Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Blueberry Muffins


I decided to cook breakfast for dinner tonight since we have been married 7 months and still not had breakfast for dinner.  I haven't been able to eat eggs since I got back from Africa this summer and not really sure why, but I decided to give it a go tonight.  So far so good!  Here is the recipe for the yummy delicious blueberry muffins.  We also had some freshly squeezed orange juice from HEB and Applegate makes the best turkey bacon.  It is even nitrites and nitrates free!

Ingredients:


  • 2 cups of blueberries (I used fresh, but the recipe says you can use frozen)
  • ½ cup water
  • 2 ½ cups almond flour
  • ½ tsp. baking soda
  • 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
  • ½ tsp. vanilla
  • ½ cup honey
  • 3 eggs
Directions:

  1. Heat oven to 325°
  2. In a small saucepan, simmer the berries with the water until the berries release their juice and the mixture has slightly thickened.  Let cool.
  3. Combine the dry ingredients.
  4. Combine the wet ingredients (berries too) in a separate bowl.
  5. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix well.
  6. Evenly fill each baking cup with the batter.
  7. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.
  8. Serve with eggs, turkey bacon, or however you choose :)



Lots to catch up on...


It has been a few weeks since I have blogged and I feel as if I have not even had the time to sit down and do anything!!  Obviously not true, but life has been a bit busy.  Here are a few things that we have been busy with...

1) Finishing up teacher appreciation week:

Day #3, #4, and #5 (but I don't have a picture for the last day)


This is the outside...
This is the inside with a meal ticket for the wonderful Las Fuentes!  

Day #4 was fun because we got to choose out of the big tubs things to put in our goodie bag!  Cute idea!

Day #5 was a dessert bar with tons of yummy things on it.  I didn't get a picture of it before people got to it though and it didn't look picture worthy by the time I got there :/

2) Date night to support human trafficking victims at TCBY!  Yummy and they even have some Greek fro yo!

3) One of my students caught a pretty butterfly at school.


4) Mother's Day weekend and graduation surprise for Momma Houck!
We were able to not only able to be with both or our mother's on Mother's day, but we were able to share in another celebration with Michael's mom.  Here is how our weekend went.  Friday night we went to The Counter in Market Street along with the very special guests, Kalese and Ryan whom drove all the way from McAllen.  We got to the restaurant about 20 minutes earlier than the honorary guests.  It was sooooo cool to be there to see Keely's face and see her reaction when she saw all of her close family and friends there with her.  What a special night.  Then Saturday, Michael and I went to see Elise and Alexis perform in their dance recital.  After they were finished we went to my parents and had a wonderful lunch.  Thanks mom!!  When we finished there, the four girls Kalese, Lindsey, Keely, and myself went and got a pedicure!  That was super fantastic.  To end our weekend, we spent the night at the big Houck house and woke up early to make Keely breakfast and head to church!  Here are some pictures!
Alexis after the show.

Elise after the show.

Elise and Alexis

Waving to all of us...then...she sees Kalese and Ryan
YAHOO!!!

The big long, very long hug....

Keely with her good friend Debbie Corbet.


Pedicure time!
I tried to get us all in, but that didn't quite work.









Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Teacher Appreciation Day #2 and my friend Laney

Gift #2

This was our super cute gift for the day!  Though they are not paleo, I did eat them!  


My Friend Laney:


Today at lunch I checked my phone and saw that I had a text message from my friend Laney.  She is an awesome teacher in Aldine and works with some pretty tough kids.  I love to listen to the stories she tells about her kids.  They are some of the funniest I have ever heard.  Back to the point...so I check my phone and find this amazing poem she has written me:

I cried today thinking of Brittany Brady 
And how after she turned Houck her whole life was shady.
For she now lives with a man and always talks about her tan.
She loves to sing and listen for her paleo in the oven as it dings.  
I love my friend Brittany Brady because her last name rhymes with shady.

