BetterMilk Hot Chocolate

PKU post
I was really excited to try the recipes that came with my new formula, but I wasn't a big smoothie fan. However, when Cambrooke posted a hot chocolate recipe idea on Facebook I got motivated. I love hot chocolate on a cold winter evening (or a 60 degree winter evening like we've had lately)
So I gave it a try. I should have known as soon as I smelled the warm BetterMilk it would not be a success. I have always been a snob about needing my formula to be very cold before I'll drink it. Room-temperature formula has always been gross to me. Hot formula with chocolate in it was even worse. Loved the idea of it, but it really had the worst aftertaste. If you or your PKU child doesn't mind the aftertaste, give it a try. But for now I'll save up my PHE and have a "normal" dairy free hot chocolate every now and then.

Forgot to get a photo of the final product! Oops.

"Selling" Jesus

Don't worry - this is not a real advertisement

Lately, the topic of "selling" Jesus has come up a lot.

I was helping with a youth retreat a few weeks back, and they had us ask the kids why someone should become a Christian. Instantly they listed of things like happiness and that it makes things easier. Now don't get me wrong, these things can be true. But I couldn't help but think about all the people in my life that had been "sold" on the idea of happiness and then their faith was completely shaken when things didn't go well. One teenager in my group had just experienced the death of her best friend. Was she happy? I asked her if being a Christian meant she was happy in the midst of this. Instantly she shook her head. So does this mean she is not a Christian? I challenged the rest of the group. Of course it didn't mean that. She is struggling so much, but she has a peace that God is in control and is still trusting Him, even on the difficult days.

So why do we try to "sell" Jesus as a great way for fire insurance, blessings and happiness.  There are tons of places in the New Testament where it says trials and tribulation WILL come in our lives. Yes, scripture has mentions of blessing and happiness for the Christian, but it never promises these things on this side of heaven.

As a young child, I was "sold" on the idea of Jesus. I didn't want to burn in hell (who does?) and I wanted  all the "good stuff" people told me about, so I prayed a prayer. I may have even walked an aisle. I honestly don't even remember the details, I was too young. When I became a teenager, I was surrounded with trials and felt hopeless many times. I realized that I had not made Christ Lord of my life, I just "bought into" the idea of Jesus. In my eyes, I was "saved" but had none of the peace that came with knowing Christ. And even worse, I didn't have the happiness and great blessings people wrongly promised came with being a Christian. It wasn't until I decided to begin a relationship with Christ that I really began to understand (as in start seeking Him for all my choices/attitude/actions instead of myself).

I've been growing in my relationship with God ever since, but I've noticed in my own sharing of my faith and in so many others we often try to "sell" Jesus as things we think people want. I shared with people who believed in Heaven and wanted to go. I told them how great my life has been since becoming a Christian (which is true, but I often left out the trials and struggles with sin) They wanted things to go well for them, so they make a choice to be "saved". Some of them to this day call themselves Christians but think nothing of their faith (after all, they are "saved") unless something bad happens. What would happen instead of approaching people with "be like me because you can have (fill in blanks)" we really explained our emptiness and selfishness without Christ. Being "saved" wasn't about my prayer I prayed, it was about realizing that I cannot and should not try to live my life for myself. I fail on my own and I need Him as my Savior AND my Lord (as in DAILY, not just at the pearly gates).

It's humility and repentance that brings us into a relationship with Christ. That is the entire reason for the cross to begin with. Jesus didn't die on the the cross just because He wanted us to feel comfortable in eternity. (Essentially, that is an effect, but not the real reason). He sacrificed Himself because we are sinners and had no way of making things right on our own. We were separated from God and He made a way. His death and resurrection is so much greater than "fire insurance" or blessings that may or may not come. He didn't want to sell "insurance"packages for a bargain of praying a prayer and walking an aisle - He wanted us to turn from our sin and seek Him daily. "Selling" people the message that they are sinners and fail on their own doesn't sound as good as "selling" Heaven. But it's the Truth. Praise God that we aren't the ones who are responsible for their belief. It is the Spirit that convicts, not us. And amazingly, the Gospel "sells" itself to those who He has convicted and called because bottom line is that it's the only Truth and the only way. We don't have to be the "salesman". We are just the mouthpieces.

What an incredible disservice we do the Gospel by leaving out the hard parts and/or trying to add our own sales pitch "act now and get this and this" type approach. Yes, a believer will be blessed, but we can't even pretend to know the ways God may work in their lives, be it trials or blessings galore. The blessings may not ever be seen on this side of Heaven.


