Thursday 17 April 2014

Lemon Poppy Seed Fluffins

The fresh sent and colour of lemon makes me think of spring, spring makes me think of fresh starts. Every morning is fresh with new grace and possibilities. And the chance to stop trying and rely totally! on God. This simple thought is really what I have really been aiming for lately. Picture the word START and this being the acronym for Stop Trying And Rely Totally. This is good for anytime, there is a fresh start every moment. Christ is always waiting for us to turn away from our own trying, ambitions and efforts and to rely totally on Him.
 
 
Sometimes it is healthy to try to figure out why why why we do what we do. But I know for me lots of times I need to stop focusing on the bad choices, the flubs and just humble myself to say to God "I can't do this on my own God!" I think maybe even say it out loud...loudly. "And for crying out loud...I shouldn't even try!!" So stop and then START right again. Its ok, He knows me, He knows you. And He loves you and I just the same, no matter what.
 
 
These muffins are so yummy and fluffy
 
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
lemon zest of 1 lemon and the juice of 1/2 of it.
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. poppy seeds
3/4 cup sour cream
 
Preheat oven to 375 and line or grease muffin tin, I used a large 6 muffin tin. Beat in each wet ingredient, according to order listed. Sift the dry ingredients together in another bowl. Add dry ingredients to the wet alternately with the sour cream, in 3 additions. Spoon into pan and bake 20-25 min. or 25-30 for the large muffins.
Now you can have a tea with the left over lemon :)
2 Corinthians 5:17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
 
 

Friday 11 April 2014

Something Tasty in a Hurry

I can really appreciate having something ready and tasty to eat in a hurry for those times I'm not in the mood to prepare something or am really hungry. I'm almost always leaning towards something on the sweet side also. So in an effort to eat more green foods I found this idea of having ready made fruit and yogurt parfaits, great! Another great re-use for your left over jars too. So now your up-cycled jars are travelling parfait jars. You can easily grab one to go.
Simply put a layer of fruit and low fat Greek yogurt in jars or two layers of yogurt with the fruit in between is nice. I make up to 3 or 4 jars ready sitting in the fridge.
Have some easy to make granola on hand to sprinkle on top for when you pop the lid off and want to dig in.
This honey granola variation is so tasty, and easy:
1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup of slivered almonds
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
~Mix all these ingredients together in a large bowl until the mixture is equally coated.
Then spread it out on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Bake at 325 for about 15-20 min. or until golden colour. Once it is cooled you can store it in another re-purposed jar.
 
I'm really hooked on these parfaits. They are so yummy and I can feel good about eating them.