Easy peasy tofu teriyaki. One pan preparation yet so good. Add to your rice bowl or eat as is.
Tofu Teriyaki
15 oz firm tofu drained and cut into cubes
Teriyaki sauce
6 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons syrup
1 teaspoon each garlic, onion powders
1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1 tablespoon cornstarch in 2 tablespoons water.
Mix soy sauce, syrup garlic onion and ginger in a saute pan and mix. Add the tofu and allow the sauce to boil and then add cornstarch water slurry. Allow the mixture to boil till tofu is covered with sauce.
These little bites are addictive. I almost ate the whole thing. My picky taster, my husband, loves these too. He was surprised that something I prepared healthy is actually decadent.
Peanut Butter Coconut Rice Chex Bites
1/2 cup peanut butter
6 dates, chopped
1 1/2 cup coconut flakes
2 cups Rice Chex cereal, crushed coarsely
1-2 tablespoons maple syrup
Place all the ingredients in a bowl, mix with your hands and shape into balls. I prefer that the Rice Chex are not pulverized.
Dear Lord, help me to continually say yes to You.Help me not be afraid to trust You and Your will for my life.I want to experience everything You have for me
She was much perplexed by [Gabriel’s] words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. —Luke 1:29
Religious obedience means a willingness to let go of the consequences on some level and to trust a Bigger Picture. This is what we see Mary doing here in the great annunciation scene. In the obedience of faith we do something because it is true at a deeper level, we feel called at a deeper level perhaps, and not because it immediately works, makes sense or shows likelihood of “success.” Often, we have to let go of the immediate consequences to trust larger or longer-term consequences. Mother Teresa loved to say: “We were not created to be successful but to be obedient.” Obedience is to be true to our deepest voices, which is the only way God can speak to us. But that means we have to have some deeper voices! We have to be practiced in prayerfully listening to our unconscious, to others and even “entertaining angels who usually come unaware” (Hebrews 13:2). How else could Mary have been ready for Gabriel?
Sooner or later we all have to say, “I have to do what I have to do,” as did Franz Jägerstätter, the Austrian peasant who almost single-handedly opposed Hitler. Have you ever been caught that way by the Word of God? “I just know I have to do it. My family doesn’t understand, my friends criticize me, but I know it is the Word planted in my heart for me at this time.” One must feel very lonely and filled with doubt at such times. Yet, after all is said and done, the will of God, more than anything else, is the feverish desire to do the will of God. People who are centered in God instead of themselves always hear larger voices. Such people will know what they must do without being able to prove it. They have the passion to carry through on what must be done. Blessed Franz Jägerstätter was not supported by his church, church teaching, his bishop, his parish priest or even his wife (she told me so personally, with tears in her eyes!).
Mary’s “yes” was said in the darkness of faith. She was not certain, nor assured by any Scripture quote, doctrine or pope. She just heard what she heard, and did what God asked her to do, accepting the consequences. She had enough inner authority to not need a lot of outer authority.
Reflect
In what way do you have a feverish desire to do the will of God?
God, you are my ever-patient creator. You are my abundant invitation. Help me to respond to the layers of my life with a Yes you have heard before. Help me echo the Yes that Mary gave in these places of my life…
If you are using spaghetti as the noodles for Lo Mein, the instant pot approach is for you. One step is used.
Instant Pot Lo Mein
8 oz spaghetti uncooked
2 cups water
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 teaspoon sweetener
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 carrot cut in small pieces
1 green pepper sliced wide julienne
Add the water at the bottom of instant pot. Add the soy sauce, oyster sauce, sweetener and garlic powder. Mix thoroughly. Then add the spaghetti and vegetables.
Close the Instant Pot lid and set the valve to Sealing position.
Press the "Pressure Cook" or "Manual" button and set the time to 2 minutes.
When it finishes cooking, let the Instant Pot naturally release the steam for 10 minutes then quick release using the venting position.
