Recipe Central

Here is the recipe for this week, I hope you enjoy!

Baked Jambalaya

• 3 tbsp real bacon bits
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
  
• 2 tbsp green onions, chopped
• 1/2 lb cooked kielbasa, sliced
• 1/2 lb diced, cooked ham (lunchmeat is ok)
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
  
• 1 tsp cajun seasoning (optional)
• 1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1 14.5 oz can beef broth
• 1-1/2 cups uncooked regular long-grain white rice

Mix together in a large mixing bowl all ingredients*.

Pour into greased 9x13 baking dish.

Cover and bake at 375 degrees for 1 hr or until rice is done.

Uncover and stir before serving.

*If you are making this dish to freeze & store for later use, do not add rice until ready to cook. All ingredients except rice would be put into a freezer bag, labeled Baked Jambalaya. Rice can be added in a separate smaller bag and both bags put into another freezer bag. Thaw before cooking.

Serves 8-10, WW: 6 points per serving.

Unfortunately, I did not have any additional nutrition information for this dish, but any WW member can tell you, 6 points for a dinner is very good.

Church Notes

What a great sermon Sunday by Pastor Chuck!

We are continuing our study on the book "One Month to Live" by Kerry & Chris Shook. This week's lesson is entitled Learn Humbly and will soon be posted online in the audio sermon archive at this address: http://www.creeksidechristian.com/ServicesandEvents/AudioSermonArchive/tabid/75/Default.aspx

• Adversity Builds Character
• When God's Will is clear to us it doesn't mean the road is going to be easy.
• "God is more interested in your character than your comfort." -Rick Warren
• Joy chooses to see the blessing of adversity.

Verses for your study:

• James 1:2-18
• Ecclesiastes 10:7
• Proverbs 28:13
• Psalms 20:7-8
• II Corinthians 4:16-18
• Hebrews 11:24

Please pray!

Please be in prayer for Jenny, a wife and mother of 5 who collapsed this past week due to bleeding in the brain. She has undergone surgery with a 50/50 chance and is still in critical care. She will have a long, hard road of recovery. Please pray that she and her family will know God's presence during this difficult time and that she will heal quickly.

Proverbs 31 - Week 7

Personal Appearance is this week's topic and covers everything from color choices and wearing the right size to modesty and countenance. Here are some highlights:

• Determine your core color and stick with it, shop during the season that compliments this color and only buy clothing that coordinates with this color. (Dark hair and eyes - black - winter; Dark hair and blue, green or hazel eyes - light skin tone - navy - summer, dark skin tone - black - winter; Blonde hair and blue, green or hazel eyes - navy - summer; Red hair - brown - late fall; Sandy/Blonde hair and brown eyes - camel - spring or fall.)
• Give away or exchange everything else in your closets.
• Determine your ideal body weight: "Your ideal weight is the healthiest weight you can maintain while leading a sustainable lifestyle." Use this website to help find your ideal weight range. http://www.consumer.gov/weightloss/bmi.htm
• Box up all of your clothing that doesn't currently fit, but is in your ideal weight range. Put a date on this box and get rid of anything left in the box if it still doesn't fit in one year.
• Give away or exchange anything that doesn't fit currently and isn't in your previous box.
• Expand this to your personal care items: skincare, makeup, toiletries, etc. Box everything up that you don't use daily/weekly. If it's still in the box after one year, toss it out.
• "...I have talked about how less is more. That's almost always true, but there is an important exception: fabric. When it comes to fabric, more is more....Remember, ladies, for the kingdom's sake, for modesty's sake, and, well, for mercy's sake: more fabric!"
• "Unless you are in stellar physical condition, you will probably look better in a skirt than in pants...I am a forty-something pear-shaped woman, and very few women over forty look their very best in pants. Conversely, almost all women look attractive in a well-made, properly fitting skirt that hits below the knee....Some apple-shaped women do look better in pants provided they wear long tunic-style tops. If you are a woman who carries every drop of excess weight above the waist...you can wear pants to your heart's content."
• "There are some women whose countenance reflects the love and care they receive, not from an earthly husband but a heavenly one. These are women who know deep down in their spirit that they are precious and honored in God's sight. These are who derive their primary identity from their relationship with God..."
• "A countenance that radiates a gentle and quiet spirit grows out of God-confidence."

I pray that you know you are precious in God's sight and know that you are a daughter of the King! May your appearance reflect God's love!

I am already getting excited about next week's topic: Home Enterprises.

The Pearl Necklace

The cheerful girl with bouncy golden curls was almost five. Waiting with her mother at the checkout stand, she saw them: a circle of glistening white pearls in a pink foil box. "Oh please, Mommy. Can I have them? Please, Mommy, please!"

Quickly the mother checked the back of the little foil box and then looked back into the pleading blue eyes of her little girl's upturned face. "A dollar ninety-five. That's almost $2.00. If you really want them, I'll think of some extra chores for you and in no time you can save enough money to buy them for yourself. Your birthday's only a week away and you might get another crisp dollar bill from Grandma."

As soon as Jenny got home, she emptied her penny bank and counted out 17 pennies. After dinner, she did more than her share of chores and she went to the neighbor and asked Mrs. McJames if she could pick dandelions for ten cents. On her birthday, Grandma did give her another new dollar bill and at last she had enough money to buy the necklace.

