Tuna fish casserole. Yum. I have loved this dish since I was a child. My mom didn’t make it much as both my sister and dad hated it. Once in a while, however, usually during Lent, we were treated to it. I had a hard time waiting for it to be done and invariably burned my mouth on it since I couldn’t wait for that first bite!
Over the years I have changed it a bit to fit our needs. The canned peas made my stomach upset so they became fresh asparagus, and then canned green beans, as my kiddos let me know that they were less than fond of asparagus! It doesn’t really matter. It still tastes great!
Here is our recipe:
2, 15 oz. cans of French green beans, drained
3, 5 oz. cans of tuna, drained
20 oz. (1.5 bags) of potato chips, smashed
3 cups of my cheesy-veggie soup
4 cups finely shredded cheddar cheese
Preheat your oven to 350° F. Spray a 9 x 13 pan with your favorite non-stick cooking spray. Layer 1 can of the green beans, then 1 1/2 cans of the tuna and half of the potato chips. You can use any kind you like from regular to sour cream and onion to cheese and sour cream chips. Yum. Our favorite these days is the low-salt regular chips by Great Value (Walmart brand!) Add a second layer, finishing off the green beans, tuna, and potato chips. Top with the soup and then the cheese. Bake for 1 hour. Enjoy!
Just wanted to let you know that child #1 came home today. Praised be Jesus Christ Our Lord, now and forever amen! Thank you for keeping us all in your thoughts and prayers!
We are navigating new territory here, trying for an adult relationship. I have many unbreakable rules (the first being absolutely no satanism or witchcraft of any kind! That will get you put out faster than you can say “Wait!”) She agreed to all 16 of my stipulations and was extremely happy to be able to come home on her way to getting her own place. I’m happy she’s safe and getting her life back on track.
She is getting along with everyone and I’m thrilled to report, seems to have grown up quite a bit. Good for her! Living on your own and dealing with life tends to do that!
Have a blessed and wonderful day and keep those prayers coming. Her relationship with God is rocky right now, she reports, so she really needs your prayers!
Communication. How many times have we been told that this application is key to any and all relationships? If we can’t communicate, the relationship cannot flourish. If we don’t communicate well, we cannot get our point across and sometimes end up hurting the other person’s feelings.
Hmmm…so lately I was listening to a podcast that my counselor had sent me for homework. Yeah. I have homework. Bummer. But I digress…I was speaking about communication. During the podcast, the woman (it was a father and daughter) spoke about communicating with her husband. She said she wasn’t communicating well one night and got angry with him. His response was “What did you hear me say?” Wow! That was not what I expected. She replied honestly and they cleared up the misunderstanding quickly.
How much better would our communication be if we made sure that the other person understood what we were saying? It’s almost like we’re speaking different languages if we don’t.
Think of that old game of telephone where you would start with a simple message, whispered to the person sitting next to you in the circle. They, in turn would whisper what they heard to the next person in the circle and so on and so forth. Did you ever get the same message that you started out with when it came back to the first person? I know I never did!
So, if we mirror back what we heard the person say, and then mirror back what we say, we are truly on our way to open communication. Just be honest, but listen intently. Now is not the time to plan your rebuttle! Now is the time to listen and then say “What I hear you saying is…” Yes. It’s that simple! God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason, people, so go use them!
Want a simple dinner? Maybe just one you can toss in the oven, set the timer and go about your business for an hour and come back to deliciousness? Your prayers are answered! This is one of my favorite easiest dinners ever!
You will need:
As many boneless, skinless chicken breasts as you have people to feed (or 1/2 an extra large breast per person if they’re not super hungry!)
1/2 to 1 cup of prepared BBQ sauce (I like Sweet Baby Ray’s!)
Your favorite cooking spray
A large piece of aluminum foil
A jellyroll pan
A meat thermometer
Preheat oven to 350° F. Spray your aluminum foil generously with the cooking spray and place your chicken breasts on said foil. Drizzle BBQ sauce over each breast and bring sides of foil up to form a packet, making sure to tuck in the sides too, crimping as you go. What you want to end up with is a pretty air-tight packet because it will allow the chicken to cook through and absorb the BBQ sauce. Place on jellyroll pan and cook for 1 hour or until chicken reaches 165° F on a meat thermometer.
Carefully open packet to avoid scalding yourself, and enjoy! See, I told you it was easy! I like to make a packet with scrubbed potatoes and/or baby carrots (and a few pats of your favorite butter or margarine) on a cooking sprayed aluminum foil packet to accompany the chicken. This way you can make up your packets, place them on your jellyroll pan, set the timer, and do something else for an hour until dinner is done. Meat, check. Veggie, check. Starch, check. All done! So easy and delicious too! Seconds, anyone?
