Years ago I found a pasta dish on Cooking Light that is the perfect blend of pasta, tomatoes and cheese. The Italian sausage added to the tomato mixture is just heavenly! This comes together so quickly, and it makes a LOT!! I usually split the recipe into two containers so I can share one with someone else.
Baked Pasta with Sausage, Tomatoes and Cheese
1 (1-pound) package uncooked ziti (short tube-shaped pasta) – I used macaroni because I had LOTS on hand
1 pound hot turkey Italian sausage links (I use mild)
Step 2 Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain the pasta, and set aside.
Step 3 Remove casings from sausage. Cook sausage, onion, and garlic in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until browned, stirring to crumble. Add the tomato paste, salt, pepper, and tomatoes, and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Step 4 Combine cooked pasta, sausage mixture, and basil. Place half of the pasta mixture in a 4-quart casserole coated with cooking spray. Top with half of mozzarella and half of Parmesan. Repeat layers. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until bubbly.
Easier and faster than Lasagna, but super delicious, this pasta dish is a great busy night meal. You could even mix the whole thing up the day before and just pop it into the oven to heat it up! I served it with this Broccoli Salad and French Bread.
This is one of those recipes that you could put on repeat and no one would complain. Do you have a pasta recipe that you use make frequently?
hōmˌmākər/noun NORTH AMERICAN – a person, especially a housewife, who manages a home.
I think the reason many women don’t enjoy cooking is simply because their work space makes it difficult. This is a clear sign for the need to manage that space in order to maximize your homemaking efforts.
Yesterday I was sweeping the floor and opened my pantry door to see if it could use a swipe through. Yep. Onion skins around the produce basket and a sprinkling of little crumbs at the baseboards told me it needed some attention. I pulled the basket out, and then my flour tin. “Oh, might as well pull everything out and give it a good sweep” I thought.
Two hours later, I was leaving the kitchen! Why? Because once I began working in the pantry, I found more and more areas that needed some management.
Homemakers definitely need to constantly guide the affairs of the home. Without it, tasks are disorganized and difficult.
When I’m working on a space, I ask myself,
Does this space make it easy for me to do my work?
If the answer is no, I work until I feel like I’ve fixed the problem!
Here are some suggestions of ways I do that ~
Move frequently used items to shelves I can reach without having to pull out the step stool.
Fill jars with items I use frequently – oatmeal, brown sugar, confectioners sugar, chocolate chips and rice. It is so much easier to scoop those ingredients from a jar than to open up bags and boxes.
Seldom used items are place up high and out of the way.
Frequently used utensils are within my reach.
Salt and pepper are at my hand near the stove for ease in cooking.
All baking tools are in one area, keeping me from going from one spot to another to gather rolling pin, measuring cups and spoons.
All baking ingredients are also easy to get to.
The trash can is in a spot that is accessed easily.
I also always have a “garbage bowl”out when I’m cooking or baking. It’s a container that sits on the counter and holds the trash – egg shells, onions skin, potato peel, empty cans and anything else that is needs to be thrown away. It all goes in there and gets dumped when I’m finished cooking. It saves me steps while I’m working.
How about walking into your kitchen and asking yourself, what area makes cooking burdensome, rather than easy? Then set to work to fix that problem. Managing your home well will make your homemaking work easier! You might even find that a task you disliked isn’t so bad after all!
What area in your kitchen is most frustrating to you?
Walking along the shoreline of the ocean begs for shell-seeking. As you walk along, you are blinded by glimmers of colors pressed into the sand. You hear the crunch of the buried bits under your feet and an inquisitive mind wonders what treasures could be revealed just under their sandalled foot.
We bend down and scour the sand. What are we looking for? The perfect shell. Not one that has been walked upon, like we just did moments before! No, we seek for one that is unbroken; one that is completely whole with nothing missing or cracked. Those finds are rare. They are discovered by the early morning seekers, donned in water boots, standing ankle deep in the ocean’s foam to make their find before the lazy beachcombers awaken.
As I surveyed the beach on a mid-morning walk last week, I saw a shell in all its beauty! It appeared perfect! I snapped a picture to document my perfect find!
