I Need Some Veggies!

I saw a rainbow and lots of hazey pale pink clouds as I was leaving at 6:30am to go swimming. I had a wonderful swim and my new snorkel worked well. The last time I got a new snorkel it happened to be a defective snorkel. I wish the lap pool would be open tomorrow but I think it's going to be closed for a few days. They closed it today because of a visibility problem. The life guard said she noticed I couldn't see where I was going (when I wasn't in the lap lane). The pool was also closed for the same reason very recently.

I had an afternoon appointment. Then I went to the library. I was so tired when I got home. Since I ate something I'm getting renergized. I'm hoping to have lots of vegetables for lunch tomorrow. My mom is cooking green beans and I might cook some squash, purple hull peas & ??? Now what else do I want to cook? I remember my mom cooking meals with lots of wonderful vegetables from our garden, when I was growing up.


Lentil Salad

I bought a poblano pepper and cooked it in some lentils with garlic and cumin till al dente. The lentils absorbed all the cooking liquid. For salad add olive oil mayo & malt vinegar (about half & half) + a little spicey brown mustard with plenty of black pepper. I love this lentil salad! It should have a delicious tangy taste.

Am I Seeing What My Eyes Are Telling Me I'm Seeing

Rain is in the forecast. It rained for a little while this morning. The sun is shining now although it keeps getting overcast. Watching the nuances of the weather is so interesting. I was looking out the glass doors to my patio and I saw something, which I thought was probably a squirrel, climb to the top of the lattice. Then I thought, how can a small stuffed tiger toy be on top of the lattice? Then I saw that it was a squirrel from the side view.

Today I'm baking some bread with100% organic graham wheat. It smells so good and it's not even in the oven yet. There is a lot to baking bread but it's something I enjoy doing. This weekend my sister said she remembered watching me roll out bread dough and shape it into loaves and that I looked so cute.

My sister invited me to dinner Friday night and we ate ate a sushi restaurant, which was only my second time eating there. I decided to try the California rolls. The California rolls are great. Are they considered sushi? From there we went to the closing session of my sister's church's statewide women's conference. It was wonderful.

I was late for church yesterday and it really couldn't be helped. I didn't get to hear the youth choir sing. Our pastor's message was wonderful and really inspiring. It was about being Easter people in our everyday lives.

I've gotten a lot more in shape over the past two weeks, having worked out 8 of the last 14 days. Fitness is such a blessing. My back is kind of stiff though. I'll probably do some yoga. I've been wanting to be fit enough to do yoga. I like the "Yoga for Dummies" book. I like to do the first set of yoga for beginners, which takes only five or ten minutes and it makes my back feel so good.

Vanilla Honey Sponge Cake

I've really been enjoying baking lately. I just love to be in my kitchen whipping up something with my electric mixer (which I got very inexpensively at Target)! About a week ago I was at my mom's house and I said "don't I have an angel food cake pan with feet here?" Mom found it for me. This morning my mom and sister and I had this Vanilla Honey Sponge cake with our coffee before our Bible study & prayer meeting. This cake is good. It has a light delicate taste and texture. To me, it's kind of rich tasting even though it contains no shortening. It's low in calories though (see nutrition info after recipe). Unmolding the cake presented some difficulty, but we just sliced the cake in the pan to serve it. My mom said to use some vegetable oil spray and that this is o.k. even though the pan has to be inverted to cool. I'd recommend avoiding though, as much as possible, spraying the sides of the pan with the vegetable oil or instead just lightly greasing the bottom of the pan with oil. You can also find angel food cake pans that separate into two pieces-- which is really nice for unmolding the cake and clean up.

Click on the link for very helpful information on folding ingredients into egg whites:

http://www.ochef.com/241.htm


Vanilla Honey Sponge Cake

5 extra large eggs, at room temperature
1 C unbleached all purpose flour, sifted
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 cup honey
1-2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Combine flour and salt, mixing well. Separate eggs. Beat yolks for about 5 minutes. Beat egg whites just until soft peaks form. Add vanilla. Drizzle in honey while beating. Continue to beat for 1-2 minutes, just until stiff peaks form; avoid overbeating. Fold in flour 1/4th at a time. Fold in beaten yolks. Lightly grease the bottom of an angel food cake pan. Pour in cake batter. Bake in 325F pre-heated oven for 1.25 hours or until done. Your cake may cook more quickly, so it's a good idea to check for doneness after it's cooked for 45 minutes. Carefully invert cake pan, on a bottle or on the cake pan's "feet", for cooling. Serve & enjoy!

