On Struggle + GF/DF Protein Muffin Recipe
Scroll to the end for the recipe.
Cooking used to be the LAST thing on my mind.
I prioritized a plethora of other tasks and pursuits, and when meal time inevitably arrived at it's regular 3-a-day intervals, I would panic. 😬 Stress. Overwhelm. Guilt. It was constant. 😣
There was this consistent nag of spirit, pointing the way toward the kitchen – the place where I had hurts and hangups.
My memories replay our family eating out more than we ate at home. I was used to KidCuisine TV dinners and prepackaged snacks. Taco Bell was a staple.
When we did eat at home, I remember dry chicken breasts, chewy pork chops, and canned green beans. One night, I found feathers on a cornish game hen they served me and I was disgusted and mortified – I couldn't eat that! I called my sister who was away at college for sympathy and support, but she only laughed at me.
There was little to no instruction in how to feed my own family as I launched into adulthood. I knew how to boil water, make a sandwich, and use a microwave. That was about it. For many years, I was angry and bitter at this injustice. It made adulthood 1,000x more difficult for me, especially since I wasn't making enough money to eat out every night. 😒
Now, don't get me wrong. My parents love me. They did the best they could with what they had. My sour memories are less a reflection on my parents and more a reflection on my wildly ungrateful attitude and spirit.
In 2021, I finally truly understood the source of my stress, overwhelm, and guilt – I WAS GUILTY. We all are.
God created us for Himself, and we, like stupid sheep, have wandered away from the safety and love of the shepherd.
Growing up in the church, I could tell you all the words. I knew that God in the flesh (Jesus) came to Earth, lived, died, and CAME.BACK.TO.LIFE – effectively defeating death! – and that He did it to restore relationship between humans and God.
His plan for us is to commune with Him like the utmost loving parent would with their child. While many of us have never seen this kind of relationship, I bet we can imagine what that might look like. It's the stuff our souls desperately YEARN for.
But, we can't have that until we let go of our reign on our own lives. Elisabeth Elliot lays it out as “giving up our right to ourselves.”
In that long season of stress and overwhelm, I had set myself up as my own god. In my mind, I knew what was best for me, and I hadn't received it from those professing to love me, so I was entitled to my bitterness.
BUT GOD. His Spirit was drawing me to Himself. He was drawing me to better things. The Bible calls it “living water" – the kind of thing that treasure-hunters risk their lives to find and we often only hear of in fictional stories.
The more I surrendered my will to Gods, the more I noticed the things I had set up higher than Him and began laying them down, entrusting myself to His instruction book of life, the more the stress and overwhelm subsided. Stress and overwhelm had lost power over me!
To confine me to the kitchen wasn't His goal. It was the means. The means to His school room. The means to gobs of His grace. The means to healing hurts and hangups I had held on to from the past.
Elisabeth Elliot admonishes, “A whole lot of what we call 'struggling' is simply delayed obedience.” Today, I still struggle in the kitchen. But, it is more in the natural way of learning new things than it is with the stress and overwhelm of disobedience to God.
God was telling me to put aside my victim attitude, my bitterness, anger, and pride. He was drawing me to look at Him as the perfect example of servanthood and love. He was showing me that the kitchen was where He was going to teach me to set Him above all things because that was precisely the place I was utterly helpless.
Instead of prioritizing my entrepreneurial endeavors like I used to, I now prioritize feeding my family well as an act of worship to my God and Savior. He will make time for the peripheral things if they're on His agenda for me that day. When I've put first things first, the stress + overwhelm “struggle” is sparse. As Elisabeth Elliot reminds me often, “There is always time to do the will of God.”
💛 Mama Hooper
Mama Hooper’s Protein Pumpkin Spice Muffins
(GF/DF/Refined Sugar-Free)
Preheat oven to BAKE (NOT Quick-Bake function): 375°
In the Kitchen Aid bowl, add all wet ingredients:
1 egg
1 C Applesauce
1/4 C Maple Syrup
1 tsp Vanilla
1/2 C Almond Milk
2 TBSP Avocado Oil
Mix thoroughly, but do not over-mix.
Add dry ingredients to the mixing bowl:
2 C Bob’s 1-to-1 GF Flour
1 Scoop Paleo Valley Unflavored Bone Broth Protein Powder or 2 Scoops Young Living Inner Beauty Collagen
1 tsp (ish) Pumpkin Spice
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Salt (ish)
Mix thoroughly.
Fill muffin mold.
Bake 27 min + then check with toothpick.