On a side note, Laney is sometimes forgetful and she sometimes forgets that I am now a Houck and she still calls me Brady.  I was so excited and literally laughed out loud when I read it because it was super funny.  She said, "I was literally like I am going to send Brittany a poem and 2 minutes later...voila!"  Laney, you rock!  I love you so much and I am excited to hang out with you when our lives are not busy this summer!  (Yeah for being a teacher!)

P.S.  Laney also had a brilliant idea that I am blogging about so that I won't forget.  She told me I should make a recipe book of all the Paleo things I have made.  I told her that when we decide to go on our next mission trip that we will do just that.  Make a recipe book and sell it to earn money for our mission trip!  Love you Lanesters!

Baked Cod with Olive Oil

Tonight I ventured out and tried my own recipe!  Yes...that's right.  I didn't even use a recipe, but I created my very own!  Here is what I did:

Baked Cod w/Olive Oil:

Ingredients-

3 cloves of garlic
1 white onion
1 fresh cod
fresh picked basil and cilantro
salt
pepper
  1. First, I chopped up a few cloves of garlic and half of an onion.  
  2. Then, I drizzled some olive oil into the bottom of a 8 X 8 pan.
  3. Next, I added the garlic and onion to the olive oil and mixed it around in the pan.
  4. After that, I added the fresh cod and added the rest of the onions and cloves.  I also gathered a few spiced from our balcony garden.  I used cilantro and basil and chopped that up.  (I really just used this for looks)  I also sprinkled a bit of salt and pepper over the cod.  
  5. Preheat oven to 350° and bake for 30 to 40 minutes.  


Michael said this was one of his most FAVORITE meals I cooked!  I am so proud of myself!
This is the BEFORE baking picture.  

This is the after picture!  I wish you could taste through the internet!  AMAZING!





Monday, May 7, 2012

Teacher Appreciation Week

The theme this year is "We're obSEUSSED with you!!"  LOVE IT!  This is Day 1...wonder what great things will be tomorrow ♥

This is a random photo of my wonderful husband!  He likes to pile things up on our kitchen table.  Oh how different we are :)  My one request is that he has it all cleaned up when company is coming and for my usual Saturday morning cleaning!  


Exodus

In doing my study on women of the Bible, I sort of got lost in the book of Genesis.  What I mean by this is that I enjoyed reading it so very much that I just kept going.  Now I have begun the book of Exodus and I am very excited to be reading about their journey out of Egypt.  So far I have read to chapter 4 and the most interesting thing that I have found is that Moses didn't want the job that God was calling him to do.  He didn't want to lead the people out of Egypt and he kept coming up with seriously lame excuses not obey God.  How crazy is that? He is speaking directly with his creator and yet he is unwilling to obey him?  How much more should we obey God!

The second thing that really sticks out to me and is interesting because I haven't ever read over this part or at the least paid attention to it.  They are on their way to Egypt after God had given Moses the directive to go lead His people out of Egypt and in Exodus 4: 24-26 it says, "At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to hill him.  But Zipporah (his wife) took a flint knife, cut off her son't foreskin and touched Moses's feet with it.  'Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,' she said.  So the Lord let him alone."  Michael took me to work this morning because my car is in the shop till tomorrow and we read this together on the way to work.  We were both puzzled by this statement.  Doesn't it seem weird?  There is nothing that gives any background knowledge of why God was about to kill Moses and just after he has spoken to him in the burning bush.  Here is what I found out.  God was going to kill Moses because he had not circumcised his son.  What we have to remember is that Moses had spent half of his life with Pharaoh in the palace and half of his life in the Midianite desert.  He didn't know the laws of the God, especially the requirements of God's covenant.  Zipporah may have been opposed to the circumcision because of her Midianite background.  Either way, Moses could not effectively serve as the deliverer of God's people until he had fulfilled the conditions of God's covenant.  God wasn't going to allow them to go any further until they obeyed.  Moses and his family had to obey God's commands completely.  Do you find this little excerpt as interesting as I do?

Moses had to obey God's commands in full!  100%  Wait, what?  Yeah, that's right.  100%  We are no different than Moses.  We must obey God and his commands in the same manor.  The only way we are going to know those commands is to be in His word daily!  Will you join me?

