This recipe is so simple I almost did not want to share it, but my family loves it and it is a good vegetarian option.
For the super easy version I cook and drain one box of whole grain or whole wheat penne, or rotini. In a separate large pot heat one jar of a good quality marinara sauce, and add 1/2 a package of cream cheese. The cream cheese will melt to a nice creamy consistency. Add pasta when cooked till coated. Serve with grated parmesan on top.
For the little more work version, I make my own tomato sauce.
Saute one onion chopped fine in 2 Tbsp of olive oil. When the onion begins to turn clear add 1-2 tsp minced garlic, and 1-2 tsp of Italian seasoning. (The garlic and seasoning are to taste, we prefer a lot so I usually lean to 2 tsp). Add 1 large (28 oz) can of crushed tomatoes, and one small can of tomato sauce. Heat through, then add the 1/2 package of cream cheese, melt and add pasta till coated.
You can also place the sauce coated pasta in a casserole dish and cover with mozzerella, and bake at 350 till the cheese is melted through if your family prefers lasagne style pasta. If you choose to bake it, take about 2 minutes off your pasta boiling time as the pasta will continue to cook in the oven.
I use whole wheat or whole grain pasta in this dish for the added protein, and fiber.
Serves 4 very hungry or 6 moderately hungry people
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Patience and control
I lack patience it has never been a virtue I had, and I am not sure one can develop it, but I am trying. I really don't like to wait things out, and I am not one of those enjoy the process people. I also like things to be a certain way and get upset when they cannot stay that way. I have no idea how I got this way, but everyday I pray for patience, and to some degree peace in what I cannot control, and the ability to realize what is worth trying to control.
This a verse that Friends (Quakers) use a lot to explain silent worship - "Be still and know that I am God" Psalm 46:10 We have a period ( and at some meetings it is the whole service) during each service when we are all silent, we sit there and wait for God to speak to us. Sometimes it is silent the whole time, people keep to themselves what they hear, or they use the time for silent meditation. Sometimes people have something prepared that they say, a prayer or a reading or some wisdom that they think the body of the church needs to hear. And inevitably if there is a baby in the congregation they will babble excitedly during this time.
I am trying very hard to learn to be still. I think the worship that happens in the Meeting house could also happen in my house, if I can just get the being still part down. I can simplify my life and try to do all the things that seem "right" but always trying to live for the next thing and plan and plan is tiring, and it takes away my ability to be in the moment. My hope is that through prayer, meditation and just learning to be still that I can learn patience.
Today I am going to make the conscious effort to try and be in the moment. Maybe I can learn patience one day at a time.
This a verse that Friends (Quakers) use a lot to explain silent worship - "Be still and know that I am God" Psalm 46:10 We have a period ( and at some meetings it is the whole service) during each service when we are all silent, we sit there and wait for God to speak to us. Sometimes it is silent the whole time, people keep to themselves what they hear, or they use the time for silent meditation. Sometimes people have something prepared that they say, a prayer or a reading or some wisdom that they think the body of the church needs to hear. And inevitably if there is a baby in the congregation they will babble excitedly during this time.
I am trying very hard to learn to be still. I think the worship that happens in the Meeting house could also happen in my house, if I can just get the being still part down. I can simplify my life and try to do all the things that seem "right" but always trying to live for the next thing and plan and plan is tiring, and it takes away my ability to be in the moment. My hope is that through prayer, meditation and just learning to be still that I can learn patience.
Today I am going to make the conscious effort to try and be in the moment. Maybe I can learn patience one day at a time.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Wordless Wednesday
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Frugal Food-Tuna Zucchini Cakes
We tried these for the first time the other day from a recipe I found in a frugal cooking magazine, but by the end of the recipe I had changed so many things that it was not the same as in the book. So, this is my version of them.
Ingredients
2 cans of chunk light tuna in water drained
2 eggs
1/2 onion grated fine
1 medium zucchini grated fine
Seasonings to taste - Garlic, Italian seasoning mix, lemon juice
Oatmeal
Mix the eggs, tuna, onion, zucchini and seasonings well. Let sit about 5 minutes, because the tuna seems to create more liquid. Drain off excess liquid, and add in enough oatmeal that you can form a patty out of the mixture without it falling apart. Let sit again for 5 minutes or so, you want the oatmeal to get wet enough that it does not taste like toasted oatmeal when you fry them.