One of my favorite songs for over a year now is Jimmy Needham's "Part the Clouds".  Needham says it much more poetic than I ever could. It's time for me to stop "dressing up" the Gospel and start sharing the Truth.

Part the Clouds Lyrics: I like, like to be liked And no one likes to hear the truth And I've seen what the truth can do So I tried, tried to downsize The part of you that's hard to tell But the layoff didn't go so well I beat around the burning bush 'Til that fire went away God was once so palpable Before the shades of grey We might as well just fold our hands If we can't call a spade a spade 'Cause we will miss the heart each time If we won't ever shoot them straight These pleasantries have shaded me And you too long Let's part the clouds and show the world the Son We think, think we're helping By giving you a little flare But it doesn't matter what you wear  'Cause runways aren't your forte You prefer the narrow road Even though it's not en vogue The Gospel looked so very cold one night as I passed by So I gave it my best sugar coat and dressed it in a lie  This living water will not quench us if it's watered down It's not our place to hide again this treasure that we've found

Homemade Bread

EDIT*  Click here for the recipe


This phase of my life includes no job. I'm looking, but living in a small town makes it difficult. However, it has been a hidden blessing learning how to make things from scratch to save money. I've made lots of recipes so far, but the one I was the most afraid of attempting was bread.

After much research online and delay for fear of how it might fail - I created this:

It looks like actual bread!

No holes in the bread!

I used the recipe on the back of my bag of whole wheat flour. (Gold Medal)


I read stories about how loaves turn out odd shaped and/or have holes in the final product. With some quick online research while my dough was in its first rise, I found this tip page. I rolled the bread just like she said and it turned out pretty normal looking. It was a little lopsided, but who cares.

It tastes great. It definitely tasted the best the first day. But it still tastes better than store bread even on day 4. Yes, it took a while to make, but time is something I have plenty of these days. Now that I've given it a try, it actually would not be hard at all to make some loafs on weekend for the entire week (assuming and hoping I have a job someday soon).

The Better Milk Challenge

This is a PKU post, so if you don't know what that is, you can skip reading this.

The past year I kept getting offers and bribes (win an iPad in a raffle) to convince me to try BetterMilk.

It claimed to be better for many reasons and it was "milk-like". I know for most PKU parents reading this, the "milk-like" sold them on getting a sample, but personally I think milk is disgusting. When I've grown up unable to drink milk for 30 years, a few accidental sips then and now were disgusting to me. No thanks.

But I love my Apple products, so at the chance of an iPad I agreed to try it.

I HATE change when it comes to anything in my diet/formula. Only a few years ago I changed to CaminoPro Fruit Punch and it took forever to get used to it. I managed to drink it only while chewing gum...but it worked for me just fine. Even after the samples were sent, I avoided them like the plague for months. Finally, my hubbie convinced me to try (I think he wanted the iPad too).

PROS: Easy to make. Easy on stomach. (I think because the GMP Protein is better for me- other stuff gave me stomachaches). Less smelly. Cheaper than CaminoProFruit Punch. Easier to travel with than pre-made liquids at the airport and full cans of powder. And I've noticed that the ProBiotics help like Jamie Lee Curtis always claims they do (much better than other formula for "digestion"in my opinion)

CONS: Still kinda smelly. Powder can be messy when I've been spoiled by pre-mixed pouches. Still has after taste (I still chew gum with it)

The bottom line: It tastes a little less like formula, but it still has a formula after taste (they all claim they don't). It mixes easier than any powder I've tried before. Other than the after-taste, the taste is creamy and mostly neutral. It needs a bit more than 4oz. water like it says- I use between 6-8oz. So far I've tried it with one recipe...but I'll post more about that later.

After a short battle with insurance and going through my 3 month supply of the old stuff first, I have finally officially switched over to BetterMilk.

But I didn't win the iPad :(

Coming soon - Reviews on BetterMilk Hot Chocolate and BetterMilk Fudgesicle Pops

Wedding DIY Veil

The info for this post has been moved to my new blog. Click here for the details.

Taming the Frizz

Anyone of you who actually knows me knows I have crazy thick hair, wavy - not curly, not straight. It's been a struggle my entire life to tame my crazy mane. I have tried so many different products throughout the years and finally settled on the amazing. I found S Factor smoothing lusterizer for my straight hair. Now here is the problem...$$$$$$$$$$

Living in a small town I have found quickly that its hard to find my hair stuff and good deals. I used to buy via Ulta buy one get one free sales. Walmart has no such deals. Not to mention our budget has changed a lot, so pricey products are no longer an option. I went on a hunt for the perfect CHEAP product, a scary adventure considering the many bad hair days and wasted partly-used bottles these trials to. But it was all worth it.

