Spelt Bran Muffins!

I just made up a batch of these and I thought I’d share the recipe here.

You can find the original on the boxes of Quaker Wheat Bran.  Here’s a picture that I got from the Pepsico website.  They seem to have their fingers in everything!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyways, I’ve been using this recipe since I first learned how to make a muffin – I think it may have been eighth grade – so at least 40 years.  Now that I can get spelt bran in Calgary, I can make these again!  Here;s the recipe I used today.  It makes 12 muffins.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease muffin tins.

• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce (or oil)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 eggs, unbeaten
• 1 cup water or milk
• 1 and 1/2 cups bran (spelt or wheat)
• 1/2 cup raisin, optional – or try chopped apricots instead!

Mix all these ingredients together and let sit for a while.  In a smaller bowl mix:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 and 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 3/4 tsp. salt

Add the dry ingredients to the bran mixture and stir until combined.  Spoon batter into greased muffin tins and bake until don, about 18 – 20 minutes.

Enjoy them!

I have to say, this is the first time I’ve made them without oil.  It’s good, so  I think I’ll skip the oil regularly.

 

Have a good evening.

PS:  I’m still plateauing at 228 pounds.  This is not a happy place for me, but I am preservering.

Now it’s bed time!

Marcia

Where does all the money go?

Today was payday, and of course all my bills are now paid up and I’ve got a little bit for groceries.  Actually, compared to some others in Calgary I’ve got a lot. It just amazes me how fast it all goes!

So here’s a bit of a breakdown.

$200 a paycheque goes to paying down the debt.  Praise God, there’s only one left and thanks to the debt snowball, it’s being brought down nicely.  If all goes according to plan we should be done with that in 21 paychecks.  I do want to have this paid for before my cruise!

$550 a paycheque  goes to short term savings.  That includes half of my rent and money for next week’s groceries.  This is probably my best money strategy.  Unless there is some major emergency in my life, I am rarely broke.

I have three savings accounts that get fed $20 each as well.  These are the Christmas fund, the vacation fund and the Long Term Fund.  I’m not exactly sure what that is for just now – just recently it paid my course tuition. Maybe it will go towards grandbaby needs.

My biggest challenge this week is to save on groceries while increasing the purity levels of the foods I eat – made from scratch with as much organic food as possible.  Here’s a blog post from Get Rich Slowly that I’m going to be following.  I also intend to check out this vendor at the Kingsland Farmers Market.  Probably next weekend, when I’m off!  Looking forward to that!

This isn’t a “detailed, itemized” spending report.  It’s probably a way for me to focus on the realities of my own finances in the hope that it helps someone else!

Have a great day!

Marcia

Related articles

• Five Easiest Ways to Save Money (getrichslowly.org)

Create in me a clean heart…

I’ve got a few books on the go just now, although I should be working on my course…

But one way or another, all are serving to make me rethink my life and how I live it.    They are making me rethink myself and how I really am. And why it is that I really want to teach English as a Second Language and see other parts of the world.

The other day I posted about sharing smiles.  Then I did it.  I posted my little sign at work, and five of them are missing.  Which means that 5 people smiled that might not have smiled.  And they may be carrying that smile around in their pocket.  It’s a small change.

But this morning, when I read a few chapters of God in a Brothel, I was deeply saddened by the reality that this goes on all over the world.  Even in my city of Calgary, young children are used, sold, abused… I want to deny this.  Yet, now that I think on it more, I know people who have experienced this violation as children and teens,  and are continuing to pay the price.   As I continue to read, I realize that while smiles may be a beginning, they are not enough.

Jamie Langston Turner’s books have been with me for a while.  Suncatchers is the first one.  By the Light of A Thousand Stars is actually the third in the series.  Most of  Turner’s books are set in an area of South Carolina, I think, but one lady shows up in all of them, Eldeen, and she makes me smile and think about my own life.  These books have been read, re-read and re-read again.  Probably the only adult fiction that has grabbed hold of me – enough that I actually own them.  What they remind me of most of all, is that God can use the small actions of one person to make a change in another person’s life.

