Freezer Manicotti

I have been toying with all these freezer recipes from "Fix, Freeze, Feast", and most I've tried have been really good. Tonight we tried the Manicotti. For our family of 6, I split this recipe in half. It left us with some leftovers for lunch tomorrow, which I like!

Manicotti

makes 4 entrees, 4 servings each

1 (48oz) container cottage cheese (6 cups) (I used ricotta)
2 eggs, lightly beaten 3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (about 12 oz)
1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese (I used grated)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 (8oz) boxes manicotti (12-14 shells in each box), uncooked 12 cups
Basic Red Sauce (recipe below)

Four 8 inch square baking dishes (I used a 9x13 pan for my half recipe)
Plastic Wrap
Aluminum Foil

1. Mix cottage cheese (or ricotta), eggs, mozzarella, parmesan, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. With your fingers or a spoon, stuff filling into manicotti shells.

2. Spread 1/2 cup sauce in the bottom of each baking dish. Place six or seven manicotti in each dish. Divide remaining red sauce evenly over the four dishes of manicotti. Wrap each dish entirely in plastic wrap.

3. Top with foil, label, and freeze.

To cook one entree:
1. Thaw one entree in the fridge or bake it straight from the freezer.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Remove plastic wrap and foil from baking dish and replace foil. Bake for 45 min. if thawed, 1 hour if frozen (frozen, mine took 2 hours with the 9x13 pan). Remove foil and continue baking the noodles until tender.

Basic Red Sauce: Small Batch

makes about 10 cups (leftover, I had one 1 quart bag to freeze)

1 (12oz) can tomato paste
2 cups hot water
2 Tbsp dried parsley
2 Tbsp minced onion
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 Tbsp sugar (I used raw cane sugar)
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp thyme
1 (28oz) can tomato sauce
1 (28oz) can diced tomatoes

Several 1 quart freezer bags

1. Mix tomato paste and hot water in a large bowl until smooth. Stir in parsley, onion, garlic, sugar, salt, basil, oregano, and thyme.
2. Add tomato sauce and diced tomatoes; mix well. Do not cook.
3. Measure sauce into appropriate portions for immediate use. Divide remaining sauce evenly among 1 quart freezer bags for later use.
4. Seal and label each bag with the amount of sauce inside. Freeze.

To Enjoy:
1. Completely thaw one bag in the fridge.
2. Use in a recipe calling for tomato sauce, or simmer in a saucepan over med-low heat for 20 min. and pour over your favorite pasta.
3. To use in a meat sauce, brown and drain 1 lb lean ground beef for every 8 cups of sauce; add cooked beef to sauve and gently reheat.

Great Website!

Hey There,

I just stumbled across this fantastic website for those of you who are wanting to teach your little ones Bible verses, and songs. It's called Seeds Family Worship. They have printable verse cards, and a check list for the verses that have been memorized. I'm going to try and laminate the verse cards so they can be used over and over again without being destroyed!

58 memory verses are on the check list, so that's a little more than one verse a week for a whole year! The best part of this website is that they have songs that go with each verse to help them memorize. Well, actually the best part for an adult is that the songs are actually enjoyable to listen to! They have a fun modern sound, and all the words in the song are the verse itself. Alexis loves it, and runs around singing it all day! Most days, I leave it playing on the computer while we do chores, or school, just for a nice background noise. :)

Check it out at www.seedsfamilyworship.net you'll be glad you did! Heather

Memorial Day Camping

The Boys are ready to go!


Sunday, we got the wild idea to take the kids fishing/camping out on the island at Swift Lake. Bob's dad drove us out to it with the boat, and we fished and ate! Luckily, Alexis, Ty, and Gabe all caught a fish by the end of the night.

Ty's big catch! He reeled it in all by himself. :)
Alexis' big catch! This was a second attempt at a fish. The first one got away...
Gabriel's night fish. He caught the biggest one! 14 inches long, but he wasn't very happy about getting the picture taken. :)
Ty, Alexis, Daddy, Gabe, and Grandpa with their catches.
Alexis and Addison goofing off Monday morning. Maybe the Fruit Loops make you "fruity?"
Grandpa, Gabriel, and Daddy fishing for more trout.
Our camp site on the island. Grandma is hanging out with Addie while we moved out by the logs for better luck.
Mommy and Addie...her trademark smile!
One last look at our island on the way back to the docks.

Zoo with Nana & Papa

Welcome to the Oregon Zoo!
Kids playing on all the animals
Friday the kids got to go to the Oregon Zoo with Nana & Papa! It was a beautiful day for a "field trip."
Bald Eagle
Gabriel, Ty, Nana, and Addie
New baby elephant that they got to watch feed with the mommy!

Job

Good Morning All!

We are asking everyone to be praying for Bob's job. Either that there will be enough work to keep him working, or that the Lord would provide a new stable job. We are doing fine as of now, but it seem to be declining at an extremely rapid pace. Pray for peace about this situation, and provision!

Ty's Party Pictures

Sorry, I can't get the picture to flip! Yes, it's a 5 and 1 candle...I forgot to get candles, whoops. I made him do the math. At least he knew it was 6, and I think he even liked it when I asked him what "5 plus 1 = what?" LOL

Our Baby Chicks!

So, we have adopted 15 baby chicks, in the last week:) Yes, we are nuts, but we want fresh eggs, and a project for Ty. He asked for them for his birthday, and Bob agreed to 5, and that turned into 15...whoops!

Ty is getting the chicks home ready.
Here are the first 9 we bought last Thursday. The stores sell out so fast from these little guys, that we didn't get the ones Ty really wanted. We found a feed store that had some that were good layers, and decided that we didn't want to wait, and got them now. We bought 3 Barred Rock pullets, 2 "mystery chicks" (The shipment they were expecting didn't come in, and this is what they got. It was buy one get one free, so we thought "why not"! Our luck, they will both end up being roosters...), and Ty wanted a White Silkie. They are the super cute ones that look like they have fur instead of feathers. When they get big you can only see their beaks, because their hair is in a big puff ball on top of their heads. Super cute! Might not lay eggs well, and could be a rooster, but at least it will be nice to look at:)
I think that is a picture of a "Mystery Chick", and the black one is a Black Australorp, that we lucked out with, and got 3 of them at Wilco. They had an extra bunch that they were selling over the ones that were ordered. It happened to be one of the breeds Ty actually had on his list!
The Barred Rocks, are the black ones with the gray spots on their heads...they don't seem to be very friendly...they are always pecking at us:(
We picked these up this morning. Nana bought Ty his supplies for this batch, and the chicks for his birthday present. We can't put them together until this gals get bigger, otherwise they could get pecked to death, and that wouldn't be good. So, we have to keep them in their own house until they reach about the same size.

Ty calls them his "pretty" ones. When we got them home he asked if he could take back the "others" to get more of these "pretty" ones! He's so funny. I didn't realize how perticular he is, until we started researching which different breeds of chickens to get, and he only wanted specific ones. I guess he takes after his Mom ;-)
These are two of our really attractive Ameracaunas. They lay the blue and green eggs! I can't wait. There is something to having a beautiful egg...they come in all shades from blue to green. It will always be neat to see what color they lay.
Ty got another Silkie...this time grey, 2 Buff Orpingtons...they are the yellow ones, and the 3 Ameracaunas. The other Ameracauna is yellowie, but has the puffy hair like the other two, so we'll just wait and see what she looks like when grown.