Dinner for St. Gemma

While still knowing very little about St. Gemma Galgani, our family asked for her intercession to help with my husband's back pain. When I saw that her feast day was coming up I did a little more research and found that she has an incredible story. She was devoted to Christ's passion, and had an intimate relationship with Jesus which included ecstasies and bearing the stigmata. She greatly desired to be a nun, but was unable to due to her poor health. Even so, because of her devotion she was buried in the Passionist habit. You can learn more about St. Gemma at www.stgemmagalgani.com. This website even has a great little comic about St. Gemma for kids, which I've linked to directly here.

 I also found that she would be a great intercessor for my husband in more ways than one. Not only is she patron of people with back pain and people with frequent migraines, both of which my husband struggles with, but she is also the patron of pharmacy and my husband is almost complete with his pharmacy tech certification! What a wonderful discovery for our family!

To help celebrate this wonderful saint we had Italian for dinner, because she was from Italy, and a chocolate cake depicting the symbol on the Passionist habit. I wanted to use a heart shaped pan, but we're in a transitional stage right now and all my special pans are in box somewhere. I've included the recipe for my spinach alfredo lasagna, and a picture of the cake. To make the cake I simply used a boxed cake mix and store bought frosting. Hey, its a weeknight!



Spinach Alfredo Lasagna (with chicken and roasted red bell peppers)

whole wheat lasagna noodles
1 lb ground turkey or chicken
1 jar alfredo sauce
1 15 oz container ricotta cheese
1 box frozen chopped spinach - thawed
1 jar roasted red bell peppers - drained and chopped
shredded mozzarella cheese
grated parmesan cheese

1. Boil the lasagna noodles. While they cook brown the meat, and  mix the spinach and peppers with the ricotta cheese. Drain the noodles.

2. Spread a little alfredo sauce on the bottom of a baking dish. This helps prevent sticking. Reserve some alfredo for the top layer. Mix the rest of the alfredo sauce with the meat. Put down a layer of noodles, a layer of meat, a layer of mozzarella, and then a layer of the ricotta mixture, repeat. (the order really isn't terribly important, so don't worry about it too much!) Finish with a top layer of noodles covered with alfredo, mozzarella, and some parmesan cheese

3. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour. Enjoy!


 

Not the prettiest cake I've ever made, but one of the fastest!

                                                  

ST. GEMMA GALGANI'S PRAYER 

O my crucified God, behold me at Your feet; do not cast me out, now that I appear before You as a sinner. I have offended You exceedingly in the past, my Jesus, but it shall be so no longer.

 Before You, O Lord, I place all my sins; I have now considered Your own sufferings and see how great is the worth of that Precious Blood that flows from Your veins. 

 O my God, at this hour close Your eyes to my want of merit, and since You have been pleased to die for my sins, grant me forgiveness for them all, that I may no longer feel the burden of my sins, for this burden, Dear Jesus, oppresses me beyond measure. 

Assist me, my Jesus, for I desire to become good whatsoever it may cost; take away, destroy, utterly root out all that You find in me contrary to Your holy will. At the same time, I pray You, Lord Jesus, to enlighten me that I may be able to walk in Your holy light. Amen.

Divine Mercy Pancakes

I was thinking of what I could make to celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday and I thought, "what is my son's favorite thing to have for breakfast?" Pancakes! Kids love having pancakes made in the shape of things, and fruit syrups are one of my favorite toppings, so came the idea for Divine Mercy pancakes; a heart shaped pancake with strawberry and blueberry syrup rays. To bump up the health factor, I typically make a whole wheat pumpkin pancake.

Even though our son is only three, he has been pretty good at saying the Divine Mercy novena with us. I think that the chaplet is a great place to start when praying with little ones. Its shorter and easier for them to remember the words. We would say, "For the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us," and our son would complete it with "and on the whole world."


Whole Wheat Pumpkin Pancakes
 This is a single batch, you'll probably need to double it

1 egg
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
 cinnamon to taste

Beat the egg and mix together all ingredients until smooth.  Drop batter on a hot,
                                                                                         greased griddle or pan. When bubbles form the pancake is ready to flip.


Berry Syrup
Strawberries should be chopped, other berries can go in whole

Fresh or frozen berries - 1 pint or less
water
sugar
lemon juice
cornstarch or flour
1 Tbsp butter

Add berries, a little water, a little sugar, some lemon juice (and some lemon zest if you have it), to a saucepan. Bring to a boil and thicken slightly with a little cornstarch or flour. Cornstarch works better, and making a slurry with water and pouring it in will help stop clumping with either one.

