Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Meatball Sandwiches...

O.K. here it is, Tuesday night and I´m finally getting around to posting my (awesome recipe that is going to change your life). I can dream can´t I

Well, I have an excuse, our internet has been out for 3 days. Do you see how devoted I am...I´m sitting here at a internet cafe, it´s almost 10 pm, just so I can follow through on my promise. (I´m listening to Bryan Adams in Spanish...how funny)

So here goes.


Hearty Meatball Sandwich


Ready In: 1 Hour 40 Minutes
Servings: 6
"A cross between meatloaf and meatballs, this sandwich promises to hold together without being messy."
Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
1/3 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

1 tablespoon cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 cup marinara sauce (I use 2 cups of sauce)
3 hoagie rolls, split lengthwise
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the ground beef, bread crumbs, onion, salt and pepper, garlic powder, and half of the mozzarella cheese. Form the mixture into a log, and place it into an 8x8 inch baking dish.
3. Bake for 50 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the center is no longer pink. Let stand for 5 minutes, then slice into 1/2 inch slices. Place a few slices onto each hoagie roll, cover with marinara sauce, and sprinkle remaining mozzarella cheese over.
4. Wrap each sandwich with aluminum foil, and return to the oven for 15 minutes, until bread is lightly toasted and cheese is melted. Let stand 15 minutes before eating. Each sandwich serves 2.

So make sure you use the Marinara sauce recipe I posted last week.

Now, I always have to do something different...this time it wasn´t much...I just rolled the meat mixture into balls and cooked them in a sauce pan until no longer pink. They hold together so well.

Oh, and I toast my rolls first, not a fan of soggy bread.

These are so good...I think this will show up at our dinner table tomorrow.

Enjoy!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

It's Been a Spiritual Week for me...

and I needed it. My 4 year old has been asking me, "Mom, tell me about Jesus." all week long. I've even walked in on him re-telling the adventures to his younger brother. Does it get any better than that?

Church life has been tough here. The first 9 months took a lot of effort just to get to our building and back. I'm very thankful for Gene who faithfully picked us up in his "bus" every Sunday. He never let us pay gas or help in any way. All we had to do was be ready by 7:45 am. I'm sad to say that we weren't always ready on time.

Even when we were, it still took about 8 minutes for all of us to get car seats buckled, food and supplies aboard and all the kids in. I'm sure we were there to help Gene with patience. He never complained to us and I will never forget the sacrifice, a then stranger, made for our family.
{above picture is our previous home with over 2 feet of river water hanging out}
We have moved from that {LIFE} part of the country and are in an easier environment. Now we are just an 8 minute taxi drive away from church. Sundays are so much easier. It doesn't take the entire second half of my Saturday to get ready for Sunday. There are 3 women, Ticas, that can speak some English so I can get the gist of activities that my little ones need to be at. It's been nice.

I'm going to be honest here...{if you don't want to know, come back tomorrow}
This past year I haven't been at the TOP of my spiritual game. I've come to know for myself that when you are struggling with "survival" it's difficult to take your eye off that goal and concentrate on other things that used to take up time. Like in my case, personal scripture study. I've been good with family prayers and family scripture study but my personal study time has "fallen by the wayside" let's say.

I started out by the shore in my little row boat, keeping my eye on the shore {my testimony} as I paddled and drained the water from my vessle making sure I kept it afloat...little did I know how far I had floated away.

Now that the struggle to live here in Costa Rica is all but gone, I have realized the route I need to take to get back to shore. It has been a wonderful journey for me. I LOVE the scriptures again. I'm thankful for the heroes that have figured out how to "survive" and stay just as close to the Lord even in trial. What examples. The last thing we need to do is put Christ and our testimony on the shore as we jump in a boat and try to handle our "storm" alone.

I don't want anyone to think that my testimony has been lost this last year {with my dramatic story}, I just haven't spent the time I should've in strengthening it. I'm coming to realize that the last year could have been more full of peace and comfort if I had been better to bring my scriptures along.

We know how healthy it is for our kids to see us enjoying reading. It will make them more apt to LOVE reading themselves. I've done well with this. My kids love to read. How much better it will be for my children to see me LOVE reading the words of the prophets and our Lord Jesus Christ.

So with the above said I want to share with you some of my favorite new found blogs, favorite DVD's and talks.

Scriptoriumblogorium{www.scriptoriumblogorium.blogspot.com} is what we are using for FHE scripture study. She has great posts about scripture references and if you click on the button on the right she's got a book posted there about Isaiah for teenagers. It's FREE {as far as I can tell} and right there on the blog. We are using the Isaiah book for seminary type study in our home school program {starting in the AM}.


Also, I heart John Byetheway's way of presenting gospel subjects. He has a talk about Sunday worship, The Best 3 Hours of the Week. This is great. You can find by searching onBYU TV.
But my favorite Byetheway talk is "Heroes; Lessons from the Book of Mormon. This is AWESOME! It's almost 100 minutes long. We are implementing it into our family home evening, 30 minutes at a time. He gives such great insight to the Heroes we sometimes glide over in our study. This is a GREAT way to get your family excited about scripture study.

Troy Dunn has a tape out there {hopefully it's in CD form now} called "Life is a Football Game". This is bust your gut funny! I heard it when I was about 16 and it changed my attitude about life. I've just found it and I'm ordering it for my oldest. How much better for him to hear it 4 years earlier than I did. {Actually how much better for me that he hears it earlier!!!} Maybe this is why I named my son Troy....hummm.
{Deseret Books has it and 4 other talks of Troy's for $19.99}

Did you know that the LDS church has a You Tube channel? Also another way set the mood for Family Night.

For us since, we don't get our church magazines in English, we go to
LDS.org > then "Gospel Library" > then "magazines. You can search through The Friend, New Era and The Ensign, plus there are "extra" buttons to check out. In the "Friend" you can "listen" to gospel stories, play games and print coloring pages. SWEET!!!

So please enjoy! Let me know what resources you love for gospel study.