The PURSE-onality Challenge: recipe

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Cheri's "Healthy" Spinach Quiche (+ "Desperate" Give-Away!)

Last weekend, as the kids were doing laundry and packing to head back to college, I made my "healthy" spinach quiche so Annemarie would have food to stick in her frig for the first week of school.

Today, she texted me that she'd had a slice each morning for breakfast. It was one thing she could count on during what's ended up being a crazy, busy, stressful week.

Sometimes, when there's so much I can't do for my kids, my husband, my friends, my colleagues, my neighbors, I throw up my hands and do nothing.

I forget that something little, like quiche-for-the-week, can make a small but significant difference.

Sometimes, it's those "something littles" that make us feel cherished.

Cheri's "Healthy" Spinach Quiche

7 slices of Orowheat Honey Wheatberry bread
7-10 slices of Swiss cheese

Cut the crusts off the slices of bread. Cut two of the slices in half diagonally and arrange in the bottom of a greased quiche pan.

Cover the bread with Swiss cheese slices.

Broil briefly (1-2 minutes) until cheese has melted to the bread.

1-2 packages of baby spinach
1 cup cottage cheese
8 eggs (or Egg Beaters equivalent)
1 tsp. dill
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. onion powder

Steam the spinach, drain thoroughly, chop finely, and blot with paper towel to get out remaining water.

Beat together cottage cheese, eggs, and seasonings. Add spinach and beat one more time.

Pour over bread & cheese crust.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until center is set.

It's Feed Your Soul Friday!

Your Turn!

Do you have a favorite dish that you like to "whip up" to share with others?

What's a something little you can do for someone in your life show that you cherish them?

Anything else on your heart!

Be sure add your name to the Rafflecopter so you'll be entered into this week's drawing for Sarah Mae and Sally Clarkson's new book Desperate!

Coming in January!

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to receive Cheri's FREE eBook when it releases!

Looking for a simple way to keep scripture close at hand?

Click HERE for full details!

31 laminated cards in an organza draw-string bag...

images and word spacing designed to enhance memory

a Rafflecopter giveaway

My Favorite Christmas 'n' Comfort Food: Finnish Rice Porridge

It's "Feed Your Soul Friday" over at Adventures in the Kitchen!

My family's traditional Christmas Eve dinner is Swedish "milk rice." Mother always started it early in the morning, stirring away at a pot that seemed to hold nothing but milk.

As the day progressed, we'd start checking the pot more and more anxiously, wondering if the meager grains of rice at the bottom would swell up in time for Christmas Eve dinner. Most of the time they did...but a few years, they waited until Christmas Day breakfast.

Of course, there was the constant danger of scorching the milk and ruining everything. (Which happened when an unnamed teenager was in charge of stirring it one year...)

When Mother discovered a recipe which involved parboiling the rice to speed up the process, we were skeptical. Part of our Christmas Eve tradition was the all-day uncertainty about the milk rice!

Then we actually tried this recipe for Finnish Rice Porridge.

It took less than two hours, start-to-finish, and tasted (to quote Mother directly) "better than the original!"

Which means that if a distracted Choleric teenager multi-tasks when she's supposed to be stirring, you'll actually have time to throw out the scorched batch and make an entirely new one before anyone starves.

(Not that I know this from experience or anything...!)

Finnish Rice Porridge

1 ½ c. white rice

pot of boiling water

Place rice in sieve. Pour boiling water over rice slowly. Let drain.

1 ½ c. water

[1 Tbs. butter]

Bring water to boil in large pot. Add rice and butter. Reduce heat to low; cook uncovered for 10 minutes or until water disappears. (Rice will not be completely tender.)

8 c. milk

1 ½ tsp. salt

2 Tbs. sugar

2 cinnamon sticks

¼ tsp. nutmeg

[2 Tbs. butter]

Add above ingredients to rice. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce to lowest heat. Simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, until as thick as oatmeal (30-45 minutes.)

1 ½ tsp. grated lemon peel

2 tsp. vanilla

Stir in lemon peel and vanilla. Remove cinnamon sticks and serve with cream and cinnamon sugar OR Berry Sauce (below)

NOTES FROM CHERI:

1. I never use the butter and it turns out just fine. (I don’t mind using butter when I can enjoy its taste and texture, but when it gets this completely hidden, I don’t see the point!)

