Be.

Great, healthier alternative to traditional Shepherd’s Pie. I made this last night and it’s super yum! The only thing I will do next time is add something to thicken the “gravy” on the inside. :) 

1/2  head cauliflower
1 minced garlic clove
2 tbsp organic butter
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 organic egg
2 tbsp coconut milk (or whatever you use…I use coconut milk because I can’t have dairy.)

1. Steam cauliflower until soft then transfer to a food processor or blender, puree the cauliflower with the garlic, butter, salt, coconut milk and egg. 
2. Transfer mixture to a saucepan and cook for about 5 or 6 more minutes (med-high), stirring. (I do this because I want the egg to be cooked).

1 pound grass fed ground beef (or lamb, if you prefer)
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/4 large onion, chopped
2 tbsp organic butter
1/2 cup organic vegetable broth
1 cup cooked peas

1. While the cauliflower is steaming, preheat a large skillet over medium high heat and fully cook the meat (season with salt and pepper). 
2. In a seperate saucepan, combine butter and broth. (As I stated earlier, I would add something next time for thickening…perhaps flax or chia). 
3. I like to cook the peas and onions together, separately. 
4. Combine meat, gravy, and veggies in a baking dish. This recipe fits perfectly in a 4-cup dish. 
5. Top the meat mixture with the cauliflower mash and put under a broiler until cauliflower mash is evenly browned.

Enjoy!

If you are like me and avoid grains and sugars…this is a great alternative for granola. It can be eaten as a bar, crumbled and stirred into yogurt, enjoyed as cereal (great with coconut milk - unsweetened, of course). I use mostly seeds, since I am allergic to tree nuts. But you can certainly use any type of nut you enjoy. Mix it up!

I usually use flax, sesame, hemp, and sunflower seeds and peanuts. I prefer raw seeds and nuts that have not been roasted or salted.

2 cups your choice of seeds and nuts
1/2 Cup Unsweetened shredded coconut
3 Egg Whites
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Salt
6 drops Pure Stevia Extract

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper
• Stir nuts, seeds, shredded coconut, cinnamon and salt
• In a separate clean bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then add stevia
• Coat the nut mixture with the egg whites then place on prepared baking sheet
• Bake for 15 minutes, or until crisp. Let cool and break into pieces or cut into bars

This recipe fits perfectly on my 7” x 10” toaster oven baking sheet. :)

I Corinthians 13

 1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

 4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

 8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when the time of perfection[Christian maturity] comes, these partial things will become useless.

 11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

 13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

_____________________________________

“Agape” love = selfless, sacrificial, unconditional love, the highest of the four types of love in the Bible. It’s about being concerned for others, helping others, caring for others. It’s about being selfless and having a servant attitude.

“What is the best thing I can do for you right now?” So many people think the other way around… “what can you do for me?”  It is more important to serve others.

Matthew 5:48 - But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect. (this is the same word ‘perfect’ as in I Cor 13…maturity or also consummate human integrity and virtue.)

Philippians 3:12 - I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. (‘possessed me’ - basically, when Christ becomes your Lord.  Perfection - the same as in I Cor 13 and Matt 5.  The overall meaning of this verse is that we should always seek to be mature in agape love, for Christ sacrificed himself (pure agape love) so that we may find this same perfect maturity. We can only seek this perfection through Christ.)

The most excellent way? Love. :) God is Love.  Nothing matters without this purest form of love.

waiting for my allergies to quiet down so I can sleep, so I’ll do a meme. A friend did this on FB earlier, so here is my attempt. Not sure if my 30 things will be remotely interesting… haha! Let’s find out!

