Bacon Wrapped Chicken Thighs

James made a run to the new Sprouts today and brought home tons of veggies, chocolate-toffee covered almonds, and other yummy goodies.  When I came in from work he had a smile on his face and told me he brought home my favorite part of the chicken....THIGHS!!

He prefers the breast because he says it's tastier, but I COMPLETELY disagree.  The thigh is the juiciest and tastiest part of the bird for sure!!  Tonight I wanted to make something tasty and easy and I think my concoction has won him over to the dark side...pun intended.

My husband loves food, and I'm a pretty decent cook, so when I ask him how dinner was he usually tells me, "Good," or "I liked it."  Occasionally I get an, "I liked it a lot," or, "Really good," but tonight he gave these chicken thighs an, "Awesome," rating....always makes my heart happy to get a good review from my favorite food critic.  ;)

The recipe is VERY easy, super simple, very little prep, and doesn't take long for total dinner time.  This is a very basic recipe and you could always amp it up by stuffing the thighs before rolling them up if you wanted something fancier.  Some suggestions for stuffing could include Cream cheese and jalapeño, stuffing mix and apples, spinach and feta cheese, or cooked wild rice and herbs.  Experiment and let me know how yours turn out!

Prep Time: 10 minutes 

Cook Time: 45-50 minutes

What you'll need:

4  Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs

4  Strips of Bacon

½ C Worcestershire Sauce

¼ C Brown Sugar

2 T Brown Sugar (separate)

2 T Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Gallon Zip Lock Bag

Glass Baking Dish

To make:

You'll want to marinate your chicken thighs for the best flavor.  To do this you'll mix the worcestershire sauce and the ¼ C. of brown sugar together in a zip lock bag.  Add your chicken thighs to the bag, press out the air, and seal.  Massage the bag for a few minutes to make sure all the chicken is coated thoroughly.  Let them sit in the fridge for at least 1 hour.  I suggest a few hours for best flavor.

Preheat your oven to 400°F.  Add prepare your glass pan by coating a thin layer of olive oil in the bottom to keep the thighs from sticking. 

Take your chicken thighs out of the bag and season on both sides with salt and pepper.  If you're stuffing the thighs with something this is the point to add it.  Roll the thighs up as you would a cinnamon roll.  Wrap one strip of bacon around the thigh and if necessary secure with a toothpick.  I didn't need any tooth picks.  I just tucked the ends of the bacon under the bottom of the chicken thighs when I added them to the pan.  If you stuff them I would suggest using a tooth pick to keep the stuffing secure.  

Place the chicken thighs in the greased pan and sprinkle the remaining brown sugar on top.  Cook in the oven, uncovered, for 45-50 minutes or until they reach 170°F on the inside.  

I really think this is a fool proof chicken recipe.  After trying it you can start experimenting.  Try marinating in Soy sauce and Pineapple juice for a teriyaki flair, lime juice and chopped cilantro for a Mexican craving, or a simple worcestershire and BBQ sauce.  I also think these would be great on the grill as long as you watch out for flair ups as they'll drip a lot of fat.  

Good luck with your cooking and I hope you get an "Awesome" rating from your Honeys!!!

My Momentary Anthem

I have been a worship leader at my church now for almost two years.  Through my many days and nights of trying to find the songs that best fit the service I find myself being drawn to certain songs because of their words, feeling, or even just the ideas that it presents to my heart. 

Recently we've sang the song "God of This City" in worship a lot.  I have said that I feel that that song is the anthem for North Lake Church, what we're about, and what we believe.  We believe that "You're the God of this city, You're the King of these people, You're the Lord of this Nation.  You are."  What greater phrase describes exactly what God is to us?  

While being on this journey of finding myself and where I stand as a worship leader I find that there are many days where I go to worship service and I am just not feeling it.  I don't feel like singing, I don't feel like praising, I just don't think I can make it through a song set.  You see, leading worship for me is exhausting.  NOT IN A BAD WAY!!  

