Healthy Recipe

Today's health blog is a recipe I tried today. We recently bought a house and invited a bunch of friends over for an open house, so I made a bunch of cookies. This recipe was received well, and many people liked them.

I will undoubtedly tweek it a little since I didn't like it as much as I thought I would and I think it could be better.

This is called Peanut Butter Gems. It contains banana, but the peanut butter tends to be more prominent, while the banana stays more in the background to provide some extra sweetening.

There is no sugar in my recipe which I adapted from this peanut butter banana cookie recipe that I found recently.

I think next time, I will try a different kind of flour, and maybe flatten them a bit more as they ended up a bit dense and sticky.

Try them, both the original and my version, and adapt your own. Then let me know in the comments how you like them, and what you did to make them better suited to your taste buds!


Peanut Butter Banana Gems

• 2 medium very ripe bananas
• 1 TBS honey
• ½ C creamy peanut butter
• 1 and ⅓ Cups flour, I used oat this time
• ¼ teaspoon salt

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 350˚F.
2. Peel and mash bananas. Mix in honey and peanut butter.
3. Add flour, and salt.
4. Drop in 2 tablespoon size mounds on baking sheet. bake for 7-8 minutes or until edges are barely golden brown.
5. Let cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to cooling rack or plate.

Changes part 2

One of the first changes in my blog will be its regularity. I haven't been regular about posting. My goal is to post more often.

One part will be in line with my website name, www.readingwithjuliette.com. This used to lead somewhere else, but now will lead to this blog.

The next part will be along the lines of health.

After that, will hopefully be a video from my YouTube channel. I'm not sure about the content yet, but as I said previously, it's a process.

Finally, the last part of my blog, will be family related: homeschool adventures, pictures of the kids, fun things we've done through the week.

I have a goal to be consistent since I have a tendency to start things, have big ideas, and not follow through. This seems to be human nature, but I'm praying God will help me in this.

Tomorrow will be my first post, on health, so watch for it!

Changes

I'm making a bit of a change in my blog. And my life.

We recently moved into a new house and I am trying to be more purposeful in everything I do. Keeping it cleaner, not letting things slide as much, trying to be less lazy.

As part of this challenge, I am including my dream, I guess you could say of a health based business/ministry.
I have recently come in contact with an entrepeurneurial business coach whose ideas in the area of business, and whose philosophy about how to reach others made me realize I don't need to be someone else to help people. I need to be only who God wants me to be, real and true to Him.

So, in that vein, I have decided that I'm going to work with what I've got, the knowledge that I have and turn it into the ministry that I feel that God has given me.

It's a process, which is ongoing, so there may be changes as I go, but I know that as long I am focused on God's will and who He has called me to be, then I can't go wrong. He will lead me.

Psalm 32:8  I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.

Bible memory

Today's blog is about what challenges I am doing this month. I will only go into detail about one here and do the others next week.

Right now I am in the middle of 3 different challenges. Two are clutter/spring cleaning related which I will go into detail about next week. 

I am doing a 30 day Bible memorization challenge for the month of March. It has been so awesome to meditate on God's Word daily and as I memorize the verses, I have found myself learning more about them during my review of them.

The Bible instructs us to meditate on God and His Word, and to keep His Word with us. To keep His Word and lay it up with us in our hearts so that we may not be led astray by false doctrine or distracted by the things of this world. Over and over, we are told to have our minds and hearts renewed and transformed by the Spirit of God, who brings all the things to our remembrance that we have been taught in His Word.

Deuteronomy 6:6
Proverbs 7:1
So many verses to list!

What better way to draw nearer to God, then to think on His Word all day long? We cannot and will not always have our Bible in hand while we are doing our chores, or driving down the road, or in persecution, but we can always have God's Word with us in our minds and hearts by memorizing it!

I have two different programs that I have found extremely useful in memorization. The first one is www.ScriptureTyper.com which also has an app. I like this app because I can add verses to different collections and have them categorized however I want. Also, it is handy for keeping track of how long it's been since I have reviewed a verse, since it is important for retaining them to go back every once in awhile and review even after having successfully rmemorized a verse.

