Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Sweet Jerk Chicken Wraps

Hunger and wanting something healthy I tried a new idea I had. The idea included chicken, a yellow pepper, coconut oil, soy-sauce, and spices. The end result is WOW! It was easy, tasty, and thrifty. If you are never needing a fast yummy dish give it a try!

Sweet Jerk Chicken Wraps
1 chicken breast
3 to 4 tlbs of melted coconut oil
1/2 tsp muster powered
1 tlbs brown sugar
2 tlbs soy sauce
1 Yellow Pepper
Lettuce for wraps

-Thaw and cut the chicken into small chunks
-Melt coconut oil and add all other spices
-Marinade chicken in the coconut oil mixture in a bag for a few hours
-Heat frying pan and cook chicken (the oil in the mix is enough no extra for the pan needed)
-While cooking add Jamaican Jerk to chicken (enough to cover a all chicken lightly)
-Cut pepper into strips and add to the chicken

Use whatever lettuce you like best: roman, ice burg, butter

Add chicken and peppers on lettuce and ENJOY!

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Christmas Blessings

(one of my biggest blessing, my grandmother)
The Holidays have come and gone....now we are all looking forward to the new year. Truthfully I am thankful the holidays are over. So much running around, parties to attend, and living in a world that has forgotten the real meaning of the season. But I can not start 2011 without looking at the last few weeks of 2010.

For the Luontela family we like spend time at home. Quite and peaceful. We had a great time together for the holidays and it was one that I will hold near and dear with God calling me overseas. I am so blessed to have had two weeks with my family. It was low-key but just what I needed, even if I did not know it. There was time of laughter, deep talks, and learning how to living all together again.


I hope you all were able to enjoy the time and see the blessings God gave us over 2010. As 2011 starts I know the Lord is working in our lives in marvelous ways. Blessings to you and yours for 2011!

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Less of Me More of You For 2011


Welcoming 2011 in was very low key at my family's. My Grandmother went to sleep at 8pm followed by my dad around 10pm. I soon toddled off around 11:20pm with eyes that could just not stay open anymore. I believe the only one that made it until 12am was my mom and the surrounding neighbors with their fireworks. It is so clear that we are a party family.

For the first day of the New Year I stayed in my PJs. Not really being lazy but more of starting the New Year off with a relaxed feel. My Grandmother and I had fun watching the Rose Parade. Afterwards I had some time to think about what is unfolding in 2011. There is a lot coming and many changes! Many are exciting and others are nerve racking. But there is a theme I want to thread into the patchwork of the New Year. Something that is unlike anything else on my to do list, something that is so simple, and something that makes you work harder then you ever thought. Waving in and out of 2011 in my heart and mind is crazy, reckless, and unwavering LOVE.

We all know the greatest commandment is to love the Lord with all your heart AND to love your neighbor as yourself. Knowing and doing are two different things! This year I feel God calling me to push myself to really follow in the steps of Christ. My spirit knows there will come some easy days in LOVE and some that are just hard. But without the hard things in life we never know how strong God makes us and without the easy days we would forget how SWEET He is to us. Because, I will push myself to live I will learn a lot about me and my relationship with God but the strong undertow that comes with LOVE it that it is contagious. Deep in my heart I believe that Revolutionary Love can CHANGE this word.

Just think of the possibilities. People loving their neighbor as themselves...heart by heart, city street by city street, hearts and lives could be changed! Just thinking about the possibility I can see what Christ had in mind when He gave the commandment. There is no doubt that it is not easy, we have wavered far off course, and our natural nature does not like it. But I am called to love, we are called to love. So as easy or hard it may be day to day I seek to weave LOVE (not for myself) in and out of every aspect of 2011.