I'll explain.  I put my whole self into worship.  I feel that when leading worship that my job is to lead others to the throne of God and show them His face through songs and let them just bask in all that glory.  But I put my whole self into it.  It's like when Moses wanted to see God, God wouldn't even allow him to see His face because he would have been struck dead.  He was only allowed to see His back as He walked away and even then when Moses went down to the Israelites his face was shining so bright from being in God's presence that Moses had to cover his face!!  It's that sort of absolute exhaustion that I feel, and I love every moment.

The Flyleaf song "All Around Me" is my anthem most of the time during worship.  I get it.  In those moments of worship "I'm alive....So I cry, the light is white." I encourage you to click the link and listen to the words and the song. It's beautiful.  

Other times, and more often lately, my anthem is Sanctus Real's "I'm Not Alright."  I think that in always having enough I have taken for granted that I have been taken care of.  In being brought up in church I have felt the need to constantly say, "God will provide. I have faith." But I haven't ever had to put the belief behind it.  It's dogma, it's repetitive speech.  As a worship leader I have felt the pressure to always answer the question, "How are you doing?" with "I'm alright."  I should be alright.  I want to be alright.  The first line of that song says, "If weakness is a wound that no one wants to speak of, then cool is just how far we have to fall.  I AM NOT IMMUNE.  I only want to be loved.  But I feel safe behind the firewall."  For the first time last night and tonight I have not been able to lie.  My husband says it's a good thing, but it is so awful to admit to myself that I've been lying.  

Here's the truth.  I'm not alright.....I'm broken inside and out.  Being able to say that in a group of people who I know love me deeply and not have those feelings changed is a HUGE relief.  The next lines of the song say, "Can I lose my need to impress? If you want the truth, I need to confess, I'm not alright."  I am truly not alright at this time.  I don't love God any less, I trust Him and I know that he will either heal me or be my strength to bear whatever my life hands me, I just haven't found that strength yet.  And you know?  It's alright to be broken.  It's alright to be honest and say you're not doing okay, you're hurt, you're angry, sad, depressed, addicted, in a dark place that no one would want to be....It's okay.

We are not expected to be alright.  If we were expected to be alright then there would have been no reason for Jesus.  If there was a way for me to be good enough, then I wouldn't NEED Him.  If there was a way...I'd have found it by now.  

In the song "I'm not alright" it starts out as a bursting scream of no longer being able to hold in the grueling, terrible truth.  But by the end it is a soft belief and relief that, "I'm not alright. That's why I need You....That's why I need You."

Bathed in Prayer

Last night was the first night of our annual cookout in Smithville for North Lake Church.  We talked about faith, coming out of Sunday when Jamie introduced the subject, and about where we are in our personal walk of faith.  

Going around the group it varied from highs to lows, most of which was situational, but by the time it got to me I couldn't even come up with a good lie, which I wanted to desperately.  Instead, I sat there and cried.  

I told the group that a couple of months ago I had started studying James and I never got past verse 2-4 in chapter 1.  "Consider it all joy..." just ate at me.  In the last year and a half I have been at my absolute lowest and then found myself a little lower than the day before, and then lower and lower....you catch my drift?  I haven't felt real joy about much of anything in a very, very long time.  

I laid all this out before my friends, my church, the people I lean on, and they all sat there and let me cry.  My husband, my very sweet husband, reached over and held my hand while I cried and explained everything and how I had been feeling - hopeless and lost.  At the end of the discussion, after the last person had talked about their faith walk, and Jamie had started the discussion for this evening, Jamie asked them all to come and pray for me.  

I sat there in my camp chair, sobbing, while these people, who love my husband and I so very much, laid hands on me and prayed.  Prayed for my health, my level of joy, my feeling of hope, for strength, for the loneliness to leave, and just asked God to bless me.  