The other program that I have found very fun lately is the memory engine and verse pack at www.fastmissions.com. I love the way I can memorize a verse in a very short amount of time using the verse pack page at this site. Also, there have been so many awesome classes and tips and Bible studies and readings on this site that I highly recommend you check it out. Not everything is free on this site, however, but the classes on memorizing the Bible I have taken here, were totally worth the money!

What verses have blessed your life recently? Be sure to comment below and let me know! 

Some more recipes!!!

So, the rest of the recipes we used that week were in the Forks Over Knives cookbook. The recipes below are our adaptations. We actually made 4 recipes, but I'm going to list just 2 because one is a simple vegetable soup p. 94 that was only ok, and the other is a shepherds pie p. 261 that is very long and the kids thought it was good, but not spectacular. I will list the pages in the cookbook so you can go see the originals, when you get the chance!

 Banana Granola Parfait p. 46

1 package silken tofu
2 bananas
juice from 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup aprox of molasses
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt

granola, homemade
fruit salad, we used frozen mixed berries

blend "yogurt" mixture until smooth. Layer "yogurt", granola, and fruit in bowls or cups. Enjoy! The second time we made the "yogurt" I didn't have silken tofu and I used maple syrup instead of molasses. Still yummy! This recipe is definitely a keeper!

"Cheesy" Potato Soup

4 onions
8 cloves of garlic
12 cups of water
8 potatoes
1 batch of no-cheese sauce (p. 29)
Salt to taste


Cook veges until tender then blend until smooth. Add cheese sauce and cook for 5 min.

This was very cheesy even with only 1 batch of the sauce for 3-4 times the recipe of soup. The kids liked it, so I think we will probably make it again.

Recipes!

So, I promised some recipes, so here they are!

Last week we made some recipes from a couple of cookbooks we have at home. We adapted them a little bit to our tastes and what we had on hand. They were so yummy!

The first cookbook was Mouthwatering Vegan. We made 3  recipes from there.


Greek "Chicken" & Lemon Soup p.48 if you want to see the original. This is the way we made it.

Lemony "chicken" soup
4 onions
4 carrots
4 stalks celery
4 cloves garlic
12 cups of water
4 tbs vege bouilion
4 tsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp turmeric
4 cups almond milk
1 can coconut milk
juice of 4 lemons
1 cup precooked leftover jasmine rice

saute veges then add water and seasonings. while thats heating, blend milks and lemon juice until smooth. Add milk/juice mix and rice to pot. Heat to a boil.

Scrambled Tofu p. 4 is the original.

Our version is below.
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
ginger grated to about 2 tsp
about 15-20 mushrooms(we love mushrooms!)
2 packages silken tofu
Braggs Liquid Aminos, 4 tbsp
4 tsp fresh oregano
1 tsp nutritional yeast
2 tsp. turmeric
4 tbsp. tahini

Saute Veges until cooked then crumble in tofu and add seasoning.

Spanish Style Omelette p. 6 (picture is in the previous post)

Our omelette

4 zucchini, diced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 large onion
a bunch of mushrooms, 10 or so
4 potatoes, cooked and diced small
1 package of firm silken tofu
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp garlic powder
salt to taste
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 1/2 cups almond milk
3 tsp tahini
1/4 cup flour
1 recipe of vegan mozerella about 1 1/2 cups grated (we used the recipe in the book)

cook veges until soft. mix tofu through flour into a batter. Will be thick. Cook like a thin pancake on skillet for 1 minute. Add some cheese, and cook 3-4 minutes, working gently under edges to keep it from sticking. Spread veges on top of cheese and cook for 3-4 minutes. Gently fold in half and slide carefully off of pan onto plate. Repeat with the rest to make several more.

Recipes! And other things.

So this last week, we did a bit of everything. I just wanted to share a couple of things we worked on. The last couple of weeks, the kids each picked a recipe to make. This one was Josh's choice and he ended up helping but I was the one who cooked the actual dishes. I will share the recipes shortly.