Birthday Re-cap!

So last Thursday I celebrated my 33rd year of life with 3 very special celebrations.  (And one more on the way...I like to spread the love out!)

Celebration #1: My Sweet Family...
I worked last week and Matt stayed home with the boys on Monday and Wednesday.  Wednesday night I came home from work to Lasagna, my favorite birthday meal, and the smell of chocolate in the air.  Sure enough, there was an early birthday celebration as Matt would be gone all day Thursday in Central Oregon.  It was so sweet and perfect.  Everyone enjoyed my favorite meal together and birthday brownies...much to the happiness of the boys!  As Quinn stated, "I finished my Lasagna.  I need ice cream!"  Truth from the mouth of babes :-)  After brownies it was time for presents, of course!  Zane brought out a big bag they had hidden in the closet.  On top was a card written in my sweet hubby's handwriting.  So I'm expecting this very sweet card about what a wonderful woman, wife, and mom I am, but am I in for a surprise.  This is what I pulled out of the envelope...

The card reads:
"Every year, Stanely would re-enact his birth to the horror of anyone present."

I immediately start laughing and Matt goes on to explain that Zane and Quinn picked this card out themselves even after being encouraged many times by Matt to consider other cards.  It makes me smile every time I look at it.  I have no idea where their sense of humor comes from ;-) 

Zane made up for the silly card when he gave me a card that he made.  

When I asked him what it said, he read it for me.  "I really love you and I really like you.  I like to kiss you."  Oh, my sweet boy, you melt me heart!  Mama loves you too!  I'm keeping this to remind myself that you like me during the teenage years!

Celebration #2: Sweet Friend...

On my actual birthday I worked in the morning, finishing up the class I teach.  About 15 minutes before I finished, my very sweet friend Sara surprised me at work with yummy cupcakes!  She then whisked me away for an afternoon of pampering...lunch out, coffee, and pedicures.  So much fun!  I have purple toes and even though I can't see them with my thick socks and boots on, they make me smile every time I think of them.

Celebration #3: Sweet Family and Friends...

On Sunday, we celebrated my 33rd year for a third time with my sisters and some close friends.  It was a sweet time of chatting and eating yummy apple crisp.  So thankful for rich times of laughing and communing together.

So I've been 33 for 5 whole days and I can say its treated me well so far.  I've often reflected lately on how much my life has changed, especially in the last 5 years.  I can honestly say that the older I get, the more comfortable I feel in my skin and more comfortable with who I am.  I'm excited to continue the journey...to learn more about myself, my family, and my friends...to love my God, my family, and my friends with what I learn.  So heres to sharing that journey with friends and family!  

I love all of you!

How To: Make Refried Beans

To say that my family likes refried beans would be the understatement of the year. I think we'd starve without them!  They are my go to meal at least once and often twice a week. They are usually consumed in some form for lunch 4-5 times a week. And, if you're feeling a little under the weather in the Benedict house, we'll offer you a tortilla with beans and cheese. Why you ask? Because Matt thinks they make everything, including upset tummy's, better!

Last year I read some articles that sited research about BPA in the lining of cans contaminating the food inside them. Eating beans, not just refried beans, has become our main source of protein. The easiest way to get beans is in cans. I knew I would never be able to totally eliminate canned foods from our diet, sometimes we just need the connivence of the can, but I knew we could reduce the amount of canned products we were eating and that the best place to start was with the refried beans. So, I began researching how to make my own refried beans. When I learned that I could make a large batch of beans and freeze the leftovers for later, I was sold.  

So, here is my "How to Make Refried Beans Benedict Style!"  Enjoy!

Recipe: Refried Beans

Total Time Needed:  All day...but only about an hour of hands on work!

3 c dried pinto beans

1 onion

1/2 fresh or frozen jalapeno or other hot pepper

2 T minced garlic or garlic cloves

4 t salt

1 1/2 t ground pepper

1 T cumin

1/2 T chili powder

9 cups water

Step 1: Pour dried beans into a colander to rinse.  Before rinsing, sift through the beans and remove any broken, split, and rock like beans.  After all the broken once are gone, rinse the beans with cold water.