Pantene Medium-Thick Straighten and Smooth Creme

Pros: price is a lot less and tames frizz well, doesn't leave glittery-looking stuff on your hands like S Factor does
Cons: Does not smell nearly as wonderful as S Factor (but it doesn't smell bad either)

Our "God-given" rights***

***First off, let me tell you what this post is NOT. This is not an attack on birth control or fertilization techniques nor is it an attempt to convince people to be against abortion. I am merely using this as an example of how easy it is to claim the believe something until the issue really hits home. So even if your personal views differ, read on and hear me out. My point is that I don't know everything about these things and naively just assume they are part of my rights as an American woman. If I'm missing some info and/or wrong on my information, feel free to politely comment ***

My husband and I were talking about Christians in America and how we cling so strongly to our American rights. We desire to be conformed to the image of Christ, but we are Americans and we have certain "God-given" rights that we don't want to give up. Neither of us could find a place in scripture that promises us our rights. We discussed numerous examples, but the one that came to my mind as a female was the ballot issue in early November for an anti-abortion amendment in Mississippi that failed to pass, the personhood amendment.

A quote from a Washington Post article explained, "Mississippi would have become the first state to define a fertilized egg as a person, a measure which was aimed at outlawing abortion in the state but, opponents contended, would have led to all kinds of unintended consequences."

These consequences? A FEAR that it might criminalize birth control and some fertilization practices. Here is what bothered me. Many people who claimed to be anti-abortion did not vote in favor of the amendment because of these fears. Why?

So many Christians I know (male and female), said they were against abortion. They know what scripture says. (Not to mention, they personally would never consider abortion). But here is what happened with that issue. They may never consider abortion personally, but they will use birth control and might need fertilization techniques now or in the future. I'm not saying either of these are wrong...don't read that into my words. In fast, I haven't found conclusive info on either of those two result in harming and/or ending the life of a newborn. (I know some fertilization practices eliminate fertilized eggs, but that option is not required).

Voters against abortion (and those debating the issue in other states) did not want to possibly give up the right to birth control or fertilization techniques, even if it meant the legality of abortion would be re-examined. People who really wanted to see Roe vs. Wade overturned and abortion ended hesitated to vote for this extremely conservative view of "personhood"

In truth, the amendment would not be able to take away that right without some serious intervention from the supreme court and some scientific evidence proving that birth control ends the life of a fertilized egg. Maybe they could prove that? Maybe not...but as Christians how on earth can we claim to be against one thing (abortion) but then fear our birth control might be taken away. If by the legal battle, it is proven that birth control is indeed ending a life, would I use it? If so, why? Because it's my right as a woman? If science clearly showed that fertilized eggs were lost (aborted) from the body, then I'd have no way to take that form of birth control and yet condemn abortion.

To me, those debating the issue who were torn between ending abortion and yet feared losing the ability to family plan as desired. They desired to stand up against aborting an unborn child only in as much as it didn't affect their lives. The worst part it, it wasn't even certain it would effect birth control or fertilization - it was just a possibility. And it was only possible for a few forms of birth control and fertilization, not all forms!

As I said, abortion is not really the issue that bugged me here. The laws passed by our government will not always agree with God's word. Legal or not, it shouldn't effect my views or actions. The real issue is the reality that even I struggled with the idea of giving up rights to birth control options or fertilization techniques if needed. It is so easy to believe and seek God in one thing, but to fear to even learn the truth in another issue because I don't want to give up an option for something I might need or enjoy.

As a Christian, do I have rights? As an American, I do, but my citizenship is in Heaven. As I pursue the things I feel our my rights, I need to first seek God. It's very American to have the right to free speech, but how often does God desire I tame my tongue? It's very American to have the right to own property, but am I willing to give up that right if God calls me to? There are so many more "rights" and things I tend to think I'm "owed" as an American. Legal or not, I need to learn about what His word says about things. I need to learn a lot more about the character traits of a heavenly citizen and a lot less about what I feel entitled to here on earth!

Wedding DIY - Table Decor

This post has been moved to my new blog. Click here for the content. Sorry for any confusion.

Hope these give you ideas. I didn't actually do any of these crafts myself, I had tons of help, so if I left out important info, feel free to comment with questions!