If you do happen to have a leftover breast or two, I like to use those for sandwiches the next day. Just slice it long-ways and put it on gluten-free bread with mayonnaise and thinly sliced tomatoes. I got four sandwiches out of our one leftover chicken breast. Yum!!!!
Families shouldn’t tear each other down. Photo by Yan Krukov on Pexels.com
Do you ever want more of something? Clothes, shoes, cars, food, etc.? Have you ever felt like you’re not enough? It’s not true. Everyone is a child of God and everyone is enough. But do we ever feel like maybe we’re not?
I grew up in a family of four with a mother, father, and two children, both sisters. I was the youngest, and you would think the favorite. You would be wrong. I have been “picked on” (read bullied) for my entire life. It wasn’t all from other children, either. Nope. My family got in on the act too. Oh, but if you ask them, I was always just too sensitive!
I remember being a little girl in pj’s waiting for my dad to come in and kiss my sister and me goodnight. What does he say when he walks in? “My gosh! Look at those legs – they’re like ham hocks!” What? In fact, my legs are rather nice. They are not overly large and I certainly do not carry ham hocks around. In fact, I have my dad’s legs!
Comments like this were common. I was always heavier than my older sister. Yeah. I had celiac disease. She didn’t. That didn’t matter to dad, though, or even mom, and definitely not my sister. What the kids at school didn’t destroy, one of my family would.
So, today, some cousins I hadn’t seen in years visited at my mom’s house for lunch. Children #’s 2, 3, and 4 and I went. The cousins were very nice. My mother, not so much. She made a point of telling everyone how, as a child, I would lie on the floor (not enough room for everyone on the couch) and pass gas! I had celiac disease and couldn’t digest food properly hence the gas, but we didn’t know that! Here I am, forty years later, forced to defend myself! Seriously?
I ended up coming home and being depressed. Will I ever be enough for them? Who says I have to please them? Do I really care? This is part of the reason we don’t see them much. Who wants to feel like crap? I don’t.
I know I’m enough. God loves me. I am His beloved child. So what if my brother in law is also writing a book? Who cares if my sister is slim? What difference does it make if her kids are so smart that they make even moderately bright children look stupid? Does that matter to God? I don’t believe so. He just wants us to love one another as He has loved us. I find it hard to do when I am being constantly put down.
Did anyone say that the brother-in-law’s book will be so much more awesome than mine? Nope. Did my sister say that I could never be as slim as she? Nope again, although there was the “I’m working on it,” comment that could be interpreted that I don’t. It’s just my conditioning after spending so many years in that family to think the worst. They are not a happy or really a functional one.
Even my girls were appalled at the treatment. Child #3, for all of her issues, picked up right away on the fact that what my mother said would hurt my feelings. Now, if she gets it, and we all know how many problems she has, why can’t my mother and sister? I hope that I only build my girls up. I never want to be in the position of tearing anyone down!
I’ll just have to go on trying to love them, despite their faults. I don’t even think they realize they are doing it. After all, it’s kind of a habit. I need to make loving them unreservedly one of mine. And probably limit the time I spend with them too!
Families should build each other up. Photo by Taryn Elliott on Pexels.com
My drawing that is featured on the front of my book “The Adventures of Snowball the Semi-Mighty Dog.”
I did it! I finally did it! What did I do? I published my first book on Amazon! It is a children’s book that is available in paperback and kindle e-book!
I’m so very excited! This is the culmination of many years of dreams. I have wanted, from the time I was a little girl, to be an author. Now I am (besides this blog, of course!)
What is my children’s book about? First, it is called “The Adventures of Snowball the Semi-Mighty Dog.” It chronicles the first year of our Maltese’s life, through her eyes. She is a smart and sassy pup with much to share.
Please consider purchasing the paperback or e-book version of my book! I’m so very proud of it. Thank you Jesus for it and all the people it will touch!
The e-book is up now and the paperback will be up very soon! Yay!
Our Lady of Fatima Photo by Joshua Miranda on Pexels.com
Our Lady appeared to three shepherd children in 1917 in Fatima, Portugal. This is considered a more modern day apparition than the others I have shared with you. It took place during WWI, with foretellings including WWII and beyond. It is widely believed that all of these foretellings have not yet taken place.
