Throwback to the dish I made Thanksgiving day!
I can’t believe it is ALMOST CHRISTMAS now. Wow! It feels like Thanksgiving just passed, but it has been nearly a month already.
Currently I am scrambling to get all of the gifts in time for Christmas day, both my husband and I went a bit over our budget….kind of insane. But in our defense, we literally got for over 25 people, And each other, not including mini gifts for co-workers and such. I can’t wait to show you the gifts I made for my family, but I’ll have to post it after Christmas so they don’t see ahead of time;P It has been pretty fun coming home to boxes and boxes of gift purchases from Amazon waiting at our door that we need to wrap sometime this week. And tomorrow is my job’s ‘Outrageous Gift Exchange’, where we buy some funny gift for $10, pick our names out of a hat, and choose which gift we want to unwrap and keep. I’m excited.
The Only Reason for Christmas
This time of the year is about way more than just getting and receiving material items from others. It is really important for me to get the opportunity to give something special to those whom I love. But gifts, although they create memories, will fade away, just like the memories they bring. They ultimately do not last. There is something you can take away from this Holiday that does last though, and that is Jesus, the only reason for Christmas. Sounds cliche I know, but in all honesty where would we be without Him? We wouldn’t even Be. The Bible says that without Him, nothing was made that was made in Heaven or on Earth. What you believe in is your choice, but personally I believe in Jesus as the Savior of this world. I am looking forward to when He comes back again, this time not as a humble baby.
If God is not real, all things are in vain. Everything we do, we would solely be operating on selfish personal greed and gain instead of an instinctual moral compass that I believe God has ingrained in all of us. Life and death would mean nothing, every creatures life on Earth would be no more than a spec of dust in the history of the universe. I don’t believe we as a species would have such a yearning for something greater, or have the ability to think and reason and explore beyond our own planet, if there wasn’t something there to truly fulfill our hunger for answers; something tangible and real. I guess I always think back to the fish tank analogy, we are sort of confined on our planet and in our own galaxy, but who really knows what is far out in other galaxies or even in another universe or dimension? Just like fish in a fish tank, we might think there is nothing outside of the little bubble we know, but I think even something as small as DNA proves evidence of a designer that can create such a complex ecosystem that one slight change to Anything would make our world fall apart as we know it.
I hope everyone has a very happy holiday with friends, family, fun, and of course food ;P
Enjoy the remaining days of 2017!
Ingredients
- 1 Package - Stuffed Shells (at least 16 or so shells)
- 1 Package - Frozen Butternut Squash
- -
- CREAMY SAUCE:
- 1/2 Package - Frozen Spinach
- 1 Tbsp - Olive Oil
- 3 Cloves - Garlic (crushed)
- 1.5 Cups - Cashews (soaked overnight or boiled that day)
- 1 Package - Firm Tofu
- 1 Cup - Water
- 1 Lemon - Juiced
- 1 Tbsp - Oregano (dried)
- Sea Salt and Red Pepper to taste
Instructions
Start off by cooking your pasta (following the instructions on the package) and once al-dente, remove from heat and soak in colander under cool water.
While your pasta is cooking, take out your frozen spinach and butternut squash and heat it up under warm water until thawed. Then add only the spinach to a small frying pan with your oil and garlic (save the butternut squash cubes aside for later). Cook for a 5-10 minutes on medium low heat, or until fragrant. Remove from heat.
Place your drained cashews (previously soaked or boiled for 5 minutes before hand, we want them soft to help make the sauce creamy! Plus cooking them helps make them easier to digest) into your high powered blender with your tofu, water, lemon juice, and spices. Blend on high until it forms a creamy sauce with no remaining chunks.
Pour this into the frying pan and mix together the garlic spinach into your creamy sauce.
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Oil down a 9x13" casserole dish and begin lining with your al-dente shells. With a small spoon, scoop the spinach cream sauce and place into each stuffed shell, adding 1 or 2 cubed butternut squashes inside. Fill all of the shells with these ingredients. Then lightly sprinkle olive oil on top, and cover the dish with aluminum foil.
Place in the oven for 30 minutes.
Remove, test to ensure that the pasta and everything inside has been cooked to your liking, and enjoy when warmed or heat up for later!
Notes
When reheating leftovers, I like to add a wet paper towel on top in the microwave to prevent the pasta from drying out. Also, the cream sauce makes for a KILLER Alfredo sauce recipe