Today, we picked up another young person from Northwest Missouri and moved her into our home.
This is the third time we have moved someone in with us since we moved here. I come up with these ideas and my husband goes along with me. What a guy!
Why do we keep "rescuing" people from Northwest Missouri?
First of all, Northwest Missouri is filled with some great people. I lived there for 5 years and my husband for 10 years. I met some of my best friends while living there. Five years after we moved away, we still miss the people we saw in the store, worked with, and had for neighbors.
Unfortunately, having good people in a region isn't enough. Northwest Missouri (at least where we lived and these young adults lived), there are no jobs. The economy wasn't good before the economic downturn, now it is really bad. They have also had three floods in the past five years. For these kids, there isn't much hope of a better life.
My husband and I were blessed to be born to the right parents in the right part of the country. Here, jobs are plentiful. Even in the drought, the irrigated fields above the Ogalala Aquifer receive moisture through pivots and irrigation pipes. The company my husband works for is expanding. Many places are hiring in town where the unemployment rate is only 3.3%. A quarter section of land (1/4 of a mile, squared) sells for over a million and a half dollars.
My husband and I have experienced first-hand the sad truth that many people were not given the opportunities we were. These are young adults we know and trust, who just needed someone to give them a shot, a ticket out of the poverty they were living in. We gave them a place to live until they could afford their own apartment. The living quarters are tight, since now we have two little boys in one bedroom, Mike and I in our room, and Felicia on the couch in our two bedroom house.
The two young men who stayed with us previously are doing well on their own now. They work hard at the same jobs they started when they were with us. They never wanted a handout. They wanted opportunity to work. Now, we are happy to let Felicia have that chance.
Okay, sorry for the diversion.
Friday Vegetarian Potluck!
This week, I made Italian Vegetarian Meatballs. These will please any meat-eater (or carnivore, like my 5 year-old calls them).
(I haven't reloaded the program yet which allows me to make PDF printable recipes. Sorry!)
Italian Vegetarian Meatball with pesto and penne pasta.
For step by step pictures, click here.
Italian Vegetarian Meatballs
by
Prep Time: 15 min.
Cook Time: 1 hr.
Keywords: bake entree vegetarian Italian
Ingredients
- 8 oz. shredded mozzarella
- 1 diced onion
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 tsp. dried oregano
- 5 eggs
- 1 sleeve crushed crackers
- 1 jar pasta sauce (about 2 1/2 cups)
- 1/2 cup red or blush wine (optional)
Instructions
1. Combine shredded mozzarella, onion, garlic, oregano, eggs, and crushed crackers in mixer. Mix thoroughly. Preheat oven to 350 F. Allow mixture to set for 5 min.
2. Spray medium baking dish with non-stick spray. Use ice cream scoop to drop equal-sized balls of mixture into baking dish.
3. Mix wine with pasta sauce, if desired. Cover meatballs with pasta sauce. Cover baking dish and bake for 1 hour.
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Have you ever let someone stay in your home for an extended amount of time? Why? How did it go?
In the spirit of a delicious potluck dinner, I’m hosting Friday Vegetarian Potluck. Mix up a batch of your favorite recipe and bring it over for supper. You can bring a main dish, a salad, bread, a dessert, any food you want to share.We do have a few rules for our meal.
1. Your recipe needs to be vegetarian, but it can also be dairy-free, vegan, or gluten-free. Any recipe made without meat will do.
2. Your blog does not have to be about vegetarian food recipes. If you regularly write about gardening, that’s fine. If you usually post recipes with pork and poultry, you are welcome, too.
3. This doesn’t have to be a new recipe post, but I ask that you bring it to the blog only once.
4. Since potlucks are all about sharing, I ask that you post this invite on your blog post. It fits nicely into your html.
(For help adding the html code above, click here)
What recipe are you going to share?<
