Bowtie Pasta with Asparagus and Snow Peas the Recipe

Here is the recipe for the meal I made and talked about below.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 pound bacon (center-cut is less fatty)
  
• 1 pound asparagus, trimmed, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
• 1/2 pound bow-tie pasta (I used tri-color)
  
• 1/2 pound sugar snap peas or snow peas, trimmed
• 1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
  
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (about 1 1/2 ounces)
• Additional freshly grated parmesan cheese

Instructions:
In small skillet fry the bacon. Set aside to cool.
Add asparagus to large pot of boiling salted water. Cook until just crisp-tender. Transfer to bowl of cold water using slotted spoon. Cool asparagus slightly and drain. Add pasta to same pot of water and boil until just tender but still firm to bite. Add sugar snap peas and boil 2 minutes. While they boil break bacon into crumbs. Add asparagus to the pot and heat through. Drain well. Return pasta-vegetable mixture to pot. Add oil, bacon, beans and toss to coat. Add 1/2 cup cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately, passing additional cheese separately.

This dish is great because you can make almost all of it in one pot. Plus, it uses the ingredients that are in season (in the spring). I also like that you get alot of veggies (but they aren't plain) and plenty of protein (from the beans mostly) that you are filled.

Cooking

I decided I would like to start posting favorite meals that I make for dinner. Cooking is something I really love doing and its a part of myself I like to share. I think it can be a great expression of love. I love how sharing a meal with people can really bring down walls. I think it can be kind of a sacred, spiritual disicipline. In the ancient world hospitality was taken far more seriously than it is today and sharing a meal was a high honor and sign of alliance and friendship.

I also think that feeding our bodies with healthy things that fuel us is a way to honor God, who created and gave us our bodies. I know not everyone is always perfectly thrilled with their bodies (myself included); sometimes we dont treat them with reverance. I think every meal can be an opportunity to choose to honor our bodies and the Lord.

Now that I am the cook for our family I really appreciate how my mom always showed love for me by making a home cooked meal most nights. She always made something delicious and healthy (even if we complained about the healthy parts). :) Mommy - Thanks for cultivating a love for fruits and veggies and educating me on a healthy diet!

I am beginning to learn that cooking healthy doesn't have to be expensive...though I have to admit that a bundle of fresh fruits and vegetables does cost more than a box of Twinkies. :)

Here is one of the meals I made this week that was particularly healthy and simple to make. *I will include the recipe in the next blog. Its called Bowtie Pasta with Asparagus and Snow Peas.

It also was cheap because all the veggies are in season. Which, if you are looking to learn more about buying and cooking things in season (it can save you a bundle and spice up your meals) I found a pretty good guide at http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/seasonalcooking/farmtotable/seasonalingredientmap. Epicurious.com also has some fantastic recipes, but you have to be selective, some are more expensive and time consuming than I prefer.

I have been trying to find a local farmers market or produce stand but so far I haven't had much luck. I think there are more in the summer. A friend of mine encouraged me to start buying local if I can. It totally makes sense because then you are supporting the local economy, getting the freshest produce (often organic too), and keeping down the usage of fossil fuels (which helps everybody!).

Let me know what you think.

What does Nicole do?

I dont know how many of you wonder what I do all day as a staff worker. I cant give a very succinct explanation, mostly because it changes everyday. But I read an article from intervarsity.org and thought it gives a good taste of what my work is like...

Renewing the Campus by Jonathan Rice January 27, 2009

While hope leads to change, change doesn’t necessarily lead to hope. Despite the educational opportunities offered by technology and the greater political influence won by students in recent years, today’s collegians are still in desperate need of hope and their campuses in protracted need of spiritual renewal.

InterVarsity is seeding the campus with hope by sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, and this message is leading to not only the fundamental transformation of individual lives but also to the spiritual renewal of American campuses.

Since the founding of InterVarsity’s first chapter at the University of Michigan in 1938, our Fellowship’s staff, students, and faculty have been faithfully building witnessing communities that bring hope and renewal to campuses. And despite the ubiquitous influences of secularization and anti-Christian rhetoric at many of today’s schools, InterVarsity is still seeing remarkable growth in the number of non-Christians students choosing to become Christians (28% over the past five years).

