved the best for last...
Kristi bowling a S-T-R-I-K-E!!




Friday, January 10, 2014

New Year's Eve Fun!

We brought in the New Year at our friends Heather and Bowen's Annual New Year's Eve Celebration!  Friends, food, fun, games and ringing in the New Year!  We played our annual game of Scategories (Deuces Girls!) and Dirty Santa!  I ended up with one of those shake weights and a campers tool set!  LOL!