King's Daughters

Thank you Marli for sending this recipe in, I tried it yesterday & it is delicious! One thing I would mention though if you are going to try this, leave a space at the top of the baking dish as the topping rises. I found this out after filling my baking dish up all the way to the top! 1 medium aubergine, peeled & sliced into 1/2 rounds 1 tin crushed tomatoes 2 large potatoes, thinly sliced olive oil 1 cup Parmesan, grated 1 large onion, minced 2 cups plain whole yoghurt 2 cloves garlic, minced 3 eggs, beaten 450g minced beef 3/4 cup single cream 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon butter · Preheat oven to 190 C. · Brown aubergine rounds in olive oil & season with salt & pepper. · Cook onion & garlic in 2 tablespoons of olive oil · Brown mince, add spices, onion, garlic & tomatoes then simmer. · Brown potatoes in olive oil, salt & pepper. · Butter baking dish & add potatoes, meat, aubergine & Parmesan. · Combine yoghurt, eggs & cream i...

The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman is one of my favourite books. This particular book is aimed at married couples but I find the principles work in any relationship. You can also apply love languages to a friendship, to a parent child relationship, in a family & even your relationship with God. No matter how young or old you are this is a great principle to learn about. In a nutshell the 5 Love Languages are Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service & Physical Touch. You may already be able to guess what your love language is but I do recommend reading the book as you may find that your love language is not what you thought it was. Most importantly you may receive love in one language but need to speak another language to give love to someone. I have used the principle of love languages in my marriage, in my friendships, in my relationship with my children & in my relationship with God! It might sound silly to you but I try to tell God how I lo...

I have been very spoilt since Amy was born. Every morning Eric brings me coffee & breakfast in bed so I can ease into the day. Amy still doesn't sleep through the night so mornings are not the best time of day for me. This morning I thought I would make Eric breakfast so he could have a day off from taking care of me. Let's just say after spilling baby food all over the floor, missing Amy's mouth several times & getting baby food up her nose... I decided to go back to bed & humbly ask for my usual coffee so I could wake up slowly & ease into the day! I am just too clumsy BEFORE COFFEE! A photo of me before coffee would be too shocking to share with you so I thought I would spare you & have a photo of Daniel eating his breakfast :)

With all these nasty bugs going around I thought it would be good to chat about what we can do to avoid them! Here are some tips on boosting our immune system so we can lead a healthy, fun filled life together. 1. Sleep. On average we need 8 hours of sleep each night but this varies from person to person. Whatever your personal sleep needs are make sure you get it! Sleep has been linked to balancing hormone levels, keeping weight down, having a clear mind & healthy skin. (Perhaps I shouldn't be working on this post at 2am then?) 2. Water . On average we need 8 glasses of water a day! I have covered this in a previous post & am very passionate about it. My children will tell you that my response to most of their complaints is, "Have you been drinking enough water?". 3. Coffee. There is a lot of conflicting information on this one, but I would say that if you drink too much coffee you are damaging your body! The guidelines I've come across is 3 cups a da...

This Friday was quite a crazy Friday so I thought I would share it with you. The morning was a bit sad, I had to take my dad & brother to the station as they were heading home after a 2 week visit with us. I said my good-byes, drove off & burst into tears realising that I hadn't seen them for about 7 years & may not see them again for that long! Eric had to turn the car around & drive me back to the station so I could give them another big hug & I held them tight for ages. Life is so short & I needed to make sure they knew how much I love them. We weren't a pretty sight all 3 of us being all emotional at the station! The great part was the Eric took me out for breakfast afterwards to cheer me up... mmm nice :) Next item on the day plan was to rush home to clean up & prepare for another house guest who is staying for the weekend & for one of my piano students concert in the afternoon! Whilst rushing around getting ready, baking cupcakes ...

I am busy reading Christine Caine's book Stop Acting Like A Christian Just Be One & I can't wait until I am finished it to tell you about it so I may have to do a review in stages! This book is so packed with life changing principles that I feel if I read it too fast I will miss something so I am savouring it, picking it up occasionally only when I am sure I have totally applied what I have learned & can safely move on. Lust - you may be wondering why I have chosen this as my post title! Christine's book consists of two parts, the first sections covers some fascinating thoughts on how we are made up, who we are & how we can be all that we can be for Jesus. The second part of the book is a 31 day devotional. I am only on Day 8 & as I mentioned I only move on to the next day once I am sure I have fully absorbed what I need & applied everything that has challenged me. Day 8 is called "Be: Content" & the caption under the title says; ...

