I won't get into too much detail regarding everything that I love about the Duggar Family, but let's just say that while they are more conservative than I am and do things a little differently than I do - one thing I know is that they are passionate about honoring God with their lives and bringing up their children to love and honor Him, and be valuable stewards of the life that God has blessed them with. I have learned so much from the Duggars both in my faith walk, and about finances and raising children. I wanted to share something I stumbled across a while back that I have printed off and is hung on my fridge as a daily reminder to me of the way I should be living, and the way I want to raise my children. It is called Operational Definitions of Character Qualities. From what I understand, they focus on one character quality a week and memorize the scripture that coincides with that quality. I just thought that it was s brilliant, and is important for children and adults alike. I will most definitely be saving this and keeping it for when we start a family.
You can download it here, on the Duggar's Blog:
http://duggarfamily.com/content/character_qualities/30606/CharacterQualities
I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Good food and good friends!
Unfortunately, my husband and I do not have internet access (yet) in our new apartment that we moved into last week. That means I won't be able to post as much as I would like here in the beginning. I do have access down by the pool, so I am sitting here on this beautiful Saturday morning with my coffee in hand ready to write! Although, I just got interrupted by the groundskeeper who just decided to run the leaf blower around the pool area...Oh well.
I've been meaning to make a list of all of the "lovely" things I encountered during the week, but because of the busyness of my week I just didn't think about it! One thing that did stick out to me was this delicious recipe I made for some friends we had over on Wednesday, and I wanted to share it.
We hadn't seen our friends Jared and Danielle in such a long time, so it was really nice to have them over now that our apartment is pretty much put together! We had a great time laughing, sharing stories about life, playing Scrabble, and of course, eating! We had a delicious meal of Vegetable Stuffed Shells, Tomato and Onion Shicaccia (from the Publix bakery - yum!), and Caesar Salad. I wish I had taken some pictures...oh well, next time!
The recipe is adapted from Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook 15th Edition. It was given to me as a Christmas present last year from my Mother-in-law and I spent the whole week cooking from it! One thing that I was quickly reminded of when preparing this is: make sure you read the entire recipe before you begin! I'm usually pretty good about that, but this time I was running super late and was assuming I knew how to make it when I was actually doing it all wrong! I was able to fix my mistakes and I did tweak the recipe a bit, but it ended up coming out great! Here it is (with my modifications):
You will need:
12 packaged dried jumbo shell pasta (I recommend making more as half of mine fell apart!)
1 1/2 cups coarsely shredded carrots
1 1/3 cups shredded zucchini (1 medium)
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 10-ounce package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well-drained
1/2 of a 15-ounce container of ricotta cheese
2 cups Italian-blend cheese
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 14 to 16-ounce jar of pasta sauce (or homemade - recipe to come!)
Directions:
1. Cook pasta according to package directions; drain. (I like mine to be a tad bit undercooked, since I decided to bake mine at the end. The original recipe is a stove-top version.)
2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook carrots, zucchini, onion, and garlic in hot oil over medium-high heat for 3-5 minutes or until tender. Stir in spinach; cook and stir for 1 minute. Transfer to a bowl.
3. Stir ricotta cheese, 1 1/2 cups Italian-blend cheese, salt, and cayenne pepper into vegetable mixture. Spoon a rounded 2 tablespoons of cheese mixture into each pasta shell.
4. Cover the bottom of a baking dish with some of the sauce. Place shells on top of the sauce, then pour the remaining jar of sauce over the shells.
5. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup of cheese, cover with foil, and bake in a 350 degree oven for about 25-30 minutes.
This is one of the best vegetable-based dishes I have made in a long time, and my meat-loving husband honestly did not even know it was vegetarian until I told him! Doesn't get any better than that!
**Since half of my shells had fallen apart, I took the rest of the cheese mixture and made a small lasagna - it is equally delicious!
I will hopefully be spending the rest of the weekend relaxing as well as planning our menu and grocery list for next week...I'll try to post that later. Have a blessed Saturday!
I've been meaning to make a list of all of the "lovely" things I encountered during the week, but because of the busyness of my week I just didn't think about it! One thing that did stick out to me was this delicious recipe I made for some friends we had over on Wednesday, and I wanted to share it.
We hadn't seen our friends Jared and Danielle in such a long time, so it was really nice to have them over now that our apartment is pretty much put together! We had a great time laughing, sharing stories about life, playing Scrabble, and of course, eating! We had a delicious meal of Vegetable Stuffed Shells, Tomato and Onion Shicaccia (from the Publix bakery - yum!), and Caesar Salad. I wish I had taken some pictures...oh well, next time!
The recipe is adapted from Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook 15th Edition. It was given to me as a Christmas present last year from my Mother-in-law and I spent the whole week cooking from it! One thing that I was quickly reminded of when preparing this is: make sure you read the entire recipe before you begin! I'm usually pretty good about that, but this time I was running super late and was assuming I knew how to make it when I was actually doing it all wrong! I was able to fix my mistakes and I did tweak the recipe a bit, but it ended up coming out great! Here it is (with my modifications):
You will need:
12 packaged dried jumbo shell pasta (I recommend making more as half of mine fell apart!)
1 1/2 cups coarsely shredded carrots
1 1/3 cups shredded zucchini (1 medium)
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 10-ounce package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well-drained
1/2 of a 15-ounce container of ricotta cheese
2 cups Italian-blend cheese
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 14 to 16-ounce jar of pasta sauce (or homemade - recipe to come!)
Directions:
1. Cook pasta according to package directions; drain. (I like mine to be a tad bit undercooked, since I decided to bake mine at the end. The original recipe is a stove-top version.)
2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook carrots, zucchini, onion, and garlic in hot oil over medium-high heat for 3-5 minutes or until tender. Stir in spinach; cook and stir for 1 minute. Transfer to a bowl.
3. Stir ricotta cheese, 1 1/2 cups Italian-blend cheese, salt, and cayenne pepper into vegetable mixture. Spoon a rounded 2 tablespoons of cheese mixture into each pasta shell.
4. Cover the bottom of a baking dish with some of the sauce. Place shells on top of the sauce, then pour the remaining jar of sauce over the shells.
5. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup of cheese, cover with foil, and bake in a 350 degree oven for about 25-30 minutes.
This is one of the best vegetable-based dishes I have made in a long time, and my meat-loving husband honestly did not even know it was vegetarian until I told him! Doesn't get any better than that!
**Since half of my shells had fallen apart, I took the rest of the cheese mixture and made a small lasagna - it is equally delicious!
I will hopefully be spending the rest of the weekend relaxing as well as planning our menu and grocery list for next week...I'll try to post that later. Have a blessed Saturday!
Monday, January 2, 2012
Welcome to All Things That Are Lovely
I've been wanting to write a blog for some time now...and after seeing all of the fabulous blogs on the web designed by average women just like me, I finally decided that now is the time! I created All Things That Are Lovely to write about, well, all things that are lovely :) I have been inspired by Philippians 4:8 and Pinterest (interesting combo, right?) :) So, prepare yourself to read my ramblings about faith, family, food, finances, frugality, friends, and so much more!
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