Remove from heat and stir in the butter.

Strain if you want a smooth syrup, but I personally love having the pieces of fruit in it!


To learn more about Jesus' Divine Mercy, click here.


This post is linked up on Equipping Catholic Families Celelinky Thru the Seasons and Carole's Chatter:Food on Friday:Pancakes, Galettes and Crepes

Green Tea Cheesecake - Gluten Free!

 Now, I'm not gluten free, but I do have some friends that are, so I when I cook for them I try to come up with things that are delicious that they can eat. This cheesecake turned out really well. I brought it to a local college church group and it was a hit with everybody! Unfortunately I do not have a picture for you because I forgot to bring my camera with me.

You may be able to find the matcha (green tea powder), at your regular grocery store in the Asian food aisle. I was not able to find it there. Luckily it was in the first place I looked after that, a small organic market. You can also find it at Asian markets and online.

 If you prefer things with gluten simply substitute the gluten-free cookies with regular ones and the instant mashed potatoes with flour. If you want plain cheesecake simply leave out the green tea powder.

 Gluten Free Green Tea Cheesecake

1 box gluten free animal cookies (or other gluten free cookie) - crushed
4 Tbsp melted butter

4 (8oz) packages cream cheese
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup milk
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup instant mashed potato flakes
3-4 Tbsp matcha (green tea powder)

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 inch springform pan.

2. In a bowl combine crushed cookies and melted butter. Press into the bottom of the springform pan.

3. In another bowl mix together the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Blend in the milk, and then add the eggs one at a time, mixing until incorporated after each one. Mix in the sour cream, vanilla, potato flakes, and matcha. 

4.  Bake for 1 hour. When finished, turn off the oven and let it cool in the oven for five to six hours. This is supposed to prevent cracking. Keep in fridge until ready to serve.

Mine cracked anyway, so I topped it with some raspberries and a dusting of powdered sugar. 

Peanut Butter Playdough

It would be an understatement to say that my son loves peanut butter. He also loves to play with his food. The perfect combination of this is peanut butter playdough! Its tasty, healthy, fun, and easy to make. I remember my mom bringing it to my school for snack when I was little, and it was always a hit.

Peanut Butter Playdough

1 18 oz jar peanut butter
6 tablespoons honey
dry milk - found in baking section of your grocery store near the canned milk

 Mix together the peanut butter and the honey. Add in dry milk until it reaches the consistency of playdough. Today I used about 2/3 of a 9.3 oz bag. And you're done! Time to play and eat!

Saints, Saints, Who Do You See?

A while back my son and I checked out all the Bill Martin/ Eric Carle books from the "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" series from the library and he loved them. Then I had an idea! What if I made my own Catholic version of "Brown Bear, Brown Bear?" Well, I have finally completed this project as an Easter gift for my son. I started about a week ago since I was sick for most of Lent, but I buckled down and I think it turned out great. In our version rather then all the animals looking at each other, it is about the saints praying for each other and praying for you! For this project I used images from the Nippert and Co. Artworks Faith Keepers series. You can print these in black and white, or color. I chose to color them myself to add a more personal touch, but I will say that printing them in color would have saved me a lot of time! After that it was really just a cut and paste job. There is a great teacher supply store where we live that carries these nifty blank books in all different sizes, so that is what I used. you could also put them in a binder or scrapbook, glue into a notebook, or laminate the pages and staple them together. I even hear that there are some websites out there that will publish projects like these for you. All in all, I think that this will be a great way to talk about the saints with young children, and help teach them that saints are our special helpers and friends who we can ask to pray for us!

I chose eleven saints, plus Mary, that were significant to my son and our family. If you decide to try this project, of course personalize it for your child and/or family! I put them in reverse chronological order, (most recent to least recent), so that while the first saint was alive, the next one was already in heaven praying away!

