Dine: Oatmeal Smoothies

I've been wanting to write blogs about food for a while.  I am not pretending to be a chef or anything!!  In fact, I guess I should preface this by letting you all know that I'm a vegetarian.  I'm sure I will blog about that at a later date.  I really just want to post fun recipes that I find.  I like to think that I am fairly healthy person - with the occasional chocolate binge.  I mean, I'm a normal girl- not super woman!  If I were super woman though, chocolate would definitely be my kryptonite! 

If you know me, you know how much I love smoothies.  I seriously can be spotted with a smoothie most days in class.  I find that they give me more energy than coffee and I usually drink them for breakfast anyway.  I wanted to do my first "Dine" post as a homage to my favorite little drink.  You are probably thinking, "Seriously, J, you are going to tell me how to make a smoothie??"  Yes, yes I am.  I have recently become a huge fan of OATMEAL smoothies!  These can even be made by those of you who do not enjoy eating oatmeal.  I'll tell you why…

Ingredients:

Ice  3 cubes

Milk (I use skim)  1/4 cup

Yogurt (I use vanilla flavored)  1/4 cup

Banana  1 broken into chunks

Almonds (I use cocoa powder covered!)  1/4 cup

Oats (I use Old Fashioned - from Wal-Mart)  almost 1/2 cup

Honey (optional)  Just a drizzle

** The measurements are all approximate - I never measure anything for my smoothies.  In fact, I just reach in and grab handfuls of my oats - so I am not sure how reliable I really am…

1. Blend your almonds and oats until they are almost a powder (this is why you can drink them even if you think you don't like oatmeal - the flavor of the oatmeal is well masked and the texture is completely different!)
2. Add in your liquids first and your solids on top of them.  I've found doing it that way just makes it easier to blend it all up!
3. Blend for a while, I leave it in there a bit longer than a regular smoothies so the oats can really mix in

I have also tried it where you cook the oatmeal first.  I like this when I really want to eat breakfast, but just don't have time to sit and eat.  It has more of a texture to it.  You will need to let the oatmeal cool first, unless you want a lukewarm smoothie.  Unappetizing.

I have also heard of adding in a scoop of protein powder - I do not use protein powder (yet!) but I assume it would be tasty.  There are a million different things you could do with this smoothie.  I have tried it with regular frozen fruit and it does add a different flavor, but I enjoyed it!  The oatmeal gives you fiber and the almonds give you some added protein.  I seriously love these smoothies and hope you will try it out!

Let me know if you do, if you have other recipes, or if you just want to say "HEY"!!

Love in Our Lord,

xx

DIY: Dry Skin Ointment

Mayonnaise-Baby Oil Dry Skin Treatment

Makes 1 application

2 tablespoons real mayonnaise 

1 teaspoon baby oil

> Combine both ingredients.

> Smooth onto face, neck, rough elbows and knees or anywhere else you feel might benefit from it.

> Leave for 20 minutes.

> Rinse off thoroughly with tepid water.

Recipe and other ideas found here!

I've been noticing lately that the winter weather has been taking a toll on my poor skin.  It's like it didn't even stand a chance.  While I was browsing for fun beauty DIY I stumbled across many dry skin treatments.  However, this one only uses two ingredients and I have both of them!!!  I feel most people would.  I, personally, use baby oil to remove my make-up.  I like that there are no harsh chemicals and everything wipes off easily.  If you do not have baby oil you can either grab some from the store (it's super cheap - another bonus!) or you can use olive oil.  I haven't tried it with the olive oil yet, but I have used it before for dry skin.  Maybe I'll do an update with the olive oil version later on. 

This is me with the ointment on my face - it felt and looked like lotion.

Please note the Little Mermaid hot pink headband. :)

I even rubbed some on my hands and they felt really soft!  I left it on my face for the full 20 minutes.  It kind of burned a bit, but I think that was because my skin was really dry.  When I washed it off, my face was REALLY red.  If you try this, I would do it at night - not when you are planning on heading to a coffee date!  ;)  I noticed that I still had quite a bit of dry skin… so I will have to exfoliate a bit better.  I had some ointment left over so I put it in my fridge to use later this week.

All-in-all I think this worked pretty well.  I definitely think exfoliating will help me see better results next time.  Let me know what you think, or if you have another DIY to try!  Post your thoughts/comments below!

Love in Him,

xx

One Thing: We Could All Just Nonchalantly Lean Against the Back of the Bus

This is a short series of blogs about how I brought in the new year.  This is the second post of the series, so if you want to start from the beginning, go here!  This is the actual beginning of the story of my Onething experience. 

