What's For Dinner? LeftOvers!

   I don't know where you are on the leftover debate but I love leftovers. As a kid growing up I thought everyone ate leftovers. I loved them. My favorite I think was when we had leftover roast beef and if we had enough we would have roast beef hash the next day. Roast beef, onions, and potatoes chopped into bite size pieces and fried in a skillet yum. Mouth watering just thinking about it. If we only had a little roast left my Grandmother would make Roast salad like tuna salad. That is so wonderful on a sandwich or just by itself. You just grind up the roast or like I do chop into small bite size pieces add mayo and pickle relish and mix all together and eat. Those are just some of my favorite ones from my childhood. Of coarse I loved left over  fried chicken, hamburgers and spaghetti too, but those I just ate cold and usually for breakfast.

   When I first got married we had a lot of leftovers because I was use to cooking for 7 not 2. So glad my  husband didn't mind leftovers either or we would have lost a lot of food. The key to leftovers is not just serving the same thing but to figure ways to use them that is different than what you had to begin with.

 This brings us to tonight's dinner and what to do with our leftover white rice and hot dogs. Now to you that might sound like just heat and eat but to me it was a challenge to make something that was different so here is what I came up with and it was a big hit. No leftovers of the leftover meal which is a good thing.

Ingredients:
6 left over grilled hot dogs
2 1/2 cups cooked white rice
1 cup frozen green beans
olive oil
1/2 stick of butter
1 cup ketchup
1 cup bbq sauce
2 tablespoons honey mustard
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons chili powder
salt to taste
pepper to taste
6 slice American cheese

Directions:

In large skillet drizzle olive oil to coat bottom when olive oil starts to heat up add the butter and when warm add rice. Make sure you have broken the rice up so that it doesn't have any big clumps. Heat on medium heat stirring to keep from scorching. Cute the hot dogs up into bite size pieces and add to rice. In a separate bowl mix the ketchup, mustard, bbq sauce and brown sugar till sugar is dissolved. To the rice and hot dogs add the green beans, the chili powder and salt and pepper. Then add the sauce you made and stir till all the rice and hot dogs and green beans are coated. Cover and heat on medium heat for 10 minutes stirring once in awhile . When completely heated through and the green beans are done add the 6 slices of cheese around the skillet and put lid back on. When the cheese begins to melt stir it into the mixture and you are ready to eat. Serve with a nice salad and some bread and butter. It make a great meal. Try it you might be surprised just how good it is.

The Fourth Fisherman by Joe Kissack Review

  The Fourth Fisherman: How Three Mexican Fishermen Who Came Back from the Dead Changed My Life and Saved My Marriage by Joe Kissack


     This is the story of Joe, he has money, a great job in the entertainment business, a wife and family and yet he is on a downward spiral into a dark hole. He had tried to fill this hole with things and prestige, but nothing was working. In the book Joe says, " I kept searching for more. More of what? I really didn't know. Something I couldn't put my finger on it, but it felt like it was out there, just around the corner. Something to fill the emptiness inside me." pg 41 This book is Joe's story of his struggles, searching, redemption, forgiveness, love and learning to rely on God and God's plan.

    This is also the story of the three fisherman from Mexico that get stranded at sea for 9 months with nothing put their faith in God and a Bible to sustain them. They were drifting aimless at sea and  they had God with them through the whole 9 months. This tells their story of struggle and rescue, hope and faith. It is a remarkable true story of strength that comes from God,  faith and  how they survived for those 9 months. It tells us how God would provide what they needed just in time and how He never left them. Just like He does for us in our lives.

      The book tells us  how God sends Joe to meet the fisherman after they are rescued to help them tell their story and in so doing Joe grows in his faith and reliance on God. You find that he has the same doubts and fears that we have when it comes to knowing if we are reallying doing what God wants us to or not. As Joe goes through the jungles  and obstacles in Mexico trying to meet the fisherman you see how God nudges him along and reassures him, as well as protects him, just as God does us in our lives. 


    When I first started to read this book I had already decided that it was just going to be another feel sorry for me book, but boy was I wrong. The more I read the book the more I realized this is a book of brokenness and faith. A book of hopelessness and hope. It is a true story of how one man has everything, but really has nothing, and three men who have nothing, but they have everything because they have God. It is a powerful, insightful, encouraging book that I think everyone should read once or twice.