On May 13, 1917, three shepherd children, Lucia, Jacinta, and Francisco in Cova da Iria, Fatima, Portugal reported seeing “a lady more brilliant than the sun.” Lucia, at age 9, was the oldest. Her cousins, Jacinta and Francisco just 7 and 8 respectively. Children. Innocent children. These are the messengers chosen.
During the apparitions Our Lady gave the children three secrets. For the first, they were shown Hell. This is an excerpt from Sr. Lucia’s memoir from 1941 regarding the vision on July 13, 1917:
Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire which seemed to be under the earth. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in a huge fire, without weight or equilibrium, and amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repulsive likeness to frightful and unknown animals, all black and transparent. This vision lasted but an instant. How can we ever be grateful enough to our kind heavenly Mother, who had already prepared us by promising, in the first Apparition, to take us to heaven. Otherwise, I think we would have died of fear and terror.
The second secret had two parts. First that WWI would end, but that a greater war (WWII) would come if people did not mend their ways and return to God. The second part was in regards to Russia. Our Lady told the children that Russia needed to be converted to her Immaculate Heart so that the world could then experience a time of peace. If the conversion did not happen, Russia would spread her errors throughout the world.
The third secret was a vision that Lucia had. It basically predicted an angel with a flaming sword crying out for penance. Then there were many holy people climbing a mountain to be martyred, including the pope. Our Lady said that the conversion of Russia to her Immaculate Heart will happen, but if we don’t repent it will take that much longer. We have not seen Russia converted, and there certainly has not been a period of peace, but we did see the Berlin wall come down and other inroads into peace, so I believe it is coming.
There were many miracles at Fatima. Just the fact that Our Lady was there! One of the most famous, however, is the miracle of the sun. This is when, on October 13, 1918, the sun danced in the sky, swooping and swirling above the heads of 70,000 people. Now, I don’t know about you, but I can’t get 70 people to agree on anything, much less 70,000. That is what I call a miracle in more ways than one.
Francisco and Jacinta died during the Influenza epidemic of 1918, Francisco in 1919 and Jacinta in 1920. They are now saints. As for Lucia, she lived as a nun to the ripe age of 97, dying in 2005. She is being considered for sainthood, but the process is a long one and couldn’t be started until five years after her death, per Church doctrine. Her three memoirs are available if you would like more information.
Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta at Fatima.
So, what is the message here? Apologize. Confess your sins to God and get on the right track. Our God is a merciful God. He wants His children back. What are you waiting for? Pray and repent!!!
I know I told you that I cook all sorts of cuisine, but I have yet to post much in the Chinese variety. So, I decided to make stir fry last night and share it with you on today’s blogpost.
I like beef in Asian dishes, and so I decided to use a lean piece of roundsteak that was approximately 1 3/4 pounds. I cut it into approximately 3/4 to 1 inch pieces. It was not a thick cut, so this worked easily. One could also use beef stew meat if one were in a hurry.
Here is my process:
1 very large frying pan with 4 inch sides (or possibly a wok. I’m not sure how that would work as I didn’t use one!)
1/4 cup canola oil
1 large, sweet onion, quartered and sliced
1 3/4 pounds of roundsteak, sirloin, or beef stew meat
1/4 cup gluten-free tamari soy sauce (I used Kikkoman)
1 Tbsp. granulated onion
2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 tsp. red wine vinegar
3 ribs of celery, sliced into three long-ways and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
2, 8 oz. cans water chestnuts, sliced or diced
2, 8 oz. cans bamboo shoots
2, 14 oz. cans bean sprouts
7 ribs bok choy, slice the leaves off and set aside, slice long-ways into four or so spears, and then chop as with celery
bok choy leaves, roughly chopped
Put your canola oil in your large frying pan and heat. When hot, add sliced onion. Cook, stirring occasionally for about five minutes or until slightly soft. Add beef and cook until it is no longer pink. Add soy sauce, granulated onion, salt, pepper, and vinegar. Mix well.
Haven’t heard of bok choy? Here’s a pic to help you identify it! It’s usually next to the napa cabbage.
Add celery, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, and ribs of bok choy. Cook, stirring often, until the celery and bok choy have had a chance to soften. You don’t want them mushy, but you also don’t want them raw. I would suggest 10 minutes on medium heat, give or take. Add bok choy leaves and stir in. Allow the leaves to soften and take on the flavor of the stir-fry, about five minutes.
Bok Choy leaves just added.
If you like, you may serve this over brown rice. I am watching myself, so we just ate it as-is. It was so tasty!!! Enjoy.
GF Recipes and Writings 
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