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I saw this today and I was surprised...and then I was not surprised. 

So many nice little sayings and thoughts are posted all over the Internet, and this one seems like such a good idea, but it isn't.

Frankly, this is one of those things that seems good, but is really evil.  Think about this practically...I would like to tell you a story.

Kasandra is on Facebook, one of her friends posts this pic to their status and she sees it in her feed.

As soon as she sees it, her friend, well sort of friend, DeJa, comes to mind.

Several weeks ago Kasandra had a falling out with her friend DeJa.  At first she thought it would blow over, but something has changed and every time she sees DeJa at her church or home group she feels an uncomfortable tension.  Kasandra has thought about talking to DeJa, but she has heard some gossip about DeJa and feels like the relationship may be too hard to fix right now. She thinks about DeJa, the woman who she used to be close to, and the strife between them.  Kassandra starts to feel angry at DeJa all over again. While Kassandra sits at home she begins to rehash the incident with DeJa in her mind over and over again.  The more she thinks on this, the angrier she becomes.  Then, with a great effot, Kassandra prays for DeJa.  She prays God will help straiten DeJa out, she may not even be a Christian if she acts like that! and she prays that God will reveal to others in their circle the truth (or the truth according to Kassandra - that she was right and DeJa was wrong!)  She prays God will show DeJa her error, and help DeJa to be a better person in the future.

Kassandra clicks the 'like' button and moves on, feeling better about herself, confident she has just done DeJa a great favor by praying for her.

Please don' be Kassandra.

Instead pray Psalms 139: 23 - 24

Search me, God, and know my heart;  test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Humble yourself.  Romans 15:1-3 We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.”

Call the person and eat some crow, apologize, mend fences.  Ephesians 4:1-3

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

Take an eternal perspective - Will it really matter in Heaven? 

Matthew 5:22-24

"But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell. So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God.

Save money Eat organic part 1

So, a few of you have asked me how it is we can afford to eat organic, and how we got started on this crazy kick, and if I have really noticed any difference - so I thought I would blog about how we have SAVED money by eating organic foods, and with three growing boys - we need to make our food dollars stretch farther than ever!

For dinner tonight we are having chicken nuggets =)  YUM!  I can buy a bag of chicken nuggets, ready made, processed garbage, for about $13.00 - this would be the big 60-70, 67oz  nugget bag.  OR

I can buy a bag of organic flour, organic butter, and antibiotic/hormone free chicken tenders.
The flour, which I will also use for a thousand other things, costs $4 for a 5 pound bag, and the chicken $5.79 a pound, and organic butter - $3 per pound, I use about 2 tbsp.  

Their cost  = $13.00
My cost = $ 0.40 for the flour, $0.20 for the butter,  and 11.58 for the chicken (2 lbs) TOTAL - $12.19- it was actually cheaper for my family to eat organic!

Now, you are probably thinking - the big nugget bag was 67oz and she only made 32 oz ?? How does that work out to savings? 

It works out in 2 ways
First - for some odd reason, I can make 60 good sized nuggets from 2 lbs of chicken, without it weighing 67 oz - and my kids are full. 

Second - my kids are full!  The other nuggets are gone in 30 seconds and then the kids are begging for more food - you just ate 15 chicken nuggets, how can you be hungry??? 

The answer to this conundrum is simple - my nuggets have a very light coating of flour, they are not fried in grease, they are baked in the oven, they are juicy, and all chicken.  The other nuggets are pressed into a roundish shape by a machine, they were precooked shredded chicken, combined with corn, flour, and other fillers to make the chicken go farther, then pressed into a shape, covered in more bread, and fried.  One meal is mostly fried bread, the other is mostly baked chicken. 

 VS.

How to save by eating organic tip #1 - Buying organic usually means you have to buy the ingredients to make dinner - there really aren't a whole lot of prepackaged, ready made foods that are organic - this method of cooking lends itself to being much less expensive than buying prefab food.

This inevitably leads to the 'but I don't have time to make everything from scratch' statement.  Well, I can't blog about everything - but I have a fellow blogger who is doing some experiements in this area - like timing herself making brownies from a box vs brownies from scratch - and SHE can make them both in almost the same amount of time =)  Here is her blog, she is also a wonderful resource for recipes.
 http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/the-brownie-experiment-which-takes-longer-to-make-boxed-or-homemade
Happy Shopping and Cooking =)
Amanda

Yummy and organic chicken pot pie

People think organic food either tastes like cardboard, or is so difficult and expensive to make that it isn't worth the work. 
Well, people think a lot of things, don't they!

This is a new venture for me - I don't think I have ever posted a recipe on my blog before - but here goes.  There is one thing about organic from scratch that is different than other cooking from scratch - recipes often have interchangable ingredients.  This means you could use ingredient A, or B, or C (not all 3!)  and it is up to you to make it, decide if you like it, tinker with it if you want, and make it again =) When there are alternatives I will mark my choice with stars ****, but still list the other choices. 

Organic Chicken Pot Pie  (feeds 5 at my house  - I think you could probably feed 6-8 if you didn't have 3 growing boys in your house!)

Crust (takes about 15 minutes - this makes 2)
2 Cups organic whole wheat flour
2/3 cup**organic butter**, OR organic non-hydrogenated coconut oil, OR spectrum shortening (made from palm oil)
1tsp sea salt
up to 6 tbsp water - LESS IS MORE =) 

Combine salt and flour, cut in butter with a pastry mixer, until pea sized.  Sprinkle with cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with fork until all flour is moistened and pastry almost leaves side of bowl ( until the crust sticks together somewhat, but is flakey. Don't add too much water or your crust will taste like rubber)
With your hands, gather pastry into a ball, divide in to 2 parts.  Work with each half on a floured surface, rolling each into a large circle with 1/4 inch thickeness.  Slide one into 9" pie pan - crust should over lap the sides of the pan - and prick profusely with a fork
Set the other crust aside for now.

Insides (takes about 15 minutes)
1/2 lb chopped organic baby carrots
4 ribs chopped organic celery
1/2 a package of Cascadia Farms organic peas thawed and as dry as possible
1/2 a package of Cascadia Farms organic corn thawed and as dry as possible
1/2 a package of Cascadia Farms organic green beans thawed and as dry as possible
(Any of these items can be ommited - just make up the volume with veggies you like, you could also use fresh veggies from your garden, or home canned veggies, or rehydrated veggies)
1 pound of chicken, cut into bite sized peices
1/2 - 1 cup organic whole wheat flour
3 tbsp organic butter
3/4 cup organic/raw milk

1. Brown chicken chunks in a  large skillet (mine is about 14" around and 2 1/2" high)  do not over cook, simply cook until there is no more pink. 
2.  Once chicken is cooked, remove it from the pan, but do not wash pan or drain chicken, keep any juices.
3.   In the same pan add butter and milk and allow to simmer, whisk in flour 1tbsp at a time until a THICK gravy forms.
4. Add chicken and veggies to the large skillet, stir until evenly mixed
5. Dump contents of skillet into pie crust in pie pan
6.  Cover with the other 1/2 of your pie crust.
7. Crimp edges of bottom and top crust together. 
8. poke several holes in the top crust with a fork.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes - until crust is golden brown