JOY meeting will be at the park

This message is for my JOY ladies. We will be meeting at the park tonight instead of the church. See you all there at our regular time - 6:30.

God Bless!

No Joy

Due to things going on right now we will not have our meeting tomorrow night as scheduled. We may have one next week instead to make up for the lack of meetings lately.

Also to the Joy women. I want to apologize for this but I will be unable to do the relay for life. There are several factors as to why I cannot participate but I will explain at the next meeting. If any of you would still like to participate in the Relay for life then please contact Kevin or Vanessa as I think they are still doing this with the youth.

All of our other activities will still be as planned and don't forget we are still on a mini challenge right now!

I am already 12 pounds away from meeting my goal - how are you doing? :-)

No updates this week!

I am going on a mini family trip this weekend starting Thursday, and I have a final exam tomorrow morning so there will be no updates this week. I apologize for not posting this yesterday but I have been extremely busy trying to get my house in order before we leave and getting things straightened out.

Also there are a couple things going on in my life right now that I would like all of you to pray about.

To the JOY women - The meeting is next week, not tomorrow night. Remember the meetings will always be the 2nd and 4th wednesday of the month!

God Bless everyone and see you next week.

Friday Find - House Foods Tofu Shirataki Noodles

House Foods Tofu Shirataki Noodles 4 ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I've heard about these noodles for years but since no one carried them locally I never had the chance to try them. You may have heard of them from Hungry Girl. These noodles are supposedly a good replacement for pasta and at only 40 calories for the whole bag (which makes a big plateful of pasta) I figured it couldn't hurt to try them. I finally found these noodles at my local Meijer store for just around $2.00 a bag the other day and I was excited to try them. They are made of Tofu (soybeans) and Yam flour. Since they do not contain any added oils, sugar or white flour this makes them acceptable for my current diet right now. They come in three varieties (shapes): Fettuccine, Angel Hair, and Spaghetti. So far I have only tried the spaghetti and fettuccine. I did not try the angel hair because they looked a little too thin and squiggly for my taste. I may try them later.

At first glance these bags of noodles are a little scary and funky looking. They do not look appetizing because they are long, white, stringy noodles squirming inside a bag of murky looking water. When you read the nutrition label though it might inspire you to give them a try in spite of their appearance. They only have 20 calories per serving (40 for the whole bag) only 3 grams carbs, and 2 grams of fiber. A plateful of pasta of similar size could easily have over 400 calories and too many carbs and sugar to count!

When you open the bag you may notice a very strong odor (they call it an "authentic aroma" on the bag). This isn't all that bad unless you get very close - aka don't stick your nose down in them to smell them lol. It took me making these things twice to realize what the smell reminded me of - it is very similar to ammonia, but maybe not as strong. The trick to removing this odor is to rinse them several times, probably no less than 3 times. Once they are rinsed and drained lay them on a plate and then blot them with a paper towel 4 or 5 times. You will need to blot and toss the noodles several times to get them thoroughly dry. After you have rinsed and dried them, the instructions on the bag suggests microwaving them for a minute or two and the smell practically disappears.

I found the texture to be quite good - not rubbery as some people suggest. They were also not slimey like others have said. But I think this would be because I really blotted them well to remove as much water as possible. I think that step is very key in getting these noodles to work for your dish. The noodles themselves with just a little salt had a nice flavor and tasted a lot like regular pasta noodles to me and I did not find the taste strange or odd even with the strong odor. I made these with the peanut sauce and some veggies and they really soaked up the sauce well. They seem to absorb the flavor of whatever you are cooking with.

From the way that these look in the bag I expected them to be very fragile and mushy so I was quite surprised at how firm these were and how they held up well. I preferred the spaghetti over the fettuccine only because the fettucine was maybe a tad bit more squishy and seemed to have a lot more water on them. These were also very filling and my mind really seemed convinced I was eating real pasta lol.

I have heard that there is a clear line on who likes these noodles. Usually you either like them or you don't. If you can get past the smell - which I did - then I think that most people would actually really like these as a pasta replacement.
Overall I gave these 4 out of 5 because of the strong smell. I would give them a 5 but I feel like some people just would not be able to get past the smell in order to even try them. If you can ignore the smell, and be willing to do the little bit of extra work to make them right, then I think you would have a perfect pasta replacement in these noodles.

The peanut sauce was good! - New Recipe

I was really wanting to try to make this peanut sauce again, and to make it right. So after a little experimenting today this stuff was actually very good over the tofu noodles and some broccoli, carrots and cauliflower. It's still not 100% fantastic but it is a welcome change from plain vegetables and olive oil. There were several things that went wrong with this recipe the other night: I burnt the peanut butter in the pan, I added too much cayenne, I used agave nectar which has it's own distinct flavor and added too much flavor to the sauce, I waited too long to add all of the liquid ingredients, and I added a dash of olive oil - which it did not need at all. I also found that the trick to getting this just right is to add the liquid ingredients first, one at a time.

So here is the new and improved recipe:

1/4 to 1/2 cup all natural organic peanut butter (ingredients will say just peanuts)
2 teaspoons honey
2 tablespoons naturally brewed soy sauce
1 tablespoon vinegar (I did not have rice vinegar so I used regular - next time I will try rice vinegar)
2 teaspoons ground ginger
barely 1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 cup all natural coconut milk divided into two 1/4 cups (they do carry this at Meijer btw, in the asian / ethnic section for only $1.79 a can)

In a medium sauce pan over very low heat add the peanut butter. Let the peanut butter melt just slightly and then add one 1/4 cup of coconut milk. Stir gently until peanut butter is mixed and melted into the coconut. Coconut milk loses it's flavor as it is heated so that is why it is important to divide the coconut milk - you do not want to add it all at once. Stir in the soy sauce and vinegar until it is well mixed. Add the dry ingredients next. Continue to stir the sauce and adjust the heat as necessary to prevent this from scorching. Add the last half of the coconut milk just before you remove the pan from the heat. This will help retain some of the coconut flavor. Remove from heat. Pour over your favorite dish. Or use as a dipping sauce for chicken, fish or beef.