New Chili Recipe - SCD Safe

I confess, I am a recipe follower.  Rarely do I deviate from what is written on the card (or page or website).  But lately I have been trying to use some wheat-free, dairy-free recipes - and lots of them are just not so good.  We were craving chili and I wanted to try something from the Specific Carbohydrate Diet - have friends who are on it.  But we weren't satisfied with what I found.  So, horror or horrors - I got creative.

The result was REALLY good.  I have made lots of chili recipes over the years - but this is our favorite - and it is by far the healthiest!  Hope you like it.

Lauren's Chili 
Ingredients:
2 pounds ground beef, browned and drained (I prefer grass fed - but can't always afford it)
l pound dried black beans prepared as directed, drained - about 6-7 cups of black beans
           (could use canned, but for SCD use home cooked from dried beans - if using canned
           please drain and rinse to remove excess salt)

46 ounces tomato juice  (use one without added sugar or other ingredients)
2 cups beef broth
2 tsp chili powder
1-2 Tbsp minced garlic
(Could add minced onion as well - but my family is not a big fan)
1Tbsp oregano
1/2 tsp cumin
3 tsp red pepper flakes
2-3 medium carrots - finely grated
1-2 cups lentils (rinsed, sorted and soaked for 30 minutes)

* In a large skillet brown ground beef then drain grease.  Add garlic, all spices and carrots.  Cook for a few minutes on medium heat.
*Pour beef into a large stock pot.  Pour in tomato juice and beef broth.  Add black beans and lentils.  Simmer for at least one hour - if not two or three! (Of course you can serve it as soon as it is warm, but simmering infuses all the flavors and softens the lentils.  I don't like them crunchy.) 
* Makes enough to feed a huge crowd!  Can't give number of servings because no one wanted to count!
* I have had great success with freezing this chili as well.  Seems to keep up to two months from my experience.  Sill yummy!  Put it in a microwavable bowl and take it out any time you need a quick, hearty meal.  I freeze mine in single serving bowls.

Enjoy!

Thoughts on Fidelity

In August Steve and I celebrated our 23rd year of marriage.  Never could I have fathomed 23 years!  Never could I have imagined how much better marriage would be now.  It didn't make sense in my brain - to be old and to be in love sounded boring. Oh, how wrong I was...  The safety and peace of knowing and being known is overwhelming in such a beautiful way.  As we look ahead at our kiddos all being out of the house (still four years away!) I can actually have joyful anticipation.  Who would have thought?  As always, Wendell Berry puts words to my swirling thoughts...  

The Blue Robe
How joyful to be together, alone
as when we first were joined
in our little house by the river
long ago, except that now we know

each other, as we did not then;
and now instead of two stories fumbling
to meet, we belong to one story
that the two, joining, made. And now

we touch each other with the tenderness
of mortals, who know themselves:
how joyful to feel the heart quake

at the sight of a grandmother,
old friend in the morning light,
beautiful in her blue robe!


I don't often talk about the idea of being beautiful.  This is never a word I use when speaking of myself.  But thankfully my husband does!  What a miracle of God! :)  That Steve would think of me as beautiful - that he would consider me his standard of beauty.  It is a more valued gift than any other he has given me.  How does this happen?  It is a developed gift - not an instantaneous feeling.  Of course when you are young there is that attraction of beauty.  But I am older now, different than I was then.  But my amazing husband has kept his eyes only on me.  He has cherished the gift of me.  He does not compare me.  I do not ask him to.  We do not talk of the beauty of other women or men.  We work hard to avoid that pit of "Do you think I'm as pretty as...?" or "Who is more beautiful?  Handsome?"  He honors me and, though I don't deserve it, he loves me.  God has honored this covenant with fidelity.  I love that old fashioned word.  It means the quality or state of being faithful.  It's what makes the grandmother in the blue robe beautiful.  It is what makes the man with the stoop and the cane handsome.  Look at how thesaurus.com defines it:

Part of speech:  adjective
Definition:  loyal, reliable
Synonyms:  affectionate, allegiant, ardent, attached, confiding, conscientious, constant, dependable, devoted, dutiful, enduring, fast, firm, genuine, honest, honorable, incorruptible, loving, on the level, resolute, sincere, staunch, steadfast, steady, straight, sure, tried, tried and true, true-blue, trustworthy, trusty, truthful, unchanging, unswerving, unwavering, upright.

What a picture of Christ.  He is all of those things.  He is true and trustworthy and unchanging.  I am grateful to Steve for his fidelity - he is not perfect, but he is a reminder of Christ to me.  He seeks to love me as Christ loves the Church.  I am thankful.

Those of you who know us personally know that we are far from perfect.  We have lots of issues!  But, that's the beauty of it.  Fidelity can be found in our imperfection.  I don't write to brag on us, but to encourage you:   what I thought was impossible isn't. 

Sleep in Peace

I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep...  This Wendell Berry poem came to mind. 

The Peace of Wild Things
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

I am so grateful that the Creator of "the grace of the world" cares for me.  I can cast all of those cares back upon Him and sleep in peace.  

"Cast all your anxieties on him, 

because he cares for you." (1Peter 5:7 ESV)

    In peace I will both lie down and sleep;

for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.

(Psalm 4:8 ESV)

As a little girl my father shared a thought with me about waking up in the night.  I have never forgotten it.  When you wake up pray!  It is quiet.  There is probably no one else in your neighborhood praying right now.  It is just you and God.  Pray!!  And sleep will come.  Try it.