NOTE: Freeze any cake that won't be eaten in a day.

Nutrition info:
5 eggs------------400 calories
1 C flour---------400 calories
1/2 C honey----480 calories
______________________
1 cake------------1,280 calories
1/12 cake--------128 calories

April Memory Scripture - Wisdom

For April, the scripture that I've been memorizing, as a part of Living Proof Ministries' "Siesta Scripture Memory Team", is Proverbs 8:1-12 NIV, wonderful scripture about wisdom that's so inspiring. I like having my memory scriptures written on spiral bound index cards. I usually learn & study my memory scriptures from my computer but when I'm somewhere else or after the computer's turned off the spiral bound index cards are really handy.

Proverbs 8:1-12

Click on the link to read it in the New International Version:
http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Pro&c=8&v=1&t=NIV#top

1 Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?2 She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths.3 She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors.4 Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man.5 O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart.6 Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things.7 For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips.8 All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them.9 They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge.10 Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold.11 For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.12 I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.KJV

Rutabega

I cooked one of my favorite foods a different & healthier way today. It's rutabega! I usually eat rutabega that's been cooked with ham. In fact once I tried cooking it without ham and I couldn't even eat until I added ham to it. I decided cook a small rutabega in the microwave and season it with cumin. I like it a lot!

Here's my recipe:

Half a small rutabega (you'll probably need a hammer or something to use like a hammer to do this). Peel the rutabega and cut in about 1/2 inch cubes. Place in a small microwave safe cooking dish. Add water to about to about 1 1/2 inches from the top of the dish (or almost cover the rutabega with water). Loosely cover and microwave for about 7-10 minutes, stirring about every two minutes for even cooking. Add more water if needed. Sprinkle with cumin when served. Add salt and/or pepper if needed.

EDIT: I discovered that I didn't like these rutabegas nearly as well when I ate left overs.

Pray While Counting Swimming Laps - wikiHow

I had a really nice swim this morning. A man in the next swimming lane told me that I had good technique. It made me happy. He said that his wife says he doesn't keep his feet high enough when swimming. On the subject of techniques, I was using a technique to both count laps and pray for someone while I was swimming. I wrote this WikiHow article about a year ago:

How to Pray While Counting Swimming Laps

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Have you discovered how important and immensely valuable prayer is? Is fitness also one of your priorities? For people who like swimming, here is a great way for quality prayer and exercise to take place at the same time. With each lap you swim you can be praying about different aspects of an important prayer need.

Steps

1. Decide on an important prayer need to focus on. It could be something personal such as a weakness you want God to help you turn into a strength. Maybe there is an urgency to pray for someone in a crisis or prayer is needed to help prevent or resolve a crisis somewhere in the world.
   
2. Begin swimming your first lap. Focus on your prayer topic and pray fervently for something (or multiple things) relating to it which begin with the letter "A". Swim your second lap while praying about anything pertinent to your prayer topic beginning with the letter "B" and so on.
   
3. Continue prayer swimming your way through the alphabet, until you've swam as many laps as you want to.
   
4. Count through the alphabet up to the letter you were on during the last lap of your swim. This is how many laps you've swum.
   
5. Begin the alphabet again if you want to prayer swim more. To count how many additional laps you've swum after you've already swam through the twenty-six letters of the alphabet, start counting the next alphabet set with the number twenty-seven.
   

Tips

• Pray with thankfulness and weave genuine praise to God into your prayer.
  
• Don't stop praying just because you stopped swimming.
  