Earlier this year, I posted about PURITY as the word I wanted to focus on this year.  That idea came in part from this book, that I’ve just gotten from the library.  It will probably become part of my library as well, but not just yet!  However, it reminds me that just as one person can change the life of another person, so focusing on one word can change my life.

 

I’m not done reading.  I’m not done thinking and pondering.  I’m not done changing.  But today, I am grateful that I can not only read these books, but I can be changed by them.

Have a blessed Sabbath.

Marcia

Take a Smile!

What if…

We all made one or two of these and put them somewhere in our world – employee staff room, the ad boards in the grocery store, in a bus shelter, at the dentist, the doctor, the….

I’m going to make one and see what happens.  Maybe I’ll even make two.  Or three.  Maybe I’ll make one for every day of this month and put one in a different place each time.  How long do you think it will be before they’re all gone?

I’ll even post pictures!

Have a great day!

Marcia

I am “less than three”-d

We sang this song in church on Sunday and it is one that resonates deeply with me – today and whenever I hear it.

How deep the Father’s love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss,
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One,
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the Man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice,
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that left Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom
(REPEAT)

  Emma has this on her Pinterest board and I’m including it here because:

I am grateful for the life God has blessed me with.

I am about to hop on a bus to go to the north end of Calgary to share in the “half way” ultrasound – something I find so amazing and wonderful.

 

Thank you Lord for the great love you have shared with me.  I am grateful, grateful, grateful!

Related articles

• How Deep the Father’s Love for Us (intostillness.wordpress.com)

Hiding Away Doesn’t Help

It’s been a while since I posted here – for a variety of reasons.   Homework was a big one, as was a very busy work week.  But mostly it was about denial.  Pretending things weren’t falling apart around me.   But…they were to some extent and I just wasn’t very happy.  I was discouraged and getting the basics done was all I could manage.

 

In short, I was going through the motions of life and falling behind.  I’m not sure I was depressed, but I sure wasn’t super happy either – at least in some areas of my life.

 

So, to those of you who stopped by to see how I was doing, I apologize for just dropping out for a time.  It wasn’t very respectful, at least I don’t think it was.

 

I had hoped to have some kind of routine for this blog, but I can’t seem to stick to one.  So for now, I will just let it flow.  But I do promise to keep you posted on the progress I am making as I work to change my career focus, income earning and pant-sizes!

 

what color is your parachute? (project 365 - day 106) (Photo credit: graciepoo)

 

I’ve been busy reading for school but I do plan to read this before too long.  My final exam is on Friday April 13.  I guess I better get back to my own homework.  (Which just now includes putting together the bibliography for my paper!)

Have a good day, and thanks for being patient with me!

Marcia

 

 

I should be…

Well I should be studying – responding to questions, moving forward and writing a paper.  The problem is that by the time I get home  – I am out of energy.  It’s now 9:30 and I’m still no further ahead but I need to sleep!

On the plus side of things  -

• I’ve washed my work clothes, and they are in the dryer
• I’ve listened to the Sunday sermon (the church I attend is working through Just Walk Across the Room by Bill Hybels.  I still need to read the chapters and the activities for my group meeting on Wednesday.
• I’ve been to the library.
• The dishes are done and my sink is shiny – well it’s clean.

And it’s 9:30ish.  And I’m tired.  I should go to bed.  I think I will.  Sometimes, and at my age, sleep is more important than anything else.

I do hope that I can get back to more coherent blogging soon, but just at this moment – my life isn’t very coherent!

Have a good night and soldier on! And if your life is as incoherent as mine at the moment, feel free to leave a venting kind of comment!  I think it helps!

Marcia

Because it’s NOT snowing in Calgary!

You know, I really thought I’d be more consistent in my posting – but I’m not.  My journalling site gets alot of attention but not this one – and yet this one is where I want to be consistent.