St. Joseph's Pasta with Breadcrumbs

Happy feast of St. Joseph! In some places, especially in Italy, St. Joseph's Day is a huge celebration with special foods and traditions. Since St. Joseph's feast falls during Lent, all the special foods associated with it are meatless. Pastries are very popular for the feast of St. Joseph, so go ahead and have a sweet treat today! Another traditional food is Pasta di San Giuse, a pasta topped with breadcrumbs to represent sawdust, as St. Joseph was a carpenter. It is traditionally made with sardines, but I decided not to go that way. Instead I mixed some pasta with delicious vegetables, and lots of olive oil and garlic. Yum! I figured that for the symbolism the breadcrumb topping was more important than the seasoning of the noodles. In addition to our dinner we will read the book St. Joseph's Story by Geraldine Guadagno.

Today of course is also very special for another reason; the installation Pope Francis! Just as St. Joseph loved and protected the Holy Family, Pope Francis loves and protects the Church.

"How does Joseph exercise his role as protector? Discreetly, humbly and silently, but with an unfailing presence and utter fidelity, even when he finds it hard to understand."
- Pope Francis 

St. Joseph's Pasta with Breadcrumbs

Pasta:

1 box of spaghetti

1 bunch of rainbow chard, or other dark leafy green - chopped (kale, turnip greens, other kinds of chard, etc.) With chard you can include the stems, they add a nice pop of color too! For most other greens do not use the stems.

1 red bell pepper - chopped

garlic

olive oil

salt

 1. Bring salted water to a boil and cook the spaghetti

2.  On medium - medium high heat saute the chard and bell pepper in olive oil and garlic until tender

3. Drain cooked spaghetti. Return to pot or large serving bowl.

4. Mix the cooked vegetables with the spaghetti. Season with more garlic and some salt if desired.

Topping (This makes enough for a large family to share!):

1 cup breadcrumbs

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp dried basil or 2 Tbsp fresh basil

1. In a pan mix together breadcrumbs, cheese, and olive oil.  

2. Cook on medium - medium high heat until the breadcrumbs start to turn golden brown. About 3 minutes. 

3. Take off heat and mix in basil.

Put on top of spaghetti and enjoy!

Prayer to St. Joseph for Protection

 Gracious St. Joseph, protect me and my family from all evil as you did the Holy Family. Kindly keep us ever united in the love of Christ, ever fervent in imitation of the virtue of our Blessed Lady, your sinless spouse, and always faithful in devotion to you. Amen.

The Real St. Patrick

We are visiting my grandparents today, so I'm not doing anything too big for St. Patrick's Day. They will be making the corned beef and cabbage, so we will have that! I just thought I'd share some good videos to help teach kids about who
St. Patrick really was. Right now I work in a public school and it can be frustrating to have to sit back and watch everybody talk about leprechauns and never once mention that St. Patrick was an actual person. Though last year I was able to teach some students about the real St. Patrick under the banner of social studies. Just because you can't promote a certain religion in public school doesn't mean that students have to be ignorant of the actual reason this holiday exists! Okay, rant over, back to the videos.

The first one is about nine minutes long and comes to us from Veggie Tales. Even though Veggie Tales are not Catholic, they did a really nice job with this little story. If you have some Veggie Tales at home, this one can be found on the DVD "Sumo of the Opera."

The second one is about two minutes long and comes to us from our friends at Holy Heroes.

For an easy craft check out this printable from Catholic Inspired!

Have a happy and holy St. Patrick's Day!

Mixing up Meatless: Baked Felafel

Sometimes meatless meals can get a little monotonous in our house. Both my husband and my son can be pretty picky, so very often we resort to mac and cheese or spaghetti. Its not that I don't like these things, but I'm the kind of person who likes to mix it up a bit. Much to my surprise one night I decided to feed my husband felafel and he loved it! He says its one of his favorite things that I make. I still need to work on my son, but my baked felafel helps us when we want to mix up meatless.

Felafel is kind of a chickpea fritter that is usually deep fried, but this  baked version I adapted from allrecipes.com turns out great!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup chopped onions
1 15oz can chickpeas (garbanzo beans) or equivalent amount of cooked from dried*
1/4 cup chopped parsley
3 cloves minced garlic
Cumin and curry powder to taste. My husband usually asks me to add a little cayenne too.
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon whole wheat flour
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons olive oil

Put the onions, chickpeas, parsley, garlic, baking soda, flour, egg, and seasonings into a food processor.

Turn on the food processor and drizzle in the olive oil. Process until smooth

Form into patties or balls (I personally prefer balls) and let sit for 15 minutes.
note: This recipe makes a very soft felafel that can be difficult to handle when it is still uncooked. If you feel it is too soft feel free to add more flour or even breadcrumbs to help thicken it up.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees

Put a pan with a little olive oil in it over medium heat and brown the felafel. This will give it a little crunch on the outside.

