Modest Bargain

With a Temple marriage comes new definitions for things.  One of those things for me was modesty.  I have always been a huge HUGE advocate of modesty.  It was quite a struggle to agree to play volleyball for me because of the uniforms.  And throughout my high school years I made a lot of clothes, with my mother’s help of course, including all of my formal dresses because of my obsession with the idea of keeping covered what should be covered.  I believe my body is a gift from God and I do all that is in my power to keep it clean and free from anything that defiles it.  I also know that all God’s children are beautiful, and I do not need to make sure other people can see all of my beautiful parts to feel beautiful.

Anyway, although I already had these foundations in place that lead me to only buy shirts with sleeves and shorts that went to the knee, it seems to have still fallen short of the modesty lines drawn by the church (if you get my drift).  So I have been searching for ways to extend my wardrobe’s life as well as new clothes to add that are full modest in and of themselves. I feel that both routes are necessary, especially because I do not want to get rid of my lovely dresses that I stitched myself in high school that still fit!

My first attempt at increasing the length/life of my wardrobe was undershirts.  Nice ones that have enough coverage on the arms and chest and mid-drift that they can cover any piece of clothing’s “short-comings”.  The shirts I get are from Down East Basics.  I love these shirts.  They are too tight, for me personally, to wear by themselves but I just adore their perfect cap-sleeve length and perfect neckline.  I buy both the wonder-tee and the crew-neck tee.  The wonder-tee is just a bit more dressier, but pinches more under the arm (on occasion).  I buy the maternity kind for the length, and this lets me wear absolutely ANY of my shirts with jeans.  Being a tall-torsoed woman means I loose a lot of coverage especially with nice blouses, but who cares as long as there is an undershirt there instead of your skin or underwear.  And the length also give the option of layering, instead of tucking in, for a nice modern look.

But the origin of this post idea was my awesome bargain find!  I’m always looking at their site, well every couple of weeks recently I’ve been looking for deals and beautiful items.  And not long ago they had a sale: the shirts I love were half-priced!  Jacob found me a coupon and got an additional 30% off!  So with shipping the normal shirt of $10 plus shipping were each $5.25 even.  Oh my gosh I wish they had had more than 5 colors in my size, I would have bought them all!  But it’s probably good that I was able to spend less that $30.

Mild Jambalaya

I love kielbasa.  I’m like half-Polish, so I blame it on that.  Also, game day meals at my parents house always consisted of this awesome meat on sub sandwiches, at least until Roethlis-burgers were invented!

I still love this meat, however it is new and different to my new husband.  A sandwich of only this meat is too foreign for him just yet.  So our current favorite way of enjoying my favorite meat is in Jambalaya!  But, if you know me you know I need a class of water when I walk past cajun seasoning; I just do not like spicy food.  So this idea would seem counterproductive. However, I found a really nice, calm/mellow recipe that we just love.

We started with using a box-rice dinner that I just had to add the meat too.  But with a bit of extra chopping, I get some (real) vegetables and a spice combination that I control, which is crucial for this genre of food.

The original recipe was submitted to allrecipes by Grant Michael.

  • 2 t olive oil
  • 1-2 cup chicken, cut into bite-size pieces
  • 1/2 lb kielbasa, diced
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 green bell pepper, diced
  • 1/2 cup diced celery
  • 1 t garlic powder
  • 1/4 t cayenne pepper
  • 1/2 t onion powder
  • dash of salt and ground black pepper
  • 2 cups uncooked white rice
  • 4 cups chicken stock
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 2 t Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 t hot pepper sauce

Saute first set of ingredients until onion is translucent (a few minutes). Then toss in rice and broth/stock and bay leaves.  Bring to boil, reduce heat for simmer, continue simmer for 25 minutes (that’s how long I cook all of my rice, it is always perfect).  Stir in sauces before serving.

I ususally have cooked chicken in my freezer and kielbasa is already cooked, so I just saute the vegetables with their spices for a few minutes, maybe toss the meat at the end with it all to heat it up (but the meat warms up in boiling water just fine).  But bite-size is the best way to cook up a couple chicken breasts quickly.  We used this amazing kielbasa that we found at our local warehouse store which had plenty of kick all in itself.

I actually left out the hot sauce (mainly because we don’t own any and I couldn’t see using it on other things) and it was still amazing.  Well, for me.  I would not recommend leaving this part out for the majority of families.  But it helps for picky eaters and can be added on a plate by plate basis.

Some possible yummy additions include: red beans, shrimp, Cajun seasoning, or a can of diced tomatoes.