While Cooking…

I thought I took ground beef out of the deep freezer to thaw. I was planning to cook beef stew since it was cloudy and the temperature had dropped. Imagine my surprise when I checked the status of the meat and saw that it was ground pork. After sighing real big and determining there was no use crying over spilled milk, I said, “I need to improvise and come up with a plan B.”

It worked out well for my husband, because he really doesn’t like beef stew. He tolerates it; but definitely not his favorite. So, where do you go when your plans go awry for dinner? To Pinterest of course! I scoured the pins for soups made with ground pork and stumbled across a Meatball and Wild Rice Soup. I looked at the ingredients and decided it would be good.

I turned on my Erykah Badu playlist, made myself a cookies and cream flavored coffee with a whipped buttercream creamer and went to work prepping the ingredients for the meal. Because I had four times the amount of meat needed for the recipe, I had to quadruple amounts. So glad I had everything needed!

I made and shaped the meatballs.
I cooked batch after batch after batch of meatballs.
I made a roux.
I added the additional ingredients for the soup base and let it boil to thicken the stock.

It was looking good and smelling good. Well wouldn’t you know as “the soup” was cooking, the stock thickened to gravy!!! My meatball and wild rice soup ended up being meatballs and gravy. Are you kidding me?!? I needed to thin it out so that required me, well my husband, to pour the hot “soup” it into a bigger pot because it was already full. I decided I didn’t want to fool with it anymore and just improvised YET again; cooking some rice so the meatballs and gravy could be served over that! Dinner was spared!

I enjoyed it. The family enjoyed it! I am glad they did because I have enough to feed my entire neighborhood! 😂

In the end, while it didn’t go as planned, I was extremely grateful and thankful. As 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, “give THANKS in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

I’ve lived long enough to know that I may make plans but the Lord will determine my steps (Proverbs 16:9). Mistakes and mishaps are not the end of the world. I try not to get mad anymore about the small mishaps or mistakes because I believe and know from first hand experience that what I see as a mishap might be part of God’s bigger plan to do something better for me or even protect me from something. He is just so good to us like that!

So what was there to be grateful about?

I had a car and money to go to the store to get more wild rice. #thankyouJesus

I had enough of the other ingredients to quadruple the recipe which provides my family with not only dinner today, but many more to come! #thegiftthatkeepsongiving

I had internet access so that I could look up ideas on Pinterest. #expandsyourcookingrepertoire

The family liked it and did not complain…this time! 😂 #happymamahappywifehappylife

I challenge you to see the good in the small stuff and be grateful. When the big disappointments happen, and you know they will come, you will have already put in the practice of being grateful and it will become second nature.

Someone may see your response and wonder how a Christ Follower can have joy anyway when things didn’t turn out the way they hoped.

Someone may see your response and wonder why a proclaimed Christian is acting no different than the world.

Either response could change where someone spends eternity.

What will they choose when they see your response?