Put the felafel on a sheet pan and bake for ten minutes.

Serve in pitas or on a salad! Some great accompaniments are lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, and plain yogurt. 



*How to cook dried chickpeas (this method works for any dried bean)
1.Sort through the beans and remove any debris.
2.Cover the beans with water and soak at least 4 hours. I usually let mine soak overnight.
3.Drain and rinse the beans. Recover them with water, add a little salt and put on the stove on high heat. Sometimes I'll add in a bay leaf here.
4. Let the beans come to a boil. Once they reach  a boil, turn the heat down to low and cover. Let the beans cook for 1 hour.

Canned beans are just fine and very convenient, I have used them before. But dried beans are cheaper and you can control things like the amount of salt you use. You just have to plan ahead! Sometimes I'll cook more than I need and keep them in the refrigerator.

Stations of the Cross Picture Pull

This is a great craft to help introduce the Stations of the Cross to younger children. I used images from the Happy Saints eBook "The Way of the Cross." This eBook also has great reflections for children on each station. To purchase the eBook click on the Happy Saints link on the right side of my blog. You could use any images you want for the project, but Happy Saints are especially nice for little ones.

Supplies:
2 colors of construction paper (I used black and brown. I wanted to use purple for Lent, but I didn't have any)
scissors
glue
markers


1. Cut out your images of the Stations. Glue them onto construction paper. My square badges took up 2 1/2 pieces.

2. Cut the construction paper into strips and glue together to make one long one strip with all the stations in order.

3. On the bottom of a different colored piece of construction paper cut a hole the same size as your images, and then cut a slit on either side of the hole that are the same length as the hole. (slits not shown)

4. If desired, use a marker to decorate the paper with the hole. I wrote "Stations of the Cross" at the top and put a cross on each side. Then lace the strip with the images through the slits and glue the ends together to make a loop. Fold in the sides of the paper with the hole for stability. The loop also helps with stability. When you do stations as a family,  pull the strip through to look at each station one at a time.

Dr. Seuss Celebration

March 2nd is Dr. Seuss' Birthday! One of the greatest contributors to children's literature, he brought us away from the hum drum world of Dick and Jane and helped make reading fun for little ones. So of course try to read a few Dr. Seuss books, watch one of the movies based off his books, or even enjoy some green eggs and ham! For my son's first birthday we had a Green Eggs and Ham themed party so  I thought I would share some of what I did since it would work very well for Dr. Seuss' birthday too.

 

Cake
 I made the cake in a rectangle pan that holds two cake mixes. After I frosted it with orange frosting I used a toothpick to draw the cover of the book and then outlined everything in black using a small round tip. Then I used a larger round tip to fill in the white and green and used a frosting spatula to smooth it out. I then went back to black to add details like the lines on the hat and the ham and touch up the outline.









Green Eggs and Ham
Everything we had for our meal was based off the book. The main course being green eggs and ham. Ham is not something I normally make, so  I just bought a spiral ham and followed the directions on the package. For the green eggs I made deviled eggs and added green food coloring. It worked better for dinner than a green scrambled egg, and looked more like the eggs from the book. Of course kids usually like green scrambled eggs too!

 Broccoli Salad
 2 bunches broccoli
1/4 cup sliced green onions
1 lb bacon cooked and crumbled (you can also use real bacon bits)
6 oz shredded cheddar cheese
6 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
2 Tbsp vinegar
2 cups mayonnaise
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Cut up broccoli into small pieces. Add cheese and onions. Mix vinegar, mayonnaise, sugar and salt in a separate bowl until well blended. Stir into vegetable and cheese mixture. Add bacon last.

Pineapple Boats
1 fresh pineapple
Maraschino cherries

Cut a fresh pineapple into lengthwise quarters. With a sharp knife, remove the center core. Do not remove the pulp. Slice the pulp. Spear each piece with a maraschino cherry on a toothpick. Serve in the leftover pineapple skin.
*bonus for Dr. Seuss - the pineapple boats are the same color as Sam I Am and his hat!

We also had cheese and crackers for "could you, would you, with a mouse?" parker house rolls for "could you, would you, in a house?" and the drinks were labeled "could you, would you, in the rain?"

Have fun, and if you have any of your own Dr. Seuss ideas let us know in the comments!