Cooking with "My Main Squeeze" Round 3

So this week has been a long and BUSY week! Pudge was out of town the beginning of the week, which means I was staying at my parent's house, which by the way if I haven't mentioned here I LOVE! (I mean I hate that Pudge is gone, but who better to spend that time with than family!) Since my little brother has moved back home, we have such a fun time hanging out and it really is like old times (prior to marriage). Mom not only cooks meals (sometimes we tag team the meals), she also does my laundry!! She is an amazing woman whose goal in life is service to there, not only her children! Ok so moving on, by the way, I don't think I have mentioned this either, but I started a part time job in June working for Four Corners Ministries. My "job title" is Projects Manager, which entails lots of various jobs, from producing newsletters, to keeping the website update, to planning events, to coordinating short term mission trips to Uganda and South Sudan. Needless to say, life is super busy. Plus I started back to BSF this last week. I have a new set of responsibilities this year that I am so overwhelmed and privileged to have! Ok so that was a long intro for this post.....

Pudge and I decided last night as we were headed to Target (to get some BSF essentials) that we would buy the ingredients to cook together tonight! Pudge called up one of his co-workers (Adam) to get a recipe that he had made a few weeks prior. I am so glad that Pudge decided on this one! It is a dish I probably would have never tried, had Pudge not tasted it from Adam at work one day. It was awesome and we will be making it again. So here goes....

Turkey Sliders (you can print the recipe here)

1.5 lb ground turkey

1 avocado, half sliced and other half goes into turkey

1-2 tomatoes, half sliced and other half goes into turkey

1 purple onion, half sliced and other half goes into turkey

1 egg

salt, pepper, and garlic powder

crumbled blue cheese

Hawaiian rolls

Place ground turkey, half of avocado, diced tomatoes, diced onion, egg, and seasonings in a bowl and mix with your hands. Form this mixture into small patties (slider size). Cook on medium heat on stovetop or on the grill. Slice open the Hawaiian rolls and put blue cheese crumbles on half of the roll and toast in the oven. Bring rolls out and put the slider on the roll and top with sliced avocado, tomatoes, and onion.

Sweet Potato Fries (you can get the recipe here) These were just ok, not our favorite and the dip for the fries wasn't the greatest.

Pudge did most of the chopping!!

Turkey and tomatoes..

Pudge did the YUCKY job!!

The turkey for the sliders!

Cooking the turkey sliders.

The rolls about to go in the oven!

Sweet taters all peeled

Shaking the taters in a bag to coat them with corn starch

Be careful not to make a mess like me!

Sweet potatoes with corn starch on them.

Coated in olive oil and ready for the oven.

The sauce for the fries.

Our plates...

And for dessert, a little something I have been wanting to try for a while from Pinterest.

Apple Nachos (you can get the recipe here)

Caramels...

Butter...

Marshmallows....

And the healthy part....apples....to make....

It started out healthy, then....

Adding on the caramel and marshmallows....

Apple nachos, yummy!

After we finished, we were both soooo full!

I hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend!

The Faithfulness of God

Back in October of 2010, I had the opportunity to attend a Sip N' Swap in honor of Four Corners Ministries. You may be asking, what is a Sip N' Swap. Well it is a party/event where people invited bring a household item to trade with a someone else at the party. Every person leaves with a new item for their house. The idea is "bring what you have, take what you want." This event was a way to bring some friends together to fellowship, but mainly to find out about Four Corners Ministries (FCM). Please go visit their website and see what they are all about. Tripp Skipper is the president and a good friend of my family. He came down for the Sip N' Swap to tell us all about FCM. Pudge and I talked with Tripp that day and really enjoyed getting to hear all about the vision of FCM and the orphanage that will be begin being built this summer. Pudge casually mentioned to Tripp that we may be interested in going on one of the trips that Tripp might lead. A few weeks later, Pudge contacted Tripp to get some information on the upcoming trips to Africa. Pudge and I prayed about it and really felt the Lord leading us to go and serve across the nations.

The trip to Uganda is set for April 13th-April 23rd. God has graciously provided abundantly more than we could have ever asked for in many ways. One of those is finances. As you can imagine, traveling that far away is NOT cheap and then both of us going of course is alot more expensive. We sent out support letters to friends and family at the beginning of December and by mid-January we had ALL the money we needed to go, as well as about $1500 extra. Wow, God was faithful to us and always is. We knew God had called us to go and HE provided the money we needed. One of the other things that Pudge had prayed from the very beginning about this trip was that we would raise enough funds for a 3rd person to go with us. We had been praying about who we might ask to go with us. Well, God graciously answered that prayer for us and we are very excited that Pudge's brother, Josh will be going with us. He is a pharmacist and therefore our trip will now have a medical component to it! Not only did God raise up Josh to go with us, but HE also raised up my brother, Eric, to go as well. We are both so thrilled for the opportunity to go and how sweet it is that God would allow BOTH of our brothers to go and serve alongside us. God has been SO faithful to us in providing everything we need for this trip! We are so excited about this opportunity to serve others and bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to people who may not have ever heard it before! We cannot wait to see all that God is going to do in our hearts and also through us while we are there.

Shortly after talking to Tripp in the fall, Pudge and I studied Isaiah 12 in BSF. God gave us confirmation through His word that we were being obedient to what He had called us to do. Isaiah 12: 4-6 says:

"In that day you will say:

“Give praise to the LORD, proclaim his name;
make known among the nations what he has done,
and proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world. Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.” "

I am so thankful for God's faithfulness to provide abundantly more than we could ever ask or deserve. He has so grown our faith through this journey and I cannot wait to see all that He is going to do while in Uganda. He is so good to us and I am thankful that I can go and serve the Almighty powerful God of Israel! He is the only one worthy of my praise and my prayer is that He alone will receive ALL of the glory from this journey to Uganda.

GRACE

So this week I had the privilege of studying Isaiah 40: 1-11 in BSF. Wow, God's Word is amazing! My favorite verse in the passage we studied this week was:

"He tends his flock like a shepherd; He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young." Isaiah 40:11

This is so comforting to know that the God of the whole entire universe cares this much about each person that He would carry us close to His heart!

In the passage this week, GRACE was the attribute of God seen over and over again.

Justice - you get what you deserve

Mercy - you don't get what you deserve

Grace - you get what we don't deserve

I am so glad that God in His graciousness died on the cross for my sin and gave me salvation, but also that He continues to give grace upon grace upon grace to me. In every demand of life, God will give you all you need to bring Him glory through this 1 word, GRACE. Take a minute and think about whether you are living in God's grace. Here is a little test to think about it: Those living by grace have peace and those not living by grace have frustration. When we are in over our heads, that's when He floods us with grace! I hope God will fill each of you with His grace in each of the parts of your life!