This book is all this an more. As it says in the book, "And then my eyes were fully opened: God was present in all of it, speaking to me about what the story really was. No, this isn't my story. But it isn't the fishermen's story either. It is God's story, and all of what He has done needs to be told." pg 189
This book tells us that story and I hope everyone will take the time to read it.

For more information:
http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/author-spotlight.php?authorid=150186
You can follow Joe Kissack on twitter at
https://twitter.com/jkissack
http://www.thefourthfisherman.com/
http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/catalog.php?isbn=9780307956279
http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/blog/2011/08/22/video-the-fourth-fisherman/
Here is the link to read the first chapter of the book
http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/blog/2011/11/15/sneak-peek-the-fourth-fisherman-by-joe-kissack/

"I received this book from WaterBrook Multomah for free in exchange for an honest review."

     

Standing Up For Your Faith and Week 4 of Challenge

I am behind on my memorizing challenge in picking new verses to memorize. I hope everyone has been able to memorize along with me. I have picked verses this week to go along with something that happened to my Dad the other day at a restaurant. Before we get to that let's recap the last three weeks.

Wk 1:
Ps. 119:11
Matt. 22:37
Wk 2:
Prov. 3:5-6
John 3:16-18
Wk 3:
Ps 23:1-6
Isaiah 41:10

First I must say I come from a family who loves God and has taught us to know and love God. My Mom and Dad are Christians and they raised us setting a good example as Christians. Dad and Mom the other day sat down at a restaurant to eat and when their food came my Dad prayed over their meal. They are not flamboyant, they quietly hold hands and Dad or Mom says the prayer.  On this occasion though, at the table next to them, a gentleman told my Dad that he couldn't  pray and to stop. Dad said the man had been drinking to much he thought, but still he told Dad to stop. My Dad politely told him to mind his own business, but the man continued to blame Christians for all his troubles. Dad finally told him to mind his own business and he was sorry the man didn't know Christ. The man stopped at that and my parents prayed and ate their meal. My Dad and Mom were not ashamed of their faith and did not cower when accosted for that faith, and that is the point to these verses I decided to memorize this week, that I am not ashamed of my God and my faith. I will not cower when persecuted. It would have been probably easier for my Dad to just stop with out praying but that would be denying the importance of his love for God and his Faith. What would you have done? I would hope I would have done the same as my Dad and maybe even told the man I would pray for him. I think this man does need prayer and I hope Dad has been praying for him. We are to love everyone even those who persecute us, and the best way is to pray that they come to know the love of God and hopefully we can be the one to show them that love.

The verses for this week are:

Rom. 16:1 NIV "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile."

Phil 1:21 KJV " For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."

Matt. 5:10 KJV "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Hope you are still memorizing the Word with me. Let me know how it is going for you.

Wk 3 Challenge of Memorizing the Word

This is week 3 of my challenge to memorize the Word. I hope you are still with me on this challenge. Here is a list of the verses from week 1 and 2
Week 1
Ps. 119:11
Matt. 22:37
Week 2
Prov. 3:5-6
John 3:16-18

As I watched the devastation in Moore, OK after the tornado yesterday, with tears and prayers for the victims and their families a verse came to my mind from Psalm 23:4 KJV "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."  and also the verse from last week in Prov 3: 5-6 KJV " ⁵ Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. ⁶ In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

I don't know how you make it through a tragedy like this with out trusting and leaning on God and remembering that God is with you. This is why for this weeks challenge I have chosen the 23 Psalm as one of the verses to memorize. I believe memorizing the whole Psalm is important so that when you need it you will be able to recall this comforting Psalm and promise. The other verse is found in Isaiah and is important to remember when we are afraid.

So this weeks verses are
 Psalms 23:1-6 KJV " The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. ² He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. ³ He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. ⁴ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
 ⁵ Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. ⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever."

Isaiah 41:10 KJV "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."

Please continue to pray and hold the people of Oklahoma up who have been touched by this terrible tragedy

Book Review

I was given an ARC copy of this book and was asked to read and give a honest review of the book
Lock, Stock, and Over A Barrel A Dear Daphne Novel by Melody Carlson.


