Food :: Putting God First Place

Reshaping It All and A New Healthy Start

By Ashley Wells, on September 23rd, 2011

Recently I shared on twitter about a challenge that my husband and I are doing together. Between the two of us, we want to lose 30 pounds before 2012.

We are always talking about losing weight and exercising more and being more intentional about living a healthier lifestyle. However, I seldom do anything about it. Especially since we are hoping to have children soon, I want to set a better example. I want to be able to run around and have fun with them without my extra pounds interferring.

I love the Money Saving Mom blog. Lately Crystal has been sharing weekly goals (and also tips for efficiency and success in getting things done). She takes her BIG goals (whether yearly or monthly goals) and breaks them into small bite size pieces, her weekly goals, to accomplish the goal.

I have started doing this too, and I am so happy with the accomplishments and progress I’ve been making. I have goals, like read more, exercise more, write a certain number of articles to submit to other platforms, and other goals. However, if I never do anything other than say the goal, nothing will happen!

I must be more intentional and SMART if I want to make progress in certain areas of my life.

In the midst of all this goal setting and aiming to live a healthier life, I read the book Reshaping It All.

This book was just what I needed to kick start my new healthy start. The book is written by Candace Cameron Bure (yepp…DJ from Full House) and Darlene Schacht.

Reshaping It All not only contains inspirational words, recipes, good memory verses, and biblical guidance…it also contains personal stories from Candace’s life and struggles with food.

I love books that read like a conversation. It makes the book more enjoyable and harder to put down! This is definitely one of those books!

I have some other books that I am planning on reading to encourage me to continue making healthier choices. However, I really found this one to be encouraging and a great place to start!

With my new weekly goals, along with ongoing encouragement through books and my husband, I have been exercising more! I am trying to focus on food being for fuel not for entertainment or reward or what I go to when I feel sad, or angry, or lonely.

Overall, I am trying to create a different lifestyle. A healthier one.

Got any tips to share with me about how you make healthy choices in the midst of everyday life? Please share!

*The links to amazon in this post are affiliate links. This means that if you purchase something from these links, I will get a small percentage of the sale price at no extra charge to you. Thank you for supporting this ministry!

Do our husbands get our sloppy seconds?

By Ashley Wells, on May 25th, 2011

So, last weekend Michael and I are going about our day, we had just gotten back from the gym when I got in the mood to bake. I had eaten a delicious strawberry earlier that day and couldn’t get it off my brain!

I mention a strawberry cake that Michael and I have been wanting to try and asked Michael if he would like it.

Then, before he could even answer, I said, “Oh wait…we’ll just wait until tomorrow when so and so comes over and I’ll make it for them.”

Then, Michael, feeling defeated replies, “Why do I have to wait for company to come over to get extra stuff?”

Wow…I immediately felt convicted. In my desire to show love to a guest, I complete forgot about my own husband, who wanted the cake that night and felt like he was getting sloppy seconds.

With an apolegetic heart, I sought forgiveness and made the cake that night, for my husband and I.

In a simple way, I was able to show my husband that HE was more important and deserved all the extra good stuff too!

Have you had any recent moments in your marriage where you learned something like this? Share in the comments!

Sauce Up Your Food with Country Bob’s All-Purpose Sauce

By Ashley Wells, on October 22nd, 2010

Have you ever tasted something that was so good that your mouth starts watering when you are talking about it??? (lol…maybe not, and I am just a foodie!)

Country Bob’s All Purpose Sauce does that for me!

Let me back up…Country Bob’s is a company with a heart.

“It would be nice if we could claim responsibility for the success of the company, however, credit must be given where credit is due. Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” We have placed true ownership of Country Bob, Inc. in the hands of God. “Christ is our CEO” and He is an Awesome Boss!”

And, it is really, really good! I already shared about one recipe I’ve tried.

Another way I have tried it is as a burger topper. Michael sauteed some mushrooms and onions, added Country Bob’s All Purpose Sauce and then put it on burgers.

