Gleanings from the Fields ~ A BMW Devotional (Money due!)

Just a quick post to remind you if you have ordered a copy (or copies) of our new devotional book, your payment is due now!  I have tried to contact all those who have ordered, but may have missed some of you.

You can send payment via PayPal only using the email - crockets4rmv@yahoo.com.au (please don't forget the .au).

The books were $8.50 a copy if you have a US mailing address, if you have a different mailing address, please leave a comment.

We need all payments by November 30 in order to have your book to you by January 1.

Thank you!

Thanksgiving Day!

The ladies at the Baptist Missionary Women Blog

want to wish you a very

Happy Thanksgiving!

What are you thankful for today?

1 Thessalonians 5:18 "In every thing give thanks:

for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."

Peanut Butter Pie

I have a great love for anything peanut butter and with Thanksgiving close at hand I thought I would share this wonderful recipe for peanut butter pie. It is one of the most requested desserts from my family this time of the year. I found it online after searching and trying different recipes, this was my favorite by far!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream (must be at least 30%)

1/4 cup sugar

8 ounces cream cheese

1 cup crunchy peanut butter (I prefer creamy)

1 cup confectioners' sugar

1 graham cracker crust, store-bought or premade 

**On our field we do not have pre-made pie crusts but, I found some crispy "morning energy cookies" made with honey and nuts that I use in place of graham crackers to make a crust. I just crush them up, follow a simple graham cracker crust recipe and it works great!

Directions

Whip cream with 1/4 cup sugar. Mix all other ingredients until smooth and fold in whipped cream until well blended. Pour mixture into a graham cracker crust and chill for several hours before serving.

Enjoy!

Recipe courtesy Paula Deen

Saved by the Mud

I mentioned that rainy season was about to begin here, and last Sunday that was proven correct in classic style. It was raining hard for the second day in a row with a chilly wind. Rainy days are always low attendance days at church. Who likes to get out of bed to trudge somewhere through the rain and muddy roads? We always hope that our church members have grown enough in grace that mud and chilly wet will mean nothing in comparison to being with believers and submitting themselves once again to hear the Word, but every rainy Sunday is another test.

This Sunday we had especially hoped for good attendance, as we were hoping to try a new tactic in the war for souls. We have several regular visitors who haven't committed to following Christ, so we decided to start a 5-week prospective members class in the Sunday School hour just to target these folks and present salvation, baptism, and our church covenant in a clear manner. We had about ten people lined up for the first class, but our spirits were dampened by their apparent drowned attendance.

Really stuck!

Then the other family (we only have one family besides our own in our church that includes husband, wife, and kids--and a car!) got their truck stuck in the mud on the road to church. It took an hour and a half to extract them. The situation became even stickier, or should I say muddier, when we noticed that they had brought first-time visitors with them on this rare Sunday. They were discouraged to have such a setback on the day their visitors came with them. We were worried to start a new class without all of our beloved prospects attending. And all the men were wet, cold, and muddy when we began the service.

Ita vita African. This truly could be an apt description of normal life in Africa. Some discouraging setbacks just when you were hoping to make a good impression; poor attendance for weeks at a time in the rainy season. But God was working all of those seemingly bad events to ordain a private evangelism meeting between me and one of the children in my Sunday School class.

When Mr. N__ got stuck in the mud and all the men and boys went to help, I (with my kids) was left alone with one sweet neighbor girl who has attended my S.S. class and Seth's neighborhood Bible club all year. As I fiddled around setting up church stuff, she came to me and asked shyly, "How does a person go to Hell or to God?"

Seth's Bible club: they learn verses and the catechism (yellow book). She's the girl in the blue tank top, back row, third from the left.

Because of the rain and the car stuck in the mud, I was given an uninterrupted fifteen minutes to show a tweenage girl The Great Exchange from 2 Corinthians 5:21. I love this verse. In English every word but one has one syllable. Yet it encompasses so much with those little words.

