I Made Some Dinner Tonight

I did. It was good and it was simple. I have a newish friend who is very cool and I'm finding that I sort of ADORE her. She is the one who convinced me to workout and then split a trainer with me. (mmm, delicious trainer)
Anyway, this friend told me she couldn't really cook. What I didn't realize was that she really can't cook. She and her brood came over for chili once and she wanted to know how I made it so I jotted down the basic ingredients. I mean, it's chili. She asked me how long to cook it after you put it all together. Uhh, until it's hot?
I mentioned this friend to my mom who reminded me that I had to ask her how to fry an egg after I got married. (I can cook a mean egg now. Shut up)
So anyway, from now on I will post occasional food things like I always have but they will be very basic so that my friend (should she ever read here) and others like her can figure it out. Given some time these people will be able to fry an egg and saute a veggie as well as the rest of us.
So today I needed to make dinner. I have to do this because my kids can only eat so many fried eggs, no matter how well I make them. Plus have you SEEN the price of free range eggs? Those bitches are pure gold.
So I made dinner. I had some zucchini and yellow squash that really needed to be cooked. I bought them because I like to cook them in a skillet with lots of garlic and eat them next to pretty much everything. But then I didn't do any cooking last week. So I washed them and sliced them. It doesn't matter how thick as long as they are all similar in size (keep the zucchini and yellow squash separate!). I heated a skillet on the notch above medium and put in a little olive oil, I'd say maybe a tablespoon or so? When it was warm (the oil gets shimmery) I crushed a few cloves of garlic into the pan and spread it around a bit. You don't want it in there very long by itself, once it's brown it changes the flavor of the garlic. So at this point I added in the zucchini and then about 1/3 cup of chicken broth and put the lid on the skillet. I have found that the yellow squash cooks faster than the zucchini. So about three minutes later I add in the yellow squash and put the lid back on. It cooks for a few minutes 5? 10? I'm not entirely sure, I'd say check it every 3 minutes. It's done when the pieces look more opaque, not so white anymore, and they are soft. It was early in the day so I took them out of the skillet and put them in a glass bowl. I used tongs so I could leave the broth in the pan. Then I threw a large handful of frozen carrots in the pan and covered it. I cooked this on the notch between low and medium for a few minutes until they were hot and soft. I let the carrots cool and then pureed them. I used a mini blender because I don't really know how to use the big one. Add in the juice from the pan for a little extra moisture. I added the carrot puree to two cans of spaghetti sauce (we like LaRosa's). At dinnertime I mixed the sauce, carrot puree and veggies together and served it over whole wheat pasta (Bella Terra is the best, trust me). It was really good and super healthy.
What'd you make for dinner?

Conviction

I hate conviction. I hate it because it means I HAVE to do something. It will eat at you until you do. Tonight I felt convicted. But this time I'm pretty happy about it.
During the Summer of Love series at church we have been going through the ten commandments. The ministers approached the commandments with the premise that God is love so what are the commandments saying about love? Tonight was the one about coveting.

Exodus 20:17 You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

The preacher summed this up as "Love contentment" (each commandment had been re-worded as Love____). I cannot believe how bad this issue has become for me and how completely ignorant I was to it. I am not content. I want a bigger house. I want more money. I want to be able to eat out whenever I want without worrying about the money. I want more children. I want I want I want. It's ridiculous really.
So I feel convicted. I feel that I need to find contentment. I could start with being grateful for the things I have.
I am so grateful that Kenai is okay. Her surgery last year was successful and she hasn't had a seizure in over a year. Jedd has a good job and chances are, even if the company downsizes as a result of the healthcare bill, he will be one of the ones that stays on because they appreciate how hard he works for them. I am grateful that my family has come so far. It was not so long ago that I couldn't even talk to my parents and now my mom is one of my best friends. I am grateful for my old church and for my new church. I love them both for different reasons. LifeSpring is the first church I went to where I found family. I am certain I will carry some of those relationships with me forever. I am grateful for the church we are in now and their amazing willingness to serve the community and the world.
I have an idea of what this conviction will require of me but I will save that for another post. For now, I am simply aware of the problem and this is lightyears from where I was before the sermon.