Recent things I have made and an interesting little personal thought

Recently I have made a few things....

One of my roommates has being working on making homemade pasta... I thought it looked delicious... so I tried my own knack at making it! 2 cups of flour, 3 eggs and a touch of salt. All you do is mix, knead and let sit for a while before rolling it thin and slicing it.

I added some Alfredo and Parmesan cheese along with some grilled smoked sausage. Pretty good for my first go at homemade pasta.

I then had an itching for something chocolate... I thought maybe I could make some brownies from scratch (since I have yet to find a good recipe for myself I looked online). One of the first places I go is America's Test Kitchen. I love this website because they always test everything so they can make the best of the best without you having to go through all the trouble of finding that signature "great" recipe. I found a recipe for low fat brownies. I thought.... well I could be a little more healthy if I am going to eat something like this! Their whole principle is making good things taste great... even low-fat things! So I watched the video and got the ingredients. It was interesting... it only had 2 TBL of butter and 2 TBL of Sour cream to count as the fat! I thought that was neat. So I made them.... and I added some chopped walnuts. Can I just say these were the most moist chewy brownies ever... and I wouldn't be able to tell that they were low-fat!

I also had made some lentils with brown rice... a traditional Egyptian dish (it has cumin, cinnamon, and onions). I had its left overs today with some steamed corn on the cob and some steamed broccoli for lunch! It sure was a feast! I also have gotten into topping them both with some parmesan cheese as it is a lot lower in calories that a bunch of butter or cheese sauce (which is what I grew up putting on my broccoli).

I also have been watching these shows on youtube called "The heart of the Matter" by Shawn Mcraney. He is a man that left the LDS church a while back. He has since then started a TV show where he helps show the "truth" of the LDS church. I don't agree with the ways in which he does things, but he does start good discussion in response to his videos. Any who... one of them was about being born again. Now this is a topic I have dealt with before when I used to work with the missionaries and meet with those that wanted to learn about the church.

Something I thought about is that as Latter-day Saints we can be born again.... but it doesn't just happen once, it happens over and over again as we come closer and closer to Christ! It is an on going process!

Meringue Cookies

Last night, after going to the nature park and feeding the ducks and geese a friend and I (Arianne Richards) decided to make meringue cookies, or kisses as some like to call them. This was way fun!

I had been wanting to make them because they don't have a lot of calories in them (and no fat calories either). Some recipes call for 3 eggs, some for 4... some call for 1 1/4 cups of sugar while others only 1/4 of a cup. Then there is the baking tempature. The goal is to dry out the cookie... so some do it at 200 degrees F for like 2 hours! wow! and others only 30 min at 300 degrees! so I just chose a middle of the road one. 4 egg whites, 3/4 cup of sugar, a pinch of salt, vanilla, almond and some chopped chocolate. Spooned them out onto some parchment and baked them at 300 for about 20 minutes. They were dry, and chewy in the middle (and hollow) and totally delicious!

Sunday... and I am tired, but Church taught me something...

Today wasn't anything super special, however Church was quite good and the lessons made me think. In Sunday school the lesson was on the atonement (which I always love going over). One thing stuck out to me... it was something Christ said while He was on trial. "for this purpose came I into the world." Whenever I see depictions of the things my brother, Christ went through I am saddened that He suffered that kind of pain. Even when Christ asked His father, "remove this cup from me"... He still kept the perspective of the purpose of His mission. "nevertheless, not my will but thine."

Christ came into this world knowing full well of all that He should do and suffer. He professed it to those around Him without fear in His countenance. Should we not be committed as Christ was and is? In this month's (July 2011) Ensign the First Presidency Message was about being committed. President Uchtdorf says:

"Those who are only sort of committed may expect to only sort of receive the blessings of testimony, joy, and peace. The windows of heaven might only be sort of open to them. Wouldn’t it be foolish to think, “I’ll commit myself 50 percent now, but when Christ appears at the Second Coming, I’ll commit myself 100 percent”?

He ends the article with saying: In some way, each of us stands at a decision point.... It is my prayer that we will have faith, move forward, face our fears and doubts with courage, and say to ourselves, “I’m committed!”

Well, I can't end it better than he did... so looks like we have a decision to make.

Happy Sabbath!

Forgot I had a blog...

Well I have been debating to start a blog or not... mostly because I am afraid I would forget about it. I am taking the plunge anyways. Here are some recent things I have baked, some pumpkin chocolate chip muffins and some granola. Both of which I tried for the first time and they turned out wonderful.

Vanilla and cinnamon granola with walnuts and crasins.

Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins

I am on this new kick to try and eat more healthy (which I already do since I hardly buy prepackaged foods, I make everything!). I am trying to eat a lot more veggies, especially because it is summer and delicious things are growing. Recently, I got some fresh corn and it is really delicious! I am also starting my student teaching in Nampa, Idaho in August (I move there on August 13th) which I am pretty excited about. There is always some nervousness too. Not knowing your class size and right now I don't even know specifics on what I will be teaching. I will be teaching Spanish and a High School, but I don't even know who my cooperating teacher is... ahhh! For TESOL I believe I am teaching a Spanish class for native speakers... but that is as far as I know (and is most likely subject to change). So I have a good reason to be a little nervous, right? Any who here is a good start to my blog!