Orange Cocoa Brownies (Taste great and good for you!))

My bosses Birthday is this weekend so I decided to make a treat to take in to the office.
She is watcing her Cholesterol so I thought I'll play around and create something she can enjoy guilt free.
My number one rule with healthy recipes are they have to taste wonderful. I will not eat or serve something that taste like tree bark or dirt clods.

Orange Cocoa Brownies
1 brownie mix (dry)
1 egg
1/3 c pumpkin puree *
1/3 c apple sauce *
Zest of 1 orange
1/4 c water
1/2 tsp of pure orange extract
1/4 c cocoa

Mix and bake at 350* for 20 minutes
The brownies come out very dense and delicious.
You are reading the recipe correctly there is no Oil!!!
* All Natural, no sugar added. These items were home grown and canning in my own kitchen.

Seriously, These were wonderfully awesome!!!

Not a New Year Resolution!

I Never make Weight loss, Diet or Exercise a New Years Resolution. I guess because so many people do, I just don't want to. I've always been that way, I rarely ever start the latest trend or get the hottest item on the market until it has run its course or been around for a while.

Yesterday I was at Border and picked up Ali Vincent, (The first female Biggest Loser Winner) new book, 'Believe It and Be It'. and read several pages - a quick read. Last night I went to the Library and checked out a copy of Jessica Seinfield's Cookbook 'Deceptively Delicious'. I felt the motivation building.

Today is the day. I started out by making a DD recipe for breakfast. Of course I altered the recipe, My version was: Pumpkin and Walnut Oatmeal [ oatmeal, pumpkin puree, ground flax seed, cinnamon, vanilla, pumpkin pie spice, brown sugar and walnuts] No Fat, Highfiber and Very Tasty.

Started keeping my food Journal again. Planning to workout after lunch. Hoping to talk a friend into getting on board with me so that we can encourage and hold each other accountable.

Is This Another Food Blog?

After watching the Julie & Julia movie I was inspired. Not to Blog for 365 days about 500+ french recipes that I wouldn't be able to afford or find some of the ingredients. But I was inspire to cook. Okay, I really don't need to be inspired to do that. If you know me I love to cook. I had 6 days off from work before Christmas. I spent the entire time cooking. I loved ever minute. I made Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon for Christmas, Wow it was amazingly delicous. Other dishes during my holiday cooking frenzy where Garlic Cheese Grits w/ Shrimp, Curry butternut squash & basmati rice, cookies, cookies and more cookies and Korean BBQ W/ stir fried vegetables & rices.

I enjoy reading cookbooks and food magazines for new ideas. My dear sweet husband bought me several cookbooks for Christmas along with ramikins of different sizes. I have collected dishes and kitchen utensil since I was 12 years old. Cooking has been a life long love affair for me.

It is now two weeks since my holiday food frenzy and I'm just getting around to blogging about it . I wanted to but thought there are a million plus food blog out there. What would make mine special or different from all the others. Nothing. Mine isn't loaded with new recipes, its not funny and witty. I don't even know how to post pictures or attach links. It's simply me. I will occasionally post some of my favorites or recipes that I have tried. As much as I would love to be Paula Dean or the Barefoot Contessa, Martha Stewart or Julia Childs I won't be. So here I am, Christy Holmes just another foodie.

Act Your Wage

It has been quite a while since I last blogged. To catch up - the big thing that David & I have been doing since the middle of September is taking Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. It has made such an incredible impact of us. WOW! It has been absolutely amazing.

Dave teaches 7 baby steps to financial freedom.
Here are the first 3 I'll include the last 4 at a later date.

1. Establish a $1000 emergency fund.
2. Debt snow ball - get really serious about paying off all debt a fast as you can! (except your house that comes later)
3. Save 3-6 months worth of your income.

There will be great rejoicing when we get these first 3 steps completed.

We are now in month #2 of working our budget. It really has been quite easy.

Mini Victories along the way!
(Actually these were huge for us and have energized us to keep at it.)

1. Within the first week we were able to complete step one due to a great job that David got.
2. Within the first month we paid off two small credit cards.
3. First months budget came in UNDER budget. $60.00 - we are putting it towards a new camera.

This may sound strange but simply having a plan and being disciplined enough to stick with it has been fun. We may be living like no one else for right now, but later we will be able to live like no one else!

Practical application:
Menu planning for the week on November 2-8

Monday: Leftovers - we have a lot of stuff from last week and the weekend that needs to be cleaned up!
Tuesday: Chicken Parmesan. w/ snow peas
Wednesday: Cheese & veggie Quesadillas
Thursday: Pork medallions sauted onions w/ brown rice and salad
Friday: Tuna Melts
Saturday: Chili and hotdogs
Sunday: Stuffed Baked potatoes w/ broccoli

Grocery list for this week is simple because we have most of this in the cupboard or freezer.