Fry in canola oil about 5 minutes on each side on a medium heat or medium low if you use a cast iron pan.
Serves 4 well
Ingredients
2 cans of chunk light tuna in water drained
2 eggs
1/2 onion grated fine
1 medium zucchini grated fine
Seasonings to taste - Garlic, Italian seasoning mix, lemon juice
Oatmeal
Mix the eggs, tuna, onion, zucchini and seasonings well. Let sit about 5 minutes, because the tuna seems to create more liquid. Drain off excess liquid, and add in enough oatmeal that you can form a patty out of the mixture without it falling apart. Let sit again for 5 minutes or so, you want the oatmeal to get wet enough that it does not taste like toasted oatmeal when you fry them.
Fry in canola oil about 5 minutes on each side on a medium heat or medium low if you use a cast iron pan.
Serves 4 well
Friday, January 21, 2011
Getting Older
We are a family of winter birthdays so we get the holidays and all of our birthdays in a short amount of time. This year I was really thinking about aging and how it does not bother me much anymore. There was a time when I really figured that like a lot of the women in my family I would just cease to tell anyone how old I was, and constantly fight the battle to look like I did and feel like I did when I was 20. The funny thing is I don't want to be that girl at all. She did not know who she was, or what she wanted and although she would have told you she was not following the crowd, the crowd's opinion did matter way too much.
When I was pregnant with my daughter I stopped dying my hair as the chemical smell made me sick, and by the time she was born I decided it was long enough to just let grow. My hair is now sporting lots of grey, and although there are days when I look at it and grimace, I try to remember that people were meant to age. I can't ask my daughter to be happy with her body image if I can't find peace with mine. I have wrinkles, but they are not too bad, partly because I was never a sun bather, and when you really burn you have a tendency to avoid extended trips in the sunlight.
I guess what I am trying in a round about way to say is find peace with the here and now. You can try for improvement in different areas in your life, but if you are always thinking that you are not enough you spend your whole life waiting for something else. I have never been really good at waiting for anything. I am enough now. That is my birthday present to myself. Enough.
When I was pregnant with my daughter I stopped dying my hair as the chemical smell made me sick, and by the time she was born I decided it was long enough to just let grow. My hair is now sporting lots of grey, and although there are days when I look at it and grimace, I try to remember that people were meant to age. I can't ask my daughter to be happy with her body image if I can't find peace with mine. I have wrinkles, but they are not too bad, partly because I was never a sun bather, and when you really burn you have a tendency to avoid extended trips in the sunlight.
I guess what I am trying in a round about way to say is find peace with the here and now. You can try for improvement in different areas in your life, but if you are always thinking that you are not enough you spend your whole life waiting for something else. I have never been really good at waiting for anything. I am enough now. That is my birthday present to myself. Enough.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Catch up
Our whole house has been sick for most of the last month and it has really thrown our schedules, and my time available to write this blog out of whack. I am really grateful for the flexibility of homeschool right now, as I was able to do some light school work with my daughter when we were both feeling up to it, but when we truly both just needed a break I could put off school till until we are better.
I did purchase a new Bible with a gift card that I got for Christmas, and I am keeping up with my daily reading. I really like the version I got. Here is a link http://www.christianbook.com/niv-application-study-bible-personal-size/9781414324579/pd/324579/1167894759?event=CF
It is the Life Application study Bible in NIV translation. It includes lots of study notes, bios of characters, and lots of other study tools. As the name implies it has Life Application notes to help one understand how you can apply what you just read to your everyday life.
On other topics, my daughter seems to be going through a word explosion, and watching her ability to communicate growing in leaps and bounds is really heartening. We still sometimes have the temper tantrums when she just can't find the words, but hopefully those will subside soon enough.
My husband has a new job and we are really excited about the opportunities this may bring to our family. He was looking for a long time but the job market is just horrid, so we are lucky he that he was able to find this job, and that he had steady work at the other job till this came available.
I guess overall things are going pretty well here, and I feel like we are moving in the right direction.
