Living for Another Life

    I have frequently been finding myself running a certain verse of scripture through my head. It is one of those challenging scriptures that you have to remind yourself of everyday lest you forget altogether. The passage I am referring to is is Matthew 6:21-22, which says "For where your treasure is there will your heart be also. But store up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal."
    This has increasingly been brought to my mind with our recent move and slight increase in income. It is so tempting to go crazy and buy all kinds of stuff and spend all my time making the house nicer and building and ect.. I have to stop and remind myself that my treasure cannot be found anywhere on this earth, but is stored up in heaven. Whatever I build for myself on this earth will only last for an incredibly short time and only brings temporary happiness.
    I desperately want to exert my energies into eternal rewards. This life is so distracting! Though it is a daily battle, I will continue to strive towards building my Fathers kingdom, serving Him, pleasing Him, and making sure it is my sole focus.

Reaping the Harvest

    The first day I met the family I was going to nanny for in Chicago, I went to their house for dinner. Despite the fact that I was a ball of nerves because I wasn't actually sure if I had the job yet (though I found out later I did and it was just a come and meet us dinner), I managed to relax over a delicious meal of corn on the cob, chicken and a really good salad. I'm not entirely sure what all was in the salad anymore or what dressing it had, I just remember it was really good and it had fennel in it (which is something I had never had before, but quickly fell in love with). Needless to say fennel started appearing in my grocery shopping list.
    Anyway, while we were eating dinner she had mentioned something about being part of a program where you get fresh produce sent to your house in a box every week or couple weeks (I don't remember exactly how often). I remember thinking that was a really cool option for those living in the city. Not really having the funds to do something like that myself, I usually resorted to shopping at one of the various farmers markets hosted around the city, which was fun for me, but not always convenient.
    When I started nannying I noticed a cook book laying open on their counter top and became intrigued by the uniqueness of it. It was called Farmer John's Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables. It is a really cool cookbook organized by season. It has stories and information all about the different fruits and vegetables that come out in each season and then of course recipes. I was interested in the cookbook in the first place because I thought if whatever was in it was as good as what she served for dinner then I was going to be hooked! Sure enough, I was. I went home and bought the book for myself on my kindle and exhausted many the recipes in it.
    Though I enjoyed being able to cook with fruits and vegetables from the farmers market, I was always wishing I could grow my own plants and be a part of the entire process. There is something very satisfying about serving foods that you raised and cooked. Well God surely knows the desires of my heart because He brought us to a place in the country and gave us landlords who are very into growing things (they have an orchard, a corn field, a big garden, and all kinds of berry bushes). I asked if I could plant a garden and they loved the idea and even helped me till it! I think I wrote somewhere before that they probably thought I was a little silly planting a garden before my house was unpacked, but I was so excited to get a garden going!
    So now here I am a month and a half later reaping the harvest. I have been pulling tomatoes out for a couple weeks now, but today I harvested some zucchini, yellow squash, and radishes as well! I should also mention that I have been blessed with generous neighbors who have let me pick all I want from their cherry tree and raspberry bushes, so I have fruit in plenty as well. I am certainly a blessed little lady, and I am very thankful.

Reaping the harvest is a wonderful thing!

   

Summer Sushi Bowl

    I love sushi. For years I hated it and then one day my taste buds grew up and realized it is quite delicious. Of course now that I'm vegan, I'm that weirdo that sits there at the Chinese restaurant poking out half the ingredients, but it's still quite tasty. The sweet rice combined with the seaweed and the crunch of veggies-it's lovely.
    Anywho, I've made my own sushi on several occasions because it is really inexpensive and it makes a nice light meal. However, this last time I tried to make it, I used brown rice which really didn't work because it never got sticky. If you have ever tried making sushi before you know that without sticky rice, it's a lost cause. Not wanting to give up on that wonderful sushi taste, I decided to make a "sushi bowl". Upon completion I realized it's a nice quick alternative for when I don't have time to make a bunch of rolls (because it is quite time consuming). It is also a great summer food for when you just need to eat something cool and refreshing.

Sushi Bowl

Ingredients:

2 cups Brown Rice

2 tbs Vinegar (whatever you choose) I used white vinegar

Cucumber

Nori sheets

2 tbs honey (it calls for sugar, but I use honey)

1 tbs salt (I used sea salt)

Cucumber

Coleslaw Bag mix (aka cabbage, red cabbage and carrots)

Directions:

(1)Make rice like you would for the sushi, something like <this>. (2) put a nori sheet in the bottom of your bowl. (2) Fill the nori sheet with rice. (3) Mix in coleslaw mix. (4) Top with matchstick sized cucumber. (5) Rip up a nori sheet and sprinkle it over top. You can eat this alone or serve it up with some <homemade spring rolls>.

Homemade Spring Rolls

    Towards the end of our time in Chicago (or rather Cicero), we started eating at this little Chinese take out place across the street. We had always walked by it and said we should try it sometime, but there are so many restaurants in Chicago that the tiny little take out place just never seemed all that exciting. However, when the countdown to our departure started and we began packing and the house was a mess and chaotic and I no longer felt like cooking because of the disastrous condition of my kitchen, the little take out place regained it's appeal.
    I must admit that this particular little take out place became a mainstay for our apathetic movers syndrome.   After that first time we fell in love. They had this biggest and most delicious egg rolls I think i have ever had. I'm sitting here drooling over my computer at the memory (it doesn't help that it's lunch time and I have no access to food).
    Now that I have expressed my love of Chinese and egg rolls, lets get to the point. Egg rolls are really not that hard to make, so I've made them on several occasions. I guess I mine are actually spring rolls, because I don't add egg, but spring rolls are just as yummy.

Homemade Spring Roll

Wrapper Ingredients:

2 cups flour (I usually use a combination of whole wheat white and whole wheat flour)

Vegan "egg" (1 tablespoon ground flax mixed with two tablespoons of water)

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup ice water

Olive oil for coating

Directions:

(1) Mix all the ingredients together. (2) Roll it out thin and flat. (3) Cut into equal sized square pieces.

Filling Ingredients:

It's simply a bag of coleslaw mix.

Directions:

(1)Place a good sized pinch of the coleslaw mix into the center of each wrapper. (2) Fold in the sides and roll. (3) Coat each roll in olive oil. (4) Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown.

    I found a really yummy sauce at Trader Joe's called "Sweet Chili Sauce" which is really good to dip them in. It's a bit spicy unlike duck sauce, but it's quite yummy. It also pairs well with my Sushi Bowl recipe which you can find <here>.