Jenny loved her pearls. They made her feel dressed up and grown up. She wore them everywhere--Sunday school, kindergarten, even to bed. The only time she took them off was when she went swimming or had a bubble bath. Mother said if they got wet, they might turn her neck green.

Jenny had a very loving daddy and every night when she was ready for bed, he would stop whatever he was doing and come upstairs to read her a story. One night when he finished the story, he asked Jenny, "Do you love me?"

"Oh yes, Daddy. You know that I love you."

"Then give me your pearls."

"Oh, Daddy, not my pearls. But you can have Princess--the white horse from my collection. The one with the pink tail. Remember, Daddy? The one you gave me. She's my favorite."

"That's okay, Honey. Daddy loves you. Good night." And he brushed her cheek with a kiss.

About a week later, after the story time, Jenny's daddy asked again, "Do you love me?"

"Daddy, you know I love you."

"Then give me your pearls."

"Oh Daddy, not my pearls. But you can have my babydoll. The brand new one I got for my birthday. She is so beautiful and you can have the yellow blanket that matches her sleeper."

"That's okay. Sleep well. God bless you, little one. Daddy loves you." And as always, he brushed her cheek with a gentle kiss.

A few nights later when her daddy came in, Jenny was sitting on her bed with her legs crossed Indian-style. As he came close, he noticed her chin was trembling and one silent tear rolled down her cheek. "What is it, Jenny? What's the matter?"

Jenny didn't say anything but lifted her little hand up to her daddy. And when she opened it, there was her little pearl necklace. With a little quiver, she finally said, "Here, Daddy. It's for you."

With tears gathering in his own eyes, Jenny's kind daddy reached out with one hand to take the dime-store necklace, and with the other hand he reached into his pocket and pulled out a blue velvet case with a strand of genuine pearls and gave them to Jenny. He had them all the time. He was just waiting for her to give up the dime-store stuff so he could give her genuine treasure.

So it is, with our Heavenly Father. He is waiting for us to give up the cheap things in our lives so that he can give us beautiful treasures. God will never take away something without giving you something better in its place.

What are you hanging on to?

--- Author Unknown

Get out of debt

There are several options for getting out of debt. One popular option is to payoff the largest balances first, another is to payoff the highest interest rate first. While both of these are good options, they do not give a sense of accomplishment very quickly like the next option I will show you. This is from The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey.

The "Debt Snowball"

1. Lists your debts in order with the smallest payoff or balace first.


2. If you have two debts with similar payoffs, list the higher interest-rate debt first.


3. Pay off the smallest balance first. Anytime you get some extra money, put it toward paying off your debt rather than acquiring more stuff to clean, stow, and eventually give away. Meanwhile, be sure to make your [minimum] monthly payments on all your debt.


4. Once you've paid off the first debt, apply the entire monthly payment that you used to pay toward the first debt toward the second debt on the list. (You will be paying out the same amount of money each month, but you will be paying down this debt twice as fast.)


5. When you've paid off the second item, apply the entire amount you were paying on debt number 1 and debt number 2 toward debt number 3.


6. Continue until you have paid off all consumer debt.

This option can allow you to focus your money to eliminate the debt quickly. It is very important to stop using the cards when you begin this and remember, once you payoff that card, put it away and don't use it anymore. It's understandable to have a credit card for medical expenses and emergencies, but a huge sale at your favorite department store is not an emergency! Then, you can easily save and pay cash for things that you want rather than charging them and them being no longer useful by the time you have finished paying for them. My prayers are with you that you live within your means and your soul will prosper along with your pocketbook!

Proverbs 31 - Week 6

This week was definitely full! Here are a few of the highlights:

• John Wesley - "'Earn all you can; save all you can; give all you can.' Christians shouldn't be financially broke. We should be financially wise."
• "Which is greater: 90 percent plus God or 100 percent minus God?"
• Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad) - "The poor and middle class work for money. The rich have money work for them."
• "...an asset is somthing that puts money in my pocket. A liability is something that takes money out of my pocket." - Robert Kiyosaki
• "Put the income into an income-generating asset, then you can spend, not once, but as long as the asset keeps generating income."
• "Lord, I know you work miracles. You can bring stones back to life from heaps of rubble and you can enable me to get my finances in good order."
• See a separate post about the "Debt Snowball."
• "When you get an offer in the mail, declare out loud: 'I know what this is. It's an invitation to the valley of Ono [Nehemiah 6] - and oh no, I don't want to go there!'"
• http://www.optoutprescreen.com/ or 1-888-5OptOut
• "How many items fall into the 'I never would have bought it if I had to save up to get it' category?"
• "'The secret of financial success is to spend what you have left over after saving, instead of saving what is left over after spending.' We all know there's never anything left over."
• "Over the past fifty years, the stock market has averaged an 11 percent annual return. That's no guarantee for the future, but stocks have never lost money over any ten-year period - and that includes the decade of the Great Depression. Your best choice is an index fund."

Recommended reading: Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki; The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach; The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey

It's obvious to most of us that we live outside of our means and it can be very overwhelming to think about getting out of debt, but there are many small ways we can help ourselves. This week's study gave very specific ways to take small steps and make a difference in your finances while getting a sense of accomplishment quickly. You can do it! Start today!