Can you say Yummy???

I am honored to have won my ticket to The Relevant Conference from Country Bob’s.

Country Bob’s All-Purpose Sauce :: Review and Giveaway

By Ashley Wells, on June 18th, 2010

***THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED***

I received 2 bottles of Country Bob’s All-Purpose Sauce to sample and review for the following post.

I recently came across an opportunity to win a ticket to The Relevant Conference (This is the conference I am attending in October and many of YOU helped me raise some of my costs for during Give! Win! Send!).

This opportunity to win a ticket is from Country Bob’s All-Purpose Sauce (I will share more about this tomorrow). I had not tried this sauce before…So, I thought before I enter to win a ticket, I better find out if I like the sauce!

Thankfully, I sent them an e-mail and they gladly agreed to send me 2 bottles of sauce to try and review (And also some to give away! Those details are at the bottom of this post).

I received my sauce in the mail and was very excited to try it! I had some left over pot roast that day and decided to jazz it up with Country Bob’s All-Purpose Sauce and make a sandwich! All that I did was put some roast on a bun and then covered it in County Bob’s All-Purpose Sauce.

Yummmmmmyyyyy...That was probably the best leftover pot roast I had ever had in my life!

After that wonderful first experience…I wanted more! So, I search their site for some recipes and quickly found several I wanted to try.

Today I am sharing my experiencing making and eating Barbeque Cups! You can view the full recipe on Country Bob’s Site.

Here are all the ingredients, it is very simple!

The directions were very easy to follow. Here are the barbeque cups before I baked them…

And here is the after…

The verdict – DELICIOUS! I am officially in love with Country Bob’s All-Purpose Sauce!

I would highly recommend this sauce to anyone who would like some extra flavor on pretty much any meat, fries, and anything else!

Would you like to win 2 bottles of Country Bob’s All-Purpose Sauce? Yes? Guess What?

I get to choose 2 winners who will each receive 2 bottles of the great Country Bob’s All-Purpose Sauce!

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post by 11:59 pm ET on June 24th and you are entered. And, don’t forget, you can enter daily!

But don’t stop at just one entry daily….make sure to visit my General Giveaway Rules for more ways to enter!

Three Yummy Recipes!

By Ashley Wells, on March 6th, 2009

This week I have been very busy cooking some very yummy meals! Here are three new recipes (101 in 1001 Project #52) that I tried this week:

Pot Roast
This was passed down from my mom. I tweaked the timing a little bit to accommodate for our desires (Well cooked veggies).

Ingredients:
1 Envelope of Dry Onion Soup
3 Cups of Water
1 Roast
4 Potatoes
6 Carrots

Directions:
1. Mix onion soup with water in the crock pot on low. Add the roast. Cook for 4 hours.
2. Cut the vegetables into bite sized pieces and add to the crock pot. Cook for another 4 hours.
3. Enjoy!

Apple Crisp
This recipe is from Recipezaar. It was absolutely delicious! We added some Cool Whip to the top.

Ingredients:
6-8 tart baking apples
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened (1 stick)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Peel and core apples.
3. Cut into slices.
4. Place in a buttered 9-inch baking dish.
5. Combine sugar, cinnamon, flour, and butter.
6. Mix with hands until lumps form.
7. Pack closely over apples.
8. Bake about 1 hour or until bubbly.

Garlic Chicken
This I also got from Recipezaar. I changed the recipe a little bit, because I wasn’t grilling it, I was using my griddle.

Ingredients:
2 chicken thigh fillets
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, crushed
salt
pepper

Directions:
1. Combine olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper in a bowl.
2. Add chicken, and make sure the chicken gets well coated.
3. Leave in the fridge for at least an hour (We didn’t do this and it still turned out great), then grill until chicken is browned and cooked through (takes about 5-10 minutes in the Foreman Grill).