Sentiments by Denise: A Blessed Easter

It was great to worship together as a family again for Easter Sunday. Both of our adult children attend different churches than we do, so we opted to all go to Emilee's church yesterday. It was a great service filled with music that expressed the awesomeness of serving a risen KING (!) and the pastor's message highlighted the Resurrection and emphasized a call to Faith. It was an encouraging service.

After wards we gathered at our house, along with Emilee's boyfriend, Daniel, to check out the Easter baskets - yes, my children AND husband still enjoy getting baskets filled with candy and other goodies on Easter. (My Easter gift was a new Vera Bradley purse! - no candy for me!).

This kid has to pose for most photos! He wanted some Reese's eggs in his Easter basket, but all I could find (*coughlastminuteshoppercough*) was this HUGE one. I really don't think he minded, though. I did tell him that it has a serving size suggestion of 4 and he gave me a look that said "like that'll happen, Mom". I also added some Cadbury creme eggs, Pez, M&M's, a Best Buy gift card and some other goodies.

Emilee and Daniel. They just started "officially" dating at the beginning of the new year though they've been good friends for more than a year before that.
Emilee picked out most of the items in her basket since she crashed our basket shopping "party" the other night. She picked swedish fish and rainbow twizzlers and also a Sudoku book. I added a bottle of POM juice, some candy filled eggs and a couple Starbucks gift cards.

Daniel got a chocolate bunny, some jelly beans, M&M's, an Itunes gift card and this package of Peeps. I use to buy these every Easter for my kids and then one year they both admitted that they really didn't like them. So, I haven't bought Peeps in years - but Daniel loves them! (these two are crazy!).

I only took one photo of Ed and it was in the middle of him chewing a piece of candy - less than attractive, so I won't add it. His basket contained some favorite candy that he likes: Almond Joy, Peanut M&M's, Toberlone, and Ghirardelli Chocolate Caramels. He also got a DVD. Ed is diabetic and really shouldn't eat candy, but that doesn't mean a whole lot. So, we carefully dole out a serving size (or less) each day and he gets his chocolate "fix" and I have a happy husband. He monitors his glucose level several times a day so he knows if he has "room" to cheat.

If you want to see what we enjoyed for Easter dinner you can visit Emilee's blog - she actually took pictures (if you visit her blog, please leave her a comment - she's just starting to blog and this will certainly encourage her!). I was too busy trying to get everything on the table in a timely manner. Of course, I fixed a spiral cut ham. The guys were thrilled! Stephen had given up red meat for Lent so he was especially looking forward to this meal. Emilee and I did not eat any ham. We were quite satisfied with all the vegetables and other sides I made.
After the kids left, I laid down for a nap that turned into a 2-1/2 hour sleep fest! I was sure tired, but then didn't go to sleep last night until after 10:30pm. That really messes up my sleep plan, so tonight I plan to get to bed at an earlier hour!

Last night for dinner, I fixed a fabulous salad to enjoy (while Ed made himself a ham sandwich - go figure!). I try to eat a big, veggie-filled salad 2-3 times per week, depending on what I have on hand for ingredients. Making a salad like this takes time to fix and time to eat. Here's my salad-fixin tutorial:

Start with some fresh greens - I prefer a baby spring mix (argula, red leaf, chard, frisee), spinach, and romaine. I usually chop all the greens and put them in my salad spinner, rinsing in ice cold water and spinning them dry. This makes the greens exceptionally crisp, as you can see above.

I found these peppers at the local health food store the other day - nearly seedless! I love adding lots of variety and color to my salads. After digging through the veggie bin of the fridge I also cut up some celery, carrots, and cauliflower to add to the salad.

I added a little bit of this wonderful cheese I had picked up at Whole Foods recently (remember Stephen hanging out at the cheese counter? Also pictured above are Dr. Krackers Pumpkin Seed Cheddar crackers, which make a great salad side nibble. Love that CRUNCH!

Doesn't this look wonderful?! I also added a tablespoon of chopped pecans and a sprinkling of dried cranberries, too, for even more flavor!
Because of the chunkiness and awesome crunch, this meal forces me to eat slowly and savor each bite. It's so colorful and every bite bursts with flavor - definitely not a boring meal!

While I was cutting up veggies, I cut up extra carrot, celery, and pepper sticks to take for my lunch today.

They went great with my new favorite hummus:

So tasty! I like this hummus so much that I've been browsing the internet, looking for some recipes to come up with a homemade hummus similar to this. Trader Joe's has some really great products - this is one that keeps me going back.

I'm sitting here listening to the rain fall outside my studio window (yes, the windows are open and some raindrops are sneaking in!). It's such a relaxing and peaceful sound. I love the rain because I know that it is preparing all the beauty of Spring around us -green grass, lovely flowers, my freshly tilled garden with transplanted strawberry plants from our sweet neighbor. I can't wait to plant some more vegetables this year. I've expanded my garden and I'm planning out the plant sequence. I'm sure I'll be posting about that soon enough.

4 Comments

Thanks for the shout-out again, Momma! That salad looked quite yummy! We made tacos for dinner tonight and I made a meatless version for me w/ refried+black beans, and then ground beef+refried beans for the boys. We had peas for our veggie, along with chips+salsa and then beans+rice. Lots to choose from and we ate a TON!

I was gonna blog about it, but my pictures turned out crappy, so I just thought I'd add it here. :)

Posted by: Emilee Joy | April 05, 2010 at 08:32 PM

It looks like you and I have similar taste buds. I went shopping today and had every single item in my cart that you put in your salad. It looks incredible and I cant wait to have one for dinner tomorrow night.

Posted by: Kimberly | April 06, 2010 at 12:38 AM