Mix the noodles and vegetables. Serve with green onions and douse with 1 teaspoon sesame oil and sesame seeds if you like.
Jesus, I want to be like You who obeyed the Father without complaint. You embraced the chains of humanity when You walked this earth. Convict me whenever I complain or compare myself with others. Give me Your attitude of humility and thankful acceptance. I want to be like the Apostle Paul who learned contentment in every circumstance. I choose to continually offer You a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that give praise to Your name (Hebrews 13:15). I long to bring a smile to Your face. Teach me the power of a thankful heart. I know that Your truth dwells in a thankful heart. ~ Debbie McDaniel
Have you ever noticed how your eyes open a bit wider when you are surprised? It is as if you had been asleep, merely day-dreaming or sleepwalking through some routine activity, and you hear your favorite tune on the radio, or look up from the puddles on the parking lot and see a rainbow, or the telephone rings and it’s the voice of an old friend, and all of a sudden you’re awake. Even an unwelcome surprise shakes us out of complacency and makes us come alive. We may not like it at first, but looking back, we can always recognize it as a gift. Humdrum equals deadness; surprise equals life. In fact, my favorite name for the One I worship in wonder – the only name that does not limit God – is Surprise.
Right this moment, as I remember spiritual giants I have been privileged to meet – Mother Teresa, Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, His Holiness the Dalai Lama – I can still feel the life energy they radiated. But how did they come by this vitality? There is no lack of surprises in this world, but such radiant aliveness is rare. What I observed was that these people were all profoundly grateful, and then I understood the secret.
Surprise is a seed. Gratefulness sprouts when we rise to the challenge of surprise.
A surprise does not make us automatically alive. Aliveness is a matter of give-and-take, of response. If we allow surprise to merely baffle us, it will stun us and stunt our growth. Instead, every surprise is a challenge to trust in life and so to grow. Surprise is a seed. Gratefulness sprouts when we rise to the challenge of surprise. The great ones in the realm of Spirit are so intensely alive because they are so deeply grateful.
Gratefulness can be improved by practice. But where shall beginners begin? The obvious starting point is surprise. You will find that you can grow the seeds of gratefulness just by making room. If surprise happens when something unexpected shows up, let’s not expect anything at all. Let’s follow Alice Walker’s advice. “Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise.”
Photo by Malte Wingen
To expect nothing may mean not taking for granted that your car will start when you turn the key. Try this and you will be surprised by a marvel of technology worthy of sincere gratitude. Or you may not be thrilled by your job, but if for a moment you can stop taking it for granted, you will taste the surprise of having a job at all, while millions are unemployed. If this makes you feel a flicker of gratefulness, you’ll be a little more joyful all day, a little more alive.
Once we stop taking things for granted our own bodies become some of the most surprising things of all.
Once we stop taking things for granted our own bodies become some of the most surprising things of all. It never ceases to amaze me that my body both produces and destroys 15 million red blood cells every second. Fifteen million! That’s nearly twice the census figure for New York City. I am told that the blood vessels in my body, if lined up end to end, would reach around the world. Yet my heart needs only one minute to pump my blood through this filigree network and back again. It has been doing so minute by minute, day by day, for the past 75 years and still keeps pumping away at 100,000 heartbeats every 24 hours. Obviously this is a matter of life and death for me, yet I have no idea how it works and it seems to work amazingly well in spite of my ignorance.
I do not know how my eyes adapt, yet when I chant by candlelight they are 100,000 times more sensitive to light than when I read outdoors on the porch at noon. I wouldn’t know how to give instructions to the 35 million digestive glands in my stomach for digesting one single strawberry; fortunately, they know how to do their job without my advice. When I think of this as I sit down to eat, my heart brims with gratefulness.
From the humble starting point of daily surprises, the practice of gratefulness leads to these transcendent heights.
In those moments, I can identify with the Psalmist who cried out in amazement, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Ps.139:14) From there it is only a small step to seeing the whole universe and every smallest part of it as surprising. From the humble starting point of daily surprises, the practice of gratefulness leads to these transcendent heights. Thomas Carlyle pointed to these peaks of spiritual awareness when he wrote, “Worship is transcendent wonder” – transcendent surprise.