Father, I pray that the commands that I know and learn as I study Your word, that I may keep them to the fullest.  Forgive me where I falter and the areas in which I lack.  Teach me to to walk in Your ways so that I might not sin against you.  I can't do it without you, oh God!

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Paleo Sweet Potato Pancakes

I tried these yesterday morning and they didn't turn out as great as I would have liked them, but they were still pretty good.  I borrowed the recipe from Paleo Betty.  Here is how I made them.

Ingredients:


  • 2 sweet potato's
  • 1/2 cup almond flour
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 tbsp. agave nectar (the sweet potato's make it sweet already)
  • 6 eggs (to me, this was a ton!  Next time I am going to try and add less eggs and more almond flour)
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • Coconut oil for the griddle

Instructions:

1.  Peel the sweet potatoes and chop them into 1" inch cubes.  Place them in a pot of boiling water and let them boil for about 15 minutes or until you can poke a fork in them.  Next, drain them.  

2.  While waiting for those to drain, combine the almond flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.  Mix it well and set it aside.

3.  Put the sweet potato's in a Ninja or a food processor and blend till they are a puree.  Then add the agave nectar, eggs, and vanilla.  

4.  Next add the dry ingredients to the mixture.  Your mixture should be very liquidy.  (Mine wasn't super liquidy, but the pancakes still turned out.)

5.  Add some coconut oil to the griddle and let it get hot.  Then pour on!  Wait until the sides are a slight brown tint and some bubble are coming out of the tops of pancakes.  Then flip!

Here are a few pictures:







Friday, May 4, 2012

Vulnerability

It has been quite awhile since I have blogged and mainly because I have been seriously exhausted every time I come home.  I usually work out and then cook dinner and then I have no more energy left.  I decided this morning that I would do a follow up on my last post about Memorizing Scripture and write a discuss what God has been teaching me.  As far as the scripture goes, I am still working on it.  I have it written down and I will be continually practicing this.  I have not yet mastered it, but I will keep you updated.

I have probably also not taken time to blog lately because I feel a bit like a failure and by blogging about it, it makes me vulnerable.  I know these are lies straight from Satan, but I still feel like it.  Because I will be working at a new school next year, I feel as if in some way I am failing my kids, my coworkers, and even my boss.  I have such a heart for the kids that I have taught in the past and it is such a joy to be working with all of these people.  With all that does come times where I just want to give up and quit, but usually more often than not.  Sometimes I know I say things that I really don't mean and then I think, "Why did I even say that?"  I look at my friends who teach and see what an awesome job they are doing and I look at both of my mom's and see what they are doing and the list can go on.  Then I look at what I am doing and that's moving to a new school.

If I truly listen to the lies I begin to feel like a failure.  However, when I stop listening to those and really hone in on what God has called me to do I begin to see the light.  I don't know what this journey is going to entail and it is a bit scary for both Michael and I.  It's a good scare though.  We are excited and we are equipped and we are ready.  I don't need to compare myself to other people.  God doesn't like that.  He has made each and every one of us unique and he knows what each and every one of us needs.  He will always be there meet our needs as individual as they are.  I am still struggling with this as the school year winds downs.  If you could pray for me, I would greatly appreciate that!

Best QUOTE of the week:
I walked into the Kindergarten pod to let my kids get a drink of water after recess.  One of the cutest little boys came up to me and said, "Hi Mrs. Houck!"  "Hi there handsome", I replied back.  He was deep in conversation and just rambling on.  Finally he lifts up his hair on one side of his head by his hear.  He says to me, "I have one big ear and one little ear".  So I look and sure enough he does.  Before I could even comment on this he was quick to say, "You know why?  Because God made me like that and He loves me!"   I was blown away and tears welled up in my eyes right away.  He is precious!  More importantly he is right! God did make him special and God does love him.  Just like He loves each and everyone of us!

Lord, help me to live like this child and to be proud of who You have made me to be and where You are taking us as a family.  I want to come to Your feet like the faith of those in children.  Help me to not compare myself to anyone, but to look to You and Your word instead.