It’s November – the time for turkey with cranberries.  I guess that’s what’s been on my mind, because my recent recipes have been filled with them!  They have such a fresh pungent taste that adds so much flavor to a recipe.  Why wouldn’t I love them?! 

One new dish I made for dinner is – Cranberry Chicken.  It’s one I pinned on Pinterest – along with a bunch more ideas of what to do with boneless chicken breasts.  The great thing is that it cooks up very quickly.  It was nice and moist since it finishes cooking in the sauce.

Hands-On Time: 10 minutes
Ready In: 20 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
Cost per serving: $1.00

Ingredients
1 Tablespoon cooking oil
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast fillets (Note below)
1 cup sweetened dried cranberries
1/2 cup apple juice – I had orange juice, so that’s what I used instead – it worked great!
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon coarse-grind black pepper
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard

Directions:

Note: Breast fillets are simply chicken breasts that have been cut horizontally to be thinner and cook quicker.

Another new recipe I tried this week was a quick and light dessert – Cranberry and Apple Crumble – from Cooking Light.  Oh, my!  This was so good, and only 211 calories and 6 gms of fat per serving!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Preparation

This is how it looks before getting popped into the oven

3.  Combine apple and cranberries in a large bowl. Combine juice and remaining ingredients; pour over apple mixture. Toss well. Spoon apple mixture into a 2-quart baking dish. Sprinkle with flour mixture. Bake at 375° for 40 minutes or until bubbly and golden brown. Serve warm.

Add a few more calories and spoon on some ice cream!  Mmmm. A friend of mine baked these Honey-Wheat Rolls for a meal we shared together.  They were soooo good! This would make a great addition to your Thanksgiving meal! She was sweet enough to share her recipe with us!

Honey-Wheat Rolls
1 cup warm water
2 pkgs. yeast
1 3/4 cup water
1/4 Cup honey
1 tsp salt
1 stick butter, melted and cooled
3 eggs
4 cups whole wheat flour (maybe a little more)
4 cups bread flour (maybe a little more)

Mix yeast in warm water.  You can add a couple teaspoons of sugar, if desired (sugar helps give the yeast a little boost in rising).  In a large bowl add the honey and the 1 3/4 cup water and mix.   Stir in the butter.  In separate bowl, beat eggs and add one at a time to water and honey mixture.   Add flours and mix in enough flour until the dough isn’t sticky.

Place dough into an oiled bowl, turning dough over to coat both sides with oil.  Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.  Roll out onto floured surface and cut into 2 dozen rolls.  Cover and rise again.

Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Brush with honey butter.

Have you been using any seasonal foods like cranberries or pumpkin to make new dishes?  I’d love to hear about it – either here on or the RefreshHer Facebook Page!

From my parsonage kitchen,

Getting dressed can be stressful.  Well, I guess it’s not the putting on of clothes that brings the stress – it’s deciding what to wear.  You know what I mean – trying to decide: This shoe or this one?  (Ever do the flamingo thing where you pick up one foot and then the other, trying to get a picture of which one is better?)  Or you may wonder if the colors or patterns you’ve put on really go together. 

I’ve found a little way to make the deciding a bit easier.  I step back from the full length mirror and snap a picture on my phone.  Even if you can’t take a picture on your phone, if you have a digital camera, that will work just as well.  Take a picture of the two things you’re trying to decided on.  Like this:

See Liza?  She’s always right there to give her opinion!

Then once you’ve taken the pictures, look at the first, then the second.  I’ve found that seeing it quickly in front of me – going back and forth from the first picture to the second – really gives me an idea of which choice is better. 

Freshen up your outfits by taking a (careful) chance.  Seeing them like this really helps with the decision making!

See you in church Sunday!

Be refreshed,

P.S.  Which jacket did I choose? The solid black. Too much going on with the other one!

Last week we talked about forgiving huge issues.  Today let’s discuss what most of us deal with in regards to disrespect.
You may have already heard me share this, but I want to finish these posts on respect with this illustration…

Imagine that your husband walks into the house after his work day is over. You’re standing in the kitchen as he walks towards you, and you notice something that’s not right.  Your eyes go to his left shirt pocket – or more precisely the blue ink spot on his left shirt pocket.  It’s the size of a quarter.  The rest of the shirt is clean, but your eyes have found the ink spot, and you can’t even bring your gaze up to his face. Your mind is absorbed with how you will remove it, if it will spread to other pieces of laundry or to the washing machine, and then to the location of the guilty pen. 

That ink spot represents all the irritants in our husband’s life.  They’re small things – his socks beside the bed on the bedroom floor, the whiskers behind the sink faucet in the master bath, his clicking away of the television channels just when you get interested in a program, his lack of spiritual leadership, and a dozen other menial habits.  They might seem small to others, but to you, they’re blinding.  They’re so blinding you just can’t get your eyes off of them.  When he walks into the room, the “ink spots” come into view, and you just have  to say something.  Enter disrespect, stage left. 

When we begin to discuss those spots, our husband feels disrespected.  This is why it is crucial to keep our ink spot viewing to ourselves.  If we feel we must say something, it needs to be spoken to the Lord in the form of a prayer.  If it’s really an issue that will harm his testimony or keep him from growing spiritually, can we not trust the God that saved him to bring it to his attention?

I learned the hard way that my bringing these things to my husband’s attention only brought strife between us.  If he changed, it was always temporary.  However, when I talk to the Lord about those things, one of two things happens:

1. He changes me by making me realize it wasn’t important. (This doesn’t happen overnight!)
2. He changes my husband by bringing this issue to his attention without my help.  The change is lasting and brings no strife in our relationship.

Now, why would I choose to stare at the ink spots, and then talk to him about them when God gets much better results?  I haven’t got this mastered completely, but I must say, those spots are getting smaller!

What ink spots are you staring at that you need to just write into your prayer journal?  Show your husband respect by letting the Holy Spirit clean those up.  The result:  You’ll be feeling a great deal of love come your way as a result of your husband receiving the respect he longs for!

Any other thoughts or questions you might have on this topic?  Feel free to leave a comment here or on the RefreshHer Facebook page.

With love,

 This week finds my husband at a conference, and I got to tag along to be with him and also to visit our daughters. How sweet it is to be in town where my girls live!  This is the first time this semester I’ve gotten to stop in and see my college student.  (She’s finishing her last semester!)   Years ago while I was homeschooling, I had to keep my nose pretty much to the grindstone.  There were times that we went along so that we might make an extended field trip where he went, but for the most part, when he went away, we stayed home.  So, it’s a blessing that I can go along now when he goes away! Even though this has been the case for almost four years, I still realize what a blessing it is!

Preachers don’t go away because they look for vacation times.  They need conferences to get educated on issues, get preached to, get encouragement, get good ideas, and get in on preacher fellowship.  You see, they give all the time, and it’s as though their “give tank” gets low, and they need to find a place where they may fill one or more of those needs. 

You may wonder, “Why is our pastor away again?”  But let me encourage you to realize how much a pastor pours out, and how much he needs to be recharged and filled up – just like you enjoy when you go to church.  Pray that he’ll get what he needs and be ready to come home and share with you what the Lord did for him while he was we were away.

Thanks for your prayers, love and support,