For he hath made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

Praise the Lamb slain for sinners! Praise the Creator of the rain and mud who kept distractions away from a child He was busy pulling from the filth of a life lived for sin, at the same time as Seth was pulling a truck out of the mud. She seemed to respond to the Word in faith.

Obviously the mud didn't save her. But in one sense, it did. God used it as a means to give this shy child one-on-one time with her teacher so that she could ask a very important question! Last Sunday, a child was saved by the blood, by the mud.

Seth and I also were saved by the mud in a sense. We were saved from discouragement and ingratitude over the lack of optimal conditions that day. We were reminded that God doesn't need dry roads to do His work and that His plans are wiser than ours.

Once I heard a sermon by R.C. Sproul on 2 Samuel 6 when God struck Uzzah dead for touching the Ark of the Covenant so that it wouldn't fall from the oxcart. I've never forgotten how Sproul mentioned that Uzzah's error was in thinking that his hands were cleaner than the dirt. He thought it would be better for him to touch the ark--he, a sinful creature--than for the ark to fall in the dirt. But the dirt was doing what God made it to do. I thought of that Sunday--the mud was doing what God made it to do. I couldn't be mad at the mud or at God for letting it rain on Sunday. He had a plan even for the mud; and it did what He made it to do, even being an instrument in God's plan of redemption for a child.

When Mr. N__ finally arrived at church, embarrassed and a bit careworn, I greeted him happily. "You may think this was a bad day," I said, "but I am glad you got stuck in the mud!"

My S.S. class quoting Psalm 1 for the church. She's first on the left, back row, of the girls' side.

Still happy, even after scrubbing our family's muddy clothes!

Pictures of Missions

Confession...

I struggled. I was trying to prepare my weekly post for this week, and it just wasn't coming together. I was pressed for time. I was stressed. Then God put on my heart to ask a friend if God had put something on her heart to share on the blog. Sure enough, God had! She had such a passion and desire to share something God had taught her recently and was just waiting for Him to open the door.

What she shared touched my heart, and I hope it touches yours, too.

Missions doesn't always look like what we imagine. No, it's way better.

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Homemade Ranch Dressing

 Recently, several fellow missionary ladies have been talking about what they would request if they could request certain items to be sent to them at Christmas time. One of the most often mentioned items was for Hidden Valley Ranch packets. We too love Ranch dressing but over the years we have returned to the States for furlough and as our taste buds have changed, so has our love for packets of Hidden Valley Ranch. We now prefer the homemade recipe to the packets!
We just made this recipe up ourselves and, as a result, don't measure things out to the teaspoon. It is really important to have the right ingredients and then you can flavor it to your preference after that.

Ingredients

Mayonnaise (approx 2 cups)

Celery salt

Black pepper

Chopped dried green onion 

Milk

Directions:

Mix all but milk together initially with a wire whisk in a metal bowl. Once combined, add milk as needed to achieve desired consistency. Taste and add more ingredients until you get the flavor right. I know that sounds basic but it is really that easy! The biggest challenge is not using too much celery salt so go easy at first with that ingredient. The more black pepper the better - trust me!

Store in closed container in fridge for several days.

Now, not all missionaries have celery salt available to them so the next time you send a missionary a care package, throw in a bottle or two of celery salt from the dollar store! ;)

The Grass Is Greener on the Other Side of the Ocean

We all tend to think that everyone else has it easier and better than we have. We've noticed this sentiment in some of our church members.

• One young man says he wants to start a church (a noble idea), but not here in the village. He's going to plant a church in __ (some village near a city several hours away--that doesn't speak his mother tongue.) Why not a village closer to home that speaks Tsonga? Because there's such a need there, or it would just be better in some way.
• Another young man decides to take a similar job with similar pay (to the current one) in another city. Why not stay close to his family, his village, and his home church? Oh, that job will be better somehow.
• Another young man says that an internship with a church in the city will better prepare him for rural ministry than the local Bible college started specifically to prepare men for rural ministry. Why? The city has so many more attractions, including preaching in English, etc.
• Young ladies think that getting a cleaning job in the city would be better than staying home and mothering their children.

