Lead me to the cross

I feel rather trampled upon...and it is weird because I am not the recipient of all the heartache; I am merely the observer.  Between work and church I feel as if this year has been a harbinger of death, disease, unemployment, and discouragement.  There have been many positives, but with each email and get together there has been an element of disappointment or distress.  I know where to go, but often find myself distracted by trivialities. 

My hope, my goal, my purpose is to bring Christ to those who do not know him.  Showing through my own life how to obey, trust, worship, and grow.  However doing that is hard at times, I find that my relationship and my obedience happen most when I am overwhelmed...I really wish that like Anne Shirley's statement of "I never repeat the same mistakes twice." I could learn to trust and obey in the good times, the times of plenty the way I do in the times of famine. 

Now if only I could get my diet and fitness plan in order as well....

Vegan Ice Cream cake

Growing up my Grammi would often make ice cream cakes for our birthdays.  They were messy, packed full of sugar and chocolate and just plain marvelous.  However nowadays I have a harder time processing dairy and due to all the documentaries and books (Food, Inc., The Omnivore's Dilemma, etc.) I have read recently try not to touch dairy anymore than necessary.  Plus I have this friend who is trying to go vegan so I decided to try my had at making an ice cream cake similar to my Grammi's but more in keeping with my dietary requirements.

I know it isn't a brilliant presentation style, but it does taste rather nice and the wax paper does wonders for clean up.

Required items:
Trader Jo's Jo Jo's (or gluten free equivalent)
Earth Balance- 4 tbsps
1 container soy ice cream (I used Trader Joe's but I would imagine any vegan ice cream would work; I will note that the Trader Joe's Soy ice cream took a full 15 hours to firm up.)
Vegan chocolate chips.
Spring Form pan

Use a food processor to chop the Jo Jo's until they are mostly chopped.  Save a couple for the top to decorate or to add cookie crumbles.  Melt the Earth Balance and pour into a bowl with the chopped Jo Jo's.  Stir until the Jo Jo's are well coated. 

Line spring form pan with wax paper and then pour the Jo Jo mixture in and firm press down to create the crust.  Put this in the freezer for about an hour until cookie crust is firm and chilled.

If your ice cream is solid pull that out to thaw while your crust is firming.  If your ice cream is rather creamy then wait until the crust is firm.  Once the crust is solid scoop out the softened ice cream and smooth over cookie.  If you like you can layer in the chocolate chips, nuts or other goodies, but I simply added the whole container of soy ice cream.

Sprinkle the chocolate chips or cookie crumbles. 

Let firm in freezer for at least 10 hours.