PKU Pasta with Mushrooms and White Wine Sauce

Pasta with Mushrooms and White Wine Sauce

One of my hubbies fav new recipes comes from the Pioneer Woman Chicken and Mushrooms with Artichoke Hearts- he loves it and we make it often. I like my meals to "match" as often as possible, so of course I needed a great low-protein version. I highly recommend making the "real" version for your nonPKU family members, but this is a great variation for PKU. Depending on the low-pro brands you choose, it can be as low as 260mg PHE.

Ingredients:

3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
8 ounces, weight White Mushrooms, Sliced
2 whole Garlic Cloves, Minced
1/4 cup White Wine, Or More To Taste
1 cup prepared Chicken-Flavored Consomme and Seasoning or other type Chicken broth
1/2 cup Heavy Cream
8 ounces your favorite low-pro, weight Pasta - prepare and drain

Preparation Instructions:
Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add sliced mushrooms to pan with the garlic, and stir around and cook for a couple of minutes. Add wine and cook for a minute while it evaporates.
Pour in chicken broth. Stir. Put the lid on the skillet and continue cooking over medium-low heat. Cook for about 15-20 minutes, enough for most but not all the broth to evaporate. (This is a great time to cook the pasta)
Remove lid and reduce heat to low. Pour in cream and stir. Put lid on pan again and cook for an additional 10 minutes to thicken sauce. Stir; add salt and pepper to taste.
Pour over cooked pasta.

Some tips:

Use the Pioneer Woman's photos to help. You won't have the exact same ingredients each step, but her photos show you what it should look like over all.

Rinse your low-protein pasta well before adding sauce. I like to mix in the pasta in the pan over the stove, but make sure you have enough room to mix without overflow!

If your diet allows more PHE than 260mg, you can add the artichoke hearts to your batch as well. I cook with them in for the flavor but then take them out when prepared. You can also add real pasta or real chicken broth if needed, but guessing most of you don't need more PHE.

Hope you enjoy this recipe and hope your non-PKU family enjoy the Pioneer Woman's recipe!

2011 Reflections

All in all, I'd say 2011 was a pretty amazing year...perhaps one of the most exciting of my life so far. I was very blessed this year. TONS happened, but here are the highlights:

got engaged and married

changed my name

added some great in-laws to my life

plus got niece and nephew

saw tons of family and friends I hadn't seen in years at showers and wedding festivities

got tons of new stuff via wedding gifts

quit my job that I had for almost 6 years

bought our first house

moved to a small town

made a lot of new friends

learned how to cook real meals (aka meat)

went to Romania

went to NYC

went to Colorado

went to California

went to Playa del Carmen for our honeymoon

AND got the most amazing husband in the world that at a little shy of 4 months of marriage, I still fall more in love with each day.

Last year, I was very content with my job, apartment, singleness, and just about everything else. God had other things in mind. Now that my life looks NOTHING like it did a little over a year ago, I have no idea what to expect in 2012, but looking forward to the unexpected!

Wedding Stationary - Door Hangers

Somehow in the midst of pre-wedding stress, I went crazy creating anything I could. Suddenly cute water bottles and snacks weren't enough for my hotel guests. I decided that they needed to be able to find each other in the hotel and it needed to be a cute creative way. I found ideas for door hangers and many of them were complicated! Instead, I created my own using the same linen paper I used for the programs and borrowed a circle cutter and round edge cutter from a craft friend. These are pretty basic tools, so if you don't have them, I'm sure any scrapbooking and/or craft making friend will let you borrow.

All I did was create two columns in a page. I lined up our wedding logo then typed the guests name below. Each column had one persons door hanger. I even made one for our bedroom as our honeymoon suite for the first night was our first night in our new house together.

1. Create 2 columns in your word document

2. Place logo toward the bottom of each column

3. Type guests name below logo (Mrs. & Mrs. So-and-So, or full names)

4. Either on word or by hand, mark an x a few inches below the top of the paper for the center of your hole.

5. Print on fancy paper - something with a decent weight like cardstock

6. Cut in half with paper cutter

7. Use a circle cutter to cut using the X as the center mark. You may want to test this on scrap paper first to be sure its the correct size. Mine cut a hole only about 1 inch in diameter

8. Cut an angle from the right edge to the circle (see picture above for an idea)

9. Trim corners with a curved edge trimmer if desired

10. Hang on door(s)

Sample of word document with names edited/smudged for privacy:

I used linen business paper. It has a heavier weight than regualr paper and is a little thinner than cardstock. Up close it looks like this:

Wedding Stationary - Water Bottles

For each of our out-of-town guests, we created a guest basket with some snacks, local maps and tourist info and a water bottle with our custom logo.

