Struggles

So what are you struggling with tonight???

I'm struggling with. . . .
- not being what I need to be for my kids

-  not being what I should be for my hubby

- not being what God wants for me. . . . .


Trusting that next week I'll get a grip on it.

My God is … Faithful Deuteronomy 7:9

Deuteronomy 7:9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.

Meatless Mondays? Oops. . .

GOOD MORNING!!!!  Hope your day is off to a roaring start!  :-)

Generally, I try to go with the label of meatless Mondays.  Don't always remember, but that is often what I try to go with as I think about my menus for the week.

Yesterday was one of those days where the day got away from me (working hard on getting the kitchen finished - of course pictures will follow hopefully later this week) but even during the weekend a recipe for Quick and Easy Calzones was sitting on the back burner of my brain. So, since it was already 5:00 and the kitchen was still in disarray with black grout EVERYWHERE!, I remembered my calzone recipe but forgot about meatless Monday. 

I grabbed the recipe from my binder, looked at it and decided it was indeed a quick make for Monday.  And it was a keeper!!!  It called for chopped cooked meat so I decided to quickly boil up 2 chicken breasts and shred them. (QUICK TIP:  Boil chicken breasts for about 10 minutes until cooked through.  Cut into 4 or 5 small pieces and put them in your Kitchen Aid Mixer.  With the paddle inserted, "whip" them for 2 or 3 minutes on medium speed and VOILA - perfectly shredded chicken!!!)  You could use any meat that you had on hand or even cut up pieces of pepperoni would work I am sure. The recipe makes 6 but they are quite large so I am sure you could reduce the size of the dough and make 8 instead.

FAST AND EASY CALZONES

Here is the recipe.  Quick and easy and OH SO YUMMY!!!!

Fast and Easy Calzones

Ingredients

    1 Tbsp honey

    1 Tbsp oil (I used olive oil)

    1 cup warm water

    1 Tbsp yeast

    ½ tsp garlic salt

    3 cups flour

    1 cup ricotta cheese

    1 cup mozzarella cheese

    1 cup of cooked meat

    fresh or died herbs to taste (I mixed in some fresh basil)

    cornmeal

    4 Tbsp Olive Oil

    6 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

    marinara or pizza sauce to serve with

Instructions

    Preheat oven to 475 degrees.

    In a bowl, combine the honey, oil, water, yeast, and garlic salt together. Then mix in the flour. Once mixed knead the dough for a minute or two.

    Divide dough into 6 easy pieces. Roll each ball out into an 8 inch circle using extra flour if needed.

    In a bowl, combine the ricotta, mozzarella, meat, and herbs.

    Take ½ cup of filling and place on half of each rolled out 8 inch round of dough.

    Fold other half of dough over each round and seal seams.

    Dust cookie sheet with corn meal and place calzones on cookie sheet.

    Brush tops of calzones with olive oil and sprinkle each with 1 Tbsp of the Parmesan cheese.

    Bake at 475 for 10 to 12 minutes until golden. Allow to set for 5 minutes before serving. Serve with marinara or pizza sauce for dipping. Serves 6.

Serving Size

One of my new blogs that I have started enjoying is the blog Power of Moms.  (http://powerofmoms.com/register/)  What a wonderful little space.  A space written by mothers, for mothers.  A space written by mothers who are searching/scrambling/struggling to make each day the best for their families.  I have loved their down to earth, I'm-no-better-than-you-because-I-write-a-blog attitude because so often they write about the very things I struggle with.

Recently one of the ladies wrote about the thought of How Big is Your Plate?  What a good question.  So often we hear about people feeling like their plate is overflowing.  Or you hear about people and we think "They sure have their plate full". 

But this blog made me think about plate size.  Our serving size.  And it made me think about meals. And the size of plates we use to eat vs. the size of plate we use to serve!  And I got to thinking about the fact that we don't always use the same size of plate for everything.  Imagine a dessert plate.  TINY.  and very often I'd like to use a serving plate to eat my dessert with - but it is small.  At lunch we use a luncheon sized plate and at supper, a dinner plate.  NOT EVERY PLATE IS THE SAME SIZE.

So why do I think after having struggled the last few months that my plate should be the same size as it was a year ago?  Perhaps God is telling me to use a dessert plate.  Put on my dessert plate what I can fit today, and if tomorrow it feels like a luncheon plate kind of day, just do a luncheon sized job!  I think I have created this idea of what I am SUPPOSED to be able to handle, SUPPOSED to be able to accomplish because "she" can do it, or I used to be able to do it all, but God hasn't called me to do that.  He has called me to take today and to go at it with HIS strength.  And maybe all I can handle today is a dessert plate.  But HE has given me the dessert plate and he will give me the strength to take care of that dessert plate.  Next year He may be giving me a supper plate, but regardless He will give me the strength to take on the supper plate.

So today, I am going to try to be thankful for the dessert plate.  To NOT be down on myself for not having/using the dinner plate.  But to take on my dessert plate and make sure I take care of it in a God honouring fashion.

Maybe some day I'll be able to take on the serving platter that I made at Crockadoodle last summer.

Blessings. . . .

Serving Platter I made at CrockaDoodle last summer.