Weary Soldiers, Baked Zucchini Slices

good morning my friends!!     I hope and pray that this finds you all doing wonderful on this glorious Monday.            I was up early this morning, 3am to be exact,  and there was a heavy fog.         but when I got up for good this morning, it was all burned off by the bright and beautiful sunshine.         I hope every one has a spectacular day planned.         I have rolls in the oven, with the light on, thawing and rising.        I need to make more rolls to put in the freezer.         I need to make the egg sausage cheese patties that I make for my husbands breakfast every morning and get those in the freezer.         I want to make some Meyer Lemon Muffin Top muffins and get those in the freezer.         funny thing is, everything I want to make, calls for the red silicone muffin top pans and I only have 2 of them and can only bake/make up to 12 at a time.        this is my conundrum for today.        which gets made?        which gets made first?         and which gets put on hold?          only time will tell.       hahaha         but before any of that gets done, we'll take our walk.        then I'm gonna cut my my hubby's hair.        so I have a full day ahead of me, if I do it all.        who knows, I may procrastinate.        hahahaha          whatever I do, I'll be sure and let in on it.   

---------------------------------------------------------------

this is something that I wrote a few years ago and wanted to share it again.         we are living in hard times.          we are living in perilous times.          we are living in  times where people have very little concern for others.      we are living times where we are in the battle for our lives and the lives of our families.        we truly are battling the forces of evil at ever turn in our lives.      we battle against abortions.      we battle against child abuse.       we battle against homosexuality and all the perversion that comes with that.     we battle to keep the husband and wife in the forefront of what makes a biblical family.         we battle against all the wickedness that has infiltrated our churches.      we battle against all the indoctrination that we see in the public school system.        we battle against all the politicians that are giving our hard earned tax dollars to people that hasn't earned a dollar in their lives.    we battle against all the politicians in power that doesn't have our best interests at heart.       we battle thru all the biased new media pushing their liberal agendas to destroy this country.      we are in a battle dealing with our health care system.        we are in a battle dealing with the high cost of medicine.      as you can see, we are in a battle!!!       

I believe with every fiber of my being that we are living in the time when Jesus will break the eastern sky some day soon and take His children home.        I believe that.        we are living in times when people are fearful of a lot of stuff, and they very well should be.       but we need to know that we can lean into Jesus for His security.        if we know Him as Lord and Savior, then our eternal future is secure and we need not fear that.      but as long as we are in these fleshly earth suits, we will have things and situations that will cause us fear.        we're human beings.       but we can always take those fears to God.         He is already in our tomorrows and He knows how our story plays out in the bigger picture of His Story.       so as we move on into another week, lets try to do so knowing that our steps are planned out by God Himself.        and let us walk those steps out, as God has them planned.

********I have learned that one of the best things I can say about Monday's is this, "Praise God I lived to see another Monday"!        Monday's make me feel like a weary soldier climbing another mountain, getting ready for another long battle.         And you know what, if you love and serve the Lord, that is exactly what we are doing.           Every day is one more day that we are in the battle of our lives.       Trying to stay alert and aware of the snares and traps that the enemy sets for us.

Scripture says the enemy is like a roaring lion.      I believe it!!!        But, scripture also says that the enemy is like a wolf in sheep's clothing.       And I believe that too!!          When we see the roaring lions, we know to beware.        But, when we see the wolves in sheep's clothing, most of the time we don't think about the possible danger we could be in, till it's too late.

So, even tho it's Monday, and even tho we are pushing into an uphill battle, let us not grow weary in our minds.        Let us stay alert, on point and seriously question everything.         Especially the things that give us just a bit of a twinge that maybe, just maybe, something is not quite right.        More than likely, that is the Holy Spirit warning you to steer clear.          Just some food thought as we go into this new week.          May we keep our eyes open and be alert at all times.********  written by pjg

so, we move and live in this life just like weary soldiers.        we put on our full Armor of God!!!        we dress for the battle!!!!        we rest in the Lord.         we gain renewed strength form the Lord.         we take shelter in Lord.        we call on the Lord.         we abide in the Lord.        we live in the Lord.        we don't breathe without His breath.         we try to see life thru His eyes.       we try to be alert for the promptings of the Holy Spirit.      and when fear creeps in, like it does, we give it to Him.        sometimes we stand still, sometimes we fall to our knees, but we always, always give Him our fears.   