1. I have played violin for 25 years
2. I do not believe in ghosts, but I do believe in angelic and demonic spirits
3. I love dark chocolate
4. I want to be a writer
5. I have a reoccurring nightmare that my fingers get chopped off
6. I have played my violin in 4 countries: USA, Canada, England, & Germany
7. I cried when Christopher Reeve died
8. As a child, I had a reoccurring dream of running through a large building with many yellow corridors and glass windows that would shatter just before I woke up
9. I am afraid of drains
10. I am afraid of bodies of water

11. A nest of live cockroaches once fell on my head from above a door frame
12. I think of my late g’ma & g’pa every day
13. I have never been in love
14. I was baptized in December of 2001
15. I am allergic to tree nuts
16. I love learning how things are made…the behind-the-scenes stuff. The nuts and bolts :)
17. I want to live for a time in each: an igloo, a tree house, and an underground house
18. I want to cross the country on bicycle, camping the whole way
19. I want to go to Antarctica
20. I love storms
21. I want to go to space
22. I was standing in a bakery, decorating a birthday cake, when my mom called to tell me about the 9-11 attacks
23. I watched Challenger shuttle explode on television while in school.
24. I have never smoked, done drugs, or been drunk
25. Superman is my favorite fictional character
26. I organize to de-stress
27. I collect marbles
28. My name is strangely missed on lists on a regular basis. Just skipped over for no reason.
29. I have not had a full-time job since 2005 :(
30. I love Jesus Christ with all my heart and soul 

I’m in a meme mood tonight…

iTunes Shuffle…with a Twist. (round percents up)

• If you have under 999 or less songs, multiply your total number of songs by .1 and shuffle that many songs and type them below.
• If you have 1000 - 9999 songs, multiply your total number of songs by .01 and shuffle that many songs and share below.
• If you have 10,000 or more songs, multiply your total number of songs by .001 … and etc …

I have 5337 songs in my iTunes, which totals 54 shuffled songs:

1. Cello Suite No. 1 in G, BWV 1007, I. Prelude - J.S. Bach
2. Sex On Fire - Kings of Leon
3. Place for My Head - Linkin Park
4. Angel Terreste - Immediate Music
5. Hit the Ground Running - Jonny Lang
6. The Show Must Go On - Pink Floyd
7. The Sky is Broken - Moby
8. String Quartet in g, Op. 10 - Claude Debussy
9. Track 9 (tribute to Nobuo Uematsu) - Stephen Kennedy
10. The Pass of Caradhras - Howard Shore
11. The Queen is Dead - Jonathan Davis
12. La Mer, L 109, 2. Jeux De Vagues - Claude Debussy
13. Taking Her Hand - Shigeru Umebayashi
14. La nascita delle cose segrete - Ludovico Einaudi
15. Partita for Solo Violin No. 2 in d minor, Giga - J.S. Bach
16. Cheek to Cheek - Ella Fitzgerald
17. Ghost Opera - The Kronos Quartet
18. Berlin Poem - Viggo Mortensen
19. Another Way to Die - Jack White & Alicia Keys
20. Juke Box Saturday Night - Glenn Miller
21. Please Don’t Tell Her - Jason Mraz
22. Come Away With Me - Norah Jones
23. Failure - Laura Marling
24. I Can’t Help It - Mark Ballas
25. Guilty - Al Bowly
26. Dusty Road - John Lee Hooker
27. Psalm 147b (The Lord’s Delight) - Sons of Korah
28. In Your Presence - Keith Lancaster & The Acappella Company
29. I Grieve - Peter Gabriel
30. Ofelia - Javier Navarrete
31. Black Earth - Fazil Say
32. Dirty Diana - Michael Jackson
33. Mr. Brightside - The Killers
34. Rip It Up - Beecake
35. Another Know It All - Chevelle
36. Should’ve Been Me - Tiffany
37. The Road - Howard Shore
38. Rather Lovely Thing - Nick Cave & Warren Ellis
39. Please Read The Letter - Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
40. Clear Or Cloudy - John Dowland
41. Breakfast in America - Supertramp
42. The Gambler - Kenny Rogers
43. Sweet Nothin’s - Brenda Lee
44. Death is the Road to Awe - Clint Mansell
45. Honeythief - Halou
46. Games - NKOTB
47. The Centipede - Chris Vrenna
48. Fallen King - LaRue
49. I’m So Sick - Flyleaf
50. Hong Kong Cemetry - Johnny Flynn
51. Oxford: Pope’s Gypsy Cadenza - John Corigliano
52. Chiisaki Doukeshi - Yuki Kajiura
54. Do You Call My Name - Ra

tumblrbot asked: WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE INANIMATE OBJECT?

My violin. :)