Quick "Lasagna" (From Mom's Recipe Card File)

I've been browsing my recipe cards, and came across something Mom used to make when I was a kid.  I always loved it, but I'd forgotten about it after learning how to make "real" lasagna.  It's most definitely not even close to real lasagna, but it doesn't have to be real to taste good, right?

Quick "Lasagna"

1 lb  ground beef
14 oz tomato-based pasta sauce
8 oz egg noodles (CHEAPO ones, not the nice thick homemade style ones!)
8 oz cream cheese
1 c cottage cheese
1/2 c sour cream
3 green onions, sliced
2 T bell pepper, chopped (any color you prefer)

Brown ground beef.  Add pasta sauce and heat thoroughly.  While the meat sauce is heating up, cook the noodles as directed on the package, and drain.  In a bowl, mix the rest of the ingredients, then add the noodles and mix well.

Spray a 3-quart casserole dish with non-stick spray.  Put the noodle mixture in the dish, then top with the meat mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.


I serve this with a salad and dinner rolls.

Life Happens...AGAIN

I've been absent again!  Life happens.  Sorry.

That Girl had car trouble; it died on her way to work.  Long story short - the engine gave out.  We hauled it from Maryland to Indiana to have a trusted mechanic have a look.  Yes, it needed a new engine.  We lent her a car.  After replacing the engine, she drove our car home and swapped it for hers.  It did fine for a few weeks, then it started making an odd noise.

We went to Maryland, and That Man started to drive it back home to have the trusted mechanic look at it again.  About halfway home, the car quit on the interstate.  That Boy was notified, he rented a car trailer, and came to the rescue.  Another engine is on the way.  At least the first one was under warranty.

Different problems each time.  We're not sure (yet) what the second issue is, but the first one is a definite design flaw:  the water pump is INSIDE THE CRANKCASE. 

WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?

When I first heard that, I thought somebody was pulling my leg.  But no, it is true.  So, when the water pump leaks, water goes directly into the oil, and if you don't catch it immediately, BOOM goes the engine.  FUN.  Not one of Ford's Better Ideas.

So that is the first of the continuing sagas hijacking my attention.  Heavy sigh.

The other is That Other Knee Replacement in our house.  I had gotten into a rhythm with the required caregiving following the infection and was starting to spread my wings (a little).  Then it took a couple of left turns.  First, things weren't healing as they should, so another surgery and a wound vac.

If you don't know what a wound vac is, go Google it.  I'll wait here until you get back.

So, after many weeks of the wound vac, things were evening out again into another new normal, and I was again tasting a little freedom.  I went to Maryland for the first Grand's fifth birthday and took That Girl and all three Grands to the beach, and I took a watercolor class after I got home.

This week, That Other Knee Replacement took another left turn (any MORE left turns, and we'll be back where we started).  The Knee has apparently gotten bored with the wound vac and refuses to cooperate, so yesterday the wound specialists took it away (supposedly for only a week), and now I'm back to performing daily wound packing and dressing changes, and these are, well, ew.  That's the only way to describe them - ew.  A couple of months ago, I would have said I couldn't (read: wasn't gonna) do them, but here I am, stuffing medicated ribbon gauze into a void with what's basically a lo-o-o-o-o-ng Q-Tip.  That's as graphic as I'm prepared to get, so you're safe now.

Hopefully, this is just a bump in the road and things will begin to progress as we'd wish.

Think good thoughts for us - PLEASE!