so as we face another week, let us face it with the confidence that "I can do all things thru Christ who strengthens me!"        Paul learned this and I'm so thankful that he did.         because he shared it with us and and I have learned to trust this for myself.        sometimes I forget.       sometimes I run, frightened.  sometimes I fail my Lord.        but, I know that even in my weaknesses, I still have the security that I belong to God thru the shed blood of Jesus and nothing will happen to me that God doesn't know about and I'll not go thru anything alone.        Thank You Jesus for loving me.        Thank You Jesus for fighting my battles for me and being with me at all times!!!          Thank You Jesus for Your Victory over death and the grave!!!!          Thank You Jesus for loving me!!!!!        amen and amen!!!

Have a blessed week put on your armor and stay alert.      

-------------------------------------------------------------------   

let's do another "2 minutes in the kitchen with me".         sounds good, so let's go for it.        ok, I was at Aldi the other day and picked up a pkg of zucchini.        there was 3 or 4 per pkg.       about 5 inches long maybe.        and this is how I love to fix them.           I love making baked zucchini slices.

I'll slice them as thin as I can.            I generally just use a knife and do the best I can.          I just don't like having to wash a mandolin for just one zucchini.          once I get them sliced, I'll spread them out on my cookie sheet lined with parchment.         then I'll brush the surface of each slice with a touch of avocado oil.        I'll sprinkle on just a little bit of a greek seasoning that I have.         next, I have parm bread crumbs and I'll use about 2 tablespoons sprinkled over all the slices.       next, I take a cheese slice and cut it into mini strips and put it on the zucchini.  

I'll put that in a 350*F oven for about 35 to 40 minutes and this is what it looks like.        I absolutely love this.          I keep zucchini and yellow squash in the fridge all summer long just so I can fix this any time I have a hankering for it.      you can put what ever you like on them.        this is just what I like.

I hope you give it a try sometime.           if you like zucchini, I'll bet you would like this.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

that's about all I have for today.           I hope that everyone will remember to keep God first place in all we do.          we can always take our fears to Him, He can deal with them, we can't.        put your full armor on this morning and go out with the confidence that God will go before you.       fix some zucchini your favorite way and enjoy some with me, because this is on my agenda today too.    just remember that if you belong to Jesus, you're never alone.      He loves you will never leave you, even when we are afraid.        

blessings on you all today.         if you belong to Jesus, God loves you and so do I.       may love, joy and peace be yours today and every day.         hugs, patty

It's a Good Day

good morning beautiful friends.        I hope and pray that where ever y'all are that you can say, "it's a good day".         the main reason it's a good day is the fact that we woke up this morning by God's  plan and not ours.        any day my feet hit the floor is a good day.          any day my heart is beating, it's a good day.    it's hard to remind myself of that when my body is in pain, but I still have to say, "it's a good day".       

another reason it's a good day, we got a quick walk in this morning.       it's a good thing we got it in when we did because a severe thunderstorm alert has just come thru the cell phones and the local weather system for tornado sirens are going off, but not for a tornado, I'm thinking it's for the severe thunderstorm warning.         the maps shows a huge mass of bad weather upon us.         I pray that the Lord keeps us all safe till the storms passes by.

we've had a lot of rain this month.          I remember the old timers calling it the "May Fresh".        my husband and I was talking about that yesterday.        I reckon they had gotten the crops planted and the May Fresh would help them come up.         if it rained too much, a lot of the crops would wash right down the rivers, creeks and streams.        there has been a lot of that this spring too.        as of right now, in my particular area, we've had 11.5 inches of rain just in the last 2 weeks, and we're getting more today.  so we'll see how much we end with in all.       the ground is so saturated, there's no where for it all to go.

***************************

I have been taking care of my garden as good as I know how to.         every day is a new learning experience for me and I look forward to the new lessons.     we had gotten 3 inches of rain over the last 3 days, including friday night on into saturday morning.          I have 4 large raised beds on legs called keter raised beds.           you can easily google that and see what they look like.        I had planted greenbeans in them  about a couple of weeks ago, after I got the first 9 inches of rain drained from them.       I amended the soil and planted my beans and they came up and have been doing really good.         

while they were sprouting, I put my mesh covers over them to keep birds and squirrels from eating the sprouts as they come up.       I had been putting off uncovering them till coming monday.           well, as I said, it rained friday night and early saturday morning and then on up in the day, the sun came out.       I was happy to see the sun.          we decided to hop in the car for a minute or two and on the way to the car, I ran to look at my greenbeans in the keters and oh my gosh, water was standing in one of the beds again and the sun had already scalded one bed of my greenbeans.          I don't know if they'll survive or not, but I sure hope they do.        I took a peek at them this morning, and they may, that's a slim may, but they may survive.       so I quickly opened the drains in the bottoms of all 4 and got them draining.       for the time being, I just left the drains open, because as I type, you guessed it, it's raining.  

