God Sent Us a Savior

If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us a doctor.

If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist.

If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist.

If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer.

But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior.

- Roy Lessin

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I finished finals! Thank God! Hallelujah! I am home for a whole MONTH! There are so many exciting and fun things happening over break, so I will be sure to post about them as they happen. One of my favorite things to do when I get home is to bake. My guilty pleasure/stress reliever at school is to peruse through all types of baking blogs and find recipes that I want to try when I go home. So, when I got home on Tuesday, I was bored and sitting around the house waiting for my siblings to get home from school. (Why were they in school in the first place? They knew I was coming home. They should have skipped and thrown me a celebration...because I was home AND finished with exams. What were they thinking?!)

Anyways, I had already had some delicious Nutella and a big lunch, so I decided that I needed a lighter dessert. I settled with these from Skinny Taste which is this awesome website for recipes that are lighter, yet still tasteful. One of my personal favorite aspects of this site is the nutrition information that is posted for each recipe.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

2 tbsp. butter

1/2 cup white granulated sugar

1/2 cup unpacked brown sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 tsp. vanilla

2 cups quick oats

3/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line the cookie sheet with aluminum foil.

In a bowl, stir flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon to get your dry ingredients.

Next, mix together the butter (after you soften it) and the sugars. Add in the egg and vanilla. Tada! Wet ingredients.

Combine the oats into the flour and stir to mix it all together. Yum, I love oatmeal in the colder months.

Then combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and completely mix. Add the chocolate chips.

Use a tablespoon scoop to scoop them onto the cookie sheet and place in the oven for 8-10 minutes until the edges are golden brown.

I like the lightness of the cookie. It is light on butter and substitutes applesauce in to make the cookies moist. The combination of the cinnamon with the applesauce with the chocolate is pretty darn good if you ask me. And, you cannot go wrong with oatmeal. Enjoy! Hopefully, I will be able to post some more of my creations that result from my baking adventures over break :)

This recipe makes about 28 cookies.

My Music Mania

Little Bird by Ed Sheeran 

listen. just do it.

Andes Mint Cookies

Christmas is 15 days away! I could not be so excited. I only have two more exams left, but they will be my hardest ones. So to give me some motivation to push through, I thought I'd post this recipe, in anticipation of Christmas baking!!!

I made Andes Mint cookies a few weeks ago when I was home for Thanksgiving. The cookies were soft and moist and full of the delectable little mint chocolate chips. They also stored well. Personally, I think I need more chocolate in my desserts, but that could be because I'm a chocoholic. I would definitely recommend making these for a cookie exchange or for a night of movie watching! I originally found this recipe from one of my favorite baking blogs, Nutmeg. You can find the link here. It's also on the back of the Andes Mint packages, so you will have it with you!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup (one stick) butter (softened - I popped it in the microwave for a few seconds)
3/4 cup of brown sugar (I used light brown)
1/2 cup of sugar
2-2/3 cups of flour
2 eggs
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla
1 10 ounce package of Andes Mint Baking Chips

Before baking, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Then blend together the butter, sugars, eggs, baking soda, baking powder, and vanilla.

Then add the Andes chips and the flour until thoroughly combined. Your dough should look something like this deliciousness:

Place balls of dough on the cookie sheet and bake until browned around the edges. I think mine took around 8 minutes.

This is what they should look like when you take them out of the oven. :)

Yum. I love the combination of chocolate and mint. The texture of these cookies is what really got me. Moist and delicious!! Merry Christmas everyone!

The Weekend in Pictures

Friday: frisbee, White Christmas at the Paramount, Phi Mu, Chi Alpha land

Saturday: prayer, baking, hanging with the house, sampling desserts, Abundant Life Banquet, Christmas Dessert Party

 

Reminders

Today is a reading day, which means that there is absolutely NOTHING that I have to do. Good. 

Today is a reading day, which means that exams start tomorrow. Eek. Shriek. Run?

Notes to self:

1. God is God and I am not. Phew. He is in control of this next week. 

2. A week from now, I will be completely done with my third semester of college and halfway through my second year. That is absolutely crazy. Slow.down. I am not ready to be a second semester second year. Enjoy the time that you have here, even if it is spent in the midst of studying and stress. 

