Thoughts. And corn bread.

"For such a time as this"

That phrase, that's used in Esther 4:14, has been a phrase echoing through my head and my life for the last few weeks. The fuller verse (but not the whole verse) is "And who knows but that you have come to royal position...for such a time as this." Esther 4:14b. It speaks of her becoming Queen-despite her lack of desire for the crown-that perhaps God had placed her into that position to save the Jewish people from murderous plotters that wanted and planned for them to die. And in fact, that is what God had in mind, to use Esther in her role as Queen to protect His people.

 Somehow, that phrase has popped up almost every day for us in the last couple weeks.

...for such a time as this, I'm not working anywhere but the few Pampered Chef shows I have in January.
...for such a time as this, it's the uber slow season where TBG is working.
...for such a time as this, we've been on a nutritional program that will help aid our sister with her new diet needs.

 Our little sister who's in UCLA with chemo treatments just got put on a gluten-free diet. They think that her life-long stomach aches and head aches may be food allergies. They deduced this just now, as for the last 2 years she's been living with her older sister and family-and they eat more fresh fruits and veggies and less processed foods. Now that she's stuck in a hospital with no fresh anything and only processed foods, she's been dealing with horrible stomach aches and head aches. It makes my whole body twinge for her. So, as an experiment, she's going to be going off gluten and such for the next month or so. I hope it helps for her.

 And if it does help? And she needs to live gluten-free from now on? I have a new-found knowledge of where she can eat out, what she can buy in a store and snack on, what she can make at home, and just how possible it is. And fun! Oh the new appreciation for foods!

 I just found a gluten free cereal that is the GREATEST snack food for when I'm dealing with a semi-sweet tooth at the same time. I bought it today in Wholefoods on a splurge...had to really exercise self-restraint to not the whole box on the drive home. I offered some to TBG when he got home from work..had to wrestle the box away from him so he wouldn't completely spoil his appetite for dinner. SO GOOD! And it's one of those cereals that you really don't need milk to eat it, you can just pop it in your mouth and crunch away. *happiness*

Today for dinner, we had an amazing beef stew from scratch, and I decided to experiment now that I can have corn, and made some cornbread muffins. They were good! I will admit, they'd probably be better if I had made them with corn meal and not corn flour. But I used what I had on hand, and we were very excited with the results. Woot for more breads to have with soup! I got the recipe from The Baking Beauties, and I altered it a bit. It called for sugar and unnecessary things that I edited down or out. Soo good though!

1 cup cornmeal
3/4 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup light brown sugar

Wet Ingredients:
2 eggs
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp light olive oil
1 cup water

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Spray muffin pan with non-stick spray
3. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl
4. In a separate bowl, mix eggs, oil and water and beat for 1 minute or so
5. Slowly add the dry to the wet and beat until batter is smooth. You may need to add more water.
6. Pour/spoon batter into muffin cups.
7. Bake 20-25 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

   Makes 12 muffins, 182 calories and 17 carbs. Woo!
     Enjoy! These are great hot with butter and honey!