As I bent down and inspected the shell, I was reminded of how we also seek perfection in the children that would enter our home. “As long as they’re healthy, that’s all that matters!” we say. And what do we do if we find that there is a problem – a crack, if you will?
What if a piece is missing, causing an illness or an unwanted diagnosis later on?
What if their make-up is strong-willed and stubborn?
What if there are special needs?
What happens if there is a learning disability?
What if rebellion comes with age and maturity?
What ever will we do with the brokenness that displays itself at the time when we are most embarrassed by it?
The truth is that every child is broken. It comes as a result of being born into a sinful, broken world that has put sin in their nature. That “crack” will be seen in each child in different ways and different times, but it’s there. The blessing isn’t from overlooking the imperfection, but acknowledging it, for then we can find the Hope needed to comfort and restore.
That hope is the grace of God that brings salvation. As sure as the ocean’s tide will cover that broken shell on the shoreline, God’s grace will cover our child as they hear the message of the Gospel. Their greatest need isn’t to be “fixed,” but to be saved. If their weakness, brokenness and imperfection will point them to Jesus as the Savior for their sins, would it not be a treasure for which we did not ask?
What about illnesses, weaknesses and deformities and struggles that put hardship on the parents? God’s grace is as deep as the ocean, and it is sufficient for each day’s burdens and struggles. As the grace of God is witnessed by His daily strength to help, His wisdom to know how to move forward, and His provision that supplies for needs, that weakness glorifies the God who made that child and formed them in the womb. Surely He also puts in our hearts that this is not forever. One Day wholeness will come.
As I watch the waves roll in, one at a time, the Lord reminds me that that is how grace is given to us – one need at a time – not before we need it, or less than we need, but when we need it, and in sufficient amounts.
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. II Corinthians 12:9
After careful examination, it turned out that the “perfect shell” I found wasn’t perfect after all. Lovely as they are, I also saw early on that my girls were also broken, just like their parents! Praise God for the saving grace that has been applied to their lives and that is continually working in each of us as we look forward to that day in heaven when we will be like Jesus! That’s when we will see perfection!
Oh, how God’s heart rejoices at those that go looking for the broken! That refers to those that need the Gospel. With whom are we sharing the Good News of Christ? Are you pouring the Gospel message into your children every day, weaving its message into all of life? As parents, it’s your responsibility! If you don’t have children in your home, are you teaching the Gospel to your grandchildren or to your friends, neighbors and the people with whom you interact?
Let’s not be looking for what our hearts think we need (perfection) and instead, purposefully look for the brokenness around us that needs the tidal wave of God’s saving grace! There is no greater Treasure!
Last week when I shared about ways to save on groceries, my strong admonition was to buy what’s on sale. Today I want clarify and detail what that looks like.
The bread and avocados were grocery store mark downs and made for a delicious breakfast this week!
Of course you want to look at the store’s sites/ads and see what items they have marked down this week. This enables you to purchase items when they are marked at a lower price. You can establish a menu around those items, BUT WAIT!
When you’re at the store, go deep diving into each section of the store looking for their Marked Down items. This would be their Clearance aisle, the corner of the meat section for meat that’s ready to expire, and also items on shelves that have sale stickers on them. Kroger and Ingles are two places where I often see these kind of sales.
For example – A couple weeks ago I walked into Kroger’s produce section and found these bags in a large cooler…
The date was for a few days out! They also had the salad bowls for 25 cents! I purchased what I knew we could enjoy before they went bad. Obviously, I hadn’t known to add this to my list, but it was nice to incorporate that into my menu planning when I got home!
Often I find bananas marked down, or yogurt, or beef. Then I go home and make up my menu using those items. If I needed a cake and I found the bananas marked down, I’d make this Banana Cake, rather than one that calls for all kinds of extra ingredients that I would have to purchase at full price.
This is called Reverse menu planning (thanks for the term, Money-Saving Mom!). I’ve been doing this all my homemaking life, I just didn’t know what it was called!
This kind of shopping and PLANNING is totally opposite of not having a plan and then running to the store to buy needed items for a recipe.
