Peppermint Essential Oil Truffles

These truffles were a huge hit at my essential oils class: Returning to a Natural Healthcare.

Several people asked me to share the recipe.  Here it is:

Peppermint Essential Oil Truffles

Yield: About 36

Ingredients:
1- package of Oreo cookies (original NOT Doublestuff - can use off brand cookies as well), divided
1- 8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened
5-8 drops of Peppermint Essential Oil (only use a certified pure essential oil approved for ingesting)
1 -16 oz vanilla almond bark or candy melts

Directions:
• Set a long sheet of wax paper over a cookie sheet, set aside.
• Place all but 3 Oreos in a food processor (entire cookie, don't remove cream filling) and pulse until finely crushed (alternately, if you don't own a food processor, you can place Oreos in a large Ziploc bag, seal bag and crush with a rolling pin until finely crushed).
• Pour crushed Oreos into a mixing bowl along with cream cheese and Peppermint essential oil. Using the back of a spoon, stir mixture while pressing it along the bottom of the bowl, until well combined and evenly moistened. Scoop mixture out and form into 1 inch balls (if you happen to have a kitchen scale, they should be about 16 grams - I didn't weigh but used a cookie scoop to get the right size then rolled it into a perfect ball).
• Align on prepared cookie sheet. Place truffles in freezer for 10 minutes or longer. Meanwhile, crush remaining 3 Oreos.
• Melt almond bark according to directions on package. Remove truffles from freezer and dip in melted chocolate and evenly coat then allow excess chocolate to run off. Return to baking sheet and immediately sprinkle tops with remaining crushed Oreos. Allow chocolate to set. Store in an airtight container in refrigerator.

Need to order Peppermint essential oil or any other essential oils?
Contact me!

Recipe Source: Taken and adapted from http://www.cookingclassy.com/2012/12/oreo-truffles-two-ways/

Recipe by Christine Russell, RN

Part 6: Conclusion: Joyfully living life to its fullest in Plan A (because there is no Plan B)

If you are still with me on this journey of understanding how a God of love could decree so much suffering, thanks for sticking with me (If you have missed any in this series, check out the previous parts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5). I pray that you are able to come to term with God’s answers just as I am doing.

Our God of love decrees suffering because He has one and the only perfect plan for our lives: to make us more like Christ so that we can bring Him glory. He is sovereign and carries out His perfect plan for each of us that he determined from the beginning of time. He loves and cares for us in our suffering. He desires for us to join Christ in his suffering so that we can learn to be more like Him and be image-bearers of Christ to a lost and suffering world around us. He wants us to be complete, lacking nothing by the time He calls us Home to Glory.

So God decreed my suffering in the past, present, and future because He loves me and has great plans for me. How then can I boast and delight in my weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties?

Looking at some of the significant sufferings of my past and present allow me to see God’s hand and have insight into His reasons. I may never know all of His reasons on this side of eternity, but it is helpful to look back and understand what God was doing in the past when it was difficult to understand His reasons as I was going through the suffering.

Part 5: Joyfully living life to its fullest in Plan A (because there is no Plan B)

[Continuation from Part 4]

Joni Eareckson Tada, in her and Steven Estes’ book When God Weeps: Why our Sufferings Matter to the Almighty, has a great answer to her question she raises, “Why does God pile on hardships so high?” She says: God is more concerned with conforming me to the likeness of his Son than leaving me in my comfort zones” (p. 121, Tada and Estes) God, who sees our suffering and can bear our suffering no longer (Exodus 3:7-8; Judges 10:16 quoted in Part 3), loves us so much and wants to sanctify us making us more like His Son every day, decrees our suffering to accomplish His great and awesome purposes in our lives. After all, we have the promise of Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope" (ESV).  God will fulfill his purposes in our lives and complete his good work in us. He will never leave us or forsake us. He will carry us when we can no longer walk. He takes our heavy burden and gives us his easy and light burden. He doesn't leave us alone to endure our suffering. He’s right there with us and can sympathize with us because Jesus suffered in all points as we do yet did it without sin.
Paul says in Colossians 1:24b, “I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions…”

What on earth does that mean? Joni explains this beautifully: “Nothing is lacking when it comes to what Christ did on the cross. It is finished, just as he said. But something is lacking when it comes to showcasing the salvation story to others. Jesus isn't around in the flesh, but you and I are. When we suffer and handle it with grace, we’re like walking billboards advertising the positive way God works in the life of someone who suffers” (p. 101, Tada and Estes). That thought helps bring meaning to the suffering. It’s by far not in vain. There is value not just in our own lives and sanctification but in the lives of those around us. The hardships can cause us to long for heaven just as Paul did, and that’s perfectly fine. There would be a problem if we’d rather stay in this life. He says in Philippians 1:21-24:

"For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account." (ESV) 

We live torn between our desire to be with Christ and to remain to do the work He has called us to. Good thing God knows what is best for us, and He will call us home when our work here on earth is done. Whether we linger longer on earth or see Jesus face to face sooner rather than later, we win! So what does all of this mean to me personally as I struggle to learn to live joyfully in God’s Plan A since there is no Plan B? And what is the summary of the answer for the original question of Part 1: How could a God of love decree so much suffering? Tune in for Part 6: The conclusion!