Walk It Out

Have you ever felt like your life was in a storm - the waves crashing down on every side and there seems to be no way out? We all go through these times where we feel like we are drowning, where we feel like all hope is lost. Trust me friend, I have been there and I know what that feels like.

But I know an amazing Creator that can be our calm in the storm.

Breath this scripture in:
Romans 5:3-5 (NLT) “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us--they help us learn to endure. Endurance then develops strength of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectation of salvation.”

God uses these trials to break us and reshape us into the man or woman of God He can use for His purpose. 

2 Corinthians 4:7 (NLT) "We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves."

God didn't make us these expensive high dollar vases that would break and  then that's the end of our story. No, He made us like jars of clay, this makes us easily breakable to the point where He can form us anyway He wants. 

So friends trust in The Lord for He is our source of strength and peace. When we try and fight the battle on our own, we will lose. Who wouldn't want the all powerful, all mighty King on our side?? 

Dear Heavenly Father we thank you for this day, this amazing beautiful day. We know that we can't fight this battle alone and we know we need you walking by our side helping us along. Although I know some of us may be in the valley, we know that this time is a time for reshaping and we thank you for that. Let us all reach a new level in our faith in you God. Let us continually grow in you, God - never growing stagnant in our walk. We thank you for fighting and winning the battle! 
In your precious name we pray - Amen!

Walk it out friends! Know that God has already won! 

Be back soon...

This New Life

Wow - has it really been a year since my last post. It is amazing how much time can go by before we even realize it. Well here I am...again...ready to take on the blogging world. I really cant explain why my absence was so long but I will tell you this past year hasn't been the easiest.

God has definitely taken me to the next level but it took a trip to the valley for that to happen, and I can tell you that that valley was ugly - but I can faithfully say that I am on my way out and man the view is amazing!

For some reason I felt the time had come for me to start blogging again. Don't be surprise when you see some changes happening, I just feel the time has come to step out of the 'blogging world' box and do what I feel led to do. You definitely will not see a post everyday unless I feel the need but I will be around a few times a week.

There have been some major changes throughout this past year as well - I was hired on as the Children's Pastor at our church! God is good! And shortly after that my husband became the Campus Pastor. God is definitely grooming us, not sure what for at the moment, but I know it is going to be amazing! He has taken us both out of our comfortable zones and put us in places where the growth would be abundant. And I can tell you we both have grown so much in our relationship with God, our marriage and parenthood - it just blows my mind.

So I hope you still want to follow along on This New Life - "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come." 2 Corinthians 5:17

Be back soon...

A Little Chicken In Your Enchilada!

So I have finally got back on the Pinterest band wagon. I took a few months off because it seriously was addicting, so now I am pacing myself when it comes to pinning. But what brought me back to the pinning world was an enchilada recipe. Before we went clean I had an amazing recipe but it had a bunch of processed crap in it and it definitely was no where near healthy - so I knew I needed to find another recipe, and fast!

Well it didn't take me long at all and that is what I love the most about Pinterest - everything is right there at my fingertips! I found this recipe on http://www.fannetasticfood.com so all the credit goes to them.

Here are the ingredients:

• 3 C cooked chicken, hand torn

• ½ C canned chopped green chilies

• ¾ C nonfat plain yogurt

• Juice from 1 fresh lime

• ½ tsp. cracked pepper

• 1 tsp. cumin

• 2 C enchilada sauce (see recipe below)

• 10 large white or yellow corn tortillas (or wheat tortillas — not gluten-free)

• Extra virgin olive oil or cooking spray, as needed

• ¾ C shredded sharp cheddar cheese

• 2 Tbsp. fresh cilantro, chopped

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350.

1) In a large bowl, mix together the cooked chicken, chopped green chilies, yogurt, lime juice, cracked pepper, and cumin. Set aside.

2) Make your enchilada sauce, recipe and directions below

Enchalada Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil

• 1 small onion, peeled, diced finely

• 1 tsp. chili powder

• 1 tsp. cumin

• 4 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 28-oz. can crushed fire roasted tomatoes

• 1 tsp. sugar

• 1 splash of balsamic vinegar

• 1 Tbsp. fresh cilantro, chopped


Enchilada Sauce Instructions: Heat the olive oil for one minute in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add in the onion, garlic, and spices; sauté for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, sugar, vinegar, and cilantro; stir and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook 20 minutes.

3) Lightly oil/cooking spray a 13 x 9″ baking dish. Spread a thin layer of the enchilada sauce in the bottom of the dish.

4) Set the first tortillas into the baking dish. Spoon one tenth of the chicken mixture into the center of the tortilla and roll it up, placing the seam side down. Repeat for the remaining tortillas.

5) Pour the rest of the enchilada sauce over the tortillas and sprinkle with shredded cheese and cilantro.

6) Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, until cheese is melted, sauce is bubbling, and enchiladas are hot.

7) Serve warm with salsa, hot sauce, or guacamole, if desired.

I totally forgot to take a picture of my own but here is the picture from the recipe's original website. Mine looked pretty close, maybe not as delicious but they were pretty darn good!

