Back on the Wagon

I've been trying to do a better job about getting back in the swing of healthy eating.  For  me, this requires menu planning each week.  If I don't plan the menu, then we eat whatever's easy which is not usually the healthiest thing.  

The thing about my menu planning is that it takes a long time!  I love to change things up so I'm always looking for new recipes to try.  I also try to vary the menu and serve beef and fish at least once a week.  I use Feedly to follow lots of "healthy" food bloogers so I get plenty of ideas.  Nevertheless, sitting down to do the menu and grocery list and then going to the grocery store takes a lot of time, especially down here.  I quite often have to adjust the recipes to fit the ingredients that are available here.

Here's a list of a few of my favorite "healthy" food bloggers.  Click on the blog time to go to their sites.

Nicole at PreventionRD
Gina at Skinny Taste
Lauren at Oatmeal with a Fork
Megan at Detoxinista

I just recently found this site Amy's Healthy Baking, which looks promising!

Here's a few of this week's recipes.  Clicking on the name will take you to the recipe.

BBQ Chicken Quinoa Bowl (had this yesterday and we both thought it was fantastic)

Turkey burgers with zucchini (made a very juicy burger)

Watermelon Caprese Salad (I stacked spinach, mozzarella and watermelon, but it didn't look like this.  It was tasty, though.)

Apple Juice Chicken (trying this later in the week)

Remar Orphanage--CCBC

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, we spent a second day at the Remar Orphanage in La Libertad.  This time we brought the inflatable and lunch!  

The CCBC kids also lead a praise and preaching service for the older kids. The Salvadorans presented a drama and one of the CCBC leaders gave the gospel.  It was amazing to see them all worship together.

Lunch was the next challenge . . . we cooked 500 hotdogs!  The littlest kids were the first to eat.  Guillermo is leading them in the prayer.

Remar and Day 3 VBS--CCBC

On Wednesday morning we went to the Remar Orphanage in La Libertad, about an hour south of El Salvador.  They have a school on site, so seven of our classroom teams shared in the 4th through 9th grade classrooms.  

The rest of the students "played" with the younger kids.  Don't know who enjoyed it more  .. . the little ones or the big ones.

We spent less than two hours there because we were going to go back on Thursday and spend most of the day with them.

After a trip back to Lourdes and a quick lunch, we set up for the last day of VBS.  We had thirty women in our class (just not the same thirty.)  The kids enjoyed their final day of singing, dancing, crafting, playing and learning.

Day 2--Apopa Schools and VBS in Lourdes

Tuesday morning we went to two schools in the Apopa area that are right next to each other.  One was for grades 1 through 9 and the other was the high school.  Stephen and I were with the group at the high school.  We had teams sharing in ten classrooms; there were several hundred professions of faith--praise God.  

VBS in Lourdes continued in the afternoon.  It was raining so instead of being outside like on Monday, we worked with the ladies in a small room at the community center.  Wow, was it hot!  There were thirty women on Tuesday (23 on Monday), so we were quite busy giving directions and passing out supplies to the newcomers.  I shared my testimony and the gospel about half-way and although there weren't any professions of faith, we did have the opportunity to have some good conversations . . . and some seeds were planted.  So glad to have lots of help from Maria Elena, Isabel, Carolina and Zuley.  

 The kids got their "Real Heroes" VBS shirts and made gospel bracelets for their craft.  The CCBC youth worked each of the five rotations, especially the games group who had to improvise because of the rain.

The other half of the CCBC group held a kid club/family festival at another location in the neighborhood and a basketball camp at a third location.  These kids were busy all the time!

Giant Team

Our largest team of the year arrived Saturday night--almost 100 people from Christ's Chapel Bible Church high school ministry!  If you've ever worked with high school kids, you know there's a great deal of energy involved.  

Sunday morning they went to the second service at our church in Lourdes, as it was the only service that would accommodate 100 extra people.  Sunday afternoon, we had a futsal tournament, also in Lourdes.  It was quite a site to see 200+ people (gringos and Salvadorans) descend on the soccer fields.

Yesterday morning was our first day sharing in the schools.  The group is large, we have twenty classroom teams, so we sent half to one school and half to another.  In the afternoon, we also have two simultaneous activities.  One group is holding a three-day VBS while the other group is having kid's club in three different locations.  As you can imagine, it takes a lot of manpower to make everything happen.  

Several of the Hilo, Aguja ladies and I are working with the moms who come to VBS with their children.  We are teaching them to cross stitch while taking the opportunity to share the love of Jesus.  

More to come as the week progresses.

In the bakery

One of our friends from church, Ronnie, owns a bakery with his brother, who is a bread maker by trade.   It's just a few blocks from us in an affluent (more of less) part of the city.   Another friend, Kenneth, is working for him and is in charge of managing all aspects of the business.  Because the business is new and small, with only one location, Kenneth decided to try to negotiate a contract with a newly opened convenience store.  Success--as of last week, the store began selling their breads and pastries.  

Beyond this, Kenneth also wants to do something that will differentiate their bakery from the myriad of other bakeries here in the city.  He talked with me about whether I had any recipes that they might try.  He was specifically looking for some different types of cookies, healthy muffins and other kinds of sweet breads.   Friday we had a baking day here in my kitchen!  He left with a loaf of poppy seed bread, healthy whole wheat blueberry muffins and craisin oatmeal cookies.  He shared the samples with Ronnie and his brother and said that they both loved them.  For now, he is going to start the search for the ingredients, which will likely be no small task.  For example, we don't know if he can find poppy seeds and I've never seen applesauce (it's a main ingredient for the muffins), except snack size with sugar and/or cinnamon. 

We've got another baking sample day planned soon.  They would like to have 2-3 healthy muffin options so next time we'll be making carrot/apple muffins and whole wheat banana muffins.  We're also thinking about some good bar recipes and maybe peanut butter cookies and a chocolate, chocolate chip cookie.  We'll see . . . sounds like fun to me.

Stay tuned and I'll keep you posted on whether or not these goodies end up in the bakery!

  

Happy Birthday

Monday was my birthday and I made my favorite dessert--a cherry cobbler--to celebrate.  We had a nice, quiet day at home only venturing out to eat lunch at

(love their sweet potato fries) and then walk to

for dinner.  

There were phone calls from kids/grandkids and family/friends, plus hundreds of Facebook greetings from good friends all over the states and Central America.   

Maria Elena, Ena and Isabel took to me breakfast at 

on Tuesday morning.  It was a great time of fellowship:  talking about Hilo, Aguja and Biblia and enjoying each other's company. 

I'm so thankful for God's blessing in my life . . . there's just nothing better!

Low-Key 4th of July

The worship ministry held its first retreat this past Friday and Saturday.  It took a little bit of convincing, but Stephen finally decided to go.  Thirty-one team members (from all of our campuses) boarded the trusty, yellow church bus on Friday evening about 5:30 p.m.  They spent the night in a small hotel in Ataco called, Jardine de Celeste.  Pastor Julio provided the teaching and lead the discussions.   

I had a very low-key 4th of July at home by myself.  My biggest accomplishment was rearranging the furniture in our living/dining room.  I also had time to work on the plans for the next sewing ministry project.

Stephen returned about 7:00 p.m. and said, in spite of the fact that it's still difficult for him to understand Spanish, he had a great time with the team.