I had been using the mesh over the keters doubled.        that made it kinda like a greenhouse of sorts and holding all the heat in and then the water, it just made for a perfect scenario  for scalding the beans. when I took the mesh off the raised beds, I went to my garden shed and got scissors and I cut each piece of that mesh into 2 pieces.        so now, I have 8 pieces of mesh and that chore is done.        I had been putting it off for a few years, but it's done now.         better late than never is what I always say.     

my gardening got off to a  very rocky start this year.         I had started a bunch of seeds back in late january and early february and when would have a warm sunny day, I would set my seedlings out in the shade and let them feel the breeze and just breathe  and enjoy the real weather instead of heat mats and fake lights.      they was coming along really good and one day in march it was a beautiful day and weather bug was calling for the 50's at night, so I knew those temps would not hurt my seedlings, and would actually be good for them.         so I left them out over night.  

don't trust a weather app, trust your gut!!!!!         weather bug lied big time!!!        the temperature dipped down to 19*!!!!!!!!!           that's a big difference between the mid 50's and 19*!!!!!!         I lost all of my seed starts but about 6 of them.         I cried for a little bit.        then I got on amazon and looked for a hydroponic garden.         I found a Dak Ride that was less $30 when the coupon was applied so my husband ordered it for me.         it came and I got it set up and had tomato and pepper seedlings coming up in less than a week!!!!!         it usually takes a long time for either of those to sprout.        once they got a pretty good size, I took them from the Dak Ride and put them in pots and keep them really damp for the first 2 weeks and set them out in the shade on sunny days.       during that time, my husband suggested I get another one.          I happily obliged that suggestion and got another one and between the 2 Dak Rides, I've best seedlings I've ever had.         that goes for the seedlings I've bought over the years too.        they are healthy and strong and beautiful.

once I get them all set out in pots and containers, they are just doing so good.        I'm so thankful that I have something now that will help me with having strong healthy seedlings for my  container garden.   plus, I can also grow all kinds of salad greens during the late fall, winter and early spring.       that's a plus all year long.

******************

I was grocery shopping on friday and went to kroger and then aldi on up in the morning.         I always go to kroger first and get the   sale items and then go to aldi and get what I stay stocked up on there.      I wanted something different, I had no idea what that would be.        I got to the meat department and  was looking.       meat of any kind has gone up so much that I'm picky when I spend money on meat.     hahaha          so as I was looking, I seen a pkg of something that caught my eye.         they called it "pork rib tips", but it looked more like scraps to me.        anyway, I looked at it for a minute and I put a pkg in my cart and went to checkout.         I got home with my groceries and got everything put up and started thing about what I wanted to do with those "pork rib tips".     

I actually done a quick google and they was showing recipes that 14 or 16 hours to cook!!!!       NO WAY!!!         I got out one of my electric pressure cookers and put a rack in it to keep the meat out of the cup of water I added.        I have applewood rub and I rubbed each piece with that and put it in the pressure cooker for 35 minutes on high.         

when they was done, I took some small tongs and pulled out all the little bones out.        once I got the bones out, I fixed a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.       I put the meat on the baking sheet and covered it with bbq sauce and  popped it in the counter top oven on 350 for another 30 to 35 minutes and I'm telling you it was the best meat that my husband and I have ever eaten!!!         it was absolutely delicious!!!!          next time I go, I'll check for more and put a pkg or 2 in the freezer.

so, while I was at aldi, I picked up a pkg of zucchini and this is my fav way to prepare it.          I slice it thin, length ways and put it on parchment paper on a baking sheet and add just a dot of butter on each piece, a sprinkle of parm bread crumbs and this had a slice of gouda cheese cut in real thin strips.  I popped it in the counter top oven on 350* and baked for about 25 minutes and it was fabulous!!!!!!

the below pic is the finished product.           the one thing to do differently is use a melty cheese.        the real gouda cheese turned into cheese sticks.        hahaha         don't get me wrong, it was delicious, but I'll use something a little more melty next time.