I still hurt, I'm still injured, but prayer has its power and I can feel hope.  Before I had dug down in the depression and pain so far that I had actually buried myself in it.  I've not been fully excavated but I can see light peeking through all the muck.  

Thank you, God, for putting James and I in the place and situation that we're in so that I could see Your mercies through these people.  I still have my Reason to Smile.

Deo Volente

Tipping the scales at....

....208 lbs!!  Whoa...The day I got on the scale and saw how out of control my weight had gotten I cried.  It was heart breaking to know that I had gotten so lazy.  However, I didn't decide that day to hit the gym and lose the weight.  That day I felt very sorry for myself and I was upset, but a week or so later my husband (such a great man) came up with this plan to run a thing called the Warrior Dash in Platte City, MO, a little town outside of KC, MO.  It is a 5K run in which you climb over walls, cross a moat, jump over a fire pit, and crawl through a mud pit that has barbed wire and ropes over the top, etc. He told me that he wanted to do this run and I said that it sounded like fun, until he informed me that someone died last year during the run. I was quaking and a shaking inside...."please don't ask me to do this with you" was feverishly repeating in my head.  He kept raving about it and how much fun it would be and I realized what was going on.  He really did want me to do it with him, but he didn't want to push me into it.  I sheepishly asked him if he wanted me to join him and he looked me in the eye and said, "I would love it if you would do this with me, you don't have to, but I would love it if you would."  Well, when such a handsome man says something like that to you, you get convinced pretty fast.  Besides, I was extremely flattered that he wanted to do this WITH ME!!

At this point, we are signed up for the 11:00 am run and are training for it. I believe the program we are using is the Couch to 5k and this week we have been running 1 min and walking 2 min 6 times. It's not been too bad!!  The first day of running I was on my last set and felt like I was going to pass out, but the second day of running wasn't nearly as hard.  We finish up with a good hard ab workout and on days that we don't run he lifts, and I do cardio.  The best part is that we are doing it together.

 I have also been on a new eating plan (I don't like to say diet because those have always been so temporary for me).  So far I have lost 14 lbs, but then the Thanksgiving holiday hit and Bob came to visit (for those ladies and gents that don't know, bob is the monthly cycle :) ) so I hadn't been back on the scale to see how much I knew I had gained back.  But getting on this morning I am exactly where I was.

My food plan is as follows:

#1 -  I don't usually eat breakfast, but it's in the plan to slowly start eating more for breakfast and less throughout the day.  There are many dietitians that suggest that eating breakfast is actually one of the best ways to lose weight.  When your body goes for hours over night having not eaten it thinks it is in starvation mode and starts holding to any and all calories that it can get a hold of.  Therefore, if you feed your body well in the morning and let it know that it's gonna get food today it will process those calories and the coming ones with more efficiency.  Don't go crazy with this and assume that it means that you can eat whatever you want for breakfast.  This research clearly shows that eating a balanced meal in the morning can help you lose weight, but don't abuse it!!

#2 -  Drinking plenty of water is very, very, VERY important to shedding pounds.  James, my husband, bought me an early Christmas present that I LOVE so very much!!  He bought us Camelbacks so that when we go to the gym we both have plenty of water and we can stay hydrated during the day.  So far it's been great!!  I love Camelbacks because they don't spill, there's no lid to unscrew while you're running on the treadmill and there's no tipping the bottle, thus no spills down the front of you.
Staying hydrated is important for weight loss because as you do your cardio exercises you are losing water and turning food into energy and waste and the water is what helps move the waste out and replace the hydration you are losing.  Water can also help with other weight problems such as over eating and hunger.  Drinking water throughout the day will keep something in your stomach instead of it being empty then full, empty then full.  Drinking a glass of water before a meal will help you not over eat because your stomach has contents (water) then you don't need as much food to fill it up!

