A New Day

Today was great for me. I spent most of it with my granddaughter. She is such a joy in our lives. She helped tend her little brother to start the day off, then after lunch, it was just her and me. I love to hear her visit and sing. She has a little happy song that covers all the random things you can think of to sing about, with the chorus..."happy, happpppy, happy, happy, happy" then on she goes to more random things that happen in her life that make her happy. Why can't we do that more often? Just sing randomly about things that are so simple - that make us happy? I loved it. We went on a walk, as she rode her bike - with apples, giraffe, and puppy in tow. The sun was shining, so it wasn't so cold as we thought it might have been. She jumped on the tramp, as MaStephan (me) counted her jumps with her - and watched her hair stand straight up! Her smiling and laughing all the time. Then, when a car drives by, she would immediately fall to the trampoline face down to "hide" as the car drove past...then once it was gone...it was back to jumping again! Soon it was time to head off to the store for salad, french bread and dessert for dinner tonight at her house. She picked a variety of doughnuts for our after dinner treat. How great is that? I have to say that living today as the world stopped around us was fantastic! There are far too many times we let everything else determine how our day goes - and today, I liked having my granddaughter determine that for me!
For our dinner idea? My daughter Jennifer had lasagna hot and ready for us when we got there. Sometimes if time doesn't permit, the frozen entree is just the answer. If you have a few extra minutes, it isn't that hard to make from scratch. I just use a pound or two of ground meat...hamburger, sausage, or ground turkey are all great. I brown that with a chopped onion, pressed garlic cloves, salt and pepper. while that is cooking, I mix together a can of Hunt's Spaghetti sauce (I like to mix two together - four cheese and chunky vegetable), then add a large can of diced tomatoes. You will add this to the meat when browned completely. In another bowl mix a large container of cottage cheese, a couple of eggs, some shredded mozzerella cheese, and some italian seasoning. In a rectangle pan, larger than a 9x13 if possible even though that will also work - spray bottom with olive oil spray, put down a little sauce, first layer of lasagna noodles, meat sauce, then cheese mixture, repeat until you run out...usually about 3 or 4 layers - cover with alumimum foil and bake at 350 degrees for about an hour so the noodles will be tender. I serve with a salad and garlic bread. You can make your own garlic bread easy too - just get a loaf of french bread, slice it and spread with a butter mixture of softened butter, garlic powder, and italian seasoning lightly - you can also add shredded parmesean cheese for a twist! Yummy Yummy! Your family will LOVE IT!
Cook together and sing the "happy" song!