I attended the conference with three other wonderful women of God.  We all carpooled to Northfield, MN and met up with a group of students who all attend a Bible study from a ministry called Prepare.  There were about 40 of us, including a family who was chaperoning.  This beautiful family had six adorable children that we were all blessed with during the conference.  We piled onto our school bus and set out for Kansas City, Missouri. 

I believe I slept most of the way - in those crazy positions you can only dream up when you are exhausted on a bus.  I woke up to a strange sound - then the sound of us hitting the rumble strip.  Suddenly the bus was a tizzy, murmurs on what happened, what was going to happen - our bus blew a tire, it was engine trouble, we were going to have to push - all little whispers flying around the bus.  Then, it was as if an undeclared agreement was made and people began to pray.  Not aloud, but you could just feel it.  Our fearless driver, Dave-O, informed us that we had run out of gas.  It turns out that Iowa really doesn't have a lot of places to stop.  He said there was a station in about four miles, but we had been running on E for a while - so he didn't know if we were going to make it. 

I wish I could say that my first thought was to pray… instead, it was to call Triple A.  I forced the urge out of my head, and my friend and I began to silently pray for God's blessing… His favor on our little bus full of people who really just wanted to come and praise His majesty.  The bus started - basically on fumes… we were all so excited, until it died about a mile later.  It was now a little joke to us - people were giggling and we were trying to figure out the best course of action.  Pushing the bus was a favorite… on person made a joke that still gets me in stiches.  We were wondering what would happen if we could just make it up the hill and then it died and he said, "We could all get out and just lean nonchalantly against the back of the bus - no one would suspect a thing!"  Oh man, it gets me every time!  One of the adorable children offered to run to the gas station to pick up a can of gas - I told you they were adorable. 

Dave-O decided to just try as many times as he could to get us as close to the exit as possible.  The bus started and stopped numerous times… each time our faith renewed that God was carrying us.  Then, we saw it.  The exit!!!  Our bus completely died and coasted toward the exit.  We were so close, but we knew there was nothing left in the tank and the exit meant that we had to go uphill and across a bridge.  Dave-O was persistent and started up the bus, which miraculously revved up and we managed to make it up the hill!!!!  Praises were flying - cheers, screams, shouts of joy - we had MADE IT!  We coasted across the bridge and down the hill into the gas station. 

As we got off the bus we were the most joyful kids you will ever meet!  God had just provided for us!  He took our bus, which had nothing, and gave us something!  Isn't that what He's promised?  "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. " ~ Philippians 4:19  God loved coming through for us and we loved experiencing it.  We ran into the gas station with HUGE smiles on our faces, proclaiming His glory - instead of sleepily walking in after riding on a school bus for hours upon end.  What a difference that made!  People were asking us questions, there was ministering going on.  It is so crazy how God can use any situation, even walking into a gas station, to bring glory to Him!

The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful.  We arrived in KC safe and sound and got our rooms.  They were very nice and I was so thankful to share it with only three other girls (the last conference I went to, nine of us ladies shared a room - fun, but only a once-in-a-while kind of experience).  We ate some pizza and hit the sheets early because we were so excited to start the conference early the next day!

More to come!

Love in Him Who Provides,

xx

DIY: Face Mask

God has been speaking to me a lot about beauty.  So, I thought - why not share about beauty on my blog?! 

Beauty is not really talked about in regards to God.  Actually, most of the time in the church it is looked upon as taboo to talk about!  Yes, we discuss beautiful character - inner beauty.  But, when have we discussed outer beauty?

Beloved, it is not a sin to be beautiful or to desire to be beautiful!  It is a sin, however, to place this desire above your desire for Jesus.  "You shall have no other gods before me. " Exodus 20:3  Do not make beauty an idol.  Do not spend more time thinking of beauty than you spend with God.  However, you can still paint your nails or curl your hair and do it as an act of worship for the Lord.  He made you in His image and He wants you to know that you are BEAUTIFUL.  He longs for you, as you should long for Him!  As I was doing some research on this subject I came across a website (found here) and it gave me a prayer about longing.  It was so powerful and moved my heart so incredibly much.  I encourage you to read it - and if you feel called, to pray it.  Pray it for a week… a month… a year.  See how your longing for Him increases!

Lord, Your longing takes me by surprise and moves me. You want me to know You, but You never loom or blare. You come quietly, gently, softly, delivering parcels of Yourself and drawing me into Your presence. Forgive me. I have such trouble looking beyond my own longing to see Yours. Open my heart to Your longing, O God; open my heart to your will and way through Jesus Christ!

On that note...