#3 -  If you were to ask my husband, "To Dani, what makes any food taste better?" He'd tell you that I love the taste of pretty food.  I like color in my food - red, yellow, green, and I'm always thrilled with the occasional purple!!!  I love color in my food and the more color in your daily diet, the more nutrition you are getting.  Plus, if you take the time to plate your food nicely you will enjoy eating it more and won't scarf it down.

#4 -  Avoiding eating out is something that James and I have been doing for a while, but for our budget, not our waist line.  I am one of the lucky ones who actually really enjoys cooking.  I love looking for new recipes to try, adding a twist to make it mine, and plating it beautifully.  There's a real feeling of pride to work hard on a meal, present it with flair and hear the "mmmmmmmmm"'s that follow.  Eating in can also be good for your health and body.  Most restaurants, even the fancier ones, use foods that are stuffed with preservatives, were frozen, and are not fresh.  When you cook at home you know that you and your family are getting the freshest ingredients that you could find.   You can replace things in the recipes that you don't like with food that you do, make a recipe healthier, or just tastier and more appealing.

#5 -  I have a salad every day.  Vegetables and fruit are important for a healthy body, so I try to make sure that I have a salad for lunch or a salad with dinner and a piece of fruit every day.  This may sound extremely boring, but I make it fun and tasty.  My coworkers tell me every day how my salads always look good.  I make them pretty because then I want to eat them!!  I always use really green lettuce (no ice burg in sight), nice red tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, carrots, olives, and cheese.  Don't freak out about the cheese or the dressing.  Yes, there's fat in it, and yes there's more calories, but pay attention to your serving.  I don't burry my salad in cheese and I don't drown it in dressing.  I get a sprinkling of cheese 1-2 tablespoons of dressing for my salads and that is just fine.  That may not seem like enough dressing, but a good way to stretch the dressing is to put the dressing in a separate bowl, container, whatever.  Dip your fork in dressing, then get a bite of salad.  You get dressing with every bite, and I usually don't even eat all my dressing this way.


I am planning on blogging about my weight loss,  I won't promise every day, but maybe once a week?  It's hard to post where I am now and I hate to post how much I weigh, but I'm going to own it, because when I get to where I want to be, I'll be proud to share my progress.

Here is where I am now.

Height: 5'6"
Original Weight: 208
Current Weight: 197 lbs
First goal: 175 lbs

Total weight lost so far: 13 lbs
To go: 22 lbs


I'm gonna get there....

Need a reason to smile?

Who doesn't?

We all need a reason to smile at least once a day so that we don't sink down into the doldrums of life.  Smiling boosts endorphins, self confidence, attractiveness, and energy levels.  It an help you live longer and you'll end up with "good" wrinkles in your graying years instead of frown lines, not to mention smiling lifts your facial structure making you appear younger!

Today I have many different reasons to cheese during the day, but here are a few.

I have an awesome job that I love more than any other job I have held or ever hoped to hold down.  I get to be creative every day and do something new every ten minutes!! As you may know I work for a florist in Gladstone (KC) Missouri.  If you're ever needing an arrangement, please place your needs in our capable hands.

Another reason I have to smile is my husband.  James is a light in every day.  I enjoy his company, his intelligence, the way he leads our relationship, and that he works so hard for us.  I love him more and more every day.

Finally, a reason to smile is my best friend.  He has been with me through thick and thin; held my hand when I couldn't stand on my own two feet and was there for me even when I didn't pay any attention to him.  I have not been the friend to him that I need to be, but I am working harder and harder every day to make Jesus not only a larger part of my every day life, but the most important part of my every day life.  Thank You, Jesus, for saving me from myself.

What are your reasons to smile today?  If I haven't given you enough already then try this test: Smile. Now try to think of something negative without losing the smile. It's hard. When we smile our body is sending the rest of us a message that "Life is Good!" Stay away from depression, stress and worry by smiling. Smiling is contagious, so go spread those smiley germs!!!