Easter Dinner (healthified!)

In lieu of my Weight Loss Journal this week I am posting my plans for Easter Dinner. 

It's almost Easter! We here in the Ozarks can see things to bloom. This last weekend we saw my Dad's plum trees beginning their spring journey. This probably means more plum jelly canning for my parents, but we are always happy to enjoy their labors! 

I love that Spring speaks of things reborn and renewed. Easter is such a special time for a Christian. It is a time for Celebration!  Jesus said, “I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).”  John 10:10

The picture at the top of this page is circa 2002. It is my Easter Dinner table. Josiah was just a baby and our guests were my parents, my little bro and sister and law and their twins. How in the world did we get everyone around that table?

We always celebrate the day with church and family. Easter Dinner is an important part of that time together.  This year is going to be extra special because we will be celebrating my Mom's birthday as well. I won't tell you how old she was but I will say that I turned 32 on my last birthday and she had me when she was 20. 

I realize that some of you are waiting for lightening to strike me where I sit. I turned 32 just recently just a few years back  more years than I care to admit.  

Family holidays are now a little bit more challenging now that I am on my weight loss journey. However, over the past few years I have found that there are plenty of yummy solutions to enjoying a healthy Easter Dinner. 

If you are worrying about how you are going to manage Easter Dinner I encourage you to start planning now. I've said it time and time again. You will have a harder time succeeding if you don't have a plan. 

I should probably apply the same philosophy to my laundry. 

Anyhoo. 

This is what our Easter Dinner is going to look like this year. My mom and I took a peek down in their Food basement this past weekend. They store all kinds of garden produce in a variety of forms. We are going to use quite a bit of their harvest.  I should also mention that I follow the Trim Healthy Mama eating principles. 

Prime Rib - I know! My Little Bro is providing the meat. In years past, we have enjoyed ham, pork loin and even Salmon. I am a big believer in using what you can find for a good deal. Even a Roasted Chicken is a tasty and special choice. 

Cheesy Spaghetti Squash  - This is my alternative to the Hash Brown Casserole.  We will fix a cheesy potato casserole to serve along side for all the kiddos and those who aren't watching their waist line.  It is also nice that my parents have a couple of big Spaghetti Squashes waiting to fixed up.They are what is left of my Dad's fall garden. 

Slow Cooker Green Beans - Another garden dish. I like to cook my beans with onion, chicken stock and just a little bit of ham. I will put these on before we leave for church in the morning. 

Corn on the Cob - Once again another treat from the garden. This corn has been wintering in the freezer. Some of our favorite family dishes involve corn. Instead of the creamy corn casserole we usually enjoy, we are just going to roast this corn and serve with a little butter salt and pepper. I won't be having much corn. I have to enjoy it in moderation. 

Pea Salad - This is my nephew's favorite. This recipe is a good copy of the 
way my mom makes it. Another family favorite is the Broccoli Salad. This recipe is similar to mine, but I don't include cheese or tomatoes. I do add nuts. It's the way I roll. 

It wouldn't be Easter without Deviled Eggs. 

We will also have a few loaves of fresh bread (made in the bread machine). Just because bread is pretty much poison for me doesn't mean everyone else can't enjoy it. If you need bread this your meal you might try out these gluten/grain free Biscuits. 

I have made it pretty clear that Dessert is always my downfall. This year my Mom requested a Coconut Cake for her birthday. I am not going to even pretend to make it healthier. This, however, doesn't mean that I am not going to fix up a few sweet treats that are on the lighter side. 

I am to please. 

This Light Lemon Cheesecake is perfect for a Spring Day. I am also going to make a lighter version of my favorite Blackberry Cobbler with Blackberry's from the garden. 

I have interesting story to tell about blackberry's from the garden. I wrote about it ages ago. In fact, it only has 4 views. Be a pal. Go read it. Poor little post. 

Here are a few more tips for a Healthier Easter Dinner. If you are part of an Easter Potluck bring a dish that you can enjoy. Stay away from the dessert table or make a small tasting plate. I like to bring fruit to enjoy. A vegetable tray is always good to have around for those of us who have the munchies. 

If you have a hard time staying away from those chocolate eggs considering buying instead a dark chocolate bar. The darker the better. I look for those marked 85% and above. 

So anybody have any wonderful Easter plans? 