3. I have awesome friends. I had an incredible weekend. A huge part of me is really sad to leave Charlottesville, which makes me think back to first year and realize how much has changed. I could not get out of here fast enough. I am thankful for how God has placed wonderful people in my life to change my perception and perspective at school and in this culturally rich city. 

4. Be thankful for the stud. Fireplaces, food 3 times a day, all my favorite people, and encouragement, all centered around the acknowledgment and reminder that Jesus is life, not grades, not success. 

Oh, and in case, you haven't noticed by now. I tend to make lists a lot. You might as well get used to it.

Philippians 4:6 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."

Oreo-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

A week before Thanksgiving I made Oreo-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies in mini form! I adapted a recipe only slightly from one of my favorite food blogs, Picky Palate! The original recipe can be found here.

The list of ingredients:

2 sticks of butter

3/4 cup of brown sugar (I used dark brown and I like the softness it creates in the cookie)

1 cup of granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

3 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 bag of mini chocolate chips

1 bag of mini oreos

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a cookie sheet or two with aluminum foil to make clean-up quick and painless!

I melted the butter and combined the butter and both sugars in a bowl using a hand mixer. I then mixed in the eggs and vanilla to get my final product of wet ingredients.

In a separate bowl, I mixed the dry ingredients: salt, baking soda, flour. This gave me my dry ingredients.

Next, I combined them and added more than 3/4 the bag of the mini chocolate chips to get a delicious cookie dough. (Note, this cookie dough is moist and delicious. I may have eaten too much and ruined my dinner, but it was totally worth it)

After you have the dough, it's time to break out the mini Oreos. I used a teaspoon scoop to scoop the dough. Place one scoop on top and one scoop on the bottom of the Oreo and then press the sides together to seal the Oreo in place. Place on the cookie sheet until it's full and then bake until done. Mine took about 10 minutes.

Look at these babies!

These are definitely a crowd pleaser! I gave some to girls in my house and it was fun watching them bite into them without knowing about the surprise in the middle!

Who can go wrong with this combination? It was heavenly.

I would definitely recommend this recipe! It's made with simple ingredients and really easy. Plus clean-up was a breeze with only two bowls and the measuring cups and mixers, all of which is dishwasher safe! My last plug for these cookies is that they are small, which are often perfect for girls, who want something small to satisfy that sweet tooth. They are pretty much guilt-free, unless like me, you eat 10. :)

Beauty in the Broken

Yesterday, I was walking back to my house. This year I have tried much more to be present and notice change as it occurred so that I don't get to the point where I look around me and think, "Whoa! When did that happen??" I talked about this earlier when I told you about how I am trying to enjoy and notice the change of seasons.

Anyways, back to the story, I was walking back to my house. I had just gone on a short run in the absolutely beautiful weather. It felt like summer in November, and I am not complaining. It was another gorgeous day. Well anyways, I go to the most beautiful school. The change of seasons is incredible here. I snapped this picture of a ginkgo tree just walking back from class the other week. So I was looking around at the wonderful architecture and trees and feeling the warm breeze on my slightly flushed cheeks (it was a short run after all). I then crossed a bridge and looked to my left to notice the train track which runs right behind my house. It was the first time I had really taken the time to stop and look at my surroundings and it was dire sight. The track tracks seemed to epitomize the industrialization that has taken over the natural beauty of this city. It was grimy sight to see the rusted tracks at the bottom of the sloped banks, obviously cutting into the banked land. Surrounding the tracks, trash was scattered across the twisted brush and thorns. I realized how broken and unnatural this sight was. I searched desperately for anything redeeming about the scene that was set before me. It had contrasted so starkly with the splendor of the old columns and changing trees that I was taken aback. And as my eyes scanned the scene, there was a plump, brown bird just sitting in the brush. As I listened, chirps of birds filled my ears. It was beautiful. The sight of that bird just made me think of one of my favorite quotes: "There's still beauty in the broken, it's just harder to find."

This story is a reminder for me and for you to take the time to look for those good things that occur in the midst of brokenness. This story also reminded me of a quote that my campus minister said during a sermon on    "Chasing Time." He said, "I understand that oftentimes the darkness overshadows those good gifts, but that doesn't mean that the good gifts aren't there. You might want something different, but the good gifts are present." I believe that God is good. He is gracious and gives us these good things to encourage us. Don't miss out on these "God-signs."

