Stuffed Shells

This is one of my favorite meals for several reasons:
1. it's so easy and makes about 3 meals worth - love meals in the freezer!
2. my grandma used to make these every time she came to Iowa to visit - good memories!
3. they are delicious - yum!

Stuffed Shells
Prepare a box of large pasta shells according to the box, drain, and rinse with cold water.

Cheese mixture:
2 containers of ricotta cheese (30 oz. total)
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 egg
1 T. parsley flakes
optional - 1 box frozen spinach, thawed and drained

When shells are cool enough to handle, put a heaping table spoon of cheese mixture into each shell and lay them on a cookie sheet. It should come out pretty even with shells and cheese mixture. I usually end up with a few shells left over because I over stuff mine :)

Freeze the shells on the cookie sheet and then transfer them to a zip lock bag. When you want to enjoy your shells, lay them in a baking dish seam side down (about 3-4 shells per adult) and cover generously with your favorite pasta sauce. Bake shells at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes.

Bubble Wrap

I think I might wrap Rebecca in bubble wrap next week and keep her in her bedroom. After a week like this one, I don't think she can handle any more injuries! I know she is only 3 years old, but we've already noticed that Rebecca is not very coordinated and tends to fall down and bang into things a lot. But this week takes the cake.

On Monday night she was at VBS and fell/tripped and landed in such a way that she split open the front of her knee about an inch. It really looked liked it needed stitches, but wanting to avoid the ER, we waited until Tuesday morning to take her in. Her doctor did put 5 stitches in her knee. I won't go into too many details about the procedure, but it was awful for everyone and I've never heard Rebecca scream so much!

She is doing great now and hardly notices that there are stitches in her knee. We have to keep reminding her not to run or crawl on her knee. She gets her stitches out on July 11th.

In addition to stitches on Tuesday, Wednesday she managed to fall down the deck steps and land on the concrete. She scraped up her shoulder, bumped her head, and added another scrape to her knees. On Thursday at VBS again, she was climbing on something and scraped and bruised the under part of her arm. And to top it off, Friday she slammed her thumb in the car door! The scary thing is that all of these injuries were "self-inflicted", she didn't need help from anyone else. We pray she survives childhood!

Banana Bread

I feel like I've been going "bananas" the last few days (I'll post more about that later this week) and the bananas on my counter have been going bad. So this morning (yes, I'm a day late again with my recipe) I decided to make a bunch of banana bread and muffins. I got this recipe from my mom and I doubled it twice to use all my rotten bananas.

Banana Bread
1 3/4 cup flour
2/3 cup sugar
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1 cup mashed banana
1/3 c. margarine
2 T milk
2 eggs
nuts (optional)

Cream together banana, margarine, milk, and eggs. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Add nuts if you want. Makes one loaf pan or 12 reg. muffins. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 mins. or until knife comes out clean. Let bread cool for about 10 minutes and then remove from pan to finish cooling.

2 loaves of bread and large muffins. There is one more loaf in the oven.

Farm Tiling

We did some tiling this spring on our farm.  The tiling machine below is what puts the tile in the ground.  This is a 350 horsepower Cummins powered machine with four wheel drive and a 7 foot wheel trencher on the back.  It has a 20,000 lb 5/8 cable winch on the front and we used it extensively because of the muddy conditions.

This shows the rear of the machine well.  The wheel moves counter clockwise and as it rotates the dirt falls from the wheel getting expelled by the belt to the side of trench.

 This is view of the cab.  It is GPS guided and is auto steer.  Technology at work.  The driver drives the machine in reverse where he would like the tile to go.  Then when the machine is in the ground and going forward the computer places the tile with appropriate drop/slope.

 This shows how wet one spot was.  Norm, the owner, was driving the machine on the reverse course to get a new string strung and wanted to go right through the heart of this wet spot.  After getting unstuck we decided to go above it a little.  The 20,000 lb winch was used to the maximum to get him out.  The tires are about 6 feet tall when not stuck.

This video shows smooth running of the tiling machine.  The wheel hauls the dirt up the front of the trench dropping it on the belt for expelling out the side.  Then the tile boot, the attachment on the back of the wheel, cleans the trench for placement of the tile in the bottom.  You can see the black tile being pulled into the tile boot.

Check Out Our New Ticker! ---------->

That's right, Rebecca is going to be a BIG SISTER in January and she is pretty excited about it! We are thrilled too!

Sarah, Plain and Tall

This title (the "plain" part) is so true when it comes to how I like to eat. I know that I set the goal of posting a new recipe every Tuesday and I still plan on trying to do that. But today while thinking of what we have eaten lately trying to think of a recipe to post, I realized that very few meals that I make regularly actually use a recipe.

I like my food pretty plain. I know that I am the black sheep of my family when it comes to my passion for food and being in the kitchen making it, but it works for me and thankfully Dan doesn't mind too much. Although, I have had to remind him a few times that he did not marry my mom.

One of my favorite "plain" meals, no recipe needed.

Marinated (in Zesty Italian dressing) chicken breast - grilled, pasta with butter, peas, sprinkled with a little parmesan cheese.

Oatmeal Cookies

These are my favorite oatmeal cookies and Rebecca and I are planning on making them later today.

Oatmeal Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
3 cups quick oats

Additions: 2 tsp. cinnamon, 1 cup craisins (this is what makes the cookies SO GOOD)

Mix together and drop about table spoon balls on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 F for about 10-11 minutes. Do not over bake, you want them to be chewy, not crunchy. Enjoy!

What is your favorite thing to add to a basic oatmeal cookie recipe?

(I know that I am a day late on this recipe, but I'm on summer vacation...no schedules!)