Mock Stuffed Pasta Shell Caserole

My family loves stuffed pasta shells, but it's definitely not the quickest or easiest things to make.  So, I came up with a substitute and used up some more zucchini from the garden!

1 box medium pasta shells
1 small container ricotta cheese
1 cup cottage cheese
2 cups shredded mozerella cheese
1 medium zucchini
Spaghetti sauce (I use the canned Heinz,  1 1/2 - 2 cans)

Pre-heat oven to 375. Boil water and cook pasta al dente, it's better for a casserole if it's a little under done than if you were to just eat it.

While that is cooking, place cheeses in a large bowl and add diced zucchini.  Add spaghetti sauce and mix.  Once pasta is done strain and mix in bowl with sauce mixture. 

Place in casserole dish and sprinkle with mozzerella cheese.  Bake for about 1 hour.

My kids devoured it, it was a lot easier to make than the stuffed shells, and it tastes just as good.  I've also been known to dice up imitation crab and put it in the mixture. I really want to try this with some pepper jack cheese tossed in with the mix!

Since when is encouraging education a bad thing?

Brainwashing! Indoctrination! Political Agenda!

No, this isn’t a lesson plan about the Nazi regime. These are the words thrown out by parents after extreme conservatives took a spin on President Obama’s intended speech to school children scheduled next Tuesday.

Every day I work with adults who have realized how hard life can be without a college degree. How different would their lives be now if they had a strong conviction of the importance of education and the encouragement to pursue their goals?

According to my research, the concern comes from the resource guides that have been provided online for teachers to utilize stating that they “obligate the youngest children in our public school system to agree with our President's initiatives or be ostracized by their teachers and classmates”

Since when do questions such as

•  What is the President asking me to do?
• What is the specific job he is asking me to do?
• Is he asking anything of anyone else?
• Teachers? Principals? Parents? The American people?
• Teachers could ask the students to share the ideas they recorded…
• Does the speech make you want to do anything?
• What would you like to ask the president?
• Afterwards:
• Have students create posters of their goals
• Write letters to themselves about how they can reach their goals
• Graph individual progress to their goals.

Do we know at this point exactly what President Obama will say? No, we don’t. But as a former teacher and parent, I think it is a wonderful thing that the President of the United States is taking time to discuss with children the importance of education.

Do we want children to stay in school? Yes. Do we want them to be excited about the possibility of learning new things and discovering their individual interests and strengths? Yes. Do we want them to learn to think critically about what others, even the president tells them? Yes! Do we want them to learn how to think for themselves and develop goals and plans on how to achieve them? YES!!

 

Will I keep my children out of school on September 8th because I don’t want them to hear how important their education and future is to me? No.

 

Removing children from school on a day they are to hear how important their education and future is for them is a horrible lesson for a child. What will they think when they hear about the speech later from friends or the news? That their own parents do not value education and think it is ok to not attend school if you do not like what you are being taught.

 

Next Tuesday parents and educators have the opportunity to teach one of two lessons: is education truly important or do my parents simply send me for free daycare and not want me to learn?

Lessons from the Quail

My husband and I have started to raise Quail. Ok, my husband and his father were talking about how raising quail and pheseants and then he sheepishly asked my "permission" to start a new hobby. Seeing how giddy it made him, we now have an incubator in our laundry room.

Watching the birds hatch was amazing. Our kids loved the opportunity to watch the tiny baby birds being born. They were surprised and just how long it took for the babies to peck their way through the fragile shell and wanted to help some of them who were struggling.

I had to explain to my kids that a Mama Bird cannot help the chick out of the egg by cracking the shell because it will kill the chick. The strength that is developed by cracking out of the shell is required in order to live and grow up into an adult. The mother hen will often peck at the shell to let the chick know that she’s there, and chirp and encourage the chick – but doing any of the work will actually weaken the chick.

It got me thinking about each of us in our lives. We all have challenges that we wish someone would crack for us and make easier. However, it is by going through these challenges that we become stronger and ready to face the life ahead of us.

What would you pay for a memory?

A 21 year old young man sells his beloved car to help his father's business. 26 years later, and a very successful businessman he decides to track down his original car.  Now, I know men have an emotional attachment to their cars, but I don't understand being willing to pay $250,000 to track down a car. Apparently, a replica wasn't even good enough - he had to have his exact car.

So, is this nostalgic or crazy?  I'm sure to this man the money was nothing compared to a special memory he had to his car. However - it's still a car.  An inanimate object. In today's economy and generation, doesn't this seem a little excessive.

What could you do with $250,000?

• Obtain a Bachelor's degree and MBA at Harvard
• 6 people can get nursing degrees
• Provide food and shelter to homeless children
• Provide free basic school supplies to Elementary schools
• Provide occupational, speech or behavioral therapy to autistic children whose claims are denied by insurance companies

And the list goes on and on. 

