Good news

The peanut sauce was a success, even moreso than expected. A cup of rice, a bag of frozen "asian syle" vegetables, and a bag of the peanut sauce lasted four very generous meals. I could have made it last a couple more meals if I didn't eat such big portions.
It's fun to see how plans and ideas work out. This week I'm venturing into the pumpkin sauce, so we'll see how that goes.

Hitting the sauce

Every few weeks I spend a day making a menu, shopping, and making large quantities of food to freeze for later meals. God bless whoever made the FoodSaver. I am trying this new thing where I spend as little money as possible, so today's adventure at the store posed some new challenges. My theme this go-round is rice and sauce. I bought a 5 pound bag of rice for $3, which seemed like a great price. I made three different sauces using some ingredients I already had here, and some I bought at the store. And I bought 3.5 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breasts to freeze too. It was $11. If I bought a whole chicken, it would have been $3.99 total. I just couldn't quite make the leap today though... something about gizzards and necks being a part of the decision.
Anyway, I've wanted to start posting recipes here, especially those that are cheap and fun and delicious. Most of the recipes I make are adapted from things I find on allrecipes.com, which is a great website and launching pad. Just a quick note, though - I measure and add ingredients to taste, and rarely use measuring devices. So most of the measurements I will use are estimates, or based on how it tastes or looks.

Peanut sauce
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup Karo syrup
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
few squirts lime juice (maybe 1/2 lime if fresh squeezed?)

Mix all ingredients except for milk and heat on low-medium on stovetop. Stir continually until all ingredients are mixed and smooth. Add milk until color is a little lighter than regular peanut butter color, or until it's your preferred consistency, or until it tastes good and continue to heat until smooth. I think this ended up being about 1/2 cup of milk for me. I think it would be really good using coconut milk instead too.
I halved the pot and froze this in two bags, each bag probably worth about 3 meals. I bought frozen veggies to go with this, and the chicken if I'm feeling generous.

Coconut Curry
2 cans coconut milk (my favorite is the brand Chaokoh if you can find it)
6 teaspoons Thai Kitchen green curry paste (almost the entire jar)

I had this stuff at home. I just decided to make a mass quantity of it and freeze into individual portions. I use way more paste than the jar says to, but I think it tastes better that way. This also goes well with the frozen veggies and chicken (and garlic) and should last about 8 meals.

Spicy Pumpkin Sauce
1 can pumpkin puree
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 stick butter (or whatever equivalent olive oil)

Mix all ingredients and heat on stovetop until smooth. I found something like this on allrecipes but it sounded really sweet. So I omitted some things, and added the spicy stuff. I actually thought it tasted really good, and I'm curious to see what it tastes like over rice. I'm thinking I could make it with chicken, or with diced apples and baked acorn squash. So many gross-sounding possibilities. The sauce should last about 4 meals.

From the Denver airport

I arrived, as advised, a full 2 and a half hours before my departure time. It took me 5 minutes to check my bag, and less than that to get through security. There wasn't a single person in front of me in the non-existent line.

So I am appeasing my many blog fans (Amy and Nadia) by writing here. I don't have many thoughts this morning. I am trying to find out more about the earthquake in Pakistan. I watched CNN on a big screen for a while. I tried to read. I found an Einstein's Bagels and got some breakfast. I always regret eating before a flight, but knowing that never deters me from eating still.

I suppose I am nervous, but about what I'm not sure. The whole idea of this trip still seems somewhat surreal. I just can't imagine being where I am going and doing what I am planning to do. I do know that I have wanted this for a long time. I have wanted something more than life as I know it. I have wanted to see and do that which I can't fathom. And in remembering this want, I remember how personal God is.

This is something that is recurring... my forgetting that God actually cares for me personally. This trip is personal. It, in essence, is something I have deeply longed for. I find myself surprised that the longing might actually be realized. Here I go...

Preparing for India: One step at a time

I don't often see the steps required to accomplish something. I get an idea in my head and I only see the end result, the big picture, the finished product. One of the greatest gifts any friend has given me was the ability to see, and moreso to embrace these steps. To see them, not as hindrances to a goal, but as necessecities to finish a goal well. I also think, from watching this friend's life, that embracing the steps really does complete the adventure. I really do believe that life is a journey, or maybe a series of millions of journeys, and ignoring the tiny, seemingly insignificant, perhaps annoying steps along the way makes the big picture not so grand in the end.
I wanted to be a singer/songwriter in high school and college (and maybe a little still today). So I got a guitar and played 5 minutes, once every other week. I was disappointed in my lack of progress. I was not accomplishing the dream.
What does this have to do with India? India is an end result and also a step. I will go. I will come home. I will continue to live my life. In the bigger, big picture, India is an exciting but very small step. Not to empty the trip of its importance in my life before I even go. There has just been so much anticipation, so much planning, so much thinking about this 16 days of my life. I am beside myself with excitement. It's often all I think about.
So this somewhat new-found perspective is quite freeing. That life doesn't end after this big event. I like being gifted by friends with new ways to think and live.