Such growth may in some part come from our campus staffs’ understanding of the social, moral, and spiritual issues facing college students today—an understanding that gives our staff the ability to empathetically connect with this generation’s students and the compassion to courageously share with them the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Sharing the gospel on campus is InterVarsity’s primary mission. Through God’s Spirit, the gospel transforms lives and renews campuses. “We can’t renew campuses by ourselves,” says InterVarsity’s president Alec Hill. “Campuses are renewed only as we cooperate with the Spirit of God.”

InterVarsity renews campuses by reaching out with the gospel to students of every ethnicity. At Harvard University we have eight different chapters, some ethnic-specific, for graduate and undergraduate students. In December 2008, these chapters together sponsored an on-campus lecture series by Anglican Bishop N.T. Wright. During this series, a student from China decided to become a Christian. He now attends an InterVarsity small group Bible study. Imagine how God may lead this Chinese Christian in ministry when he returns to his homeland.

We renew campuses by nurturing healthy relationships between our chapters and the various student organizations, administrative offices, and cultural communities in the academy and by demonstrating our biblical values in those relationships.

At Mesa Community College in San Diego, an InterVarsity staff member invited the college’s president to visit an AIDS awareness exhibit that our Fellowship co-sponsored with another Christian organization, World Vision. The college’s president was so impressed with InterVarsity’s work that she said, “InterVarsity impacted our college and moved it to acquire a heart. InterVarsity’s Impact One tent touched the campus and it touched me. We are not the same.”

A Busy Season

The spring always seems to be a busy, crazy, filled season of ministry. I have been trying to gear up, but it doesn’t seem to have helped make things less stressful. I do think I am handling it more proactively than I did last year, when I didn’t have a clue what I was doing.

Thankfully, Drew and I had a chance to connect a lot this past weekend. He had just finished up a particularly grueling section of med school and had more free time. We had a chance to go out on a date on Thursday evening (pictured to the side). We ate at Pei Wei (much thanks for the gift card!) and then went to Target (with another gift card) to pick out a movie. We ended up with what we believe is a fantastic find – Boondock Saints and Fight Club all on one DVD for only $7.50! I had never seen Boondock Saints and Drew had never seen Fight Club. We watched one on Thursday night and the other on Friday, after I got home from InterVarsity Large Group.

I am so glad we got the chance to hang out and connect in the midst of a busy time. I will be out of town this next weekend (Valentine’s weekend for those of you who care) for an InterVarsity Conference called Breakthrough. I will be teaching from and about scripture to about 25-30 students for part of the weekend. I am really excited because students from all over Texas and Oklahoma will be coming to learn, grow, and laugh together. It’s a fantastic expression of the Body of Christ.

In the midst of this we are endeavoring to select student leaders for next year. InterVarsity is student led and student run, so if we don’t have students who are well trained and gifted in leading, things don’t happen. As a staff worker my job isn’t to plan events or do all the “tasks” of ministry, but rather to help students dream about what they want to accomplish and help them achieve that. My job is more about modeling the transforming power of the Gospel in my lifestyle and helping students see and model that for themselves. So the process of selecting leaders is involved.

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we walk through this busy season.

Yucky Flu Virus

Drew was very very sick the past 48 hours! He came down with the flu (despite getting the shot) on Thursday and just emerged from his sick bed this morning. His fever spiked to 103 and I couldn’t keep enough fluids in him without causing nausea. So I ended up taking him to the Urgent Care clinic in College Station. They gave him to some IV fluids and a shot to calm his nausea (which apparently really hurts). The doctor wasn’t too worried about him, but just said he needed to stay hydrated.

I had our InterVarsity Large Group (prayer, worship, and teaching) meeting to go to last night, but I ended up staying home because I was worried about him. After he came home from the clinic all he wanted to do (understandably) was sleep but then he would forget to drink anything. So I stayed home and woke him up every 15 minutes or so for the next 3-4 hours to make sure he drank small amounts regularly. My students were so understanding and helpful – they took care of all that needed to be done for Large Group and prayed for us!