This book and characters are easy to connect with, you feel like you can just step into this small hometown and be friends with all the characters. It is a book that you just want to keep reading to see what is next.

Daphne had a dream to be a writer and after college she lands a job as a writer for the New York Times, but after years in the city she wonders if this is what she really wants. She is like we are when we think we know what we want and then when we get it we wonder is this really that great or what is going to make us happy.

Daphne's Aunt dies and she goes home for the funeral, but to her surprise Daphne's Aunt has left Daphne her house with some strings attached. The reader gets caught up in Daphne trying to decide what she wants, whether she can meet her Aunts strings for her inheritance and what will really make her happy.

This book, I think, is somewhat of a quest for Daphne to find out what she really wants out of life, about being happy, and about trusting God to help her make the right decisions and believing in the plan God has for her. It is a very good book that is very enjoyable. It has a good story and at the end of the book it leaves you wanting more. An excellent book. Melody Carlson has another good book that will connect with the readers.

I would highly recommend this book. This book will be out June 2013. check out Melody Carlson's website for more about her and her books at www.melodycarlson.com

If you would like a chance to win the ARC copy of this book head over to my other blog debsbooksgalore.blogspot.com

Wk 2 of Challenge New Verses and Book Review

This is week two of the memorizing the Word Challenge. Week one went well for me. Week one's verses were
Ps. 119:11
Matt. 22:37
I hope you are memorizing these with me. If you have any suggestions of verses to memorize let me know in the comments.

This weeks verses are ones that some might already know but are imporant to remember in our walk with God.
Proverbs 3:5-6 KJV 5" Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."
John 3:16-18 KJV "16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.  18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."



These verses explain how much God loves us and has made away to Him through His son Jesus Christ. Then we also see that if God walks with us daily and all we have to do is trust Him and lean on Him and he will direct our way. He makes a promise that if we trust and lean on Him then he will direct us in our walk through life. Simple right. Well it is simple but we being who we are don't always do this. Trust is easy when everything is going good, but we stumble sometimes when life gets hard. We try to say we are trusting but also try to figure things out on our own. We need to memorize this verse so that when things come up and we stumble we can recall this verse and follow it. God knows we are human and will fail sometimes and the other verses tell us how He has already made away to be forgiven through Jesus all we have to do is believe and give our hearts to Him.

I hope you will continue the challenge this week and memorize these verses with me.

I wanted to include a book review of a book that I love and think is great for studying.

Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan
The book talks about how awesome it is that God who made everything loves us and loves us enough to give up his precious Son for us. He helps us to understand more about God and his love.  You need to read this book it will change you in a positive way. I recommend that everyone read and study this book, it brings you closer to God and helps you grow in your faith.

Leave a comment and let me know if you are memorizing the verses and how it is going. Also leave a comment on what you think of this book. If you have any suggestions of books let me know also.

Book Review

I am an avid reader so I thought I would share with you some of the books I am reading. Hope you will get them and read them too. The first books I reviewed on my other blog mysteryreadingnook.blogspot.com and here is that post.
I was asked to read and review A Plain Scandal An Appleseed Creek Mystery by Amanda Flower. I was given a ARC for this purpose.
A Plain Scandal An Appleseed Creek Mystery by Amanda Flower is book 2 of the series.

Chloe Humphrey lives in Appleseed Creek Ohio which includes the usually quiet Amish Community also. The Amish community is being rocked by someone who is attacking them and cutting the hair of the girls and beards of the men. Chloe gets involved to help find who is behind the attacks and she happens to stumble on the body of Ezekiel Young who has been murdered and his beard has been cut off also. Are these attacks and murder related? Why is the Amish being targeted? Who could possibly be behind these attacks and is Chloe in danger now too?

This book keeps you guessing with many possibilities of suspects so that you want to keep reading, because you want to find out just who it is behind the murder and attacks. It is a book you do not want to put down and that will be a surprise at the end. I have spent time in the Ohio Amish country and can just picture myself there with Chloe and this community. I would highly recommend this book to the mystery buffs and cozy mystery fans that want a good read with a good plot, murder, romance, friendship and throws in the unique Amish Community, what more could you want.

The author Amanda Flower has another hit on her hands. This book has characters that you can see yourself being friends with. Find out more about this author and her books at http://amandaflower.com/Appleseed_Creek_Series.html