Welcome to this week's A Good Laugh Friday! For information on what it's all about, look here.
I am still on the fence about how to continue this weekly update. It doesn't seem to be catching on. lol. For now, I will post a video my daughter, Rachel, took of my son, Colin, groovin' to some I-can't-believe-it's-actually-called-music. It made me laugh! Forgive the bad quality. Our camera is apparently the low-tech version.
Untitled from Paula Brazzell on Vimeo.
Have you heard about Swagbucks??
According to their website:
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I joined Swagbucks a few months ago and mainly use it as my search engine. And I love it! I have earned enough points to redeem my first two $5 amazon gift cards and made this purchase just this week without spending a dime. Gotta love that. :o)
(Expert Photography Skills)
~~~~~Shameless plug alert!~~~~~
If you would like to join Swagbucks and start earning rewards, PLEASE join through my account and I can earn swagbucks from your searches, too!! Just find the button on my side bar, click on it and it will take you straight to Swagbucks and sign you up through my account if you decide to go for it. When you sign up and others sign up from your account, you also benefit from their searches! Easy shmeezy.
Love Swagbucks!
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Welcome to this week's Tuesday Tastiness! I'm so glad you have joined me once again!
Today I thought I would let you know how I make beef sausage. If you have ever read the ingredients on a package of sausage, you know all the undesirable fillers that are there! The packages of the healthier versions are usually cost-prohibitive. So I love this idea! I found the recipe on allrecipes.com and follow it fairly closely to the original recipe posted (except I use beef instead of ground turkey and adjust the ingredients that give it heat).
Homemade Beef Sausage
2 pounds hamburger meat (I use grass-fed/finished when able)
3/4 t ground ginger
1 1/2 t salt (I use Real Salt)
1 t dried sage
1/4 t cayenne pepper (more or less to taste)
3/4 t ground black pepper (more or less to taste)
There are two different ways to make this sausage:
1. You can make sausage patties by mixing all the ingredients together with your hands, form into patties, and cook in a pan or on a griddle, on both sides, till browned.
2. You can crumble the meat in a pan, add the rest of the ingredients and stir till browned. If you like to drain your meat, cook the meat first, drain, then add the other ingredients and warm through.
I usually make a big batch using the second choice, and freeze in bags with 1/2 pound each, because I like to add a bit of the sausage to scrambled eggs and white gravy for a delicious meal of "breakfast for supper".
Next week, look forward to my recipe of wonderful, healthy gravy!
And enjoy your sausage!
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Read about my FREE Swagbucks reward HERE.
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Read about A GOOD LAUGH FRIDAY HERE.
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This post linked to:
The Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap
Ultimate Recipe Swap at Thursdays at Life As Mom
Hello all! It's good to be back for A Good Laugh Friday! If you don't know what A Good Laugh Friday is, read about it here. I am excited about this weekly update and hope that it will become a time of reflection for both you and me as we review our week and remember our happy moments - whether they were many (what a blessing!) or few (He's still faithful!).
As I have thought more about this, my vision for this weekly exchange has evolved just a bit. I want to bless and be blessed by others who have experienced much laughter, but I also want to pray for and encourage those who have not had many opportunities throughout their week for it. I have been there - and understand. I have even considered changing the name to: A Good Laugh (or not) Friday. What do you think? Let me know your thoughts.
"Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep." Romans 12:15 (ESV)
This week has been a fairly quiet one centered around my home and family. Regular, status quo, normal. I don't have any belly laughs to record, but I have had some sweet moments as I have noticed the beginnings of Spring here in south central Oklahoma. The birds are singing, the breeze wind! strong Oklahoma wind! sweeping down the plain! is blowing and flowing through the house as we have opened the doors and windows. Short sleeves are finding their way to hangers now as I drag them down from the top of the closet, and our baby fig tree is finally growing leaves. We wondered if it was going to make it after its heat stroke last summer and it appears to be coming back to life!
My favorite season used to be Fall. I loved the weather cooling down after the sweltering heat of the summer. It was, and is, refreshing. But after spiraling downward into a sense of hopelessness off and on over the past few years (and coming through now to the other side of it), I am now more than ever in love with Spring! It signifies new life, new beginnings, fresh hope, reborn beauty after a dark and dreary period.
"He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God." Psalm 40:3 (ESV)
So today I rejoice in newness of life and the beauty of Spring. And what indicates a new life better than our risen Lord and Savior! Have a beautiful and blessed Easter, my friends!
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If you have a good laugh you want to share with the rest of us, or if your week did not include many laughs, please write a post about it on your blog, link your post (not your home page) to my blog (and if you want to use my A Good Laugh button above, that would be awesome!), and then come back here to link back to your blog using Mister Linky below.
This is my adaptation of a recipe a friend of mine gave me when she was on the Daniel Fast at the beginning of this year. I am not sure if this recipe is on a Daniel Fast website or not, but I think it is. The reason it is a Daniel Fast recipe is that it has no added sugar (only sugar from the fruits) and uses dairy-free margarine or butter. Of course, you know I will only suggest real butter. :o)
I thought it would be a great recipe to share this week since I gave my recipe for granola last week. What timing!
And it tastes wonderful!
Easy Fruit-Sweetened Berry Crisp
2 1/2 cups fresh or frozen berries
1/2 cup apricot preserves (fruit-only type like Smuckers Simply Fruit, etc.) (I am thinking any type of preserves would work if you don't want to use apricot)
1 1/2 cups granola
Butter
Preheat oven to 350. In a bowl, mix berries and preserves. Place berry mixture in a greased 8 x 8 or 9 x 9 dish.
Sprinkle granola evenly over the top of the berries and scatter dots of butter on top of granola (or melt the butter and pour it over).
Bake for about 25 minutes or until granola is a little browned and berries are bubbly. Serves 4-6.
Enjoy!!
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Be sure and stop by A Good Laugh Friday here.
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This post linked to:
The Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap
Food on Fridays at Ann Kroeker
Ultimate Recipe Swap at Life As Mom
Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop
Works For Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family
"I wait for the Lord, my soul waits; and in His word I put my hope."
Psalm 130:5
I really enjoy reading Homestead Revival and Amy has started something new each week - a Blogging Bee where you can write about some of the interesting posts you have read throughout the week and help generate more traffic to other blogs around the blogosphere that your readers may not know about. Since I love reading blogs, I think it's a great idea!
Some of my faves this week were:
- This post at Heavenly Homemakers that gives us a recipe for homemade chewy granola bars. My Tuesday Tastiness post this week was for homemade granola, but I have not found a good recipe for chewy granola bars without traditional brown sugar. I am really looking forward to trying out her recipe that only uses honey as a sweetener! It sounds very simple and easy.
- Sometimes I get overwhelmed at the thought of making a total nutrition changeover, especially as it affects my whole family and the tastes we are are all used to, so I really enjoy reading about simple steps that everyone can take to start out slowly and work more changes in gradually. This post at Keeper of the Home does that just perfectly for me and I am happy to know that I am already doing a lot of those for my family. At least I'm going in the right direction! That's good!
- And if I may post one more that is a blatant request for any readers who may have young teen daughters who enjoy knitting or who may have young teen daughters who just enjoy conversing with other girls, my daughter has a blog over here at Heartfelt Comfort that she would LOVE to have more traffic to and interaction with others who enjoy her same interests.
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