The grass is always greener on the other side. Change and newness help to make a different position seem better, and sometimes there is some truth to that. Sometimes the other situation genuinely is better.

I remember going back to America for a quick visit in 2011 during America's summertime. The grass was so green, the flowers so colorful! I kept exclaiming, "It's so beautiful! It's so beautiful!" Africa has a beauty of its own, but it is rugged, wild, and untamed; in the parts filled with bush grass and thorny overgrowth, you really have to search for the beauty.

Searching for a bird's nest

Beauty in thorns

This temptation comes often to missionaries. Perhaps it comes to everyone in the ministry, but I can only speak for the missionary. I got to thinking about this because of a recent Facebook discussion in which a BMW asked whether being a missionary wife was essentially the same thing as being a pastor's wife (just in a different field--which obviously makes it totally different! But you get the idea of the question.)

Most BMW responders quickly and confidently pointed out the extra difficulties a missionary wife faces in ministry that a pastor's wife in America wouldn't. But one BMW noted that ministry was actually easier for her in many respects as a missionary wife than it had been as a pastor's wife. She mentioned the squabbles, criticisms, and cliques that she experienced in her American ministry; in contrast to the complete acceptance and love she experienced from the nationals in her host country.

In a difficult or disappointing stretch in ministry, which may occur more frequently than the encouraging times, a missionary may hear of friends ministering in America and think about how easy their ministry would be if they were there. If only I were there, my church would be bigger, better, more like Christ! I would be more appreciated, more respected, and the flock would actually follow my (husband's) advice. We wouldn't have to deal with all this ___ (immorality, apathy, drunkenness, laziness, etc.)

Missionaries can also fall into the foolish trap of comparing fields. If only we were in Missionary Z's field, our ministry would be more successful. They have it much easier because of... It is so much harder to serve here due to the burned-over territory from the prosperity gospel, or the idolatry, or the animism, or the atheism, or whatever, than it would be to serve in their country.

But remember that you don't have the whole picture! Perhaps they also wish to trade places because of their own silent trials.

Yes, some of that thinking may be valid, fair, and true. A few missionaries have shown no qualms in saying they "could never do what you do." I even included a question on this topic on my get-to-know-ya missionary questionnaire for the BMW blog: what makes your field difficult? (Because we all think that our field is the hardest for some reason, and some of those reasons are legitimate.)

But it's not good; it's not lovely; it's not of good report; it's not praise. 



As Thanksgiving and Christmas approach--holidays when many missionaries, especially newbies, are homesick, this grass-is-greener syndrome may pop up. But let's just call it what it is. It's discontent. It's a failure to praise God "in everything." It is bitterness against God for putting you in a place so removed from the comforts of home and then apparently not making you successful there. It's pride, because you compare your successes and failures with another's and can only be content with your situation if you look the best at the end of the comparison.

The grass may truly be greener on the other side of the ocean. And yet it may not. But that's not where you are. And you are commanded to think on praiseworthy things and to praise God in everything--where you are.


 

Gleanings from the Fields ~ BMW 366 Day Devotional Book

For those of you who have ordered copies of our new devotional book, please read carefully and send payment as soon as possible.

-Finally I have worked out a price for Gleanings from the Fields. But first, let me explain. I want to be honest and up-front with you all. It was difficult to work out the postage costs, as we have no way of knowing how much the book will weigh. The book I had published a couple of years ago has 215 pages and weighs 180g. But our book has 390 pages. If the book goes over 250g, it jumps up into the next weight category for postage. So I have opted to charge you all at the price for the higher weight category (it only adds US$1). If it turns out that the book is under 250g, that means I will make a $1 profit per book, which, with your permission, I would donate to our church's building fund (reimbursing you all individually would be a headache, and would also incur PayPal fees, so it wouldn't be worth it).

 The price of the book will be as follows:

US$8.50/book sent to all addresses outside of the EU (European Union)
US$7.00/book sent within the EU
US$6.50/book sent within Romania.