I recognize the value of memories - but how much is too much?  I would love to have back some books that I've lent over the years and not gotten back, ones with notes from when I studied them in school.  There's a case somewhere with a bunch of collectable coins in them that I started collecting when I was about 10.

When I was growing up we would often go to the little A&W and get their taquitos.  It was a great memory for me of time with my family and of a fun treat.  A few years ago I found a little A&W shop and just had to pull in and get some taquitos.  They were no where near as good as I remember, and now the memory was a little bit tarnished.

What is something that you have lost that you would pay to retrieve? And when do you realize that some things are better left as a fond memory?

Chocolate Rabbit Zucchini Chili

No, this is not your typical homemade chili with a leftover chocolate Easter bunny tossed in for extra flavor. This is a good, old-fashioned chili with home raised rabbit meat. We have been raising rabbits in our little suburban farm. Rabbit is a very tender white meat that can be used in place of chicken in any recipe.

For this chili, if you don’t want to use rabbit, feel free to replace it with ground turkey, chicken, ground beef or leave out any meat for a vegetarian version.

Ingredients
1lb bag of black beans
3T olive oil
2lbs rabbit (or meat of choice)
1 large onion, diced
2 zucchinis, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
6T cocoa powder
2T chili powder
1T ground cumin
1t Oregano
½t Salt
½t Pepper
3 (28oz) cans diced tomatoes with liquid

Directions

1) Place bag of beans in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Once boiling, drain and rinse. Place back into pan and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer for about an hour until beans are tender.
2) While beans are simmering, slow boil meat so it’s slightly cooked and you can debone the rabbit (or chicken).
3) Heat oil in large skillet, add diced onions, zucchini and garlic. Cook over medium heat until onions are clear.
4) Drain beans and rinse, place in crock pot. Debone meat, shred/dice and place over beans.
5) Add seasonings, cocoa powder and 1 can of tomatoes. Stir and simmer about 2 minutes.
6) Dump contents of skillet into crock pot, add other two cans of tomatoes. Mix everything together.
7) Cook on high for 1 hour. Simmer on low for 6-8 hours.

This produces a lot, so you will need a good sized crock pot! You can also simmer on the stove for about 2 hours if you’d prefer.

I took this to work one day and was surprised that the entire thing was gone! I hope you enjoy it as much as they all did.

When Life Gives You...

Zucchini

When you plant more than one zucchini plant, you need to be prepared to have more zucchini than you can eat. So, what can you do when you have so much zucchini that you can't even give it all away?

Today I'm going to try to find out how many different ways I can utilize zucchini, and I will be posting successful recipes in the coming week.

Here are some of my ideas for utilizing that abundance of zucchini.

• Shred up the zucchini as if you were going to put it into a bread recipe. Then pre-measure it into 2 or 3 cup servings and place in quart-sized ziploc bags and freeze to bake with all winter long.
• Play ding-dong ditch with zuchinni for a variety of neighbors. If you'd like, put a bow on them. Now it's not your worry anymore!
• Scour the internet for unusual zucchini recipes
• Bake lots of zucchini bread. Make mini loaves or mini muffins, then freeze those. Great for snacks when school starts for the kids!

What are some of your most creative uses for zucchini??

Tales from the Coop

One of my favorite things about our little farm life is spending some time each day with our chickens and then collecting the eggs. Originally, this was a chore for the kids, but I quickly told them to keep away from the coop - I wanted this chore! (That's the benefit of being mommy, you are in charge of delegating the chores.)


Our second batch of chicks are now laying hens and so with our 14 hens of laying age we're getting a good batch of eggs a day. It's fun to see the different sizes, colors and the great variety that comes from fresh eggs from my chickens.

On Monday I was absolutely shocked to see the size of one egg. I compared it to birthing a 14 pound baby! So, I took some pictures to show just how big this egg got.

Thanks to watching movies on forensics and CSI, I knew that I had to put something in the picture to give context to the size. Hence, the quarter. The egg immediately to the right of the quarter egg is an average size Large egg.

Another picture for context.

The MEGA egg is at the top, the average egg on the bottom. It's about twice the size.

So, I just HAD to crack the egg and count how many yolks would be inside. (When hens first start laying, their eggs often have multiple yolks).

So, upon opening up the egg, I not only see just ONE, tiny yolk.

But also an ENTIRE egg INSIDE the egg.

The shells of an egg are soft and pliable until they are laid, but the inside egg was hard and goey. It was thick, and I couldn't crack it. Yes, I tried.

I have NO idea how this would happen, but I found it just absolutely interesting.

I love the experiences of farm life!