• This is just one way of praying, you may like another method of praying better.
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Count Swimming Laps Creatively
  
• How to Pray to Jesus
  
• How to Establish Personal Quiet Time with Christ
  
• How to Avoid Sabotaging Your Prayer Life
  
• How to Exercise to Become a Better Swimmer
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Pray While Counting Swimming Laps. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

A Great Perspective Makes Healthy Eating Fun

Today it really seems as if I have my normal stamina again. I've been wanting to return to my usual daily activities, ever since about a week and a half ago, when my physician prescribed a new medication. I even walked for a mile this evening after I made a quick trip to the grocery store. I just prepared and ate a good healthy supper-- wild salmon sandwich (recipe included) and asparagus which I bought on sale today, with frozen honey meringue for dessert.

I had never cooked merigue before. I have been interested in making meringue as a topping for pies or banana pudding, because it's fat free instead of having artery clogging fat like whipped toppings. Even if the whipped topping product says it's fat free, you can still see fat on the ingredient list, and whipped topping is something that I like a lot of. So several days ago I decided to just try my honey meringue recipe, to see how it would turn out. I discovered that it's nice for satisfying my sweet tooth after a meal. I need to adjust the recipe because 4 egg whites to 1/3 cup of honey is overly sweet. The meringue fell partially when it was in the oven and also when I froze it.

I only had a limited amount of success controlling my eating yesterday. For supper yesterday I ate at a Chinese buffet. I did fair at setting some healthy limits but got a brownie later at Books A Million! I seem to be so susceptible to this lately. I've decided that a good strategy would be to quickly walk out of Books A Million the next time this happens.

I've found that diligence in praying about self control in eating is really important. During my walk this evening, God gave me a really good new perspective, regarding making decisions to eat healthier. Choosing & eating healthy foods (instead of foods that contribute to health problems) can seem as as enjoyable as taking walks that are refreshing and good for your health-- if you have the right perspective.


Habanero Salmon Sandwiches

I purchase frozen wild salmon at Walmart, which I think is economical since it's about $4.00/lb. I've noticed that the most recent salmon I've bought seems to be a different kind of salmon because it's not as pink. It tastes kind of different from regular wild salmon but it makes a great sandwich. I would say this recipe is mild to medium hot.

For each 4 oz. salmon fillet, combine about 1/2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil & about 5 drops Tabasco Habanero sauce on a plate. Mix the hot sauce into the oil with a fork. Coat each fillet. Sprinkle liberally with True Lemon (crystallized lemon). Cook in a low to medium hot skillet for about 5-8 minutes or until the salmon flakes easily and the inside of the fish appears lighter. Serve on light wheat buns.

EDIT: Recently the frozen salmon I've bought at Walmart is a good quality chum salmon, pre-portioned for 4-8 servings. I like to add more Tabasco than is in the recipe, because you don't taste the spicyness of the Tabasco nearly as much in a sandwich.

I Love Sunshine

It was cold this morning but warm and sunny this afternoon. I sunbathed on my patio for a few minutes this afternoon. I really love being in the bright sunshine. Today brought back wonderful memories of sunbathing at the beach with friends when I was a teenager. It was fun to wade out into the Gulf and cavort with my friends. You might be shocked at the percentage of a century in which I lived on the Gulf coast, in my home town. I was frightened away by hurricane Katrina, even though my rental home, which was only about three blocks from the beach sustained only very minor damage. I remember praying for God to dispatch angels to protect my home and I'm very thankful for God's protection. My parents also moved away from the coast and now we live in the same town as my brother and youngest sister. It's super nice that we live in the same town now. My other sister lives just an hour away but I wish she lived in the same town too.

In the bright sunshine is where I want to be spiritually! Lately God has been teaching me new truths from 1st John Chapter 1. Verses 5-10 describe what I think is essential to the process of spiritual growth. I love the Bible. It's God's holy Word and it is truth so vitally needed in our lives. If I fail to admit my sin 1 John 1:10 says I make God a liar and His Word has no place in my heart.

Click on the link to read 1st John 1 in the New Living Translation:

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=1Jo&c=1&t=NLT

I John 1:1-10
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.(KJV)

Ephesians 5:8-9 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)(KJV)

1Thessalonians 5:55 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. (KJV)