This price includes the book itself, protective packaging, postage, and PayPal fees.

I have looked into the costs for those of you who are ordering multiple copies, and it appears that it will be cheapest to send each book individually, as the prices go up exponentially with each new weight category. That means that for those of you who have ordered 60 books (yikes!), you will receive 60 individual packages! If this is inconvenient for you, please spare a thought for me, who gets to write an envelope for every single one of our 918 orders!

It would make my life easier, if you have ordered for several friends and their copies are part of your order, if you have your friends pay you, and then you pay me once.

My PayPal address is: crockets4rmv@yahoo.com.au
Don't forget the .au 

~Suzy Crocket

I personally want to thank Suzy for all the hard work she has put into collecting the devotionals and getting the book published, and Myra for all her hard work in typesetting.  We don't see all the behind the scenes work, but these ladies have sacrificed a lot of time and effort in part of this book.  From the bottom of my heart, Suzy and Myra, thank you!

~Jen

Reaching Children in Sunday School (Part 3): Making a Plan

I love my teenage son. He is amazingly creative minded. He comes up with all kinds of ideas and projects and... actually he comes up with so many ideas it can be totally exhausting! But I love his creativity! He knows what he wants to do, but sometimes he struggles with plotting out a plan that will get him to a goal. With time and experience, he will learn how to make realistic goals and make feasible plans on how to accomplish those goals.

When we work with children we must start by seeing them how God sees them.

Then, when we must set biblical goals... what do we want to accomplish as we work with children?

But as with anything, once we know where we want to go, we have to plot a course to get there. And here is a simple road map:

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Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

Here we are once again talking about Mexican food! We are about to get into holiday recipe posting time but before we do I wanted to share at least one more recipe to put our flour tortilla recipe to use again. This time it's sour cream chicken enchiladas.

Ingredients

16 oz. Sour cream

1/2 pt. whipping cream (I use 20%)

2 Tbsp. Mexican green sauce (I use green Tabasco sauce) *can substitute with jalapeno pepper juice

**2 cans cream of chicken soup

**So, I am interrupting this list of ingredients, as I did with the beef enchiladas, to explain what I do when a recipe calls for cream soups or if I want to make a cheese sauce. I found this recipe years ago when my hubby and I were first married. Now, this enchilada recipe calls for cream of chicken soup. I place two bullion cubes in a small bowl and add approximately one cup of boiling hot water to them, stir them until they dissolve, and stir that broth in to the sauce mixture.

10-12 corn or flour tortillas (I have only used flour tortillas in this recipe)

4 Chicken breasts 

grated cheddar cheese (we most often use Gouda)

Directions

Boil chicken; debone (if necessary) and set aside. Mix sour cream, whipping cream, Mexican green sauce, and cream of chicken soup together in pan. Do not boil, just warm and turn off fire when heated. Pour a small amount of sauce into the bottom of a 9x13" casserole baking dish. Fill each tortilla with a small amount of chicken and grated cheese then roll up and place them seam down into the baking dish. Pour the remaining sauce over the rolled tortillas covering them entirely and top with grated cheese. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 Celsius) for approximately 30 minutes or until sauce is bubbling and cheese has melted evenly. 

Vacation? What Vacation?

Ladies, we don't live in a goldfish bowl...I'm afraid it's more like under the microscope.

This quote came from a thought-provoking, humorous discussion I was in recently with other BMWs (Baptist Missionary Women) when a lady shared the criticisms her family received over spending "missions money" unwisely to get away for a day. The irony is that the missionaries were given the day away for free! Many other women shared how they had lost support or been threatened with dropped support because of sharing pictures of a vacation they took while on the field. Honestly, I've not experienced criticisms of misused funds for our personal use before, and I feel sorry for missionaries who have supporters like that. Who needs enemies when you have "friends" like that, right?

It got me to thinking about how I have often struggled with, and never fully adjusted to, the lack of privacy here on the field. But I didn't take into account that we can also be closely watched from American supporters (at times--we would actually like more input and friendship from our supporters--an uplifting kind of friendship!)