*************************

this is something else I wanted to share with y'all.          it is turkey bacon wrapped greenbeans.         this is what I'm doing with all my greenbeans this year.          I've got it down a mathematical science of sorts.          hahaha          for this particular dish, for the 2 of us, it takes 32 greenbeans and 8 pieces of bacon.          cut each strip of bacon in half length ways  to end up with 16 long strips of bacon.     separate the beans into 2 piles of 16 each and the bacon strips into 8 piles each.         wrap 2 beans with 1 strip of bacon.

one you get all your little bean and bacon bundles made, put them in the air fryer on 400* for as long as it takes to the bacon done to your satisfaction.          I usually leave mine in the air fryer for between 12 and 15 minutes.

they are done to perfection here.           we love this so much!!!          you don't even have to season the beans in any way because the bacon will automatically season them.           I also wrap dill pickle spears the same way and asparagus.          it's all better with pork bacon, but pork bacon is very expensive and I have quite a few pkgs of turkey bacon in the freezer right now.         so I try to use what I have as often as I can.

I ask you all to keep my neck of the woods in your prayers.           we are in an active weather situation right now with tornado warnings and tornado watches and all the local tornado sirens going off.        just pray for the Lord to keep us safe as this thing passes thru.

Lord keep us safe till the storm passes by!!

I will leave you all with well wishes and prayers of safety for you all.        if you're experiencing bad weather, I hold you close.        

I hope you seen something here today that you enjoyed.        maybe try a quick recipe idea or something.         I also hope that you leave here knowing that God loves you and wants to be in right relationship with you thru the shed blood of His Son, Jesus Christ.        I pray that if you don't Him, that today would be day that you reach out to Him.       He will save you from the devils torment.     

blessings to all.       God loves you and so do I.        big hugs and stay safe, patty

In the kitchen again.....😂😂😂😂, as usual

good evening y'all!!         it's been a busy day here in my neck of the woods and I haven't gotten much done on my blog today.         so it's gonna be short and sweet.         just been doing some stuff that we had put off and with the upcoming weather, we decided today was the day to not put it off any longer.

I'm praying that the weather doesn't get bad.        I know it's been really terrible for a lot of people and I guess it feels like it's getting closer.           I just pray for the Lord to keep us all safe.       

so I really don't have much to share today, other than our supper last night.       hahaha         it was good too.          and we just had the same thing tonight.          hahaha

************************************************

let's do a "2 minutes in the kitchen with me" again.           I had 2 more zucchinis in the fridge and I used one of them last evening for my supper again.          instead of slicing lengthways, I sliced it in round slices.       believe it or not, the way you slice it matters.         hahaha        slicing lengthways makes it seem like there isn't as much as there is slicing round slices.          I don't know why it seems that way but it is.        I think it's exposing more surface of the zuke to put goodies on.         if it just long slices and 4 slices at that, it doesn't seem like as much.         but when it's  30 round pieces, that seems like a lot.         hahaha           but I done these just like I done them the night before.         using all the same stuff.          these are so good!!!!!          I just ate half of this batch tonight and will have the rest tomorrow.         I made some marinated pork chop bites to go with this and then a couple of hushpuppies.          it was a great meal.          hubby loved the marinated pork chop bites.          I marinated them in real maple syrup, coconut aminos, garlic powder, minced onion and little salt.       it was delicious!!!!!        I wish I had gotten a picture of it.        I have a 2 basket air fryer and I took the bottom plate out and preheated the air fryer.       then I put one of my airfryer liners in that basket and dumped all of that marinated pork bites in it and let them cook for 30 minutes stirring it around every once in a while.         in the other basket, I put french fries and hush puppies.         it was a meal fit for the king and queen of our house.       hahaha

don't these look good.          they sure are.         I hope you'll give it a try.

and ya, I still one more zucchini to go and it will be prepared just like this.         all my favorite things.  yum!!!

**********************************************

well, I told y'all it would be short and sweet and it is.         let's remember to keep God first place in our lives.       I pray that you all stay safe with the upcoming weather event.          even if your not in this country, I pray that you all stay safe where ever y'all are.           blessings of warmth, peace of mind and safety for all of us.        hugs and love, patty