2. When cooking the rice for 10 minutes, I put the lid on the pot -- off-kilter so some steam can escape -- and the water doesn’t boil off so quickly.

3. When bringing the milk mixture to a boil, I use a gravy stirrer non-stop to make sure nothing starts sticking to the bottom of the pan and burning. (Once milk scorches, there’s no saving any of it!)

4. Once the milk mixture comes to a boil, I turn it as far down as possible, put the lid on -- again, off kilter -- and set the timer for 5 minutes to remind myself to come back and stir. Sometimes, it takes a full hour before it’s nice and thick.

Berry Sauce

1 c. water

2 c. fresh or frozen cranberries

¾ c. sugar

1 ½ Tbs. lemon juice

Put all ingredients in a 2 quart pan. Boil gently for 10 minutes.

1 package (10 oz.) frozen sweet raspberries

1 ½ Tbs. cornstarch mixed with 1 ½ Tbs. water

Add to above mixture. Cook, stirring constantly, until thick and clear.

Chill to serve cold.

NOTES FROM CHERI:

1. I like to use fresh raspberries when possible...two small baskets work great.

2. Mix the cornstarch into warm water and pull pot off the stove for a little while before adding the cornstarch, or the cornstarch will clot.

Your Turn!

If you've got a favorite recipe posted, tell us a bit about it and leave the link!

What is your favorite Christmas memory or tradition?

Anything else on your heart!

Coming in January!

Sign up to receive Cheri's FREE eBook when it releases!

A Lovely Invitation (+ My Apple Crisp Recipe)

It's Tuesdays Unwrapped over at Emily Freeman's blog Chatting With the Sky. The assignment?

"Anything that causes you to pause and celebrate the moment. Not what will be or what is to come, but what is real and true this day: the messy, the lovely, and the unexpected. Share a photo, a story, or anything that offers a glimpse into your own journey of discovering the gifts in the midst of the ordinary."

Daniel unexpectedly asked me out to lunch today.

He didn't actually ask, "Would you like to come out to lunch with me?"

What he said was: "I'm going to town after 6th period. Want to come along?"

So I started doing mental gymnastics:

Do I need anything in town?

How many stops is he making?

How can I shuffle the rest of my day to get everything done plus a trip to town?

I asked, “Where are you going?”

He revealed his scheme: “Well, I thought I’d drop you off at Panda Express so you can order. I’ll run into Target and get what I need. And then I’ll come back and meet you and have lunch with my wife!”

He so had me at "have lunch with my wife"!

I tossed my schedule out the window.

“You’re asking me out to lunch! How lovely.”

And it was...

...lovely to be invited.

...lovely to eat garlic eggplant tofu and fried rice and egg rolls together.

...lovely to drive too and from town together.

We've spent so many years in “efficiency mode”:

“Can you watch the kids while I exercise?”

“I’ll bathe them if you read to them.”

Since you’re heading to town, could you pick up a few things for me?”

It’s lovely to be...

...less scheduled.

...more spontaneous.

...less scripted.

We came home and enjoyed the last of my apple crisp. Yes, the one I almost ruined yesterday. (You didn't think that story was from years ago, long before I wised up and got perfect, did you?)

It was lovely, too (especially piping hot with French vanilla ice cream!)

Just in case you’d like you’d like to try it yourself (minus the mess!) here’s the recipe:

Betty Crocker’s Apple Crisp a la Cheri

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

4-5 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced thinly

zest of 1 lemon (I grate it finely.)

juice of 1 lemon (I squeeze it over the apple slices as I’m slicing them.)

1 Tbs. flour

1 Tbs. sugar

¼ tsp. cinnamon

⅓ cup Craisins

Mix the above ingredients thoroughly. (I put them in a very large Tupperware, seal the lid on, and shake like crazy...shake the Tupperware, that is!)

Pour into greased pie plate or quiche dish.

⅓ cup margerine

⅔ cup brown sugar

½ cup flour

½ cup oatmeal (I prefer Old Fashioned)

¾ tsp. cinnamon

¾ tsp. nutmeg

Mash topping ingredients together with a pastry blender or forks or with your hands.

Before it goes in the oven...

Sprinkle topping evenly over apples. Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes. (Our oven runs hot, so I bake at 375 for 20 minutes, 350 for 5, and turned off for 5 -- turns out just perfect every time!)