I decided to start trying some DIY beauty solutions.  I'm not a huge fan of spending lots of money on beauty products, so I think this will be a good way to find out what works at a good price!  I have tried a few things in the past, but this will be a new chronicling of DIY beauty tips!

Tonight I tried a face mask called the Miracle Mask.  I found it here.  There are a couple other ideas on there as well that I may try.  The mask consists of honey, nutmeg, and cinnamon… all ingredients that I had on hand!  I cut the recipe in half though -

1 tablespoon of honey

1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

I mixed it all up and thought that it looked a little thick - so I had the bright idea of adding olive oil!  I slathered it all over my face - using every last drop in the bowl.  It was very sticky - so if you try this, you just need to be careful and have some warm water handy.   It smells absolutely amazing and it was really thick on my face.  This (along with the olive oil) led to my downfall.  As the mask started to warm, it started dripping every so often.  Not enough to be a huge issue, but enough to be annoying.  I only left it on for 15 minutes instead of the 30 that the recipe called for - but I feel like that was enough time.  Perhaps next time I would omit the olive oil and try to leave it on longer.

So sticky, but so yummy!

It only took about five minutes to wash it all off with warm water.  I tried to rub in circular motions to exfoliate.  My skin looked clear - but really red.  It stayed red for a while… maybe a half an hour.  I put on some intensive moisturizer and will probably reapply before I hit the sheets.  I'll update you about it asap!

UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

This mask worked wonders!  The redness went away after about 30 minutes (maybe an hour) and I was left with soft glowing skin.  The next day there were a couple small whiteheads, but I just used a blemish stick and they went away pretty quickly.  I noticed that it helped alleviate the redness my skin normally has - but only for a few days.  About five days after using the mask, the redness my face normally has began to return.  I haven't had a chance to do this again, but I would like to begin doing it once a week!  :) 

Much love in Jesus,

xx

One Thing: Preparation

This is the start of a short series of blogs about how I brought in the new year.  This is the first post of the series, so if you started on a different post - this might help clarify some things!  It is just a short intro into what One Thing is, IHOP, and how I got there and who I got there with!  You can view the One Thing website here.  You can access a TON of resources and even listen to the teachings I heard!

Just a quick intro - the International House of Prayer University (IHOP for short… not to be confused with the tasty restaurant chain) is located in Kansas City, Missouri.  It has many different facets - a university with different schools (Ministry, a music academy, missions, etc.), mission work, and a 24-hour prayer room … just to name a few.  IHOP also puts on a myriad of different conferences throughout the year and has many influential people come and speak.  The conference I attended is called "One Thing".  It is an annual conference located in KC and has anywhere from 20 to 30 thousand people attend.  These people are all ages, from all walks of life, and from all over the world.  It lasts four days… and get this - you bring in the new year there!  I'll get to that later.  Now, here starts my story.

I was in a Bible study with some wonderful women last fall semester and our leader (and one of my best friends) had casually mentioned that she was going to a conference in December called "One Thing" and asked if we would pray about going.  I was just in this place with God… you know, when He is really moving in your heart.  Well, I started praying about it… not very much - just here and there.  The dates were Dec 28 - Jan 1.  I was talking to my mom one day in November and asked what she wanted for Christmas and she said that she just wanted me to be home the week of her break.  How could I deny her the only thing she asked for?  I wasn't home last year (I was in Europe) and this was all she was asking of me.  So, I figured out that One Thing would take up that break… I told my friend that I would not be able to make it to the conference.

I didn't really stop praying about it though… I kept asking God for more clarity because I felt discord in my heart.  When I was home for Thanksgiving, I mustered up some courage and asked my mom if we could talk about her Christmas present.  I told her about the conference and said that it was the same time that she wanted me home, but that God had placed it on my heart and I felt called to go.  Her eyes welled with tears and she told me that I absolutely had her blessing to attend.  It was beyond what I had expected!  I had felt such a burden because I did not want to disappoint my parents, but they were both so supportive of my attendance. 

I applied and paid the deposit.  Money has been a little tight for me lately since I decided to only work one job this semester and really focus on my last year of school.  What an answer to prayer it was when we received an e-mail that the cost of the trip was reduced by $50!  One Thing itself is completely FREE!  It is a free conference - so you can attend worship and teachings without spending a cent!  I went with a group called Prepare (prepareministries.com) and spent around $200 - which paid for the bus ride down, four nights in a hotel, and three meals a day!  I loved going with the group - as you will later read.  Anyway, it was just a huge blessing to have the cost reduced!

Okay - so that is the start of my story… my journey was pretty epic.  God revealed so much to me and sent some pretty amazing people into my life.  I cannot wait to tell you more!

His Peace and Love,

xx