I really liked the pre-made waterbottle stickers I found at a craft store...but I was very disappointed! DO NOT BUY A WATER BOTTLE LABEL KIT. The labels were super-sticky and it was impossible to place them on a bottle without wrinkles, especially since almost all water bottles have some sort of ridges. I ended up using the FREE template they offered online and just printing them on regular printer paper. I cut them carefully to size and hid a piece of double stick tape at the end. For copyright sake, I'm not going to give you the company I got the template from b/c they want you to buy there sticky labels - but you can search for them online or even just set up your own template dividing a word document page into 4 equal parts. If you have more questions about how to do this, send me a comment.

1. Create an image in photoshop with your desired background (the purple for me) and wedding logo on top of it. Make sure to size it 8.25 inches wide and 2.5 inches tall - this may have to change a bit. Center the logo on the design.

2. Bring the picture into a word document and copy 4 of them (you can try to print 4 in photoshop, but that never works for me) Be sure to make the margins as small as your printer will allow you.

3. Print.

4. Trim each with a paper cutter. Keep in mind that depending on your printer may need to trim the top and bottom one a bit more to make sure the logo is still centered perfectly (only if your printer cut off some of the design)

5. Remove label from a bottle and replace with your label. Use double-stick tape to keep it in place.

The bottle label will last, even if in the fridge. It won't last if left in a hotel ice-bucket though...but I doubt the fancy labels would either :)

Here is what they turned out like. The picture is fuzzy, but they were perfect.

Wedding Stationary - Programs

The instructions for the wedding stationary programs has been moved to my new blog. Click here for the full instructions. Sorry for any confusion.

Wedding Stationary - Mad Libs

The tutorial for the wedding stationary mad libs has been moved to my new blog at this website.
Sorry for any confusion- the new site was just much easier to organize for a high-traffic post!

Wedding Stationary -Logo and Thank You Cards

One of the best decisions I made in my wedding planning was to create my own wedding stationary. It was easy to do, but took some planning. So I thought I'd share a little about how it was done so others may not have to struggle as much in the future.

I decided all paper stuff other than the invites would be produced by myself...not because I'm crazy crafty (I'm not good with crafts at all) but because it would save money and ensure that things matched. I also realized very early on that this was the only way we could get programs in time since we made final decisions on music and scripture a week before the wedding. I'm going to break this into a few posts just for ease of searching, but we created the following with a computer, paper, a printer and in some cases paper cutting stuff and tape.

Logo

Thank You Cards

Programs

Door Hangers for Hotel Guests

Water Bottle Labels

Gift Tags for wedding party gifts

Mad Libs for reception entertainment

and more that I may or may not include :)

First up, the logo. We ordered invites from a company online as sim

ple as we could find, but one unique thing we did was put an ~N~ at the top instead of both

our initials (eNc). We decided to carry this out through the wedding stationary. So, I opened up photoshop and found the shape I wanted, added a border using wedding colors for both (light pink and dark gray-ish purple). Then I added the wedding date on the bottom. It took a while to line it all up perfectly, but we had a logo. All the wedding day stuff had this logo.

We also used it to create thank you cards. We bought blank printable greeting cards at our local office store and used word to place the logo on the front of the cards only. We changed the wedding date to a simple "Thank You" and we had custom thank you cards at very little cost. They were very simple, but people loved them and they matched the rest of our wedding perfectly.

The best of small town living

So I was all ready to blog every single day...or close to it. I already have the next blog or two half written.But the holidays distracted me. And then I got sick. It was a nice reminder of how much my life has changed. I had text messages pouring in from family and friends asking if I was pregnant. It seems from now on, instead of compassion, any sickness I feel will now be met with excitement. (For the record, it was food poisoning, not a baby)

Married life has lead to many changes. Most have been easy to adjust to. The most difficult has been moving to a small town. But here are my favorite things about small town life.

5. High School Football - We only managed to go to one game this year, but the entire town seemed to be there. It's not just football too. We can go to any game, concert, play, etc and see tons of people we know. The kids are treated like celebrities in our small town paper.

4. Parades - My first weekend here was the 4th of July parade. I was actually in the parade! Since then, we have had many events. The school homecoming parade drew out a huge chunk of the town. The most recent, Christmas Stroll and Parade featured floats and shops with free hot chocolate and cookies. I can definitely get used to this. Each parade we head to the square just us and then run into tons of people we know. It's a great time to say hi to everyone and just enjoy a change in activities.