5lb bag of coffee beans - IBIS Roasting Co. (this is a once a month purchase) $24.95
Some things are non negotiables!
1 doz eggs $1.00
2 quart of 1/2 & 1/2 $2.72
1 gallon of milk $1.89
brown rice $1.99
(seriously this is all I need to buy this week. How cool is that?)
Total $32.55

That leave us with $22.45 that we could still use for gorceries this week, but I don't think we need to, so into savings it goes!

GOD IS GOOD! I want to make sure that He gets all the credit for this victory in our lives. We will no longer be slaves to the lender!

Where do You Live?

You have heard the saying, "you are what you eat?" I was wondering about starting a new saying, "are you like where you live?" A friend of mine post a picture of himself standing infront of a church sign "HALFWAY BAPTIST CHURCH" no joke, Halfway is an actual town in Southwest, MO. Shortly thereafter came a down pour of posts about unusual names for towns. Tightwad, Normal, Fairplay, Peculiar, yes these are all real names of real towns/cities. Of course you can imagine the jokes. Then I remembered I live in Paradise. I have often said, Since I'm going to be spending eternity in Paradise I desided to go ahead and move there now while here on earth.

Love, Honor & Cherish

I was listening to Dr. Laura on the radio the other day and she was talking to a woman whos husband had an affair. Dr. Laura pointed out that yes the husband had broken the wedding vows but the woman for several year had also broken the wedding vow by not Love, Honoring or Cherishing her husband.

I do not for one fraction of a second fear David having an affair. But it made me stop and think. Yes, I Love and Cherish him with all my heart. But how do I honor him? I asked him if I honored him and how? He mentioned obedience..... Whoa let me stop you before you get upset.....I knew what he meant, he does not demand my obedience of him. David however is the head of our home and leads us with love, "as Christ loves the Church." We discussed this for a while but I still didn't feel I had a good grasp on how to honor my husband even though he assured me that I do. This morning I read a blog where a woman is taking a 30 day challenge to honor her husband each and every day. The one thing I got from the portion that I read was doing something special for him each day. My first thought was yay! I do this ...easy, I'm off the hook! But, I think God had me read on for a reason, I wasn't off the hook. This woman was talking about how she knew her husband loved her even if she had put on some weight but she didn't like herself. (Yikes, thats me.) God really opened my eyes that to honor also involves sacrifice. I don't want to get up early to go exercise. Hmmm does The Bible say that "Obedience is better than sacrifice." Yes, but for me to honor David I'm going to need to sacrifice some of my time, and by doing so I'm being obedient to God and David by taking care of my body. I will do it! I want to be a wife that David is proud of at all times, I want to honor him.

Menu Planning & New Recipes

I Love Cooking! If you know me at all you probably know this. I love trying new recipes and experimenting with old favorites. I use to jokingly say that cooking was my therapy. There is probably a lot of truth in that statement. Cooking help me to feel creative and productive. I relax and process the days experiences while cooking. I have been cooking since I was around 8 yrs old (that is cooking solo) at 2yrs of age my mother was very sick, so Dad would sit me on the edge of the counter and we'd fix dinner together.

Last month I was reading about ways to save money and cut expenses. One suggestion was grocery shop once a month, WHAT! okay they say you can start out by shopping just once a week until your ready to take that bigger step. That is somewhat better. I have always been one to make short quick trips 3-4 times a week. This book suggested planning monthly or weekly menus and shopping list from those menus. I was concerned that this would greatly stifle my creative juices. I did not want to be stuck in a rut, bored and end up saving money but disliking cooking.

Suprise I'm really enjoying it. I think I spend less time in the kitchen which is a good think this time of year with yard and garden work that needs to be done. I'm trying all of those recipes that I thought sounded good but never go around to trying. I think David is enjoying this aswell. He often ask, "Oh, are we having _______ tonight!?"

Here are some of my menus that I have whipped up over the last few weeks.

BBQ Pork Sandwiches w/ Green beans
Swiss Steak, Mashed potatoes & Chili cheese corn
Spagehetti & Salad
Homemade Pizza
Baked Potatoes w/ Broccoli & Cheese
Baked Salmon w/ Asparagus
Steak & onions w/ potatoes & Salad
Steak (leftover & sliced) Quesidillas
Taco Salad
Chicken Dijon W/ sugar snap peas
Roast w/ homemade egg noodles & Green beans
Tuna burgers
Korean BBQ brown rice & Stir fry veggies
Sausage, Kale & Cheddar bread pudding
Ham & Beans
Homemade Mac & Cheese

Every Wednesday night is our Mustgo night - everything in the fridge must go. Also know as leftover night. I have never figured out how to cook small amounts. I grew up in a family of 5 but we almost always had extended family or friends joining us. So I cook as thought there are at least 4 of us instead of just the two. This gives David plenty of leftovers for his second breakfast, 11:00'es, lunch, 1:00'es & 2:00'es, right before bed fridge raids. How does he eat all the time and not gain an ounce??? That is the subject for another blog!

Looking forward to more fun and creative meals in the future. But for now I must go for a hike or bike ride to burn off some of these calories.