Reverse menu planning is buying what’s on sale and/or marked to clearance, then using what I have on hand to make up the week’s menu.
Here’s a sampling of what’s on my menu next week because I went shopping and got these items when they were marked down!
Avocado Toast – I got three avocados for .99 and they were perfectly ripe!
I always have frozen and canned vegetables on hand for side dishes, though I do purchase fresh fruits and veggies at regular price.
If you are in a place where you only order groceries on-line, you can still get the benefit of the advertised sales, and that will help your grocery budget. But if you’re able to go into the store, keep your eyes open for those good mark downs and don’t be afraid of them. They’re still good for purchasing and consuming!
Have you heard of Reverse Menu Planning? Maybe like me, you’ve been doing it, but didn’t know what to call it?! Tell me about a deal you scored recently!
Vacations have been at a premium for the last couple of years, haven’t they? I’m sure very few people have not had their leisure time changed in some way.
That is certainly true for us! Our December beach vacation and time in Pigeon Forge were all cancelled because my husband was sick. We changed our reservations for our Myrtle Beach trip to January. What? The beach in January? Yes, we figured even if it is cold, it would be warmer than Tennessee! We certainly got that one right!
Snow was forecasted for our area for Sunday – the day we were to leave, so we packed up one day early and left town before the flurries and ice began! Whew!
We traveled on Saturday and woke up Sunday morning in SC where it was cold and rainy, but NOT snowing! We stayed in a hotel one night until our week’s reservations began elsewhere Sunday evening. We enjoyed a nice breakfast in the Holiday Inn Express breakfast room that overlooks the inlet before we headed to church.
We love the church we’ve found here at the beach. The young pastor preaches expositionally through a book of the Bible and we were blessed to hear his message from Galatians 1 about staying true to the Doctrines of the Word of God and not falling into a false Gospel. What a powerful word for the day in which we live! The Gospel is Christ alone – no works, not anything or anyone else added. He is the only way to God. So encouraging to hear that message!
We ate Sunday dinner at Flying Fish – a favorite place of ours. The meal was exceptional and a lovely retreat from the pouring rain outside!
Monday we were happy to see some sunshine, though it was still cold.
Nothing beats an ocean view first thing in the morning! We enjoyed walks on the beach each day, the briskness was invigorating and made me feel a little better about the fried fish we would eat!
I have a husband that really enjoys shopping! We walked through the shops at The Common, where we enjoyed the Southern Living Store, Barnes and Nobles and then lunch at California Pizza. Their Golden Hawaiian Pizza was different and delicious!
There are lots of other good shopping places in Myrtle Beach and this is a great time of year to find good bargains. I found a few little treasures, some gifts, and a picture I needed for a bathroom I’m updating. It was at Hobby Lobby and marked from $19.99 to $4.99. It’s in perfect condition and it’s going to be so pretty in my house!
For meals, our practice is that we eat breakfast in our room, then go out for lunch where we eat our “big meal of the day.” Then in the evening I fix lunch in our room. My breakfast of Avocado Toast (above) on the balcony tasted extra good out in the salty air! By mid-week, our days were perfect temps with plenty of sunshine! How thankful we were!
I loved our beach walks. What’s better than strolling hand-in-hand and talking about life with your best friend?
Some of the other restaurants where we enjoyed our mid-day meals were Taco Mundo and The Shack in Cherry Grove. This little place is filled with local people who come regularly. We enjoyed a platter of delicious fish while we watched neighbors interacting with one another with warmth and camaraderie.
In my opinion, a beach vacation is always a good vacation! Who could ever get tired of watching the ocean roll in or the sun rising and setting over the water each day? Even if it’s from inside, it’s a reminder of the Creator of the universe Who holds the boundaries, keeps the tides rolling in and out, and is deeper than the vastness of its waters. The sunrise tells me that God is continuously at work; faithful to keep the sun rising and setting. What an awesome vacation! What an awesome God!
If you have missed out on your vacation, as we did in December, remember that when it does get to happen, it will be all the sweeter! Be patient – it will be worth the wait!
What have you been forced to wait for in recent months?
This post, or this one can encourage you in practical ways if you’re struggling to get through January,
RefreshHer 