This article first appeared in Spirituality and Health magazine, Winter 2002, pp. 34-37.
5. Meditation
https://youtu.be/_zPhlxYANtg
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6. Sharing
7. Prayer and intentions
Dear God,
Thank you for your amazing power and work in our lives, thank you for your goodness and for your blessings over us. Thank you that you are able to bring hope through even the toughest of times, strengthening us for your purposes. Thank you for your great love and care. Thank you for your mercy and grace. Thank you that you are always with us and will never leave us. Thank you for your incredible sacrifice so that we might have freedom and life. Forgive us for when we don't thank you enough, for who you are, for all that you do, for all that you've given. Help us to set our eyes and our hearts on you afresh. Renew our spirits, fill us with your peace and joy. We love you and we need you, this day and every day. We give you praise and thanks, for You alone are worthy! In Jesus' Name, Amen. ~ By Debbie McDaniel
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following Your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please You. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that, if I do this, You will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust You always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for You are ever with me, and You will never leave me to face my perils alone. Amen.
There are commonly two kinds of human beings: there are people who want certitude and there are people who want understanding; and these two often cannot understand one another.
Those who demand certitude out of life will insist on it even if it doesn’t fit the facts. Logic has nothing to do with it. Truth has nothing to do with it. “Don’t bother me with the truth—I’ve already come to my conclusion!” If you need certitude, you will surround yourself with your conclusions.
The very meaning of faith stands in stark contrast to this mind-set. I think Jesus (or the Father or Spirit) is actually dangerous if taken outside of the Trinity. Jesus held separate from the other members of the Trinity implies that faith is a static concept instead of a dynamic and flowing one.
We’ve turned faith into certitude when, in fact, this Trinitarian mystery is whispering quite the opposite: we have to live in exquisite, terrible humility before reality. In this space, God gives us a spirit of questing, a desire for understanding; it seems to me it’s only this ongoing search for understanding that will create compassionate and wise people.
If you think you have a right to certitude, then show me where the Gospel ever promised or offered you that. If God wanted us to have evidence, rational proof, and perfect clarity, the incarnation of Jesus would have been delayed till the invention of audio recorders and video cameras.
Rational certitude is exactly what the Scriptures do not offer us. They offer us something much better and an entirely different way of knowing: an intimate relationship, a dark journey, a path where we must discover for ourselves that grace, love, mercy, and forgiveness are absolutely necessary for survival in an uncertain world. You only need enough clarity and ground to know how to live without certitude! Yes, we really are saved by faith. People who live in this way never stop growing, are not easily defeated, and frankly, are fun to live with.
You can tell mature and authentic faith by people’s ability to deal with darkness, failure, and non-validation of the ego—and by their quiet but confident joy! Infantile religion insists on certainty every step of the way and thus is not very happy.
Gateway to Silence: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. —Proverbs 3:5
References: Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation(Whitaker House: 2016), 100-101; and Richard Rohr, The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See (The Crossroad Publishing Company: 2009), 120.
Lord, You are sovereign over all the earth. Great are You, Lord! You hung the stars in place. You tell the ocean how far it can come. And You orchestrate our days even when we face an unknown future.
Our future is known by You — You hold our days under Your tender watch-care because of Your great love.
When fear creeps in and threatens to consume me, when despair and confusion raise their ugly heads, I will trust in You. You are my refuge and my strength.
You light my path one step at a time, and even though I want to see my destination clearly You say, Trust Me, My child. I have a future and a hope for you.
Thank You, Lord, for this reminder. Bring my thoughts captive to You as I cling to Your hand, taking one step at a time.
I am comforted when I remember that I don’t need to know what lies ahead in order to be secure. I only need to keep my eyes fixed on You, to guard my heart against the work of the enemy, and You will lead me on — You will even carry me