I did purchase a new Bible with a gift card that I got for Christmas, and I am keeping up with my daily reading. I really like the version I got. Here is a link http://www.christianbook.com/niv-application-study-bible-personal-size/9781414324579/pd/324579/1167894759?event=CF
It is the Life Application study Bible in NIV translation. It includes lots of study notes, bios of characters, and lots of other study tools. As the name implies it has Life Application notes to help one understand how you can apply what you just read to your everyday life.
On other topics, my daughter seems to be going through a word explosion, and watching her ability to communicate growing in leaps and bounds is really heartening. We still sometimes have the temper tantrums when she just can't find the words, but hopefully those will subside soon enough.
My husband has a new job and we are really excited about the opportunities this may bring to our family. He was looking for a long time but the job market is just horrid, so we are lucky he that he was able to find this job, and that he had steady work at the other job till this came available.
I guess overall things are going pretty well here, and I feel like we are moving in the right direction.
Monday, January 3, 2011
New Year Goals
I have read time and again that it takes at least 21 days to establish a new routine and that if you can attempt to stay with something for 21 days that you are more likely to succeed at making it a habit. Breaking bad habits is also never easy, and is reported to take at least the same amount of time. I do not like New Year's Resolutions as I have never been able to keep them, or keep them to my expectations, and I have never met anyone who actually has. The times in my life where I have made the vast changes that people usually aspire to with the New Year have coincided only with a true desire to change. I once lost quite a bit of weight and it was not easy, but I followed a plan and it worked. I now have weight to lose again, as I let myself gain too much with the pregnancy with my child and well that weight does not just melt off with the joy of a new baby. However, I also think that it is important to sit down and take stock of your life and what you want to change or start new, or you can get in a rut. The New Year is as good a time a any to do that, I just hesitate to call anything a resolution, as I worry that sets me up to fail.
So what are the goals I would like to set this year? I would like to eat healthier, be less in debt, lose weight, and have read the Bible all the way through by this time next year.
I have a plan for the Bible reading, I just have to stick to it, the other things will be harder.
Eating healthier in a family where your husband and child turn up their noses at lots of vegetables and you have a restricted food budget is not the easiest thing in the world. I have created some sneaky food recipes that help, and if I can get 10 or so more of them in the menu rotation I feel as though we will be moving toward a healthier family.
Decreasing debt takes money we don't have to spare right now... so this part of the goal will have to come from new income sources of some sort. I have been thinking of working toward selling some hand made goods at fairs and local venues. It would be a venture I could work on and still do my primary jobs of wife, mother and homeschool teacher. Also we just in general have to much stuff so maybe some of that can turn a profit on Ebay or the like.
Losing weight will take time and determination, but I am lucky that my husband wants this to be one of his goals too. When I lost 60 pounds in the past I started on my own and did well for a while and then had to join Weight Watchers to get the last 15 pounds off. I liked the WW program but again that is just not in the budget. Luckily the ideas behind it are not hard to implement. Restrict portions sizes to a reasonable amount, be moderate in eating, exercise regularly, drink lots of water.
Hopefully these goals are attainable, and reachable. Here goes the hard work of creating new habits!
So what are the goals I would like to set this year? I would like to eat healthier, be less in debt, lose weight, and have read the Bible all the way through by this time next year.
I have a plan for the Bible reading, I just have to stick to it, the other things will be harder.
Eating healthier in a family where your husband and child turn up their noses at lots of vegetables and you have a restricted food budget is not the easiest thing in the world. I have created some sneaky food recipes that help, and if I can get 10 or so more of them in the menu rotation I feel as though we will be moving toward a healthier family.
Decreasing debt takes money we don't have to spare right now... so this part of the goal will have to come from new income sources of some sort. I have been thinking of working toward selling some hand made goods at fairs and local venues. It would be a venture I could work on and still do my primary jobs of wife, mother and homeschool teacher. Also we just in general have to much stuff so maybe some of that can turn a profit on Ebay or the like.
Losing weight will take time and determination, but I am lucky that my husband wants this to be one of his goals too. When I lost 60 pounds in the past I started on my own and did well for a while and then had to join Weight Watchers to get the last 15 pounds off. I liked the WW program but again that is just not in the budget. Luckily the ideas behind it are not hard to implement. Restrict portions sizes to a reasonable amount, be moderate in eating, exercise regularly, drink lots of water.
Hopefully these goals are attainable, and reachable. Here goes the hard work of creating new habits!
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