The Daniel Fast

As I said yesterday, I started doing a Daniel Fast. I'm on day 8 of 21. Last Sunday I stocked the house with healthy foods for the fast. If you've never heard of a Daniel Fast before, it's a partial fast in which some foods are restricted. In a nutshell, it's a Vegan diet on crack. No animal by-product, No sweeteners/sugar, No refined or processed food products, No deep-fried foods, No solid fats, Only water to drink. Needless to say, after the first day I knew it was going to be a rough three weeks. I am a snacker. I love sugar. I love meat. I love milk and cheese.

I went to the store and bought The Daniel Fast by Susan Gregory. I found out about her by stumbling upon her blog: http://danielfast.wordpress.com/ I highly recommend this book! It has information about what the Daniel Fast is, how to make the most of it spiritually, it has lots of delicious recipes (and I'm pretty picky sometimes), and it comes with a devotion for a 21 day fast.

Tonight I made one of her recipes: Black Bean, Corn, and Brown Rice Stuffed Peppers; doesn't it look lovely? :) I also bought some Matzos crackers to eat with it (those are my new favorite snack food, and I will continue to buy them even after the fast is over). The meal was DELICIOUS!!!

Ingredients:

- 2 cans (15 oz each) black beans, drained (I only used one can and it was more than enough)

- 3 cups brown rice, divided

- 1 cup frozen corn kernels (I used canned; just be sure there's no sugar added to it)

- 2 scallions, sliced

- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (I didn't have any and it was still yummy!)

- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (just "eyeball" it)

- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (I didn't have any limes, so I used 1/2 a lemon and it was great)

- 1 clove garlic, minced (I only had garlic powder; still great)

- salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

- 2-3 large bell peppers, cut in half lengthwise and cored

- 2 cups 100% vegetable or tomato juice

Directions:

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Using a large bowl, gently combine the beans, 1 cup of brown rice, corn, scallions, cilantro, olive oil, lime juice, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

3. Place the pepper halves in a large glass baking dish and stuff them with the bean and rice mixture.

4. Carefully spoon some of the juice over each stuffed pepper, trying not to disrupt the filling. Pour the remainder of the juice into the dish. Cover with foil and bake for 45-60 minutes.

5. To serve, place about 1/2 cup of brown rice on each plate, spoon some of the juice from the baking dish on the rice, and then place a stuffed pepper on top of the rice.

6. Serve hot.

Makes 4 servings

For now, I am going to keep my reasons for fasting to myself. But as I learn and grow, I will share with you what God does. After the fast, I will talk about everything, including what I am fasting for. If you think about it, please pray for me the next two weeks. Thanks! More to come on the Daniel Fast tomorrow.....

I remembered!!

I almost forgot to write about something that I have been wanting to post:
I started a Daniel Fast last week. It has been hard and amazing at the same time. I've been wanting to post what I learn and experience. I'll try to compose my thoughts tomorrow and put a lengthier post about it. In fact, I will put a reminder in my phone right now to post more tomorrow.
The other thing that I have been interested in doing, is a post and a picture a day... we'll see how that goes. For now, stayed tuned...

Commitment Issues???

When we moved into the apartment, I thought that I hadn't put very much on the walls because we knew we wouldn't be living there for very long. But now that we're in a house, and we plan to be here for quite some time, I'm starting to think it's more than the short-term living situation that's preventing me from hanging things.

I realized today that I have a hard time fully committing where to put something. Sounds like a stupid problem... and it is... but our house just won't be complete until I buck up and get these walls decorated.

I've found pieces of art that I like, but Vince really wants all the pictures in the house to be made by ME (aaahhh!!!) So not only is there pressure for where to hang pictures, but alsowhatto hang. What have I done that's worthy of hanging on a wall??? I do plan on hanging some of our wedding photos which were taken by Euan Rannachan (euanart.com) because those are AMAZING!!! But where to hang them??? and which ones to print on canvas???

I have issues.

Vince tells me, "They're just walls." My response, "Walls in our home." This is probably the lamest post on my blog yet, but that's what's on my mind, so that's what is being posted.

