Healthy Eating Part 2 and Lessons Learned

Some of the lessons we learned while we were on this fast were:
1. Healthy eating can be expensive. We ate a lot of organic fruits and veggies, whole grain foods like brown rice, black bean pasta and the like. There really isn't a reason for healthy food to be expensive.

2. Plan menus. Because I didn't do my complete research on the Daniel Fast we were stuck eating a lot of the same meals with no variety. I didn't make the meals enjoyable.

3. Read labels. I didn't do that well with reading labels during the fast but we still managed to eat very healthy and still avoid most added sugar in foods like dried fruits and salad dressings.

4. Pray. It's important to take time for prayer which I managed to do.

That all being said I don't want to tell you ladies what you should or shouldn't eat. Truth be told I don't like being what to eat. Perhaps in a way I'm a bit of a rebel. After Tim's heart attack we did lean towards healthy eating but somehow slowly started going back to our old eating habits.

So instead of telling you all what to eat, I will share some of our family's favorite foods:

Plain greek yogurt mixed with fruit, homemade granola, and or honey
Homemade granola
Almond milk yogurt mixed with homemade granola( can you tell we like homemade granola?)
Brown rice with sauted veggies
Stir fry veggies
Fruit salads
Turkey meatballs
Healthy homemade peanut butter cups
Chicken and Dumplings
Curried tofu and veggies
Fruit smoothies made with unsweetened almond or coconut milk
Chicken tacos seasoned with homemade taco seasoning
This is just a few of our favorite foods. We will be trying to reduce the junk foods we eat which means, if I don't buy it, we won't eat it.

We will have another family meeting to discuss our feelings about the fast and if we would like to do it again in the future. I personally would like to do it again in the future. I just bought The Daniel Fast book which has some interesting recipes to try. If I had bought the book sooner I would have avoided the problems of meal planning for the fast.
Some of the dishes I plan to make for meatless meals which I hope to do at least twice a week.
Well I have rambled enough. If you managed to read this far, thank you. Maybe you might want to try some of the foods listed. Perhaps you have some favorites you like to share.

Our Family's Healthy Eating Plan(Part 1)

Recently our family decided (with a little prodding from Tim and I) to begin an adventure of a 21 day Daniel Fast.  If you are not familiar with the Daniel Fast it is taken from the book of Daniel chapter  and 10.  Daniel had requested only to eat fruits and veggies, with only water to drink. No sweets, meat,dairy, not even a cuppa tea!

So we explained to our living at home girls that basically we would be eating vegan for 21 days. Well the girls were on board with but we failed to explain about Daniel diet and what he might have eaten. Many recipes they researched would be considered a no-no for the Daniel fast.   So we decided to just not make a big deal about it but to concentrate on making better food choices. We are still following the basic idea but we are avoiding junk food because we haven't bought any since we started the fast.

My youngest daughter did make some  peanut butter cups using carob chips, coconut oil and natural unsalted peanut butter. They help satisfy our desire for something sweet. These are much better for us than Reeses peanut butter cups.

The hardest for Tim and I is fasting from coffee. We both love our morning coffee. As an alternative to coffee we found some chicory at Natural Grocers.  It's caffeine  free  and it's actually really good but not as good as coffee. I put almond milk in it instead of 1/2 n 1/2 since we are fasting from dairy.   I miss my Lady Grey black tea so I have been drinking herb teas. Good thing I enjoy drinking herbal teas otherwise I might be rather cranky.

As I mentioned earlier, the idea we had for the Daniel Fast was more for learning to make better choices for eating but I really want it to draw us closer to the Lord. That was the original way it came about.
Anyway by the end of this fast I hope we have a better understanding on how to treat this temple (our bodies) the way God wants us to.

11th Tea Cup and Mug Exchange

Hello friends!
Next Wednesday the 11th Tea Cup and Mug Exchange signup begin over at The Enchanting Rose. My girls and I did this in the spring and it was so much fun! If you are interested in signing up or just curious just click on The Enchanting Rose link above. The image isn't clickable for some reason.

Taking Care of Our Spiritual Health

Ladies I apologize for my absence from blogging. I had "blogging block" and couldn't figure out what to write about. My heart has been heavy over the victims of Hurricane Harvey, especially those families who lost loved ones. Now there's Hurricame Irma which is forecast to hit next week. Prayers for those affected by both these hurricanes will be appreciated I'm sure.

So many of us want to be healthy.  As a result we decide to eliminate or reduce certain foods from our diets. We commit to more exercise more. While these are actually important things our spiritual is even more important. So I want to share some ideas that I hope will encourage you.

1.Get into God's  Word. I can not stress to you enough about how we must read our Bibles daily. I don't mean just doing a daily reading and be done. I mean really reading His Word and meditating on what God is saying to us.
Highlight verses that speak to you or you want to study more. I really like the Thompson-Chain reference Bible which allows you to study a particular subject further.
You can also use a devotional to help you get in the Word. I use Beside the Still Waters published by Still Waters Ministries.


2. Pray daily. This is our time us to communicate with our Lord. It's also God's time to let the Holy Spirit speak to us. But we need to LISTEN! I know I'm guilty of going on and on when I'm praying and not letting God get a word in edgewise. There is a lot going on in the world now that needs to be committed to prayer.

3. Try to avoid people or social media that discourages  you. This is a hard one because often times the ones doing the discouraging is a family member.
Be very careful of the social media sites like Facebook, Instagram or blogs.
I've been following a particular Christian blog for awhile but unfortunately because the blog authors want to allow all points of view  as a result there are many negative and downright mean judgemental comments. It's really not enjoyable to read anymore. I even find myself even questioning my beliefs because many of the "trolls" are non believers  they say the most blasphemous things about the Bible and God.

All that to say just be careful. There are a lot of lost souls out there who don't care or truly understand the love of God.

There's more I'd like to say but I started this post on Labor Day actually. And it's taken me this long to finally post the little bit. I hope it has encouraged you in a small way.

I will talk next time about healthy eating and exercise.

Bread Pudding and Tea

A few days ago Stephanie at TheEnchantingRose posted a delicious recipe for bread pudding. It goes great with afternoon tea!
The recipe didn't call for raisins but I topped mine with some raisins I had on hand. Also I used hamburger and hot dog buns. I had never made bread pudding before. I couldn't believe how easy it was and that I actually liked it!

Forgot to mention

I did this tray in honor of Afternoon Tea Week in the UK which started yesterday and runs through the 20th. There's a bunch of us bloggers  and non bloggers who aren't in the UK joining our fellow tea lovers in Afternoon Tea this week.

DIY Dollar Tree Tea Tray

I wanted to get a tea tray but nice ones are too expensive. I decided to do my own using all Dollar Tree items. All I did was get a 13 x 9 sheet pan and some stickers. In this case I used wall stickers because they were the prettiest. My daughter got some paints and Modge Podge, again Dollar Tree.

Basically all we did was painted the tray, let it dry and put the stickers on. We painted a couple of layers od Modge Podge, letting dry between layers. Easy Peasy!