Day 16

I'm a little sad today. It's National Pancake Day. One of my favorite meals in the world is brinner...breakfast for dinner. I've gotten TWO invitations to go to IHop for free pancakes today, sigh.

Maybe I'll break out that yummy sweet potato pancake recipe from last week:

Find the recipe here

Refrain from commenting about how good your pancakes taste. Please and Thank You :)

Day 15

Half way through and Praise the Lord for new recipes for sweet potatoes! I was about to throw in the towel. I was ready to let the starving people of the world shake their heads at me as I threw away all of my sweet potatoes. And then I was reminded that, although a complete time suck, my life is much more complete since the invention of Pinterest. (If you haven't been to Pinterest go there now!) Pinterest has been my life saver. I would be stuck eating a dry chicken breast on spinach for every meal of every day, if it had not been for Pinterest.

Word of warning...the following is a completely optional, light-hearted, complaint that you may find funny or...just don't take offense:
I spend a lot of time with women of all ages, and when I explain what I'm doing, I get this a lot: "Well that's how I eat anyway!" Maybe it's because I'm in the health and wellness field and women like to look good in front of other women, or maybe it's because people truly don't know what they are putting into their bodies, but I will contend, no you do not.

You may often eat chicken and spinach salads. But I am willing to bet you have that as your lunch no more than 4 times a week, which is 16 times per month. And even if you do eat them "often," I bet you add other veg and maybe cheese, nuts or a great dressing. I'm willing to bet a lot of money that you do not eat these salads with the same ingredients every time and without dressing or the other tasty additions of my dreams. And I would surmise that you would be in my shoes if you had committed to eating exactly that for 93 meals straight. So please, my friends, spare me the "this-sounds-easy-and-not-a-challenge-at-all", it's definitely not encouraging because right now, I would absolutely kill for anything else but what I'm eating...I'd even settle for the edible food-like substance that Mickey D's has to offer...and for me, that's really a stretch.
/endrant

So back to these new recipes, ones worthy of another go:
Sweet Potato Pancakes.
YUM! They would have been amazing with some syrup or honey, but they were just as tasty plain!


Sweet Potato Meatloaf
Let's just be honest here, I had to omit a few seasoning items, but oh my goodness the addition of mashed sweet potato with the ground chicken makes for an extremely moist meatloaf! I was expecting completely bone-dry.

Chicken and Spinach Meatballs
I took A LOT of artistic liberties here. Specifically, I put the spinach in ground chicken and without all the goodies it says. They were good, not spectacular, but good.

I have nothing profound to end with. Nothing special that I've learned in the time since my last post, but to tell you how much you NEED to go check out Pinterest. Now. 

Day 10: To live is Christ and to die is gain

My young adult group at church has been studying Philippians with Matt Chandler. It's been a completely refreshing perspective and I've felt he teaches in a way that clearly gives us opportunity to take things away and apply them to our lives.

This past week has been every kind of stressful you can imagine. Put this fast, extra-curricular activities and the promise to write to you all as often as possible on top of it, needless to say I sleep pretty hard. Last Thursday (and yes I'm just getting to writing about it today), our study reminded me of why I feel that this mutiny against excess is so important to my walk with God. It was complete confirmation that I had made the right choice in doing this fast, and it was encouragement that the end goal will be worth the issues it is creating in my immediate existence.

Here is what we studied and the notes I took:

Philippians 3:7-12
But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 

In Phil 3, Paul intensely outlines the reasons to pursue Christ and then how to pursue Him.

We pursue Him because we are broken people with issues in our lives that will never be able to be fixed with any earthly effort.

In our darkest moment, in our deepest sin, God chose us. Cool thing is...there is never a day that we don't fall short, yet He still wants us to chase after Him! God rescues the dirty to the praise of His glorious grace. What do we have in our lives that is blocking us from pursuing him?

We are imperfect people chosen by a perfect God, our priority should lie with pursuing Him. Nothing can compare to the riches of His grace!

To live is Christ and to die is gain. Amen. 

Day 8

This was possibly the longest week ever. So many hours, so much stress, so many things to do and definitely not enough time to do them in!

I had no time to prepare my food at all. So I was forced to eat the same exact meal for lunch and dinner all week. While that was the easiest thing to do, it was the most annoying thing. I have never purposely thought about skipping a meal, so twice I found myself actually forcing myself to eat. I was hungry, but definitely not for a chicken and spinach salad 100 times this week.

I've never repeatedly eaten the same thing on purpose ever. It's a little bland, it's a little boring, it's going to be a long month. Of course there are plenty of things I could do if I allowed myself access to my spice rack and pantry, but alas I can not. 

Today I am just not hungry, maybe the idea of the same foods over and over is unappetizing...This week I'll have much more time to fool around with different preparations. I'm actually looking forward to my break today so I can run home and get cooking!