Beans ready to be sorted through and rinsed.

The broken beans I removed from my beans.

Step 2: Place the dried beans in a glass bowl and cover with water.  You should use a 1:3 ratio; one cup of beans to 3 cups of water.  I usually rinse and put my beans aside to soak first thing in the morning.  I want them to soak for at least 4 hours before cooking.  Its okay if it goes a little longer.  

Step 3: Usually around 1:00, I prep my soaked beans to cook.  I quarter an onion and chop up a hot pepper.  I've been using a hot pepper I grew in my garden that I've frozen, but you could also us a jalapeno pepper.  The more spice you like, the more hot pepper you should add.

I put the onion, pepper into a large stock pot and add garlic, cumin, chili powder, salt, and pepper.

Then I drain the beans that have been soaking and rinse them again.  I add them to the pot and again add water at the 1:3 ratio.

Step 4:  Now its time to cook the beans.  I usually cook the beans on medium-medium high heat for about 1-2 hours.  Once the water takes on a murky, mushy bean color, I reduce the heat to medium-low and continue to simmer for another 2-3 hours.

Step 5:  Once the beans are fully cooked its time to make refried beans!  You will need to drain the beans and reserve some of the liquid.  This is the set-up I use.  I put my colander in one of my mixing bowls.

Then I set the bowls in the sink...bean splatter...and pour the beans into the colander.

Then I pour the beans into a large bowl and use my potato masher to mash the beans!  This is a great arm work out :-)  You want to mash the beans, adding the reserved liquid, until you get the consistency you desire.  Remember the big pieces of onion we cooked with the beans?   You'll notice big chunks of them as you mash, but they should break up easily into the beans.

Step 6:  Enjoy!  Here is what my big bowl of beans looked like when I was finished.  Our favorite way to enjoy fresh refried is with fresh, homemade flour tortillas.  I'll share the recipe for those on here soon.

So there is no way we can eat all of these beans in one sitting.  So after we eat our fill, I divide the leftovers into smaller containers and let cool.  (Forgot to take a picture of this)  After they have cooled, I put the beans in the freezer.  When we're ready for more beans, I set a frozen container of beans on the counter for about 4 hours until it defrosts.

One more thing before I send you off to make your own beans.  Rinse all utensils and bowls used to make beans immediately after using them.  Dried beans turn into cement and it will take you lots of scrubbing and some muttering under the breath to get you dishes bean free again.  :-)

Happy Bean Making!

Loving People

On my way home from work tonight I saw a bumper sticker that made me smile.

Love people.

Cook them yummy food

I've been thinking a lot about life and what's important to me, what I enjoy.  I love to cook for my family and friends.  I love making food and the act of sitting down with family and friends to enjoy a meal together.  It warms my heart to cook for people and see the smile of pure contentment when they take that first bite.   What thrills me even more is when I can make something so wholesome and healthy, but no one has to know because it tastes so good.  When I know Matt is having a hard day, my way of loving him is to make him a yummy treat.  Maybe cooking is my way of loving people?

However, cooking for others also scares me.  What if I make something they don't like?  What if my recipe flops?  I've made many of those...Most recently I opened the wrong side of the salt and dumped over a tablespoon of salt in our soup.  I tried to get a lot of it out, but all you could taste was the salt.  Yuck!...  I always worry when I make something to give to people.  I worry that my gift of food will be more a burden than a joy.  I worry that people will see my gift as prideful and so often I shy away from sharing and in my own way, shy away from loving the people God has placed in my life.  So it is my prayer that God's love and heart for the people in my life would over take my insecurities and shyness and that I would love all the people God has put in my life and cook yummy food to share.  So don't be surprised if you get a dinner invite or some yummy cookies sometime soon :-)  Also, keep checking back as I've been brainstorming, cooking, and taking pics of some yummy recipes I want to share with you on here.