3. Quiet - The first night I lived in the house by myself, I just laid in bed amazed at the sound of...NOTHING. Literally, I could hear nothing. It was so strange. It was hard to sleep. I lived by the train tracks in the city for 10 years and no longer even noticed the train whistles. Car alarms constantly went off in my apartment complex parking lot. How on earth can one sleep in silence? Luckily, our ceiling fan makes a low ticking sound that helps for now. But I've now become accustomed to the quiet. We live in a cul-de-sac and hear no cars other than the neighbors. No headlights shine in our windows ever. We live close enough to the small airport that we actually hear more small airplanes overhead than we ever hear cars in a day.

2. Traffic - I have hit a few traffic jams since moving here in July (aka 4 cars in a line at a stop sign during "rush hour"). It is amazing how I used to be able to only travel from my apartment to the mall only a mile away in 30 minutes during the Christmas holiday. Here in my small town life, I can travel across town in 10 minutes even during "rush hour". The nearest mall may be an hour away, but that's only 30 minutes more than traffic in the city was.

1. The Sky - "The stars at night are big and bright..." deep in not-really-the-heart of Texas. Not even sure where the heart of Texas is, but I do know where I am the sky is amazing. We received a pair of binoculars for a wedding gift and learned that we are actually able to see Jupiter and its moons clearly almost every night. Thanks to star-guide apps for our phones, we have been able to see the Andromeda galaxy and other great things as well. With the help of our neighbors telescope, we have been able to see all the clear details on the moon (and even take this photo through the telescope). It's been a while since we ventured out with the telescope, but even with the naked eye we see amazing things in the sky each night - it is simply beautiful.

Marsala Cream Sauce for PKU

This is a recipe for those with PKU...but if you have no clue what I'm talking about, see the previous post for the real recipe.

For those fellow PKU-ers out there, this makes a great sauce variety for pasta. I don't know about you, but I have eaten my fair share of low-protein pasta with tomato based sauce. If you need a little variety, try this. I estimated the PHE, but you probably want to measure it out yourself based on what you actually use. From what I could tell, it would come out to about 250mg PHE. Feel free to correct on comments if you know better...my food list is a bit out of date! Thanks, and enjoy.

2 servings of your favorite low pro pasta*
1 1/2 tablespoons margarine
100g white mushrooms, sliced
40g onions, diced
1/2 cup Marsala wine
1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme
1 teaspoons fresh parsley, chopped
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup heavy cream

1. Cook the pasta according to package directions.

2 Melt the margarine over medium heat in a skillet. Saute the mushrooms, then set aside.

3. Add more margarine to the same skillet, if needed, and turn the heat down to medium-low. Add the onions, cover, and cook for 5 minutes.

4. Add the Marsala wine, thyme, parsley, and pepper. Stir until the liquid is reduced to 2-3 tablespoons.

5 Add the cream and stir constantly until reduced by half.

6. Pour sauce over strained pasta.

*For an even better taste, use Cambrooke Food's Low Protein Portabella Spinach Ravioli or Cheese Ravioli and/or top with Mozerella Shreds

Chicken Marsala with Mushroom Ravioli

This recipe has moved to my new blog...click here for the recipe! Sorry for the confusion.

Teaser

After a teaser about blogging again, I followed with nothing. This was not because I had no thoughts to share- I have so many. It was because I was trying to decide what of my life to blog about - spiritual stuff like I did in the past blogs, new cooking adventures, home projects, wedding planning ideas, small town life or PKU. I realize none if these will be interesting to all people- but they are all part of my life. So expect some super short blogs with links to recipes, some long blogs of spiritual thoughts, and some random commentary about PKU and small town life. Enjoy or skip as you please. Oh and I just learned I can update from my phone app, so no excuses now.

testing 1...2...3...

So this is my first blog in a really long time, and life has changed so much that topics will look different. Mostly, I am just testing to make sure this DOES NOT upload to facebook. I don't need/want my 694 "friends" all reading every thought I type. So if this does upload, and you see it and want to read it, wonderful. But be sure to bookmark the real link because I'll delete it from FB. If you have been reading in the past, I still will update on mission trips here and on Facebook notes, but on here only I also want to share stuff from life in my small town adventures - learning how to cook, remodeling some of our house, shopping when there is NOTHING but Walmart near by - I really have no idea what I will write, I just know with no job and a lot more time, I want to write.