How ironic that a lack of privacy would be a culprit on both ends of the matter: It can make you feel like you're dying to get away from the village for a break, but then deliver criticism from across the ocean if you do. (Again, thankfully, I've not experienced this!)

So in the spirit of solidarity with missionary women who have experienced this, I am posting pictures of an amazing vacation we just took to Durban (a coastal city thirteen hours south of us)!

Christmas Blog Hop

 

Our annual Christmas blog hop returns in just one month!

Please plan to join us!

 

2011 Christmas Blog Hop

2012 Christmas Blog Hop

 

 

 

 

In Their Footsteps

Photo by Evgeni Dinev

I love reading missionary biographies! The great missionary women of the past inspire me.

Mary Slessor with her adopted children: Jean, Alice, Maggie, and Mary.
Taken while in Scotland c. 1880.
Photo: Dundee City Library Local Resource

Mary Slessor, a slight, single lady went to the cannibals of Nigeria, evangelizing, rescuing, and becoming mother to countless children. They called her the Queen of Calabar. She “was sure that pioneer work was best accomplished by women, who were less threatening to unreached tribes then men.”¹ She was an amazing, fearless lady.

Gladys Aylward with her adopted son Gordon and Sarah Griffiths.
Photo courtesy of Sarah Griffiths.

Gladys Aylward was a single missionary who went to China in 1930. They called her Ai-weh-deh, Chinese for “Virtuous One.” She used her official title of “foot inspector” to visit women all over the region, spreading the gospel. In 1940, a wounded Gladys rescued one hundred children from the Japanese invasion.²

Amy Carmichael with children in India

Amy Carmichael (1867-1951) was a strong-willed, godly, single woman with a deep love for children. Missionary in both Japan and India, she founded the Dohnavur Foundation, an orphanage and mission in India. She rescued children from streets and temple slavery. They nicknamed her Amma, which means “mother” in Tamil.³

^{____________________________________}

I read their stories and am challenged, but I’m always left with questions. Did these ladies overstep their biblical ministry boundaries? I’m not sure—although if Mary Slessor actually preached to church groups including men, she did.

We follow in the footsteps of thousands of effective missionary ladies.

What does the Bible say about our job? Are there firm biblical guidelines?

Titus 2:3-5—The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

Mature Christian women set the example and mentor younger women. We’re even told what to teach them: love husbands and children, be disciplined and controlled, live purely, homemaking skills, be respectable (The Greek word used for good means “excellence.”), and to be submissive to their husbands.

1 Timothy 3:11-12—Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.

We’re examples in our serious, non-gossiping, faithful way of life. We help our husbands to teach our children.

The Great Commission (Matthew 29:19-20) is for every believer. The missionary lady evangelizes and helps the ladies and children in her church learn to observe all things whatsoever (Jesus) commanded. That’s quite an outline!

The next two passages are about our behavior in church services:

1 Corinthians 14:34-35—Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.

1 Timothy 2:11-14—Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

God has a specific order for the home and ministry. Let’s explore this idea further.

In the home—But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God (1 Corinthians 11:3). God the Father—Christ—Man—Wife.

In the church—Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing (Ephesians 5:22-24). God the Father—Christ—Husband—Wife.

Let them lead! Just as a married woman yields to her husband’s leadership, a single woman listens to her father. In the church, women yield leadership to the men. A woman does not usurp authority over the men, nor does she teach them. (1 Timothy 2:12, above) I believe this extends to counseling. Let men counsel men.

Women have the privilege of ministering to 70% of the world’s population—its women and children. The Bible outlines how we’re to teach young women. It’s our job to rear our own children and to help the women in our churches learn to love their children, bringing them up to love and serve God. We’re to educate our church ladies in practical Christian living. Also, we set the example of respect for pastoral authority through our quiet, supportive role.