Pumpkin Muffins

Matt and I celebrated ten years of marriage a week ago today.  Wow!  It seems like yesterday, but yet I have a hard time imagining life without him.  I am truly blessed.  Now, I'm sure you are wondering why I bring this up in a post titled "Pumpkin Muffin."  The answer is quit simple, it was Matt who introduced me to the amazingness of Pumpkin Muffins while we were dating.  Matt had put together a pumpkin muffin recipe that was famous in his family and he made them for me.  One bite and I was in love...with the boy who made them and the muffins themselves. :-)  After we married, I was given permission to make the muffins myself.  I remember the shock I felt when I first saw the recipe.  They have veggies in them, they should be healthy...WRONG!  The original recipe has 4 eggs, 1 1/2 cups of oil, and 2 cups of sugar for 24 muffins.  So as the years went by, I continued to make them but in limited amounts each fall.

Then after Zane was born I started baking and experimenting with making healthier baked goods for my family.  One of the first recipes that needed tackling was the pumpkin muffins.  The first time I made this new and improved recipe for Matt I didn't tell him that they were his muffins healthified.  He gobbled them up.  I've continued to make them every fall and they are one of our family's favorite fall treats.  The new recipe has no eggs, no oil, and only 1/2 cup of butter and 1 1/3 cup sugar for 24 muffins.  Enjoy :-)

Pumpkin Muffins
Makes 24 muffins


1/2 cup butter, soften
2/3 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup white sugar
2t baking soda
1 cup applesauce
1 15 oz can pumpkin
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoon salt
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup white chocolate chips, raisins, or nuts...whatever make you happy!

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Grease or line 24 muffin cups.

2. Cream together butter, brown sugar, white sugar.  You want to mix until it gets fluffy.

3. Dissolve the baking soda in the 1 cup of applesauce.  Combine the applesauce and pumpkin with the butter/sugar mixture.

4.  Add the cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt.  Mix in the flour one cup at a time.

5.  Fold in white chocolate chips or whatever you are using.


6. Fill grease/lined muffin tins about 3/4 full.  Bake for 20-25 minutes until they are firm on top.

7. Enjoy as soon as they are cool enough to not burn your mouth.  Zane was so excited to have one.  No sooner had I pulled the muffins out of the tin and turned around to grab my camera had Zane pulled up a stool and was drooling over them.  The smile is so big because I promised he could have one if he gave me a good smile!

Welcome Back!

Hello again friends!  Sorry for the long vacation between the last post and today.  Life just seemed to get busy and I pushed writing on the blog to the side and we dove into getting the business going, summer, and chasing around 2 little boys who are not so little anymore.

...See what I mean, not so little.  For Halloween this year we were all about saving people.  We had a fireman and Spiderman running around our house all day.  Never have I felt so safe :-)

I think the biggest reason for my break from blogging is my fear of sharing myself with other people.  I have always struggled with worrying about what other people think.  Its scary putting yourself out there; will people like what I write, will they even read it?  What if I misspell something or don't use the correct grammar? (By the way, I just misspelled 3 words in the that last sentence!  Thank goodness for spell check!)  But over the past month I've had multiple people come up and ask about why I'm not blogging anymore or ask about recipes I'm making and wondering if they could get a copy of it.  So here I am again.  Sharing my life with you; our journey in starting a business, creating healthy food for my family, running, being wife, mother, friend, and most importantly God's child.  I hope you enjoy and feel free to leave comments on what you read.

Come back tomorrow and I'll have share my very yummy pumpkin muffin recipe with you!

See you soon!

Chocolate Chip Cookies, with the Hanners Twist

First, a little update on the family...
 
...So, this has not been our year as far as health goes.  We've seemed to have caught every cold and flu bug that's come our way...part of the reason I've not been posting lately.  I commented to Matt this morning that normally we don't use medicine up before it expires.  Not this year.  Not only have we been using it up, but I bought the extra large bottle the other day because we've used so much.  NO GOOD.  So if you think about it, pray for health for us. We are a little run down and discouraged by so much sickness.

...As far as business goes, its been good.  Matt's has jobs on the books through the end of May.  We are so amazed and thankful at how God has provided for our family.