“The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them,and what came through them was longing. 


These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. 

For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.”


- C. S. Lewis

You know those little quotes that you think are written just to you? those times when you feel like you are the only one in the world who thinks a certain way, and then you read or hear something that acknowledges that someone else shares the same viewpoint? The quote speaks to me.

At school, I am incredibly blessed by Reformed University Fellowship (RUF). I started attending RUF in the second semester of my freshman year, and, wow, God is present in that place. The students are incredible. They are all so talented, motivated, impressive, socially graceful, adept, and loving. They inspire me to be a better lover of the Lord and others and a harder worker. The Lord has been especially generous in giving us a phenomenal campus minister. He is just so great. The Lord speaks through him in ways that consistently tug at my heart each week.

This semester, he is going through a series of sermons on Ecclesiastes. Each week we examine the things we are chasing: certainty, relationships, money, power, etc. Last night, he talked about chasing youth. He told us of the quote about as we are to rejoice in our youth and remember our Creator. We are to see the world as pointing us towards the Lord. 

I cannot say it enough: I love this quote. It acknowledges my longing. It acknowledges that I search for beauty. I go to a absolutely beautiful university. It is historic, prestigious, and diverse. I am surrounded with an amazing landscape and incredible human feats of brilliance everyday. These feats are empty unless we realize that they are a mere reflection of the Creator. 

Today is a day that the Lord has given us. Today, I am relying on his grace. Today, I will rejoice in my youth and remember my Creator, appreciating the good and beautiful things that he has given me knowing that they are reflection of His beauty and flow out of Him.

College Knowledge

College is obviously a time of understanding and growth. However, I am quite convinced that some of life's most important bits of knowledge are learned outside the classroom. Here are some tricks of the trade, some survival tips, if you will about the beautiful place that I go to school.

1. Beware of the creatures - particularly squirrels. They are feisty, lacking all fear of humans. They break into your trash cans, eat human food, and run out in front of you when you are walking. They are rambunctious and mischievous. Squirrels here are crazy. Also, my house has been frequented by a skunk. We think he lives under the porch. Thus said, I have to learn how to approach these ferocious woodland creatures in a world dominated by the natives.

2. Be careful walking on brick. It has a tendency to get quite slippery. Leaves and water only amplify the ability of brick to remove the friction between your foot and the ground and can tend to cause some significant embarrassment. Let's just say it wasn't my best day when I decided to walk down the Corner - which has all brick sidewalks - wearing flip flops in the rain. I skidded multiple times and had to choose my steps very carefully in order to avoid falling. 

3. Always check the weather. Weather.com is my go-to. The view from your bedroom window is quite misleading. Just because the sun is sunny and shining does not mean that the day is warm. It only takes a few times for me to learn this lesson. 

4. If you can help it, don't bring your laptop to class. You say you take notes faster on the laptop, but in reality if you are anything like me, the lack of self-control + small attention span = internet surfing including but not limited to: facebook, twitter, blogging, online shopping, google maps, email, bank statements, people.com, sporcle, food blogs, personal blogs, all types of any blogs, crossword puzzles, sudoku, etc. Just don't do. Don't allow yourself to be tempted in the first place. 

5. Lastly, but certainly not least, relationships are important. School is important, but in balance. As creatures made in God's image, we were intended for relationships and those relationships with others are good for us. They help to fulfill our desires and give us a glimpse of Christ's union with us. They should be prioritized. When I look back on my first year, it is not the little conversations that I regret. I only wish I still had some of the opportunities to talk with the girls on my hall, or chat with my RA, or grab dinner with a friend that I don't see much. I don't want to miss out on the little things this year, those little times that build and strengthen friendships. The little things add up. Those opportunities each give you the chance to strengthen your relationship a little bit more or to let those opportunities pass. I live with way too many wonderful girls to allow the latter. 

 I mean, look at these beautiful girls.

And it's hard to focus sometimes with these two thugs living next door.

So I will continue to survive this crazy, college life and thank the Lord for the little blessings he daily bestows upon me.

Eyes up,

Marisa