Ash Wednesday, Lent, and Mom's Macaroni And Cheese

And so it begins...Lent...a time of quiet, reflection, penance and waiting. Although Lent has been different for me through the years...praying the Stations of The Cross with my best friend Laurie after school as a 5th grader, or the ultimate sacrifice...giving up Pepsi for 6 whole weeks as a teenager...or simply spending more time in quiet prayer as a mother of 4 children, one thing remains the same. Lent is an opportunity to spend more time with our Lord, however, that may be.

I picked this beautiful book up after Mass last weekend. It is my hope that it will become my close friend these next few weeks...I will try to read the daily reflections and apply them to my life. But if a day goes by and I miss one, I won't berate myself for it. I know that if I spent that time wiping a runny nose, or helping a certain young man work through a multiplication problem, or having a real conversation with my sweet husband, or even walking on that dreaded treadmill in an effort to make myself feel more healthy and in turn more able to be a better mother, God will understand.

And you may wonder why I included my Mom's Macaroni and Cheese recipe in this post. It is because it is Lent to me. My mother made this almost every Friday of Lent. Just the smell of it baking in the oven takes me back to my childhood home, setting the table with my sisters, waiting for my Dad to come home from work...

This is a different kind of macaroni and cheese...it has a little bit of tomato sauce in it...my mom added this to encourage my Italian father to give macaroni and cheese a try. I hope you do too. : )


                    Mom's Macaroni And Cheese

Ingredients:     2 cups uncooked macaroni
                      1 can cheddar cheese soup
                      1 8oz. can tomato sauce
                      1/4 cup butter
                      1/4 cup milk

Directions:       Cook macaroni according to
                       directions.  Drain. Stir in remaining
                       ingredients.
                       Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
                       Bake in casserole dish sprayed with
                       cooking spray at 350 degrees for 45 minutes covered,
                       and 15 more uncovered.


                      Note...I double this recipe and bake
                      in a 13x9 dish for our family.