Egglo Entertainment! A TOS Review

What are your memories of Easter as a child?

Mine always included a new dress and a pair of shoes. My parents were always very careful not to center our celebration around Bunnies and Egg Hunts.

Not that there is anything wrong with a good old-fashioned egg hunt…but they just wanted to focus our attention on the real celebration.

He’s Alive!

As ministers, my husband I have always been on the lookout for new ideas and concepts that can make the Gospel come alive for kiddos and families. As a parent, it has been equally (if not more!) important to me that Josiah’s world is immersed with the Good News. Last year, I had the privilege to review a wonderful product. Once again, I was blessed to receive the same product for another go. Glow in the Dark Egglo Eggs and The Egg-cellent Easter Adventure book from Egglo Entertainment has made filling the roles of parent and minister in my life that much easier.

Egglo Eggs are glow-in-the-dark plastic Easter eggs. They have a simple cross design on them and are intended to be used for a Christ-centered Easter Event. The eggs themselves are sturdy. If you are like me and have filled a million eggs in her time you will appreciate this! 

I received a whole box of neat stuff.

Glow in the Dark Egglo Eggs

The Egg-cellent Easter Adventure book

Egglo Treasures Scripture Scrolls

Egglo Bible Verse Stickers

The Egglo Glow in the Dark Egg Hunt Event Curriculum

The curriculum is downloadable can easily be modified for home use. It includes coloring pages, snack suggestions and even craft ideas. There are plenty of ideas for holding a big event. If you are a parent using the Egglo Eggs at home there are certainly resources you can use inside this curriculum. 

Because this was a favorite review item last year, Josiah was excited to see the box of goodies again. The eggs need a little prep work.

Last year I even used them with our little reading club. This year, Josiah and I incorporated them into our morning Bible Study. He is currently studying the Sermon on the Mount and The Parables of Jesus so I figured it was a good way to impress upon him the importance of it all.

We filled the eggs with the scripture scrolls that are included and a scripture sticker. 

The stickers look like this. There are 12 in a package. 

The scrolls are very sturdy. We have had a number of ages use ours. They hold up nicely.

The eggs do need some charge time in sunlight or under fluorescent lights. I simply set ours up on the balcony. Actually, Josiah set the eggs on the balcony. He also took the picture. 

While the eggs were charging up, Josiah and I read the Egg-cellent Easter Adventure Book together. I have to say that this book is worth having. It does an excellent job of presenting the Gospel. The kids in the book, Ana, Hardy and Pascal, discover mysterious glowing Easter Egg. It leads them on an exciting adventure. Josiah was particularly entertained by Zeke the dog. The book also challenged him to shine is Light! 

I hid the eggs in some sneaky, dark spots and let Josiah look for them. It was a good time. 

Josiah is 13 and is generally not as impressed with some of things he loved as a much younger child. That isn’t the case with Egglo. He still enjoys a good treasure hunt. This product is so well done. It is easy to love. 

I have big plans for Egglo this year. Not only am I going to use it once again for our Reading Club Easter Activity, but I am using it for our Easter Event at church. Again!

I think Egglo is a winner! 

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A TOS Review: Egglo Entertainment

Raise your hand out there if you’re ready for Spring. Now don’t be shy. I think most of us are ready for the long winter that was (and maybe still is) to be over. I’m anxious for some warm, sunshiny days with time for afternoons at the park.

Spring is truly a special time for Christians. I think that every day is a gift from the Lord and that we truly should be mindful of the gift of the Cross. However, Easter is for remembrance and celebration. I love to have activities that help bring the Message home. 

Now I know that Easter is still a few weeks away, but I got recently got to review a very special set of Egglo Glow in the Dark Easter Eggs and The Egg-cellent Easter Adventure Book from Egglo Entertainment.

What I Received

Egglo Entertainment has created a series of products for a truly unique Easter Egg Hunt  experience. This experience emphasizes the light of Christ in a fun and exceptional way.

The products are intended for children of all ages, but are targeted for kiddos 4-13. I happened to have a 3-year-old in the mix for this review and he did just fine. 

