easy ranch dressing (112 calories = 1/4 cup)

Made this up today- its similar to my tuna salad recipe.

I don't eat flour and sugar, and most store bought dressing contain one or the other.

Basically.... I've forced myself to get pretty creative with food.

Yogurt has replaced mayo for me. Many of my recipes that normally call for mayo (which is full of sugar) have plain while milk yogurt (which, by the way is delicious just by itself). I've seen crock pot homemade yogurt recipes all over the internet, I just haven't got around to actually trying it yet... I'm sure it will be a post in the future to look for.

I put this together at lunch and it was very good on my salad with parmesan sprinkled on top, and I imagine it would pair well with bleu cheese too.
It doesn't taste much like ranch, honestly, but it looks like ranch and DOES taste good. Replaces it the the same creamy dill-y way for me.

Ingredients
- 1/4 cup yogurt (plain whole milk)
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp onion powder
- 2 tsp McCormick Salad Supreme Seasoning
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp dried dill weed
- 1 tsp dried parsley

Whisk together and drizzle or dip!

step 6 share

As I begin step work on my step 6, I am faced with finding willingness to allow God to remove my defects of character. I have to be willing to allow God to reveal my pain so we can sort it out and replace it with good things. In my celebrate recovery meeting on Friday, the lesson leader shared about step 6, that I can look at my resentments and defects as weeds in my garden that Jesus can and will remove for me, if I let him. That once removed, it's my job to replace that weed with something new. I never looked at this step this way before and it was a big eye opener for me. As I do my journaling this week I plan to use this visualization over and over again. It gives me hope and a goal (and I really love having a goal to work toward).

Yesterday I was forced to be willing to admit when I am rationalizing eating something off my poe, and told my sponsor that's what it was.  Yesterday I ate flour because I thought I would "experiment" and eat flour one day a week like I do when I'm fasting something.  I knew in my heart deep down it was a bad idea, I just pushed that feeling away. It's amazing when I want something bad enough, how easy it can be for me to believe my own lies. I'm happy to say that I spent the remainder of the day yesterday abstaining from trigger foods.

I'm learning that if I mess up, I need to be willing to admit it, and the sooner I do, the sooner I can move forward in recovery. Holding onto all the rationalizations and lies I believe holds me back, and confessing them as they come to me free me.

it can WAIT!

As a housewife/ stay at home mom, I have umpteen million things to do at any given time, and it never ends. I easily have sloffed off reading my bible or connecting with my Father because I have too much going on, too many distractions. These last couple weeks I've made it IMPERATIVE that I read my bible every morning no matter how many dishes are in the sink, even if no one has clean underwear, IT CAN WAIT!

Luke 10:38-42 New International Version (NIV)

At the Home of Martha and Mary
38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

I need to sit at the feet of my Lord and take Him in, even if its just for a moment. I have two very small children (3 and 1), so we eat our breakfast, and after I'm finished, I read aloud as they finish theirs. I read aloud as they run around wild playing. I read aloud as my big boy sits in my lap and listens. Its been such a blessing each morning. Its become more important then everything else in my day. I look forward to it. I crave it more than food!

"He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD." Deut. 8:3