Meals 4 Sharing Fridays ~ Don’t Hesitate
Hello! How are you? I am so thankful that you stopped by. I hope that Meals 4 Sharing becomes a weekly stop for you. If this is the first time you’ve heard of Meals 4 Sharing, well then you better go here to find out more.
What is Meals 4 Sharing Fridays all about?
Do you have a favorite recipe, meal, food that you like to share with others? Something that you make when someone has a baby, or when somebody suffers a loss, sickness, celebration…...there are so many reasons to love on others through the gift of food, the possibilities are endless!! I want M4S Fridays to be a place that inspires and encourages others to love on people around them.
~If you have a blog and you have written about loving others through the gift of food, or have a favorite recipe that you share with others, link-up below.
~If you don’t have a blog, but you want to share WELL then that’s what the COMMENTS are for!!! No comment is too long. Share your story, a recipe, I would be overjoyed to hear from you. So please SHARE in the comments.
Each week I will write about how we can love on others through the gift of food, or share a favorite recipe. Last October I blogged for 31 days on the topic of meal sharing. My goal was to encourage others to serve. But instead I was gob-smacked by how all of YOU encouraged and inspired me!!! It’s funny how God turns things around on ya, isn’t it?! So I wanted to give others, who also have a passion for loving through the gift of food, the opportunity to link up every week!
Do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. Heb.13:16
Life is busy! Isn’t it? Can I get an Amen. AMEN. Weekly, if not daily, I feel like there is someone that I could be bringing a meal to, or loving on with a basket of muffins. Sometimes I HESITATE. I’m paralyzed by my “busyness”. When really if I just acted on my first instinct I would be doing what I strive to do everyday, please God.
This morning the first verse I opened my bible to was the one above. I knew it was what I needed to write about, because I am so guilty of not doing what this verse calls us to do.
Unfortunately I had the perfect opportunity to DO and not FORGET earlier this week. You’ve heard me talk about my good friend Big D (who is half my size), well her beautiful, sweet momma lost her battle to cancer a week ago today. After receiving the news I felt paralyzed. What could I do? Ideas flooding into my head, but I kept talking myself out of each idea. Over thinking.
Do you talk yourself out of sharing and doing good for others?
I had to go to the grocery store anyway, (I swear if they didn’t see me at the grocery store they would call out the calvary wondering what happened to me.) so I went through the produce section and filled my cart full of fruit, then I came home and made PW’s French Breakfast Puffs, which I know Big D and her sisters love. I cut up all the fruit and layered it in a large bowl. I called her husband and said I’m bringing over fruit and some muffins. Even though I started out hesitant…I didn’t allow it to stop me from loving on Big D and her family. The time it took me was minimal (1 hour). What’s an hour….I had 23 left to do with what I wanted!
It hasn’t always been easy for me to share food with others. You can read more about my anxieties here if you would like. (Or you can pick the fuzzes off your old sweaters if you’d rather. I would understand completely.) I realize we are all busy. I never would want to make anyone feel guilty for not serving, because sometimes serving too much isn’t good either. However…..
I think we all know that feeling when we’ve missed an opportunity. That pit in your stomach feeling, knowing you should have reached out to someone, but chose to stay in your “comfort zone”. Have you ever felt regret for not reaching out?
I cannot wait to read what you all have to share!! Let’s get this linky party started!
Love you all so much!
Sheila
It’s nice to SHARE!
1. Click on the Add link below then Add the permalink from your post. Please do not link the homepage to your website.
2. Select the photo you wish to link to your site and include the title of what you are sharing!
3. Create a link to Eat2gather.net within your post, to share all the great recipes, inspiring stories, and encouragements with your readers. I also included a blog button above if you share this on your sidebar or in your post I will hug you and kiss you!! Well not literally, but maybe if I happen to run into you. (wink)
Eat 2gather is family friendly so make sure what you are sharing is also. I reserve the right to delete any link if I feel it necessary.
OK LET THE SHARING BEGIN!!!
Hi Sheila – I have no photos, sorry! But had to share the delish cashew recipe from Book Club last Monday. This recipe is originally from Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa).