Preparing for India: Provision indeed

I did not like getting checks from people in the beginning. I sent out my support letter, I prayed God would provide every dime. And yet it felt weird to actually receive checks from people- wonderful, generous, Christ-loving people. I wanted to give the money back. The truth was that I didn't want to feel like a charity case. I asked lots of people for money, and in my heart rejected it when it came. All because I am too prideful to accept help from others. I would like to believe that I can provide for myself. And perhaps this past year of living alone has fed that mentality. Most of the time I feel as though it is easier to serve others than it is to be served by others. And that's the gross being called pride.
When money started flowing in, practically every day, I was humbled to say the least. Over and over, day after day. I found, in this humility, that I very much enjoyed seeing the money come in. I enjoy seeing God work in this way. It really is Him, and none of me.
Sometimes God's provision seems like this nebulous thing. As if, what I call "God's provision", is really something that would have happened anyway, had I prayed for it or not. I know in my heart that all things come from Him, but I struggle to remember things in that way. Like when food is in my fridge - I tend to think it came more from the grocery store, and less from the goodness and provision of God.
For those of you who enjoy the commentator in me, here is the summary paragraph: I am learning a lot in preparation for India. Overwhelming themes seem to be centered around the breakdown of my pride, my misperceptions of God, and what it means to love people (that's for another time). God is very good. Amen.

Preparing for India: Vaccines are expensive

I got an email today from Patricia, the vet I'll be travelling to India with. The dates are set. October 29-November 12. I feel as though I am somehow breathing a sigh of relief and hyperventilating at the same time. The money is freaking me out. I've been waiting to take care of some things until the dates were set (vaccines, visa, etc), and now that they are set, the cost of all these pre-trip details is adding up.
I immediately started posting things for sale on craigslist. And then I, quite dramatically, flailed myself out on my bedroom floor and began to pray.
God showed me very recently how abundantly and generously He provides (a new car, money, etc), and somehow I still doubt that He'll provide for India. As if I only get one good provision a year, and I just used it up on a car. So I am praying for a right perspective, for belief, for faith. I have asked God to provide the money to go (for months I have done so), and the minute I find out the cost of vaccines, I lose all faith and start considering selling drugs. Or a kidney. I hear you can get a lot for one of those.

Preparing for India: Reading

This morning I was reading the "World Statistics" section of my CVM short-term manual... I thought this was really interesting. I like the way it's presented, boiled down into 100 people, somehow it seems more real. I'm fascinated by the way the mind works. I can easily imagine 100 people, but a billion people is so many that it doesn't register the same way. Not to say that we should resort to boiling down statistics to simplistic forms all the time. I should still be impacted by hearing of the 3 million people who died of AIDS last year. It's 3 million people, whether I can imagine it or not.
Anyway, this was by Bishop Howard A. Robinson Jr. of Agape Christian Fellowship.

"If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of 100 people with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, there would be...
57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 North and South Americans, and 8 Africans
52 would be female, 48 would be male
70 would be a color other than white
70 would be a religion other than Christian
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth, and all six would be American
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer malnutrition
1 would have a college education and 1 would have a computer"

Exploration

These are the questions begging exploration: Why does the secular world care about poor people? Why does God care about poor people? What does it mean to be poor? What does the Bible say about the poor and afflicted? What can I do?

I am searching for these answers and will share what I find here.

Primaverita

After a duration of time that felt like 6 months, the snow and ice are finally starting to melt. The past couple days have revealed grass. Grass! A sight I didn't know I missed until it appeared. So today I am declaring the "primaverita" which is a word I made up to mean the "little spring". It just sounds prettier in made-up spanish.

It seems fitting. There is melting snow and sunshine. Target stores are now selling bikinis and beach clothes. And there is grass. Dry sidewalks.

And in my heart I sense a change as well. A melting off of the dirty, stained cold that covered my heart. A revealing of tender flesh. A warm renewal. I will soak up this sunny primaverita and keep it with me for the long winter months still to come.

This is a verse from one of my favorite songs, Every Season by Nicole Nordeman:
"And what was frozen through, is newly purposed, turning all things green;
So it is with you, and how you make me new, with every seasons change..."