Drew’s fever broke around 1:00am and he slept through the rest of the night…which meant that I finally got some rest too. Again, my students were so sweet – they called to make sure we were okay and even brought us soup and bread for dinner. It was such a blessing too because I was already worn out from taking care of Drew and cleaning the rest of the house that I was dreading cooking dinner! Thank God for such caring souls.

New Haircut and Color

Drew got me a great present for Christmas - a gift certificate to a spa and salon to use however I liked. Isn't he awesome?!?

So I decided to put it to good use. I had been wanting to get my hair cut for a while and was also wanting a change. Although, when I want a change I am limited because I refuse to chop off a bunch of my hair after a rather tramatic haircut in the 8th grade. So I decided to go blonde and get bangs. Here are the pictures...

Do you like it?

Nicole's InterVarsity Christmas Update Letter

I love sharing about my ministry! The following is the text and a few pictures from my December/Christmas prayer letter which I sent out to supporters. I thought some of you might be interested.

Greetings and Merry Christmas! Thank you all so much for your tremendous support of this ministry over the past few months. I have deeply appreciated your prayers and donations. I pray that you and yours have a truly merry Christmas season. Hopefully, some of the exciting news from my ministry on campus will make your celebrations that much brighter!

Conversational Evangelism and Cultural Celebrations
Thirteen students from Asian American InterVarsity (AAIV) organized and pulled off an evangelism and outreach event the week before Thanksgiving Break. All the Latino and Asian groups on campus gathered together to share in an evening of cultural expression. We were able to share two important parts of our fellowship’s culture – we are loved by Christ and we are created uniquely and purposefully to share that love with others.

The AAIV students conversed and shared with about twenty students. Of those, ten students wanted to continue to be contacted and build relationship with AAIV and four expressed interest in beginning a GIG (Group Investigating God – students meet regularly to discuss Jesus and his ministry in light of scripture).It was a great joy to see AAIV students enthusiastically participating in outreach. One of the students was so engaged in meeting new people that when her shift at our booth ended she left to continue conversation with a few girls she met at our table!

How awesome to see students boldly reaching out in new ways and gaining a passion for reaching out to their campus with the love of Jesus! We will continue to pray for the students we met and preach the Gospel on campus. We are in the process of planning other evangelism strategies for the spring semester and will keep you updated.


Contextualizing the Gospel on Campus
I have met up with the Austin College leaders once each month this semester. All of their events this year have been focused on building strong disciples through small groups and reaching out to the campus through specific events. They have two very strong small groups with ten to fifteen regular members in each. These students are not only studying the Bible each week, they are applying it to their lives. The women’s small group is studying prayer and one of the leaders told me: “Nicole, these girls are really searching out what it means to pray by practicing it! They are actively praying for each other and sharing their lives with each other.”

The AC students also decided to reach out the campus in several ways, one of which was helping to sponsor the events on WorldAIDs Day (Decemeber 1st). By partnering with the AIDs awareness group on campus (who usually has little to no contact with Christians) they were able to build trust and forge relationships with other students, thus laying a healthy foundation to begin sharing the Gospel. The InterVarsity students also shared God’s heart for the orphan with the campus by selling orange World Vision “orphan” t-shirts (the proceeds help provide for orphans of AIDs in Africa). Their goal was to have 1 in every 20 students wearing an orange t-shirt be the end of the day, thus mimicking the staggering statistic of how many children are orphaned in Africa by the HIV/AIDs pandemic. On a campus where religion is often mocked the InterVarsity students compassionately demonstrated the truth about our God that few know: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27.

Financial Update
I know we are all well aware of the present economic situation, and I am well aware that you are having to carefully consider where and who you spend your money on this Christmas Season. I am praying for you all that the Lord will provide for you and your family in miraculous ways. I pray also that you will choose to invest the resources you do have in building the Kingdom of God (whether through InterVarsity or some other ministry). I do hope you consider the amazing effect your investment could have in the life of a student.

My budget for the year is $48,000. I have currently raised $31,000, and therefore, I have a $17,000 deficit. My hope is to raise $7,000 in December in order to receive a monthly raise and continue working on campus with the students. Would you consider beginning a monthly donation? Or if you prefer, consider giving a one-time donation of $100, $200, $500, or more. Donate online at www.intervarsity.com and click on “donors”.