The other thing on my mind: The Royal Wedding. It was so beautiful! It makes me want to marry Vince all over again, and again!! Plus Prince William looks like Vince (not the other way around, since Vince is older than the Prince), so I think that makes me dream about it even more.

Thanks for reading my random thoughts. If you have any advice on how to overcome my fear of decorating our blank walls, please let me know.

I took the following pictures and messed with them today to possibly hang above our bed. Any thoughts? be honest; I can take it.

Great Books!!!

I just finished reading Francine River's "A Lineage of Grace." She had written these books a while ago and sold them as separate hardbacks, but has just put them out in a paperback and it has all of the books in one! It was amazing!!! "We meet the 5 women whom God chose-- Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary. Each was faced with extraordinary--even scandalous--challanges. Each took great personal risk to fulfill her calling. Each was destined to play a key role in the lineage of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World."

I love Christian Historical Fiction, so this book was right up my alley! I felt like I was friends with the characters. I felt their joy and their pain. I learned more about the Bible and it helped me to dig into Scripture I had not read in a long time. I highly recommend these!!

Next, I will be reading "Sons of Encouragement."

"Francine Rivers illuminates the lives of five Biblical men who stood behind the heroes of faith and quietly changed eternity. Aaron, Caleb, Jonathan, Amos, and Silas each faithfully sought after God in the shadows of His chosen leaders. They answered God's call to serve without recognition of fame. And they gave everything, knowing their reward might not come until the next life."

Adonai

God is so AMAZING!!!!

That's all.

Raw "Cooking"

Well, I'm in Oklahoma learning how to "cook" raw foods.
I thought it was going to be either really hard or really gross, but I was wrong on both accounts. It's super easy and so far it has been Delicious!! I've never wanted an iPhone, but it would have been nice to have one this week so I could take pictures of what we're making and post them on here. Oh well.

The website of the Chef/teacher is www.purerawcafe.com
Here's an excerpt from her website on what raw food is:

What are Living and Raw Foods?

Living and Raw foods are uncooked vegetables, fruits, soaked and sprouted nuts, seeds, and grains that contain powerful enzymes. At Pure we combine these vibrant ingredients to make incredible tasting cuisine. International cuisine from Italian, Asian, Mexican, and American dishes that taste unbelievable. Living raw foods have a much higher nutritional value than 'cooked' foods. When you heat foods to a temperature above 105 degrees you destroy the vital nutrients and enzymes while creating toxins. Heat changes the chemical make up of the food which creates substances that the body can no longer recognize. This causes unwanted damage within our bodies. Without the vital nutrients and enzymes we loose the 'life force' of the food and we get sick with illness & disease.

Day 1 consisted of learning different Mexican meals. We learned how to make:
Corn and Veggie Tortillas (which were Awesome!!)
Chile Spiced Beans (although there were no beans, it tasted just like beans)
Queso Cheese (no diary and delicious)
Awesome Guacamole
Fresh Tomato Lime Salsa
Baja Burritos (AMAZING!!)
Spicy Green Avocado Soup (I'd make it without the spicy-ness)
Chocolate Brownie with Frosting (to die for!!!)

Day 2 was all Italian cooking. We learned how to make:
Herb Pizza Crust (we get to eat it tomorrow... stay tuned on how it tastes...)
Scallion Basil Cheese (soooo good!!!)
Sun Dried Tomato Sauce
Lasagna (same note as the pizza crust...)
Rawmesian (homemade Parmesan cheese, minus the cheese part... DELICIOUS!!!)
Strawberry Cake with Honey Cream Cheese Frosting (tasted the batter and it was like ice cream! Can hardly wait to eat the cake tomorrow!! and we were out of honey, so it's just cream cheese frosting and it's still amazing!)


Tomorrow we're learning how to make Asian/Thai food!! Mmm!!!
Thanks for reading :)

Disneyland!!!

For my birthday this year we went to Disneyland!! My best friend and her husband came with us, as well as half of Vince's family!! We had a ton of fun and got some good pictures. The weather was an amazing 80* and the wait for most of the lines was about 5-10 minutes. Couldn't have asked for a better day!! (you can click a picture to make it larger if it's hard to see on here)