Recipe Redux: Baked Veggie Fri Chik Recipe

This month's Recipe Redux theme called for fermented foods. I chose Greek yogurt as my fermented food of choice for my recipe. I have grown to enjoy this particular type of yogurt and realized it can also add a wonderful flavor to savory dishes. For vegetarian and non-vegetarian lovers, you just might want to give this simple meatless recipe a try.  This dish is low in saturated fat with a decent amount of that good-for-you fat...monounsaturated fat.

Ingredients:

1 can Fri Chik (sliced into long pieces)
1/3 of an onion chopped
1/4 cup of cream of mushroom soup
4 ounces of Chobani plain yogurt
1/2 tsp Pepper
1/2 tsp of Mushroom seasoning
1 cup of Daiya Mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup of panko bread crumbs

Directions:
Heat oven at 350 degrees.

In a small casserole dish, lay down the Fri Chik pieces.  Place onions on top of Fri Chik pieces and in between.  Pour cream of mushroom soup on top of Fri Chik and onions.  Take spoon and spread out cream of mushroom soup all over Fri Chik and onions.  Place Greek yogurt on top of Fri Chik, onions, and cream of mushroom soup layer.  Take spoon and spread Greek yogurt all over the cream of mushroom soup layer. Add pepper and mushroom seasoning on top of Greek yogurt layer. Spread Daiya cheese across the top.  Spread panko breadcrumbs across the top of cheese layer.  Bake in oven for 25 minutes.

Please take a look at all the other great recipe's by the women of Recipe Redux down below and enjoy!

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What is your favorite veggie "meat"?

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Biking at Snow Summit

Now I know the name of my blog is "God, Food, Run"...trust me, I definitely am still running.  In fact, I'm training for a half marathon in November. However, I also LOVE mountain biking, so this is another mountain biking post. It's so interesting, the more I run...the better my mountain biking gets. The more I mountain bike, the better my running gets. I sure can't complain about that!

Big Bear Lake right behind me.

Is there a bird, Tom?

Last Sunday, we decided to go ride up in Big Bear again. However, we decided last minute as we were almost there to actually ride at Snow Summit.  Snow Summit is a wonderful place to ski at, but it is awesome for mountain biking. You have the option of taking the ski lifts and loading up your bike. This of course requires some $$$.  We decided to skip the lifts this time and to ride up ourselves.

I'm so glad we did! The uphill made for a great work-out. We rode on trail 2N10, which was for the most part a fire road. It did get steeper as we got closer to the ski lift. Once we got to the top, we ate our PB and J sandwiches at the tables right next to the lodge. Our view there was beautiful! For our descent, we chose a single track called Pirates trail. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. That was a gnarly trail, very technical, and way too rocky, but still so fun despite it being extremely challenging. The "loop" we made that day was not too long, but it sure was enjoyable, fun, and exhilarating!!  This is one of the perks of living in SoCal...just an hour drive to a fantastic place to mountain bike at!

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Where is your favorite place to go mountain biking at?

Women of Faith 2012 Week-end

It has been several years since I had attended Women of Faith. I had gone for a number of years in a row. I attended this year's Women of Faith last week-end at the Honda Center in Anaheim. Once again, it was great to attend another Women of Faith conference in which women of God truly inspired and encouraged all who attended in their walk with God.

Before going to this year's meetings, I was a little concerned that the original speakers were not all going to be in attendance delivering their inspiring stories.  I thought, oh dear...new people??!!! Now Sheila Walsh was still there on the list, so that was a relief.  However, once I was there, I thought...why did I ever think the thought that I did with new, unfamiliar faces?  The new speakers definitely brought sincere encouragement that was very much equal to the previous loved Women of Faith speakers from the past.  It was wonderful to see the love of Christ shine forth from the words they spoke. Their testimonies were worth listening to, because Christ was brought right to the forefront!  Other speakers that I had really enjoyed that week-end were Pat Smith (wife of Emmit Smith) and Angie Smith (wife of Todd Smith from Selah).

Wonderful praise music!

The week-end conference for women was also rounded out with absolutely beautiful music from the  award winning group Selah and from the gorgeous CeCe Winans. Attendees, as usual, also got to participate in worship and song by singing along with the talented Women of Faith praise team.  Whether you listened to music there or participated in singing along, you definitely felt the sense of worshiping God through song.

In order to save money there, we brought along our own healthy snacks and lunch. The food stands there at Honda Center are expensive, not that great tasting, and not as nutritious as we would like it to be.  We were given adequate breaks to go out to our cars and enjoy nourishing ourselves.

It's always so memorable attending "Women of Faith" with friends!

If you haven't had a chance to experience Women of Faith, and of course if you are a female, I would encourage you to do so.  It's a wonderful time for women to bond together and to celebrate Jesus!:)

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Have you ever attended Women of Faith, what was your most memorable experience there?

Keeping It Simple: Raisins

Now please don't get me wrong. This is not a post on raisin bashing. I certainly love raisins myself. In fact, I ALWAYS add raisins to my oatmeal every morning for breakfast. Raisins can also make other foods more delicious such as trail mixes, salads, savory dishes, and yes, I have had some in lumpia...Filipino egg rolls! 

Anyway, on to the "inspiration" for this post. I had received an email from a certain someone from a certain food company. This kind lady informed me that there was a new study that came out in a reputable sports journal stating that raisins were found to be comparable as chews for endurance runners. The kind lady only provided me with the abstract of the study, but it was sufficient to make a few judgement calls. It would have been nice if this study had more than eleven participants. Eleven is too small of a study to say "WOW"! I would like to see this exact same study performed during marathon events and not just for 80 minute runs plus a 5K time trial.

Now I personally love my chews and chomps and can't imagine running long distances without them. I never thought of raisins as a replacement for the chews. The more I thought about it, I started to like the idea, but said to myself "As much as I love raisins, they  do take more effort to chew than just regular softer chews. Who wants to expend extra energy on chewing something a little bit more chewy when running or biking...especially during the in between hydration intake times of fluid when I can be a little bit dehydrated?" However, that's just me, and maybe other people wouldn't mind and do just fine.

Then going back to what are essential during an endurance run or ride, there are three things that come to mind in addition to fluid intake and hydration status. They are the intake of carbohydrates, potassium, and sodium. Chews and chomps have carbohydrates, potassium, and sodium. Raisins do have carbohydrates and yes, a whopping amount of potassium (more than the chews), but it sadly falters in the minute amount of sodium. That's where the buck stops  for me. However, maybe if I salted the raisins before I go on my run or ride and before eating them, then it may be alright. (or along with a sports drink). Okay, 'nuff said.:)