“Satan doesn’t want us to Create…& a recipe for ‘Yummy Pasta Bake’.”

♥Hi Friends!

I’m definitely not a numbers gal.  And after about 7th grade I could not wrap my brain around math at all.  (I remember having a recurring nightmare about these numbers counting higher and higher and rushing by me and leaving me behind.  I couldn’t get in the line because they were going too fast.  Scary, huh?  I know!)  And you can forget about english and creative story writing.  There’s just not a creative bone in my body!  Or so I thought. I am no Shakespeare or Julia Child for sure.  But here I am writing a blog and creating recipes!  (By the way, don’t feel too bad for me.  I got an ‘A’ in communications (talking)!)

I think I’ve always been a lot more than I ever thought under all that disease I carried around for so many years.  (I’m not gonna lie.  It also helps that my children are older now and only 2 of the 5 are in the public school system.  It seems to have cleared up some brain space!)  Satan is good at hiding our potential under his toxins so we can’t see our Godlike gifts.  If we are UNHEALTHY SPIRITUALLY, PHYSICALLY or EMOTIONALLY, we can be blinded from our strengths and all that we are and can become.  And when that happens, we can’t use those gifts to bless others.  And blessing others is what life is all about!

Satan doesn’t want us to create.  And disease of any kind can dull our receptivity to the Spirit and to our SPIRITUAL gifts.  Including creativity in any form.  I know that when I’m typing, it’s not me doing it.  It’s like the Spirit pulls ideas down from Heaven, in to my head and through my brain where they grab on to a little bit of information, and then out through my fingers.  I’m a small instrument in God’s hands to get a message out.  That’s what Creativity is for!  If we choose.

In a talk from Dieter F. Uchtdorf he says, “The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before…remember that you are spirit daughters of the most creative Being in the universe…You may think you don’t have talents, but that is a false assumption, for we all have talents and gifts, every one of us.  The bounds of creativity extend far beyond the limits of a canvas or a sheet of paper and do not require a brush, a pen, or the keys of a piano. Creation means bringing into existence something that did not exist before—colorful gardens, harmonious homes, family memories, flowing laughter…Don’t let the voice of critics paralyze you—whether that voice comes from the outside or the inside.”

For many years, I thought the only thing I was good at was talking (all the time) and being a nice person (most of the time).  And being nice is a great thing to be.  We should all be nice, like the Savior.  But I’m finding that Father has more in store for me.  Find out what He has in store for you, to bless others.  Through Creating!

♥Love you!

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My oldest and I have made several variations of ‘PASTA BAKE’.  We just randomly throw things in a 9×13 and bake it.  One day I was at her house and she had corn and olives in hers.  It tasted delish!  So I went home and put this recipe together, wrote it down so it wouldn’t be lost to memory, and it turned out really yummyEveryone in the family likes this one.  I love it when that happens!!!

YUMMY PASTA BAKE

  • 1 lb whole grain penne pasta
  • 1 jar marinara or pasta sauce (with as few whole ingredients as possible)
  • 1 lb mushrooms, sautéd *
  • 1 soup can size of olives, sliced
  • 2 cups frozen corn
  • chopped spinach
  • fresh basil**
  • goat cheese cheddar, grated*** or white raw cow’s cheddar
  • grated parmesan

Cook pasta according to directions and drain.  In 9×13 glass pan layer in the following order 1/2 jar sauce, 1/2 of pasta, little bit of goat cheddar, little bit of parmesan, olives, corn, mushrooms, layer of basil, spinach to taste, rest of pasta, rest of sauce, more goat cheddar and parmesan.  Also, you don’t need much cheese, just a bit for flavor.  It’s kind of tricky fitting everything in with spinach so bulky.  Do your best.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, or until done.

*I slice my mushrooms and sauté them on low without any added liquid.  The mushrooms give off a lot of their own.  Once they get cooking, I turn up the heat and drain off liquid as needed until they are done.

**For those in Utah, I buy it at ‘Smith’s’ in a package in the refrigerator section of the produce department.

***The goat cheese cheddar is a little pricey, but remember you aren’t piling it on, just sprinkling.  Dairy is one of the most inflammatory foods there is.  But goat’s milk does not cause the same reaction in our bodies.  You only need a little bit sprinkled on for good flavor.  For those in Utah, you can get it at ‘Good Earth’.  Also, my ‘Whole Foods’ said they could order it in for me.  Raw milk cheddar is a good alternative too.  It still has the enzymes in it because it hasn’t been processed.  I buy it at ‘Sprouts’, ‘Good Earth’, or ‘Whole Foods’ (a little pricier there).

 

Side view before baking.

Uncooked Pasta Bake

 

Top view before baking.

Top Pic Pasta Bake

 

Delish!  Even better the next day fried in a little bit of avocado oil!

Yummy Pasta Bake

 

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