I personally received:

Egglo Glow in the Dark Eggs  ~ $9.99 (sale price) ~ 12 eggs

The Egg-cellent Easter Adventure Book ~$12.99 (sale price)

The Egg-cellent Easter Adventure (book audio download) ~$2.99

Egglo Treasures Scripture Scrolls ~ $4.29

The Egg-cellent Easter Adventure Program Guide  ~ $14.99 – PDF download

I have plenty of Egg Hunts under my belt. My husband and I have more than 25 years of Children’s Ministry experience. Even after we became Senior Pastors I was still extremely involved in our Children’s Ministries program. I can also tell you that we have been at bigger churches and smaller churches. It’s a rewarding and challenging work either way.

As important as it has always been for me to keep Christ in the center of our Easter Celebrations (He is the whole deal, after all) as a Children’s Minister, it has even become more of a burden that my own son truly has encounter with our Savior.

I decided I would take the Egglo Glow in the Dark Easter Eggs and The Egg-cellent Easter Adventure Book   with me to our friends’ house. We generally meet up every week for our Reading Club and this was a perfect opportunity to try the Eggs out with a gaggle of kids.

To start with, I read through The Egg-cellent Easter Adventure Program Guide. It is 60 pages filled with ideas for churches and groups alike to help plan a nighttime Egg Hunt. Now I have never done a nighttime Egg Hunt, but I can tell you after reading through the program guide I am excited to try one. The guide contains ideas on decorating, planning fun Easter games, snack ideas and devotion ideas. There are lots of printables…including invitations and posters. There are a good number of printable coloring pages. I did print a few of those off to take to share with our friends after our Glow in the Dark Egg Hunt.

Check out the action below. The boys were worried they would wind up with the pink eggs. Wimps.

Now here is one who appreciates all that is pink.

Before we started with our story, we filled our  Glow in the Dark Eggs with the Scripture Scrolls. Then the boys put the eggs out on the back deck to charge in the sunlight. You can also charge them under a bright lamp. We took advantage of our nice sunny day. The audio download is really cute, but for this day (since it was our Reading club) I read the story out loud. 

The story itself is exciting. It is centered around a group of kids,  Ana and Hardy and their cousin, Pascal. Their dog, Zeke, also is along for the adventure. The kids discover a mysterious glowing Easter Egg in their attic. What happens next leads them on a quest… filled with ancient relics, a volcano and even a deep sea adventure. All throughout there are lessons in humility, reliance on God and, of course, the most important message of His Love. The kids are challenged to be a Light in a dark world.  

I can tell you that this group of kids got into the story. They were excited to see what was coming next.  I personally found  the quality of the illustrations to be stellar. It is a sturdy, soft-covered book of good size.  

Now because I wasn’t going to wait around until evening to have our Egg Hunt (this girl had stuff to do), we decided to hide them in dark places around the house. The pantry, 2 bathrooms and my friend’s closet became the hiding ground. 

So this is a picture of the eggs...glowing in the dark. Pretty cool. 

Aw! These cutie pahtooties show off their spoils.

After all the Eggs were discovered, the kids took turns opening their eggs and reading the scroll inside. All the scrolls contained Scripture. It was a great way to reinforce what we had been discussing.It was also good reading practice!

After the reading of the scrolls,we set out the coloring pages.

Now this is some serious coloring. Soo cute!

My Thoughts (and other Tidbits)

We had fun! And not only was our Easter Egg Hunt entertaining, but the lesson was so important. The lessons that came out through the book were not just simply a Bible Story, but they taught character qualities.  This is a unique product. I don’t think I’ve ever used another like it.

One of my bigger complaints with some plastic Easter Eggs is that they come apart easily. Anybody else had to use Scotch Tape to reinforce 1,000 eggs before? Not fun. The Glow in the Dark Eggs are sturdy. There is a bit of a trick to put them together, but it wasn’t anything a 5-year-old couldn’t figure out. I also love that they are rechargeable. Glow-in-the Dark products have been a mainstay in our Children’s Ministry for years. I love the things that I can use over and over again.

Another nice thing about these particular products is that they can be used alone or with other resources. The Glow in the Dark Eggs and Scrolls are something I plan on using again this Easter in our Children’s Church. I think that this is a fun and unique product. I would recommend it to parents and Children’s Pastors alike!  I believe I also spotted coupon codes on the website for those who need to purchase 10 or more boxes of the eggs. You know I’m just looking out for my Children’s Pastor peeps!

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Now go be that Light!