Pizza!

homemade pizza...yum!

I'll start of this post with these pictures of the pizza I made last night. When I first began my quest to clean up my diet and eat more healthy foods, I had a very difficult time giving up our family pizza nights each week. It's a tradition, and it was hard to sit and eat a salad (even though I love salads!) while the rest of the family was eating pizza. I decided that if I had to give it up, I would. But I went on a search for a healthy pizza recipe and was delighted when I found one!

For awhile, I tried to eat the "more healthy" pizzas that you can find at the grocery store. They were a little better than your regular pizza! But even though they used whole ingredients, it was still processed food. The pizzas still had a lot of fat and preservatives, and after eating it I felt like I'd just eaten the same regular pizza that my family did. The only plus to getting a "healthy" frozen pizza from the store was the fact that I'd buy the individual pizzas, so my portion size was manageable. That wasn't enough of a plus to keep me on that path, however, so I searched for a good homemade wheat crust to use.

After finding a good recipe for a simple whole wheat pizza crust (thank you, Google!), I just loaded it up with as many veggies as I had on hand (peppers, onions, mushrooms, broccoli, etc) and topped it with mozzarella cheese. It's delicious! And when you pull it out of the oven, it doesn't have pools of grease sitting on top. (That would always gross me out!) As I've found over and over again, homemade food really is the best!

There are hundreds of recipes for pizza dough online, and to be honest, I just clicked on the first one I found. When I was looking, I was in a time crunch and couldn't wait 30 minutes or more for the dough to rise, which is why this recipe doesn't call for that. All it takes is:

1 pkg, dry yeast
1 C warm water
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil
2 1/2 C flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in remaining ingredients. Let stand 5 minutes. Spread in buttered pans. Put on toppings. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Easy! If anyone else makes their pizzas and has a yummy recipe to share, please do so. Our family has switched over from buying frozen pizzas to making our own in the past few months, and it's working great. It saves us a lot of money (because we eat pizza every Friday!) and we're able to personalize them by putting on the toppings that we all like. And seeing everyone in our family likes something different, it has alleviated a lot of stress because we can make exactly what we want. :-)

Wow! I wasn't planning on taking up a whole post by talking about pizza. My next post will be much more spiritual, as I'm excited to share a search on beauty that the Lord is showing me in His Word. Keep checking back! I promise that it won't be a month before you hear from me again. :-)

Till then ~ Bekah

All Consuming...

In the past few weeks, I've been pondering the last two verses in Hebrews chapter 12 that read, "Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire". My thoughts drifted to that passage of Scripture, because the Lord has been challenging me (again!) to make Him the consuming passion of my life. I find it all to easy to go through the motions of living my normal life day to day with very little thought of Him, who He is and what He has done for me. That's not to say that I don't ever think of Him (because I do) but not in a consuming way. Actually, I spend a larger portion of time pondering what to eat during the day and how many calories I'm eating, what exercises I should do in my workouts, and how to burn more calories throughout the day.


Now, I don't think that it's necessarily wrong to think about those things. The Lord makes it very clear in Scripture that our bodies belong to Him (1 Cor. 6) and He wants me to take good care of them by eating healthy and being in good physical shape. But when you are trying to lose weight, it is all too easy to take "caring for my body" to an extreme. Especially when you get frustrated by not achieving the results that you want and have been told to expect.


So, I'm stuck in a position where I'm trying to reach a balance, a happy medium. I don't want to be like a pendulum, swinging back and forth between obsession and carelessness. Neither of those are pleasing to the Lord. And neither of them are a life that I want to live. I don't want to just "give up" and work on maintaining when I feel like I can (and should) lose more, but I also don't want to obsess and look for happiness in a number. My emotions should be controlled by the Spirit, not by what my eyes see. And that's true in every area of life!


So, what to do? How do I find this happy medium? How do I know when to push harder and when to back off? How will I ever find out the right amount of food to eat, the best way for me to exercise, and the motivation to keep pressing on when I seem to be spinning my wheels and getting nowhere?

You know, I love how simple God makes the answers to our problems. (And yet there are also times when I wish He would make it more complicated, because then I could get by with the excuse that His solutions are too hard!) But there are no excuses. Even this blonde can read His Word and understand exactly what He wants me to do.

First off, I need to stop comparing my body to others. It's that simple - just stop comparing! Stop feeding discontentment. I am a unique creation, and He has made me for one purpose, which is to glorify Him. And that has nothing to do with what size I wear or how long I can run! In order for Him to work through me, I need to get over this obsession with how I look, especially compared to others. I am blessed by remembering, "Charm is deceptive and beauty is vain. But a women who fear God is to be praised." Proverbs 31:30 There is such freedom when you care only how He views you! No other opinion matters...sounds too good to be true.

Secondly, I need to eat simply to fuel my body and not to "satisfy" any emotion or desire I might be experiencing. He is the Bread of Life. He is the Living Water. (John 6) He alone can satisfy any desire I have, and I need to turn to Him instead of food.

Thirdly, I need to do the work to be in good shape. I can't give up when things get hard or slack off because I don't feel like doing it. I want to be ready and able to serve Him in whatever He calls me to do. Being in good shape is not just about being a certain size or weight. It aids in keeping my body strong to fight against sickness or disease, which means I'll be around longer to serve Him! It boosts my emotions and gives me energy. Exercising has too many benefits to skip out on it!

Sounds easy enough to do, right? I mean, it's simple to understand. I like this quote, "The concept is grasped, but the execution is a little elusive." How true! I often grasp the truths of the Word but seem to fail in executing them in day to day life. I have a lot of head knowledge, and my constant prayer is that those truths would become heart knowledge. I don't want to miss what God is trying to teach me because I'm so focused on achieving an outward figure that will fade away someday. I'm searching Scripture to find the balance. And I know that He will make everything clear as I continue digging in!

Seeking to find ~ Bekah