Last night I got a chocolate craving. I didn’t feel like doing a ton of work to feed this craving so I thought I’d bake some No Bake Cookies. Growing up this was often the cure for a chocolate craving with minimal effort. When I opened my cabinet to get out the sugar I noticed a sticky brown residue on the container.
"Uh-oh" I thought.
Upon further investigation I found molasses covering the entire shelf, the box of aluminum foil, the pancake box, the corn muffin box and still no molasses jar. Then I looked on the shelf above. The molasses had tipped over, dripped over that entire shelf, down the back of the shelf and gotten over all the afore mentioned items on the bottom shelf. With each discovery of brown sticky mess, I whined a little more.
Looks like my quick chocolate fix was going to be postponed as I set about cleaning up the molasses. So much for minimal effort. UGH! As I began cleaning up I wondered how long the molasses had been dripping back there waiting for me to notice. How many times had I grabbed something out of the cabinet not realizing that an enormous mess was sneaking up on me?
It kind of reminds me of sin. How often do we shut the door on a sin that is in our life, not realizing how it is growing and festering into a huge mess? When I discovered the molasses mess, part of me was tempted to just grab the needed sugar, shut the door and pretend the mess wasn’t there. This would have done no good. The mess would have only gotten worse and eventually I would have had to clean it up anyway. It is far better to clean it up when we discover it then to let it slowly drip into a bigger mess. Sin is the same way. Rather than shutting the door and pretending it isn’t in our life, if we confess our sin "God is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Now my shelf is clean, all the boxes were wiped clean and the sticky residue is even gone. Is the same true of your heart? Is there a sin you need to take before our Lord? He is ready to clean up your mess, all you have to do is ask.
Thanks to all of you who stopped by and read my site and my meal plan last week. It was fun to have some new visitors on my site! Here is this week’s menu plan at our house.
- Monday:Pancakes and Scrambled Eggs: Tonight is Mommy’s Night out as I have a MOPS meeting so Daddy will be cooking breakfast for dinner tonight for him and the kiddos.
- Tuesday: Spaghetti and Meatballs: I like to make my own meatballs by taking ground turkey, bread crumbs, one egg, and Italian seasonings and mushing it all together. I then make them into little meatballs and broil them in the oven. One pound of meat makes enough for two meals so I freeze one batch of meatballs for next time! Then all I have to do is boil some water for spaghetti, open a jar of Ragu and Voila! Dinner is served!!
- Wednesday: Harvest Steaks and buttered egg noodles with a side of canned peas. This is one of my kids favorite. They call ham, “the new meat” To make the kids ham, I just brown the ham steak on both sides and serve plain. To dress it up a bit for my hubby and me, I use this recipe from Taste of Home’s Simple and Delicious Sept/Oct 07 magazine.
- 1 med onion halved and thinly sliced
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 2 tablespoons butter
- ham steaks
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1/2 cup unsweetened apple juice
- 1/2 cup apple butter
- Saute onion and pepper in butter until crisp tender.. Remove from pan and set aside. Brown ham steak on both sides. Meanwhile in small bowl, combine cornstarch and apple juice until smooth; pour over ham. Bring to boil; cook and stir 1-2 min or until slightly thickened. Reduce heat; spread apple butter over ham. Top with onion. Cover and simmer 5-7 min or until heated through
- Thursday: Chicken and Dumplings: This is super easy and my kids have been asking for it for the past week! Take 3 frozen chicken breasts and put in crock pot with 2 cans of chicken broth. Cook on low 6-8 hours. Pour cooked chicken and broth into large pot on stove and bring to a boil. Use a fork to break up the chicken into pieces. Mix dumplings using Bisquick recipe and drop onto chicken and broth. I recently startedd adding baby carrots and frozen peas to the chicken while in the crock pot in order to get our veggies in there too! A one pot meal and it is so easy!
- Friday: Day Before Chilli Recipe: My husband had been asking me to find a new chilli recipe for awhile. I found this online and it was an instant hit. While it suggests you make it the day before, I have forgotten and made it the day of and it still tasted great!
- Saturday: Homemade Pizza
- I make the dough in the bread machine using this recipe:
- For 2lb serving (this serves 4 adults plus 2 preschoolers with some leftover)
- Ingredients: 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 cups of all purpose flour
- 2 tsp active dry yeast
- 1-1/4- 1 3/8 cups water
- 3 tablespoons of oil
- Combine all ingredients into bread pan.
- Select dough setting. (will take 1.5 hrs to make dough)
- Preheat oven to 400.
- Roll out dough and top with sauce, cheese, and toppings
- Bake for 20 min
Sunday: Sloppy Joes made with Manwich and served with oven baked fries and sweet peas
Let me know if you end up trying any of these recipes. I’d love to know what you think!!
