Super Easy Baked Cavatelli

I help with cooking the youth group meals each week and I wanted to share with you this simple and easy recipe for baked cavatelli.  This goes over so well with the youth group.  They really love it and I love making it because it is so easy.

Baked Cavatelli

2 cups UNCOOKED rotini pasta
1 lb. ground beef, browned and drained
1 - 16 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 jar spaghetti sauce
Italian Seasoning
1 - 8 oz. bag shredded mozzarella
Pepperoni pieces (optional)

Mix the UNCOOKED rotini pasta, ground beef, tomatoes and spaghetti sauce.  Add about 1/2 cup water.  Add pepperoni pieces if desired.  Pour into a 9 x 13 inch pan.  Sprinkle with italian seasoning.  Cover tightly with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/4 hours.  Top with the cheese and bake another 15 minutes until cheese is melted and pasta is tender. 

I am making this on Sunday for our youth group and I will be donating the food from my pantry and freezer.  I need to put together 6 pans and here is what I am calculating this will cost per pan.

1 lb. Boxes of rotini pasta purchased @ 69 cents
Jars of spaghetti sauce @ 75 cents
Mozzarella cheese @ $1.00
Diced tomatoes @ 33 cents
1 lb. Hamburger purchased @ 80 cents (BIG sale in February of this year)

Add this up and you can see how little each pan will cost.  This is why I shop sales and use coupons, not only for myself but so that I can also save our church money. 

I will add to this day old loaves of italian bread purchased for around 90 cents each and we will have apple slices (apples already donated by someone) and ice cream (donated also).  The only thing the church will need to purchase will be 2 gallons of milk and the bread.  This will serve around 40 people. 

So, again, when you shop sales and get great deals, think about how you can donate some of those items perhaps to your church for meals or to a food pantry or other charity. 

Church Mom's Group

Yesterday I spoke at a mom's group called MomShine about living on one income and frugality.  As I gazed over the young moms that were there it took me back to the time when I was mom to a young son.  You never forget what it feels like to hold your baby for the first time, to take him home and then realize you know "squat" about caring for a newborn. 

Then fast forward a few years to when you have your next child and you are an old pro, or at least you think you are, until you realize that their personality is completely different than your first born. Everything you learned from the first child has to be tweaked in order to raise the second one. 

Yes, these moms were in the midst of having very young children at home.   I remember what it was like to try to get one ready to leave the house much less 2 or 3 at the same time, under the age of 5. 

So, I hope I didn't overwhelm some of these moms with frugal tips about saving money on groceries.  I still believe it is the first place to look to in order to save money.  I also hope they got my message about not trying to do all of the money saving tips at once.  And that who cares if your friend or neighbor has granite countertops.  Does it really matter that you have old laminate ones?  In the end I hope they got the message that saving money and getting out of debt means freedom to have choices.

I like having choices.

Poppy Seed Bread and Plenty More

I found this recipe in an old church cookbook and gave it a try this weekend.  I take breakfast breads such as muffins, coffeecake, quick breads along with fresh fruit to church for some Adult Education classes.  Along with baking muffins for my DH's cross country team, this gives me the chance to try some new recipes.

I have some poppy seed bread recipes that start out with a cake mix but I don't always have a cake mix on hand.  Also, I wanted a recipe that wasn't lemon.  The amazing thing about this recipe was that I had the three flavorings in my cupboard.  It was truly delicious and moist and what was left after Sunday School was taken to the youth group and they finished it off. 

Poppy Seed Bread - Makes 2 loaves

3 cups flour
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons poppy seeds
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups milk (I use powdered milk reconstituted in the water)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
1 1/2 teaspoons butter flavoring

Combine the flour, sugar, poppy seeds and baking powder in a mixer bowl and mix well.  Add the milk, oil, eggs and the extracts and flavoring.  Beat for 1 to 2 minutes, scraping the bowl occasionally.  Spoon batter into two 5 x 9 inch greased and floured loaf pans.  (HINT:  I cut a piece of parchment paper to fit in the bottom only of the loaf pan and then I butter the paper.  This makes it so easy to get the bread out of the pan without tearing the bottom of the loaf.)  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.  Cool in pans for 5 minutes. 

I didn't do the next step as I wasn't sure how sticky it would make the tops of the loaves and I also thought the bread was sweet enough. For those who want to try it, here are the rest of the instructions.

Combine the following in a bowl and mix well:  3/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup orange juice, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1/2 teaspoon almond extract and 1/2 teaspoon butter flavoring.  Drizzle over the tops of the loaves. 

I wasn't sure if the sugar would dissolve well enough and perhaps I will try this the next time but I will use powdered sugar instead of the granulated sugar.

Now as to what I have been up to:  DECLUTTERING!!  I have more to do, but that will have to wait for another week.  In the meantime I am leaving tomorrow for Kansas City to go to a church conference and will be back Friday evening.  I have been doing laundry and some cleaning in hopes that my home won't look like a disaster when I return. 

When my son asked what he and my DH were going to have to eat for dinner when I was gone, I simply said "your dad will take care of it."  No way was I going to spend time thinking about this.  My DH's response is that he will fire up the grill and they will have hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken.  I told both of them that there were plenty of things to eat from the freezer and my DH's reply was "we will be fine." 

My husband is the best.  He doesn't worry about meals when he is home alone as he is pretty self sufficient.  He isn't much of a cook but he can grill meat, make eggs, pancakes and French toast along with a few other things.

It is unusual for me to be gone for 3 days and I am looking forward to being with friends from church and to also make some new acquaintances. 

