Even though we were gone Friday afternoon through Saturday until 11 pm, I managed to get a meal in the crock pot Sunday morning.  After eating out on our little weekend trip, I knew we’d both rather eat at home after church.  I did a survey of some of the recipes I’d pinned on Pinterest and found this great crock pot recipe. I had everything either in the freezer or pantry! I altered it by adding chicken breasts instead of shrimp.  It turned out great.  If you’re needing a one dish meal where you truly just dump all the ingredients in and go, you’ll love this recipe!

Cajun Shrimp (Or Chicken) and Rice
Makes: 6 servings

Ingredients
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 14-ounce can chicken broth
1 cup chopped onions
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 6- to 6-1/4-ounce package long-grain and wild-rice mix, such as Uncle Ben’s
1/4 cup water
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
1 pound cooked, shelled and deveined shrimp (I added 4 frozen chicken breast filets)
Hot-pepper sauce (optional)

Directions
1. In a 3-1/2- or 4-quart slow cooker, combine tomatoes with their juices, chicken broth, onions, bell pepper, rice mix with seasoning packet, water, garlic, and Cajun seasoning.
2. Cover; cook on low-heat setting 5 to 6 hours or on high-heat setting 3 to 3 1/2 hours.
3. Stir shrimp into rice mixture. Cover; cook for 15 minutes longer at high-heat setting. Sprinkle with hot-pepper sauce if desired.

I used frozen tomatoes from my garden in place of the canned tomatoes.

Four hours later!

I also tried a new dessert recipe last week that I must share with you, Friends!  Yummy is the word!
As you may recall, strawberries are my favorite fruit.  While they’re fresh, we try to buy them locally and make Strawberry Muffins, or Strawberry Pie or Strawberry Freezer jam.  I use the Sure Jell recipe.  It always turns out great.

One batch was all I needed to make this year.  Added to what is in the freezer already give me 18 jars.  I believe that will get us through until the next strawberry season!

Then on  the day that my husband came home with four quarts of berries, I saw a Strawberry Pizza recipe on Pinterest. The recipe is from Your Home Based Mom. The base is a plain cookie-like dough, topped with a cream cheese filling, a strawberry filling, and then the fresh berries.  We had guests over, and if we all hadn’t been exercising extreme discipline, (cough!) this whole thing would have been GONE before the night was done!

Strawberry Pizza

Ingredients

Crust:
1 C flour
1/4 C powdered sugar
1/2 C butter

Filling:
1 (8 oz.) cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 C granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

Topping;
1 C fresh strawberries, mashed
4 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
8 – 10 strawberries sliced.
Instructions

Crust:
In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar and butter.
Form into a ball with hands and press into a 14 inch ungreased pizza pan (I used my Pampered Chef pizza stone) I floured my fingertips to keep it from sticking and I pressed it out with my hands.
Bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes. Cool.

Filling:
In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, vanilla, sugar and lemon juice.
Spread on cooled crust.
Topping:
In a saucepan over medium heat, combine strawberries, sugar and cornstarch.
Simmer until thick and glossy. Cool.

Spread on top of cream cheese filling.  Cut fresh strawberries crosswise to make rounds that resemble pepperoni, place on pizza and serve.

You could add other fruits to the strawberries like Kiwi or blueberries.  Hey, you might even feel like you’re eating something healthy since it’s covered with fruit!  😉

What have you been baking/cooking in your kitchen?

With love from my parsonage kitchen,

I came across this little list of Outdoor Living Tips from one my favorite local design stores – Gracious Designs.  Here are ten ideas to freshen up your outdoor space and make it inviting this summer:

Refresh your outdoor space into a place you love to live in and entertain in; it can literally double your living space!

See you in church!

Be refreshed,

Aside from your personal Bible study, what do you do for maximum spiritual growth?

With love,

I love it when I’m out shopping and I see something and say, “That is exactly what I’m looking for!” I’m not always smart enough to go ahead and buy it on the spot. Sometimes the price may hold me back, which is a good reason to wait. But sometimes I question the color or size of a household item, and then often when I get home, I realize it would have been perfect.  ~Sigh~

I did that a couple weeks ago. I’d found a picture that I thought would be really nice in my guest/craft room, but I was afraid it might be too big, so…I hesitated. I went back and looked at it several times before I left the store…without it. Then when I got home, I peeked into the guest room and realized that it was clearly the perfect size, color and style for what I needed on that wall! It was at a Hobby Lobby, about thirty minutes from our house, so I couldn’t justify just popping back over there to get it the next day. However, the next week when we were in the area for something else, I asked my husband to drop me off at the door so I could run in and see if it was still there. Guess what? It was!!!!!!!!!  Yippee!  I snatched it and got it home and hung it, pronto!  ~Happy sigh~  I’m in love!

Have you ever found something and not gotten it, then regretted it? Did you go back and score like I did? Whew!

From my parsonage windows,

In the 70’s there was a character called Edith Ann, played by Lily Tomlin. I remember enough about it to know that she acted very much like the 5 1/2 year old that she portrayed. As she was seated in a huge rocking chair, she would recount her childish antics, like making a sandwich for her dog, Buster, or playing connect the dots with permanent marker on her brother’s chicken pox. It was very funny, but the thing I remember is that she always ended her “talks” by saying, “And that’s the truth!”

Let’s think about what the truth is for a minute. Do you ever find yourself thinking about tomorrow or next week, or next month and being anxious? Do you imagine things that have yet to happen, and you think of all that could take place, might take place, and undoubtedly will take place!

There’s a song that says, “I don’t know about tomorrow, I just live from day to day; I don’t borrow from its sunshine, for its skies may turn to gray…” I have to smile when I sing it, because most of us don’t do that all the time. Whether it’s a scheduled doctor’s appointment, a financial crunch, a decision someone else is going to make that could effect us, an event going on in a loved one’s life, or even what the weather is going to do to our picnic (!) we, all too often, have each detail ironed out and the the trouble it’s going to bring long before the day ever happens!

“What’s wrong with that? You may ask.  “I have to be prepared, just in case!” The problem is that when we think into the future, we’re not thinking on the Philippians 4:8 things – the things that are true. It’s not true because it hasn’t happened yet. We waste so much of today by running ahead to tomorrow. The truth is – God is on the Throne today! He loves me. His grace is sufficient. Nothing that touches my life today is a surprise to Him. This is what is going on right now, this is the truth, and this is what we need to think about!

When your mind wants to run ahead to tomorrow, jump into “the rocking chair” of the present and only think and talk about what is happening right now – because that’s the truth!

With love,