Now on to the fun stuff!  So you have probably gotten the idea that I like to make healthy treats for my family to enjoy.  All of my boys have a good sweet tooth and they come by in honestly.  Lately, my mission has been to come up with some healthy cookie recipes that tasted great, satisfied the sweet tooth, and was some what healthy for you.  So here is my latest attempt.  They have only 70 calories per cookie, no refined sugars(except for the chocolate chips), and taste great.  Hope you enjoy!

The cookie dough.

1 Tablespoon of cookie dough on the sheets.

Flattened cookies ready to bake.

  

All done and ready to enjoy.

Hanner's Chocolate Chip Cookies

4 cups rolled oats

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup peanut butter

4 Tablespoon butter

1/4 cup applesauce

2 eggs

1/3 cup honey

1 Tablespoon vanilla

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup butterscotch chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease two cookie sheets
2. Mix oats, whole wheat flour baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.
3. Cream peanut butter, butter, eggs, honey, and vanilla.  Add flour mixture and mix.  Stir in chocolate chips.
4.  Use a cookie scoop or moisten hands and roll 1 Tablespoon of batter into balls.  Place on cookie sheet and flatten.  Cook for 10 minutes.  Cool for about 2 minutes before transferring to cookie sheet.

Choices

Last weekend, we played hard.  We went to Bend for a long weekend with my family.  It felt great and very relaxing while we were there: two days of sledding, shopping, long relaxing meals as a family, a long run for me, a hike without kiddos for Matt and I, and late night movies.  However, when we woke up Monday morning and had to get back to real life, both Matt and I were feeling sluggish.  We have come to the conclusion that 32 year old bodies don't bounce back from the sledding hill as well as a 4 year old's body!  Anyways, the recoup as well as another busy week had my normal running schedule on hold.  I did some interval training and weights at home but no runs until Thursday morning.  It was dry all Thursday morning until we headed out for our run.  It rained the entire 5 miles...the drenching Oregon mist that gets everything wet...it stopped as soon as we got home.  Oh well!  It felt great to run again after a few days break.

When we got home from the run,  I was feeling good.  I'd just done 5 miles with my boys in the stroller at an 8:30 mile pace the entire way, we'd walked the last two blocks together as a cool down...looking under rocks, spying birds, and splashing in puddles.  My heart was happy, that is until I opened the mail and discovered a very confusing letter.  I'm not going to go into the details here, but needless to say it made my heart start pounding, the anger of this fall return, and the helpless feelings invade my normal calm.  It is amazing how something so small and insignificant as a piece of paper in the mail can change our attitudes.  I didn't want the news to ruin Matt's day, so I kept it myself for most of the day, stewing over it, getting more frustrated and more angry by the minute.  Thankfully when Matt finally did get home and read the letter, he was able to figure out some of the fine print and discover that all of my anger and frustration of the day was for nothing.

The experience made me realize some things about myself.  First, how quickly I place my trust in the world.  All through out the day there was a war inside of me of who to trust: the tangible letter or my God.  I am a visual, tactile person.  I like to touch it and see it to truly understand.  That's great when it comes to reading, decorating my house, or finding something on a map.  Not so helpful when it comes to faith.  It is hard it is to trust and believe what we cannot see.  My prayer: "I believe, help my unbelief, especially in what I cannot see or touch."

The second thing I realized through the experience was how much we still have to deal with as we working through all that has happened to our family in the last 6 months.  I realize more and more that forgiveness is a choice, its not something that I feel.  How easy it is to forgive when all is going my way, but how difficult it is when things suddenly turn.  I could not believe how quickly all of the feelings returned and it made me realize how quickly those feelings can over take rational thought!  I am normally a very calm and in control person but as Matt will tell you, that was not the Hannah he found when he came home Thursday night!  I need to purposely choose to forgive over my own feelings of anger and hurt, even when its hard.   I need to choose to believe that God is in control, that He has a plan in all things, even when I cannot see it.  Life is about our choices, both the good choices and the not so good.  So heres to a week of choosing to believe even when I can't see and to forgive even when it hurts!