Loneliness Poem

I have a friend who just got her first post grad school job.  Sadly, she had to relocate to a different city.  I am so proud of her my heart could explode. She is amazing - determined and brave and courageous and employed in her field!!  

We haven't talked much since she left, but I am imagining all sorts of lonely days until her job begins... Now, keep in mind, she may be loving every minute of life right now, I do tend to worry a little much.  But if she has one of those lonely moments I have a poem just for her.  I have always loved this poem for many reasons.  Hafiz has a way of expressing simple, yet profound thoughst...

Absolutely Clear

Don't surrender your loneliness so quickly.

Let it cut more deep.

Let it ferment and season you

As few human

Or even divine ingredients can.

Something missing in my heart tonight

Has made my eyes so soft,

My voice

So tender,

My need of God

Absolutely clear.

I feel like so often, especially as spoiled Americans, we tend to avoid the discomfort - to run from the suffering.  But why?  God has clearly lead my friend to her new town.  She will clearly have to spend some quiet moments alone in the near future.  But why run from the discomfort of those moments.  Why not, instead, let God use those moments to draw you to Himself?  Why not turn to the One who Loves you more than you can imagine?  Grasp this time, not as a time to feel sorry for yourself (and climb into bed with the covers over your head), but as a time when your complete and utter dependence on God is embraced.  Let Him work His purpose out in your circumstance - in your loneliness - when your need is absolutely clear.

My Dad

We celebrate my dad in the month of April.  He turned 68 this year.  He doesn't seem 68.  Today I looked at a few wedding pictures - of me and him.  He does look older when I see it in pictures... but every day I see him he seems the same.  Look!

That look in the picture on the right is one of my favorites!!  This is him now.  Isn't he handsome?

I cannot begin to describe to you how grateful I am for both of my parents.  I know without a doubt that they are one of the most amazing blessings I have been given.  As I celebrate my dad, I am grateful for all the ways that he has molded me.  He has instilled in me a deep love for the gospel.  I have watched him fight for the truth of Scripture since I can remember.  He loves the Word of God.  What a gift to all of our family!  He has given us a heritage that will be seen for generations - witnesses who will testify to the goodness of God long after my dad is gone.  

I can remember being little and Dad sitting beside me on my bed as I cried and cried, overcome with worry about who knows what subject - school or snakes or sisters!  He patiently answered each of my questions and helped me to learn to trust God's sovereignty.  I have so many favorite moments:  thinking I was gonna die giving birth to Victoria - and Dad standing at the foot of my bed saying "This too shall pass."; crying together for hours the day before I got married  because I would be moving from Kentucky all the way to California; hiking in the Smokey Mountains thinking a bobcat was going to get me; the joy of hearing him explain the gospel to my children, the list goes on!  

Dad is one of the hardest workers that I know.  He has also given me a love of gardening... not that I will ever be able to keep up with him!  But I find pleasure in it.  I am thankful for what I have learned from him about it.  

How can you describe your dad in one short space?  I can't.  But I know the I love him so very much, just like I love my mom.  I love to watch how both of my parents love each other.  It brings me comfort and joy and hope.  Thanks be to God for this beautiful gift.  Happy birthday, Dad.  

My Mom, Birthdays, and Basketball Memories

Happy birhtday to my mom! She is 64 today - 20 years older than I am. We were reminiscing about Kentucky Basketball this week. It may mean nothing to you, but this is the 20th anniversary of "the shot" - the game winning shot by Christian Laettner which gave Duke the last second win over Kentucky in the NCAA tourney in March of 1992. I remember that night so clearly. We were all sitting in the living room of the house I grew up in in Kentucky. We were getting ready to celebrate another Kentucky win - until Laettner, with 2.1 seconds left, shot that nightmare shot. All these years later you can go to a UK game and see "I Still Hate Laettner" t-shirts. We haven't forgotten.

As we talked about that night my mom reminded Steve and I that she had just turned 44 - which is how old I will be soon! It was a strange thought to look back and see her then and look at myself now. She was so young! Man, I was so young!! I was pregnant with Victoria. Oh so long ago and yet some days it seems like just yesterday. This year I can watch Kentucky basketball and the NCAA tourney with my mom and my daughter - who herself is almost 20. My brain cannot fathom this! We have all changed. It is a beautiful thing. My mom is a beautiful woman. I can only begin to describe her to you in a few short sentences. She is a servant who loves the Lord Jesus Christ first and foremost. She loves and serves her family faithfully and

self-sacrificially. She has taught me much about caring for others, community, cooking, being a wife, being a mom, and growing in my faith. She and Dad are both such blessings to me and my family. I am grateful!!

It was fun to talk about "the old days" and look back and remember how thankful I was for Mom then. But little did I know that the older I get the more thankful I would become for her - and for dad. I love them both! So, for Mom's birthday, let me celebrate her! I thank God for the gift He has given me.

I have shared this Wendell Berry quote before, but I will share it again. This expresses how I feel about my mom: "As I went about my work then as a young woman, and still now when I am old, Grandmam has been often close to me in my thoughts. And again I come to the difficulty of finding words. It is hard to say what it means to be at work and thinking of a person you loved and love still who did that same work before you and who taught you to do it. It is a comfort ever and always, like hearing the rhyme come when you are singing a song."