This Mac-n-Cheese dish sure beats the stuff in the box, and it’s quite easy to make. If you don’t have shell macaroni, use elbows, cavatappi, or any small pasta with some texture for holding in the sauce. Using imitation crab meat for this recipe keeps it budget-friendly. (It’s imitation crab, made with real fish!) This casserole is great with a salad and crusty bread.
Don’t forget to donate the savings from your simple Lenten Friday meal to a worthy cause such as CRS Rice Bowl or your local food pantry or soup kitchen!
On those busy days when you won’t be home to fuss with dinner, you can have your meal almost all ready for you at the end of the day when you use a slow cooker. This corn chowder is delicious topped with a little cheese and cilantro. Serve it with quesadillas and a salad for a simple, quick and inexpensive meal.
This soup freezes well and is great for lunch as well as dinner.
Don’t forget to donate the savings from your simple Lenten Friday meal to a worthy cause such as CRS Rice Bowl or your local food pantry or soup kitchen!
As I live in a pile of ashes that seems to follow me through Lent this year, I have found that a flame inside me is creating them. They are ashes of sin burning away from my mortal body. They leave behind skin that is raw and painful. Denial of bodily cravings, leaving mind-numbing television behind, and dragging my feet through the mud of humility, makes me evermore aware of the the burning fire of the Holy Spirit in my soul..
It tries to breakthrough and the burning is not quenched by any salve, but only by more time in prayer, with the Eucharist, and with my eyes wide open to the trail of my past, its revelations of where holiness may be possible. I long for Easter and the new skin of purity to be worn through next year, for a taste of the glorified body that will eventually be mine to inhabit.
All praise to our Lord Jesus Christ, be merciful to my soul!
During Lent we are taking time as a part of our homeschooling to focus on the three areas of Lenten focus: Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving. The first area that we have been focusing on is PRAYER!
First of all, at the beginning of Lent we all learned The Lent Song from Catholic Icing. We love it because it was easy to learn and explains the meaning of Lent in easy ways for kids to understand!
Nicole Ernest is loving living out her vocations as a Catholic wife and mother. Nicole resides in Nebraska with her husband and their lovable, energy filled boys. Nicole shares about living the liturgical year, homeschooling and marriage/ family life at her blog Children of the Church. Nicole is thrilled to be a part of Catholic Blogger Network!
While I try not to serve extravagant seafood (such as shrimp) during Lent, I do make an effort to serve meatless dishes my family will enjoy. I based this recipe on a favorite chicken piccata dish. Cod is inexpensive; I purchase it in individually-quick-frozen portions when it’s on sale.
I hear from so many people that they think Lent is the most difficult time during our Liturgical Year. I get that, I really do. But at the same time, I think that there is something beautiful in finding peace within suffering. There is something life changing in letting silence enter our lives to try to process, even just a little bit, the suffering, offering and love that Jesus gave to us by dying on the cross for our sins.
I have been doing a lot of my own suffering lately as I have been carrying the cross that God has asked of our family with the loss of our son Samuel, as we experienced a miscarriage. So I think, what can I do this Lent to bring that suffering to Him, how can I bring my suffering to unite with Jesus at the cross?
We are all hurting in one way or another, and our job is not to compare our sufferings with others, but to bring them to God and to be a support to each other through this time. Our job is to be quiet enough, and give ourselves enough time and space to really listen to God and what he is asking of us and then trust what he has planned for our lives.
Can we give God silence each day this Lent? Through prayer, in adoration, or in listening to Him through scripture?
I am learning that bringing the Church into our domestic home is not always about having activities, but learning how we witness our faith to our spouses and children through our daily actions and words.
Nicole Ernest is loving living out her vocations as a Catholic wife and mother. Nicole resides in Nebraska with her husband and their lovable, energy filled boys. Nicole shares about living the liturgical year, homeschooling and marriage/ family life at her blog Children of the Church. Nicole is thrilled to be a part of Catholic Blogger Network!
Memorial to the Japanese martyrs of Unzen. (Photo by Connie Rossini.)
This is the week for keeping watch with Jesus in a special way. Although God calls us to spend time with Him in prayer daily, we rightly feel that we should spend extra time with Him during Holy Week. But how should we go about it?
When I was a teenager, my family started a tradition of an all-night prayer vigil on Holy Thursday. Beginning at 10 p.m., my parents, siblings, and I took turns praying in one or two one-hour slots for the next eight hours. I loved offering this extra sacrifice to Jesus, this extra sign of love. Jesus would not be alone in the Garden of Gethsemane if I could help it.
After I graduated from college, I spent two years as a lay missionary in Japan, teaching English to support the evangelization work of an American priest. During spring break of the first year, my roommate Mary Beth and I traveled to the island of Kyushu. We planned to be in Nagasaki for Easter.
On Holy Thursday we were in the resort town of Unzen. Known for its hot springs, in which the Japanese bathe for health, Unzen is also the site of mass martyrdoms in the 17th century. In one of the most heinous instances of torture in history, Japanese officials hung Catholics upside-down to slowly roast over the hot springs. They punctured holes in the martyrs’ foreheads, so that the rush of blood to their heads would not kill them prematurely.
Ready to celebrate the rest of Lent as a family? Here are several activities you can do together, whether or not you homeschool.
p=suitable for grades 1-3 m=suitable for grades 4-6 j=suitable for grades 7-9 s=suitable for grades 10-12 BooksBesides reading the Gospel accounts of Holy Week, try reading and discussing the following books that deal with sacrifice, martyrdom, or resurrection:
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams (p). The Tale of Three Trees by Angela Elwell Hunt (p+). The Queen and the Cross: The Story of St. Helen by Cornelia Mary Bilinsky (p, m) The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis (p+ for reading aloud; m+ for independent reading).
Nicole Ernest is loving living out her vocations as a Catholic wife and mother. Nicole resides in Nebraska with her husband and their lovable, energy filled boys. Nicole shares about living the liturgical year, homeschooling and marriage/ family life at her blog 