Let me throw out a list of ideas for women’s ministries:

• Mentor younger women
• Teach children
• Participate in the music ministry
• Interpret services for the hearing impaired
• Teach women in Bible studies and/or Institute classes
• Personal evangelism
• Visit in hospitals
• Biblical counseling for women and teens
• Do graphic design projects for Christian materials, help with information technology
• Share the gospel
• Give out gospel tracts
• Care for children in the church nursery
• Translate (or write) biblical literature
• Visit the elderly and lonely people
• Be a hostess: plan, decorate, cook, clean up, host people in your home and church
• Write encouraging e-mails or send cards, blog, journal, write a book, write a gospel tract
• Help to clean and/or organize at church
• Pray for your pastor, other church leaders, and specific people in your church. Pray for the sick and needy.
• Keep in touch with your church’s missionaries

Which of these can you do? 

God bless you as you reach the world and train Christians for His service!

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1. www.historymakers.info/inspiritational-christians/maryslessor.html. Article about Mary Slessor, by Rebecca Hickman.

2. www.heroesofhistory.com/page46.html  3. www.tlogical.net/biocarmichael.html

Reaching Children in Sunday School (Part 2): Goals

(The pictures in this post are of children from a nearby children's home, Christian school, and church. All these ministries were started by an amazing missionary family who God is using here to do great things. They came for a visit one day. We had a blast! Their new Christian school administrator had just moved here. She is a single woman named Janelle, and one of my heroes.)

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We have all heard it...

"If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time."

Oh, how true! It's important in any ministry to have some goals. After all, if you don't know where you are going how will you ever get there?

The same is true when dealing with children. But what should our goals be? To have a beautiful Sunday school classroom? Pack the class with children? Make the children like us? Create well-behaved children who can recite a bunch of verses? Have the books of the Bible memorized?

White Enchiladas (Beef)

This week we are going to be using our flour tortilla recipe from last week to make white enchiladas.
These are beef enchiladas baked in a white sauce which is a little twist on traditional enchiladas.

Ingredients

1 1/2 lb. hamburger

1 package of taco seasoning

(I linked to a previous recipe posted here on the blog for homemade taco seasoning. Or, if your like me you just use several spices and quickly toss them in with the beef - garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, ground cayenne pepper, paprika, salt, black pepper.)

8 oz. of tomato sauce 

(I use tomato paste and add water until it is the consistency of tomato paste along with paprika, and a small amount of sugar to lessen the acidity)

2 cups of sour cream

**1 can of cream of chicken soup

**So, I am interrupting this list of ingredients to explain what I do when a recipe calls for cream soups or if I want to make a cheese sauce. I found this recipe years ago when my hubby and I were first married. The only thing is that now I have made it so much I just eye the ingredients but I would say for a recipe like these enchiladas, I would at least double the white sauce recipe. Now, this enchilada recipe calls for cream of chicken soup. I place two bullion cubes in a small bowl and add approximately one cup of boiling hot water to them, stir them until they dissolve, and stir that broth in to the sauce mixture. It is okay for it to be a bit thick as you will be adding milk to the soup mixture (in our case sauce mixture) anyway. 

1/3 cup of milk

grated cheddar cheese (we use Gouda)

4 oz of diced green chilies (I substitute with jalapeno peppers since they are available to us)

12-16 flour tortillas

Directions

Cook hamburger and seasonings together. This is where it is difficult to give amounts of seasonings as some like foods more spicy than others. Season per your family's preference. Drain. Mix hamburger with tomato sauce. Set mixture aside.

Combine sour cream, cream of chicken soup, and milk until blended. Pour a small amount of mixture into the bottom of a 9x13 or larger pan. Divide the meat between the tortillas and place a small amount of cheese in each. Roll up each stuffed tortilla and place it in pan, fold down. The tortillas are placed side by side, filling the entire pan. Pour the remaining mixture over the tortillas and top with diced chilies or jalapeno peppers and grated cheese. Bake at 350 degrees/180 Celsius for approximately 30 minutes or until mixture is bubbling and cheese is melted but not browned.Remove from oven and allow to stand 5 minutes.

Serve with tortilla chips and a side salad (if lettuce is cheap enough this week! ;)