Well, with crazy shifts, celebrations with my friends, and homework, there isn’t enough time it seems.  It’s a good thing I gave up the farm!

Today marks the 125 anniversary of the largest snowflake falling.  Thank you Google for making me smile!  They celebrated by creating an animation which you can watch here.  I’m just glad it’s not snowing in Calgary today!

A Bowl of Soup with A Friend!

The last 24 hours have been pretty busy – a political gathering yesterday after work, making soup, watching Columbo DVD’s, sleeping, gymming, volunteering and then….

visiting with my friend!

I can’t think of a better way to spend my day off.  (And I resolved the computer issues with my course, so I can keep plugging along with that!)

I thought I would share my latest soup making experiment.  I was going to take pictures and write notes, but I got into the process and it just took off.

Broccoli Squash Soup – with a hint of Chipotle

I started with a small pumpkin that was going soft on me.  So I pared it, chopped it and threw the cubes in a bowl.  For fun I added:

• a large onion, chopped
• a butternut squash that met the same fate as the pumpkin, even though it wasn’t going soft
• about 5 cloves of fresh garlic that’s grown right here in Calgary!
• a splash of canola oil and some salt.

These got tossed about abit, coated with the oil and then I put them on a baking tray and roasted them for about 40 minutes.  (I need a deeper pan for this!)

While the veggies were roasting I chopped up the broccoli (1 bunch), even the ends and about 4 carrots. These were put directly in the crockpot together with vegetable stock cubes.

Once the other veggies were roasted I added them to my crockpot (It’s around 10 pm. now) and put the whole thing in the fridge overnight.

This morning I boiled a kettle full of water and added it to the crockpot, put the pot into the heating part and TURNED IT ON! (This step is vital to the procedure!) Then I went to the gym, volunteered, picked up some odds and ends, and came home.   I realized that I had forgotten the chipotle pepper! This was quickly added! I’m not a big fan of heat, but I enjoy my soup when I’ve added one pepper to the melange!  (I have stored them in my Tupperware in the freezer and take out one at a time)  I turned the pot onto low and let it simmer while I managed to resolve my computer issue and get ready for my friend to come.

We enjoyed our lunch, went for a walk to the library and Planet Organic and came home to knit and drink tea!  The soup did need some extra salt but that was all.  Love the effects of that chipotle!

Now it’s time to hunker down and do some homework! Have a good day!  For more of the “day to day” stuff, visit: One Year, One Week, One Pound!

Marcia

Motivate and Live…

First of all I’m going to post a picture.  Clicking the picture will send you to one of the blogs I try to read every day.

  I think this post summarizes quite nicely what I’d like to say about what I’ve been reading in my Napoleon Hill this week and last.

There was first of all the call to control my mind.  I need to be more aware of my choices and also my control over them.  Take last night’s peanut butter “binge” for example.  Sure I was tired, I was coldish, I was for lack of a better word, “blah”.  I could have made different choices.  I just didn’t bother to make them.   However, now that I’ve made those “less than stellar” choices, it’s time to move forward.

This weeks chapter talks about having a burning desire to achieve something.  Apparently it’s something I can create.  But how?

Dave Ramsey talks about “gazelle intensity” when working the debt snowball.  I don’t have that either.  I just keep plodding along, eliminating credit card after credit card until they will be all gone!  (Two left, one of which is almost done!)

In this third chapter, Hill mentions Henry Ford and John Wanamaker and he concludes it with a quote from Mr. Wanamaker

I acquired the education I needed the same way a locomotive takes on water – I scooped it up as I ran!

So here are the three steps I need to take in order to change:

1. Start where you stand – knowing what I know, being who I am, looking as I look…
2. Make the best of what I do have – employments, physical health, and all the many gifts God has blessed me with!
3. Trust that what I need will be available when I need it.
   

Now I need to jump in and get going!

I do hope this is helpful to you.  I know I need to sit down and make some plans for the next week, based on this!

Have a great day, stay warm if you’re in Alberta and wherever it’s still frigid out!

Marcia