♥Hi Friends!
About 8 years ago, after we moved back to Utah and settled in to our current home, it didn’t take me long to discover this delightful little bakery in our area that made the most amazing sugar cookies. I was hooked and would sneak down and get them several times a week. I even used deceit to cover up my escapades by paying with cash most of the time so that my bank statement wouldn’t divulge the frequency of my visits. I was already deep in the throws of a sugar addiction which I now believe I had most of my life. And I’d gotten pretty good at hiding chocolate from my family (“milk” is my drug of choice). Or so I thought. My Honey told me once that he knew all along!
And lets talk about bacon. I mean, seriously! Whoever would have thought how AMAZING a combination of salt, saturated fat and preservatives could taste? I often use to say I loved bacon more than my children. I was kidding of course…at least mostly. Does anybody out there identify with me about the bacon thing? Absolutely. You know who you are.
As a society we are addicted to food, SPIRITUALLY, PHYSICALLY and EMOTIONALLY. Besides my sugar and bacon examples, here’s a couple of more that may hit close to home.
1♥ Grandma Peterson could quite possibly be the best “meat-and-potatoes-comfort-cook” on the planet and her food is made of pure “Grandma Love!” (No doubt, there’s a few more of those grandmas out there.) Although she is the genius behind her creations, Grandpa is right there beside her, helping her create the magic. However, he is a PRO at chocolate chip cookies. He’s perfected a knock-off version of “Mrs. Fields” and they are famous in our family. You can often find a bag of them in their freezer waiting to be devoured.
A few years back after we switched our diet, we figured out that gluten was one of my #2’s food sensitivities. One day, after having restricted gluten from her diet, she commented about her sad realization of not being able to have any more of Grandpa’s cookies. #4 started freaking out. Although he’s the exuberant one in the family, I was seriously taken back by his reaction which went something like this, “NEVER?! EVER?! You mean you will NEVER have one of Grandpa’s cookies again? EVER?!” And he went on and on and ON about it. For him, life as he knew it would cease if he was never able to have one again. For her, the reaction to the gluten greatly outweighed the temporary pleasure she received. (Gratefully as she’s HEALED, she tolerates gluten better and has not been forced to live a life without Grandpa’s cookies!) I learned a couple of things through that experience. One was that his response was his addiction talking. Whether it was PHYSICAL or EMOTIONAL, it was the voice of addiction. And the other, was how much the SAD (Standard American Diet) diet has control over our society as a whole. It was enlightening.
2♥ I’m not sure if my next example is a SPIRITUAL addiction or not. It’s definitely PHYSICAL but also EMOTIONAL. Every time we congregate at church functions there’s food involved. And I don’t have a problem with that. In fact, I’m great with it! But what I do have an issue with is that generally there aren’t very many HEALING foods served. Don’t we go to church because we are all sick, in all areas, and need HEALING? A study by Dr. Matthew J. Feinstein (click here) found a link between religious people and obesity. And the problem with obesity has very little to do with appearance. Obesity is a HEALTH issue. In 1 Corinthians 19-20 we read: “19. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20. For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” We as Christians should know better than any other group of people the sanctity of our bodies, the gift they are from our Heavenly Father, and that the food we eat can either HEAL us or damage us SPIRITUALLY, PHYSICALLY and EMOTIONALLY. The Adversary has done a good job of camouflaging the many truths of what our “body is a temple” really means. And therefore we are less effective disciples.
Gratefully, my food addiction is behind me. I’m still a “foodie” but my excitement is for the amazing and HEALING foods that make up the majority of my diet. HEALING from food addictions is hard and can be complicated to figure out. I found that mine was PHYSICAL. But sometimes the EMOTIONAL and SPIRITUAL addictions are harder to work through. And many times, you have to HEAL in more than one area.
So I’ll shout it to the world, “I LOVE MAPLE BACON DOUGHNUTS!” (From “Beyond Glaze” by the way.) And I love a good hamburger with lettuce, tomato, pickle, extra grilled onions, ketchup and mustard with spread on the side from In-n-Out. And in addition to my ‘GREEN SMOOTHIE’, sometimes after I drop my youngest off at the junior high, I sneak off to “Chick-fil-A” for a breakfast of Chick-n-Minis with Polynesian Sauce. (It’s almost a spiritual experience. I cried when one of their restaurants opened up near our home in Colorado. That’s the honest truth.) But those are occasional outings. Now when I eat those foods, that CHOICE is no longer based on an addiction. And that my Friends is a great feeling!
♥Love you!
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This whips up quick for a last minute lunch or dinner. Your family may or may not like the goat cheese, but it adds a wonderful tang to this recipe.
GOAT CHEESE SANDWICHES
- whole grain bread
- goat cheese
- red onion, thinly sliced
- tomatoes, thinly sliced
- avocado, sliced
- spinach
Turn stove on low to medium heat to warm non-stick frying pan. Spread two pieces of bread (I like a good stone ground wheat for this recipe, with no more than 3-4 ingredients in it) with goat cheese, to taste. I buy the double pack at Costco. On one slice layer spinach, tomato, onion & avocado. Top with second piece of bread. Place sandwich in skillet and brown on both sides. No need to use oil, just keep an eye on it. Serve it with a ‘DINNER SMOOTHIE’, which is stage 1 of ‘SMOOTHIE IN STAGES’!!! A little hint, take the goat cheese out a couple hours before you eat so it can soften up. It’s easier to spread.