I am however grateful that, this week, in my haste, I never had to resort to eating a Chicken Nugget. Which, let's just note, I would never do anyway, but still, you may find this funny:

...perhaps the most alarming ingredient in a Chicken McNugget is tertiary butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ, an antioxidant derived from petroleum that is either sprayed directly on the nugget or the inside of the box it comes in to "help preserve freshness." According to A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives, TBHQ is a form of butane (i.e. lighter fluid) the FDA allows processors to use sparingly in our food: It can comprise no more than 0.02 percent of the oil in a nugget. Which is probably just as well, considering that ingesting a single gram of TBHQ can cause "nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse." Ingesting five grams of TBHQ can kill.


Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilema

If you haven't read Michael Pollan, do it now. You're life will never be complete until you've read Michael Pollan. The Omnivore's Dilema is quite possibly one of my favorite books ever, and In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, is the most thought provoking book besides the Bible. Seriously. If you want a real, balanced, and honest report on how we eat today, go get In Defense of Food from the library before you take another breath. 

Day 4

Uneventful. Probably a good thing since work has been ridiculously crazy, but still. I wish I had something amazing to report...

Well except for the unapproved meal on day 2. I spoke at a women's luncheon at Grace Church in Eden Prairie, MN on Tues and sat down to a beautiful table. Only half-way through eating did I realize that there was not one single 7-sanctioned food on my plate. Shoot. It was possibly nerves that I didn't realize it, but it made me think about how we go through life. Are we on autopilot half of the time, most of the time? Do we just go to work and church, do our devotions, and follow the same routine's day after day without being purposeful? Do we drive home and forget how we got there? We are creatures of habit, or so I've heard...


Rick Warren's book The Purpose Driven Life refers to us being able to change our autopilot:


Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think Your first step in spiritual growth is to start changing the way you think. Change always starts first in your mind. The way you think determines the way you feel, and the way you feel influences the way you act. Paul said "There must be spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes."
To be like Christ, you must develop the mind of Christ. The New Testament calls this mental shift repentance, which in Greek literally means "to change your mind." You repent whenever you change the way you think by adopting how God thinks-about yourself, sin, God, other people, life, your future, and everything else. You take on Christ's outlook and perspective.

God I pray that you would begin to transform our minds. Teach us to think like you so that we can live in a way that is purposeful and in line with Your Will.

Day 1

So yesterday I was in a little bit of a panic. I waited until the last minute to go grocery shopping for the week, and then the grocery store didn't even have everything I needed! Who is OUT of sweet potatoes? Since I have only allotted myself 7 trips to the grocery store, I wasn't too thrilled with having to use up a second trip just to get one item. Anyway, I didn't think too hard about what exactly I was going to cook for the week; waiting for divine inspiration often times ends up with a run to subway or munching on random junk that's sitting in the pantry...so I was feeling a little overwhelmed.

Low and behold this morning, my friend Beca, (the amazing woman who introduced me to Jen Hatmaker's book in the first place...follow her fasting from excess blog here) showed up at Curves with a ten pound bag of sweet potatoes! "Thought you might need these, we are definitely not going to be eating them anytime soon!"

Let's just be honest, we live in America, never did I think a bag of sweet potatoes would be an answer to prayer, or even a prayer I thought about leaving my lips. But oh how cool that was, and just in time for me to run home on break and cook a few of them up.

Matthew 6:26
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

It's cool that God cares about stuff like sweet potatoes. God is good.

MONTH ONE: FOOD

Tomorrow I begin one of the biggest, non-ordinary, spiritual commitments in my life.

Month one is all about food

I'm a foodie. If I had ONE channel to watch everyday for the rest of my life, well it would be the Food Network...this could prove to be a ridiculously hard, bland and monotonous month. I suppose that's exactly the point...hmmm

These are the following seven things that I commit to eating solely for the next month:

1. chicken
2. eggs
3. spinach
4. avocados
5. sweet potatoes
6. whole wheat bread
7. apples

I'm no nutritionist, but I think this is a pretty well rounded list. (I'm lactose intolerant-so no dairy) It has the potential for many easily prepared meals and the possibility to really expand my cooking with such a short list of ingredients.

The following rules apply to this month:
1. Should I have to eat out because of a work meeting or whatever else, I will do my best to stick to the above ingredients. This is about a commitment to Christ, not legalism, so I will be completely honest in my endeavors, even if they turn into failures.
2. So that I don't waste the already perishable food currently in my fridge, I will use it to supplement my meals. Once that's gone, no extra shopping. And no using anything that won't go bad before the months over.
3. I’ll shop for groceries no more than 7 times all month. This will help me in meal planning and cutting down on random trips to the grocery store for one thing or another.
4. I am giving myself room to have all the water, tea, and coffee I want. Not flavored water, not sweet tea, and nothing but black coffee. (I went without coffee today and I can't tell you how many words I've corrected as I'm typing...my brain just can't function and my head is pounding)
5. I will not purchase snacks or drinks outside of the house...which will help with my budget and make me plan ahead.

Ok so there you have it. Month 1: food. 7 ingredients. Even though it would flow nicely here, I'm not sure "infinite possibilities" is the correct statement, perhaps "creativity abound" would be a little more appropriate. 

 

As I was driving home from my aunt's house tonight, the Lord put this song on my heart:

 

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;

Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art

Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,

Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;

I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;

Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;

Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

 

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,

Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:

Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,

High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of Heaven, my victory won,

May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!

Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,

Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.