Cooking for the Sandwich Generation

You've heard the term, The Sandwich Generation; those of us who are squished between our parents and our kids running hither and yon trying to be all things to all people and burning the family candle at both ends.

In our family hoagie, there is also a meal prep issue. At one time we had 3 different types of vegetarians in the house, plus two confirmed "Meatatarians". There's the no salt/sodium requirement for my mother, my own diabetes and my husbands love and never ending search of the perfect Philly Cheesesteak.  It can boggle the menu making mind.

Factor that in with the fact that I never really know who will be at the dinner table (Football practice, dates, work, going to friends, friends dropping by) and that my mother won't allow extra food in her fridge for the next day and you have a whole new algorithm of size and quantity to deal with.

Today was designed to be left over day. With only one self sufficient son at home and my husband and I enjoying the calm that hoped for, there was no cooking planned, just help yourself to the odds and ends in the fridge and I'll make up for it tomorrow.

Of course, this was all before the early morning texts came in from my Mom's caregivers, and the new flurry of activity started in again. Mom wasn't feeling well, mom wasn't eating and mom wanted pasta… today.

Did I mention this was Christmas day? Day of the closed market?

So I set to work, wondering all the while what I could make that worked with what I had on hand and could also be made to satisfy one and all. Today became the day Baked Pesto Shells were born.

Here's the down and dirty basics:

• Whole wheat pasta shells cooked
• Homemade pesto sans salt (I keep it in the freezer most of the time)
• Sliced mushrooms (Why? Because they needed to be used)
• Chopped leftover chicken breasts from last night (note to self - omit when vegetarian daughters are home)

Put the whole mess into a 9" x 13" baking dish, top with a little bit of parmesan cheese if the Philly husband insists and bake for about 35 - 45 minutes. 

Viola! You have dinner that everyone will embrace and you are once again the coolest thing since sliced bread.

Give a Little; Make a BIG Difference

I’m walking to make a difference. Light The Night Walk is The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s annual fundraising walk to pay tribute and bring hope to people battling cancer. Make a difference with me donate $18 (for life) http://bit.ly/p6NcCG

Who's Thinking Now?

"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you."
— Harlan Ellison

A little one helps

Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child. (Now this will melt your heart.) The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his Mother asked him what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, "Nothing, I just helped him cry."

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There are no six minute abs

“Success is dependent on effort.”
~Sophocles

The Average Facebook User Has 130 Friends

How many Facebook friends do you have? To put your friend count in perspective, the average user has 130. Facebook’s official stats page is full of little gems like this, and more staggering stats, such as the fact that people spend over 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook, while the current active official user count now stands at over 500 million.

As far as Facebook the platform goes, over a million websites have integrated with Facebook, and more than 150 million people engage with Facebook on external websites every month.