This morning's newspaper reported the high numbers of those living in poverty and also individuals receiving assistance from food banks.  I started thinking about what it would take to come up with 3 days' worth of groceries to give away.  I've thought about this for a long time as a possible "missions" project at our church.  I am pondering items to put into 2 brown paper bags or even one brown paper bag that would be enough food to make meals for 3 days for a family of four.  In the brown bag could be recipes and instructions of how to make those items into meals. 

These meals would definitely be low cost meals as we would want to be able to make up as many brown bags as possible.  I envision any meat being kept in a freezer in our church that we could drop into one of the bags when someone needed food. 

Food banks are being stretched to the limit and although several churches in our community provide 3 evening meals at the end of the month for anyone in our community, I keep wondering about what else we can do.  I worry especially about children during school vacations and holidays and for that matter weekends, when they are not receiving school breakfast and lunches.  No one should go hungry.

I'll be back blogging Friday or Saturday.  If anyone makes the poppy seed bread tell me how you like it.  Also remember that we are coming into the "holiday" season with Christmas only 3 months away.  Many of you may be like me looking for possible recipes for food gifts to give away.  This poppy seed bread fits the bill.

Coming out of the fog . . .

I started being weaned off Paxil last week and today I noticed that I am thinking more clearly, have more energy and I feel as if I am getting my old self back.  That is good. 

I took a couple more days off from blogging as I was experiencing some side effects of withdrawal.  It wasn't really that bad, but I was glad to be home so that I could nap whenever I needed to. 

Yesterday I had a major cooking disaster.  I baked 8 dozen homemade blueberry muffins for my husband's cross country team.  My recipe calls for 1 cup of fresh or frozen blueberries per dozen.  I was in the kitchen happily baking these muffins, sprinkling the tops with a cinnamon sugar mixture and then baking them.  By the time I was ready to make supper, the muffins were done and cooling on the counter.

I'm not sure why, but I decided to take a couple of muffins and set them on the table for supper.  It is a good thing I did as I measured the wrong amount of baking powder for those muffins - by the wrong amount, I put in too much.  Those were the worst tasting muffins I have ever put in my mouth.  As soon as I bit into the muffins it tasted like a mouthful of baking powder and they sucked my mouth dry.  I couldn't even swallow them. 

So, 8 dozen beautiful looking bursting with blueberries muffins were dumped in a garbage bag and put in the trash.  There was no way to resurrect anything like that.  Ugh, I can still taste those muffins just thinking about them.

After supper I baked 8 dozen more blueberry muffins and they turned out fine.  I think I went wrong with the first 8 dozen by trying to watch a movie while I was measuring.  Next time, I will definitely be more careful as this was an expensive mistake. 

The weather has already turned cold and we have had frost warnings.  On Monday I had the air conditioning on and last night I turned on my electric blanket to get the bed warm.  This weather is ridiculous but it does put you in the mood for homemade soup or chili. 

The economic news has not been good for a long time.  It's starting to wear on me.  The only good thing has been that in our area they have really been running a lot of sales to get people into the stores.  For the past 3 months I have received a coupon from JC Penney for $10 off an item valued at $10 or more.  I have been using these coupons to buy anything that is close to $10 so I am not spending extra money.  I can always find something on clearance that I can use or buy for a present for someone else.

Other things that have been going on in my life is that I've been planning the meals that I help cook for our youth group when they meet on Sunday evenings.  We have to keep our costs down as much as possible and so far we have been doing pretty good. It can be a challenge but the one thing that I am finding out, is that these kids like home cooked food.  In a couple of weeks my helper, Marcia, and I are going to make homemade baked mac and cheese.  Velveeta has been on sale for only $3.99 for a 2 lb. block and macaroni was on sale this week for only 66 cents for a 1 lb. package.  We are cooking for around 60 (hopefully the numbers will increase) so that is going to be a cheap main dish for us.

I like when the weather turns cool, but it is about a month early for us.  So, what has the weather been like "in your neck of the woods?"

Just a Quick Note this Morning

I'm watching the 9/11 memorial services as I eat my breakfast before church this morning.  Wonderful tributes. 

I have been busy in the past few days and come tomorrow, I will have a few projects completed and ready to move on to more.  I am now a volunteer at my church coordinating the ministries - that is I am working to help improve communication between the committees.  In that capacity our church staff is brainstorming ways to reach out to our community and help others.  We are being  guided by Christ's mandate to love one another.  

Here is what we have been working on:  reaching out to our local college students by delivering 1 dozen of homemade cookies to any student that wants them; trying to coordinate a potluck at our church a couple of times a month for the college students and young adults that attend our Sunday Morning Worship. 

And there is more that we are working on related to men's and women's ministries, children's ministries, ministries to our senior citizens and so on.

It is a lot of fun working with our church staff and others to bring ministries to our community.  Yes, it is fun. 

Today we have invited some college students to eat with us for lunch and I have made plenty so that I can invite others as well.  This afternoon I will be at the church around 3:30 to make sloppy joes as I am cooking for the youth group.  Our middle schoolers and high schoolers meet each Sunday evening for their own worship service complete with band and then they break into their small groups.  We are on a very limited budget for food and that is where I come in.  We are making simple food, but plenty of it. 

Tonight we are having sloppy joes, chips, corn and bar cookies.  Next week I am planning on homemade baked mac and cheese with the sides being provided by parents.  We will be feeding around 40 to 50 youth along with 15 adults.

If any of you have recipes to feed a crowd on a budget, please let me know.  Serving at church is fun when you find a place to serve that is in line with your talents and gifts.  Yes even frugal cooking is a talent that can be used in ministry.

What's the lesson here?  Find what you like to do and then do it for others.