Just PURE Jello

I mentioned we'd finally come up with a "healthy" jello that we LIKE at PWOC Book club....just fruit, gelatin, juice and a bit of sweetener. Tara, here's the recipe.  We tried all sorts of things and the texture was wrong, or they were flavorless. This is what is working for us. 

Ingredients: 
2 pks of unflavored Gelatin (2 T)
2 C juice (choose your own we like crangrape best!  or mixed berry)
2 C of pureed fruit (frozen gels quicker, but any fruit will work)
1/4 C Agave Nectar (or honey if you prefer)*

With a wire whisk, stir gelatin into juice and let stand 5 min (softens the gelatin)

If you have extra juice, put it in the blender and throw in the frozen fruit. Puree until you have 2 C. 

I blend WELL to get rid of seeds and chunks which my crew doesn't want in their jello. 

Heat gelatin and juice to boiling, stir constantly with wire whisk. Heat until gelatin dissolves. Add Agave Nectar.

Combine puree and gelatin mixture. Pour into dishes and chill. 

Yes, we eat this for dessert and if it's a special occasion I  cave and top with a dollop of whipped cream.

1/2 C serving is about 100 calories.

*I'm fully aware of the Agave Nectar debate. We use honey often but in some things we want the sweet without the taste. I HAVE personally discovered that AN create less sugar spikes for me.  I really notice this in lemonade - which gives me a headache - always...with sugar or honey...but doesn't with AN. Choose another sweetener if you don't like AN. ::grin::




Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Gardening

I don't know that it's a REAL garden....but it's growing. We've had strawberries, a few blueberries, carrots, lettuce, and broccoli. This a.m. I replanted more carrots and lettuce of some sort. The cauliflower got attacked by some blight that turned the veggie part BLACK. Ugh. After doing container gardening in Japan for a few years, I think we're working up to square foot gardening when we get stateside with a real yard. 

Zander was amazed that we can grow eggs from this. ::snort:: I should have set him straight? 

I KNOW I planted one container of watermelon and one of squash....I now have two of squash.....suspicious isn't it? I'm not sure what to do about it at this late date. LOL 

Mike had a great idea. He suggests we talk to the farmer about renting out a part of his unused horse field or field directly behind us. I wish we'd thought of this in the spring. For now, we have containers. Last year the farmers kept bringing us cabbage as we were out watering our little garden. ::snort:: I hope they plant something a bit more exciting over there in the next few weeks. They have some squash thing in half of the field and re-plowed the other part yesterday. 

Choosing Joy!

©2011 D.R.G.

~Coram Deo~

Living all of life before the face of God...

They're EVERYWHERE!

Picturesque, isn't it? Yes, it IS a squatty potty and it isn't much different than those who put toilets in their yards in America....but it surprised and amused me on the beach. LOL 

Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Tuesday - Wednesday

Tuesday is PWOC.....This week it was Japan 101. It was fun to learn new spots to explore from each other....


Tuesday is also becoming farewell at Misawa AB day...the Patriot (plane contracted to fly weekly from here to Seattle)  leaves on Tuesday afternoon. We said goodbye to a couple of more families this week and sent a chaplain on deployment. 


The highlight of Wednesday was PWOC's Summer Book Club. We met at New Delhi and discussed  "The Great Divorce". A winner all the way around. BTW I had the garlic Nan and Dal (lentil) curry - yummo.

Tuesday and Wednesday were both sweltering days. We cool one room in the house. I'm coming to love energy shortages, really. In the winter we huddled in the living room to stay warm and played games and read. In the summer we huddle in the living room to stay cool and play games and read. I had been contemplating earlier this year how to make the living room CENTRAL to family life.....energy shortage seems to be the answer. LOL

Tuesday and Wednesday were also GREAT school days.

Wednesday I decided to take up running again. Not sure why - mid-life crisis?


Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Monday.....Bre and Beaches

I seem to have tried to forget Monday. ::snort:: Ok - it's Thursday now and I need to deal with Monday so I can catch up with the rest of the week. 

This is the airport and we're spending far too much time at the airport this summer saying goodbye to friends. Monday we sent Bre back to America. It was a JOY and a BLESSING to have her with us for 3 weeks. Michael and I woke up one day and realized we were going to two different countries in the same week for ministry.....and so Bre came over and watched the kids for one week - and played with us for two weeks. 

Michael went to work. 

The kids and I, as is my custom when Japan feels far away from family, went to the BEACH. Thanks to Belinda we finally found a way down to the swim beach and Momoishi - though it's not swimable this year.  Certainly can't DRIVE to a nice parking lot this year...but it's all part of the adventure. 

Did the W family plant this flag? I was glad it was there when we walked for a couple of hours and then needed to find the right little path back to our van. LOL 

Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Chicken Pasta Salad

The curry makes this great.....3 of us really liked it...the other 4 like boxed mac and cheese. Need I say more? 

Ingredients

• 1 (16 ounce) package bow tie or corkscrew pasta, cooked (used veggie spiral)
• 3 cups cubed cooked chicken (2 organic chicken breasts)
• 2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 cup mayonnaise (0% fat Yogurt)
• 1/2 cup Caesar or Parmesan salad dressing (see below)
• 1 tablespoon honey mustard or other prepared mustard
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 large tomato, chopped
• 1 cup shredded carrot

Added:

Mushrooms

Parmesan Cheese

Green Onions

Corn

In the future, I may leave out chicken and use artichokes etc - more veggies.


Toss pasta, chicken, oil and garlic powder. Cover and chill. 


Combine yogurt, salad dressing, mustard, curry powder, salt and pepper; cover and chill. 


Before serving, add the pepper, tomato, carrot and dressing to pasta mixture. Toss. 


This recipe is from allrecipes.com. I didn't have either of the dressings called for so also found the recipe below. 

Simple Caesar Salad Dressing

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 1/3 cup white vinegar
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• 2 1/2 tablespoons prepared Dijon-style mustard
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

I added 1/3 C olive oil 

Put in jar, shake, store. 

Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Spider Season in Misawa

Capturing the cut kid sayings, as I realize those sayings will be fewer and fewer......until the grand babies start arriving for me to blog about. ::snort:: 



Stacia (5) "I walked out the door and carefully looked and saw insects above me."


Unbelievable! I had cleared the doorway of spiders the evening before....and there it was again....all over our front doorway and porch...egg sacks....ugh. Never ending summer battle. 

Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...