2 cups cashews
2 tbs chopped rosemary
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp melted butter
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Place the nuts on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes until they are warmed through. Meanwhile, combine the rosemary, pepper, sugar, salt and butter in a large bowl. Toss the warm nuts with the rosemary mixture until the nuts are completely coated. Serve warm.
They are out of this world – and you’ll want to share with everyone you know.
Hope you have a great weekend.
xoxo michele
Sounds DIVINE! I love rosemary and cashews. Thanks so much for sharing Michele. Luv ya girl ; D
Just wanted to tell you that I love you post. Started reading back in Oct. when you were doing the 31 days……..I made cookies yesterday for the grandkids. After picking them up from school we stopped by a lady who is homebound and shared with her. The four of us were blessed.
Isn’t it so fun to share goodies?! thanks for commenting…I really appreciate you stopping by. Hugs, Sheila
Hi Sheila,
You have such a lovely blog! I had visited it a long time ago but lost track of it but I discovered it again through Sandy’s Reluctant Entertainer blog. I’m so glad I found you again. 🙂
I will try to participate in your Friday sharing – – – but I have to confess…I need help from my husband with the “linky” and putting your button on my blog (I am a recovering Luddite! LOL!!! so I have a lot of learning to do!) so for now I’ll participate through your comments.
I have to share with you that I am so like you were – where you honestly shared your fear for sharing food. Oh my! I felt like I was reading my own thoughts. I can get so worried that people will not like what I make…spitting it out in their napkin…or worse finding things in it that aren’t suppose to be there…my hair! Oh good grief…I think I would faint!
So with all that fear in me I was always very hesitant to bring anything to folks who needed food. How sad is that!?! They would have been so happy. But no, I wasn’t going to chance it. How selfish of me! And how silly of me to have such fears because I know how to cook! Well…I was finally pushed to bring food to a group of folks who needed it. A friend of mine from church approached me one morning after Sunday Mass and asked me to bring and serve a meal for a group of folks that she was going to be counseling in a bereavement group on how to cope with loss during the holidays.
Well, I was paralyzed with fear, but how could I say no. There we were standing in the Church with her telling me what a blessing it would be for these folks to eat a meal provided by me – how it would comfort them. And can you imagine me saying that I wouldn’t make a meal for folks who had lost their loved ones and were going to go through the holidays without them. How terrible would that be? And in the Lord’s house, no less! So I acquiesced and said yes.
And you know what? It turned out great. The people were so happy and enjoyed the meal so much. There was nothing left! And a few even asked me for some recipes! I felt so relieved but more importantly I realized that I had reached out to these folks when they felt lonely. It wasn’t really about the food – it was about them needing to feel cared for, loved, and made to feel special. It was the act of giving – not the food – that nurtured these folks. I could have heated up canned soup for all they cared. They just needed to feel that there were still folks in their lives to love them and spend time with them and to reassure them that they were not alone. I should have known. Sandy teaches this all the time.
The things on the “menu” that day were very simple things to prepare that anyone could do and would be perfect for a pot-luck lunch…
Chicken Caesar Roll-Ups
Italian Wedding Soup
Chips (Store Bought)
Texas Cowboy Cookies
Here’s the recipe for the Chicken Caesar. (I’ll try to add more recipes later.)
Flour tortillas
Cream cheese – softened
Romain lettuce – chopped
Grated Carrots – optional but I like the splash of color
Cut-up roast chicken
Caesar dressing
salt and pepper
Take a flour tortilla and spread cream cheese on one side. Sprinkle with lettuce, grated carrot, a handful of chicken, a touch of Caesar dressing, and a bit of salt and pepper. Roll-up tucking in the sides as you go. Use a dollop of extra cream cheese to seal and hold the roll together. Cut in half and place on a platter. Continue to make more. So easy! I like to get a little fancy and use parchment paper wraps (sold at stores like Sam’s Club and Costco) to wrap the wraps in. (Sounds funny.) Makes it look professionally prepared. It can also make the who rolling process go a little easier and stay a little neater.
Enjoy!
I will definitely be checking back and will stay in touch.
Love,
Mary
Mary, Thank you so much for sharing. Sometimes we just need people to put us on the spot, don’t we. What a blessing you were to so many! I love your menu, it sounds delicious. My daughter would love those wraps in her lunch! Thanks so much for stopping by. Hope to hear from you again next week.