Hope you all enjoy!

Rearranging My Priorities...

First I want to thank everyone for the support I receive on a daily basis about my blog. It truly makes my heart smile to know that people actually read this thing! I absolutely love writing this blog and I what I love even more is that I can look back at any point and see what I was working on or what our family was doing six months or even a year ago. Its like my blog-scrapbook!

With all that being said - things have been super busy around the Hart house lately. I guess summer vacation will do that. We definitely have been on the go, trying to keep the kids happy during these summer months. But I must honestly say that I am happy I took a break from writing a post everyday. When I first started this blog I felt the need to write something every single day - except weekends. Why I thought I needed to spend that much time doing something that was just hobby, I have no idea! But I did and I kept it up for quite sometime and then I burnt myself out. It was extremely hard to find something to write about every. single. day! It was quite exhausting and as you can tell, my posts began to dwindle.

My mornings were consumed with writing my post and it came to the point where I was more worried about what I was going to write about than what my kids were eating for breakfast. Finally I realized that this blog wasn't my job and it was no where near as important as my family. When telling my kids "wait one more minute" seemed the normal in my morning routine, I knew that the time had come for me to take a step back and rearrange my priorities.

So now I am letting you all know that I am still here and alive but just taking a more relaxed approach to this blogging thing. I cant promise that I will post every day but I will post when I have the time and when that time isn't taken away from my family.

Thanks again to my loyal readers - even if I am only talking to the four of you! I love my blog and I do love sharing my loves with all of you. So again I apologize for my brief absence but I hope all of you understand where I am coming from!

See you all soon - love to you all!

My Ten Minute Project!

So I decided to dress up my lonely kitchen window! It has needed some love for quite some time now and since I had extra fabric hanging around, I thought - why not put it to use! 

Now this would be my very first valance type window cover and I think I did a pretty good job. It may not be perfect but it works for me. 

If you haven't been in my kitchen, it's a bunch of brightness so I knew I wanted a bold pattern for the window. So I decided to use a yellow and white chevron pattern. 

I measured the window and was beyond happy that I had enough fabric!! 

And can I tell you how easy it was! Super easy! 

I then used sticky Velcro to put up. Not the most professional way but its up there!!! And I love it!! 

It literally took me about ten minutes from beginning to end. 

What spur of the moment project have you tackled lately?

Knitting and Cooking!

While you are all sweating your booty's away - I am knitting my finger tips to the bone! It is that time of year folks. Fall will be here before you know it and it takes a lot more time to knit an item than to sew it. I cant wait to add some new products to my Etsy shop within the next few weeks.

SO with that being said I HAVE to share a recipe with you guys. This is so easy you will do a little dance in your kitchen. I am always trying to find recipes that do not take long at all. Our kitchen is tiny - so I try not to spend too much time in there cooking! Sometimes that happens and sometimes it doesn't.

So my husband and I wanted steak the other night but we weren't too enthused about standing out in the heat over a hot grill - that's when I decided to take a risk. I was watching The Chew the other afternoon (its a cooking talk show on ABC at 1pm - if you aren't home then, I suggest recording it just for the recipes...they are divine!) and saw an amazing steak that they seasoned and pan-seared. Now first I must tell you that my husband was very skeptical about cooking a steak inside. He is definitely an advocate for cooking meat on the grill but I told him to trust me. If I could get it to look as good or close to the steak on The Chew, we were golden!!!

So here are the ingredients:

STEAK:
4 NY Strip Steaks
3 tablespoons Canola Oil (I used veggie)

RUB:
2 tablespoons ground Coriander
2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon Chipotle powder
1 tablespoon Sweet Paprika
1 tablespoon Kosher salt

COMPOUND BUTTER:
1/2 pound Unsalted Butter (softened)
1/4 cup Chopped Cilantro
1 Garlic Clove
1 small Shallot
Juice and zest of 1 Lime
Salt and Pepper

Directions:
For the Rub: In a medium bowl, whisk together all of the rub ingredients and set aside. Preheat a large cast iron sauté pan (I used a skillet) over medium heat.

Instructions:
Drizzle some oil onto the steaks. Season the steaks on both sides with the rub, being pretty liberal with it. Cook for about 3 minutes per side for medium rare. I cooked mine longer - my husband and I like well done steaks. Then remove to a plate to rest for about 5 minutes.

Compound Butter:
Now before I give this to y'all, I didn't make this with my steaks. My husband isn't a sauce-on-a-steak kind of guy, so I left this part out, but it sounds amazing!!!

While the steaks are cooking mix together your softened butter, cilantro, garlic, shallot lime zest/juice, and salt and pepper in a food processor or mixer until well blended.

Add a spoonful of compound butter on top of each steak before serving!

I made some black eyed peas and green beans with ours and it was delish!!!

Happy Independence Day!

America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, imagination and unbeatable determination to do the job at hand - Harry S. Truman


I hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July! Stay safe and remember all those who sacrificed so much for us to have the freedom we have today!

GOD BLESS AMERICA~