This movie had me in fits of laughter & tears! If ever there was an inspiring movie about the power of choice this is it! I tried to write a good review for you but thought I couldn't match what is already on the Dove website, so here it is: " After seven years of marriage, Caleb and Catherine Holt have drifted so far apart that Catherine wishes she had never married. Neither one understands the pressures the other faces--as firefighter and she as the public relations director of a hospital. Regular arguments over jobs, finances, housework, and outside interests have readied them both to move on to something with more sparks. As the couple prepares to enter divorce proceedings, Caleb's father challenges his son to commit to a 40-day experiment he calls "The Love Dare." Wondering if it's even worth the effort, Caleb agrees, but more for his father's sake than for his marriage. When Caleb discovers the book's daily challenges are tied into his p...

Choosing who your friends are is really, really important. The person you will be in 5 years time will be mostly determined by who your friends are and by what books you have read. There are four types of people in your life: People who add or People who subtract People who multiply or People who divide Only allow people who add or multiply in your life to get close to you. If a person is subtracting or dividing, you need to keep your distance from that person, if possible cut them out totally. It sounds difficult but it's your l ife & you will waste it if you don't choose your friends wisely. "He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will be destroyed." ( Prov 13:20 ). Have a lovely weekend & invest in your precious friendships! xxx

Every week I get a delivery of lovely fresh organic food from Riverford . This week in the box were loads of broad beans so I thought I would find something interesting to do with them & came across this recipe. 1T vegetable oil 1 onion 2 cloves garlic 2 medium potatoes, chopped 300ml vegetable stock 1½C shelled broad beans juice of 1 lemon 300ml single cream 1 sprig mint chopped salt & pepper to taste ·Lightly fry onions and garlic in oil. ·Add the potato and stock & cook for 15 minutes. ·Cook the broad beans in boiling water for 5 minutes & add to potato. ·Leave the soup to cool then add the lemon juice, cream and mint. · Purée until smooth.

I am loving Eric's series on Seeking, Stuck, Flourishing! It is so refreshing to hear such hardcore truth with very practical steps to move onto a flourishing life. The one bit that stood out to me the most was " If you are still the same person you were a month ago... that shows that you are not moving forward in your walk with God! And if you stay there long enough you will waste your entire life there! " The reverse engineering principles to Saul’s life was really helpful. Based on Saul in 1 Samuel chapters 10 to 15, we learned what caused Saul to stay stuck, which of course helps us know what NOT to do. Here is a little recap of those points. He hid himself (1 Sam 10:1) He avoided responsibility by hiding away He was proud (1 Sam 13:3-4) He took the glory for Jonathan's victory He panicked (1 Sam 13:9) He did the right thing in the wrong time He made excuses (1 Sam 13:12) He tried to justify his disobedience With this list of what not to do in mind I g...

One of the most significant things that you will deal with in life is dating. There are so many opinions out there, so much conflicting advice yet still so little you can rely on. I hope I can offer you some advice that will help the dating season be pure joy for you. #1 Know Who You Are To me this is the most important thing in every area of life, especially dating! I have done a whole bunch of posts on identity as I am very passionate about this subject. If you don't know who you are, how are you going to let anyone else get to know you? A lot of energy and time will be wasted trying to be who you think you should be to please the person you are dating! If the relationship ends then you will be confused about who you are and  will go into another relationship to do the whole thing yet again, adding another layer of confusion to your already confused life. Sadly confusion is the only result. Your identity is so precious, don't compromise who you are for anyone. If you ...

More and more I am finding people saying that they are addicted to FaceBook, need to close their FaceBook account (but then don't) or say how they hate that they spend so much time on FaceBook but can't seem to get away from it! This got me really curious as to what has made us this way. I begun snipping up my FaceBook page to create the image on this post and realised that there is a lot that this little website has to offer. Take a look at the image and see all the bits and bobs that we use it for (there are loads more too). Facebook reports that its 200 million users worldwide are logging in collectively for 3.5 billion Facebook minutes per day. WHY? It starts of with an innocent glimpse at your friends profiles on the site and suddenly you are logging on 10 times a day to see if any of them have made updates to their profile, changed their relationship status or have posted pictures. I am not even going to begin to get into all the applications and quizzes that I hav...