Lasagne in the Crockpot and Yummy Cookies

For Sunday dinner we had a craving for lasagna. So I gathered up the stuff to make it and once we got home from church I threw it in the crock pot. Lucky for us we get out of church early enough that I didn't have to worry about it before hand. Here you go, the best way to make lasagna.

Crock Pot Lasagna
1 box regular lasagna noodles
1 jar of favorite spaghetti sauce
4 C shredded mozz cheese
2 C corn
1 bag fresh spinach
1 container ricotta cheese
1 pound ground beef
1C dehydrated onions

Brown ground beef with the onions. Drain. Add sauce. Spray inside of crock pot with cooking spray. Once warmed through ladle a small amount on bottom of crock pot. Place noodles and layer ingredients. Continue with layers until crock is full. Layer them in whatever way you like. Once finished with the layers rinse out the sauce jar and pour that water/sauce mixture over the top. Top with the rest of the cheese.

Cook on low heat for 6-8 hours. Mine cooked for 6 and came out PERFECT!!!!! I was really worried that the noodles in the middle might not be done, but this whole this was perfect. I was in serious amounts of heaven with this and had 2 helpings because of it. The down side to cooking it in the crock instead of the oven is that the cheese doesn't brown on top, but we were ok with that. It was divine!!!



Afterwards, we got the cookie bug. So I whipped up these gems.

Cinnamon Chip Cake Mix Cookies
1 box yellow cake mix with pudding
2 eggs
1/2 C veg oil
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 C cinnamon chips

Mix ingredients and place on a greased cookie sheet. Bake in 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. Mine cooked for 9 minutes and were perfect. These are not going to be crispy, they are very chewey and really hit you with the cinnamon after the first bite. The husband thinks I need to start selling cookies....I guess that means he liked them! They really are scrumptious and were a BIG hit with everyone! Now if I just had some ice cream.......

HAPPY EATING!!!!!!!!!!!

BBQ Chicken in the CrockPot

I've been using my crock pot a lot more lately. I'm falling in love all over again.
This time I decided to throw some veggies, chicken and bbq sauce and in the crock and let it cook all day while we cleaned out the garage and ran errands. I love the ease of this, I really do!!!

So here's what I did.

2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 bottle favorite bbq sauce
1 bag frozen corn
generous handful of baby carrots
2 med zucchini's, chopped
1 C dehydrated onions (from food storage YAY!)

It's ok if your chicken is still frozen. Mine was and it turned out great.

Dump all ingredients into your crock and cook on low for about 6 hours. The chicken will be super tender and the veggies will be yummy. Serve with brown rice or mashed potatoes. We did brown rice and added cheddar corn muffins (from the box mix-top with a handful of cheddar cheese before tossing into the oven).

Just for kids

My kiddos got some great cookbooks for Christmas and my oldest was looking through one of them the other day. He found this recipe that he wanted to try. So I figured why not. It's good that he wants to cook and try new things and he was able to do most of it himself. So we are happy with that too!

Hot Dog Pizzas
5 hot dogs, cooked
1/2 whole wheat bagel per person (or a whole bagel if you are a grown-up)
ketchup
shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven broiler to low. Toast bagels.
Slice hot dogs into bite size pieces
Once bagels are toasted, put ketchup on them. Place as much cheese as you like on top of the ketchup and top with hot dog slices.

The is the oldest. He really got into making these!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place bagels back in oven for about 5-8 minutes or until the cheese is melted.


These really were good. They look kind of weird and in the beginning they sounded really weird, but honestly, these were good. Perfect for an after school snack.

HAPPY EATING!!!!

Soups for the soul

And now...back to the food. I have 2 yummy soup recipes! And the great part....they are both made in the crockpot! The are my tweaked versions of the crock pot ladies recipes. She's awesome! Did you catch her on GMA this morning? I have yet to try her buffalo chicken lasagne recipe, it looked delish. But back to these soups.....

Seafood Chowder
1 lb of white fish I used ocean perch (use whatever your family likes)

3 cups of chicken broth

5 potatoes, cubed

1 cup frozen corn

1/2 white onion, chopped

handful baby carrots (I used a very hearty handful), chopped

5 cloves of garlic, chopped

black pepper to taste

1 pound frozen 70/90 shrimp (to add later)

1 cup heavy whipping cream (to add later)

Cut up the fish into large bite size portions, it's okay if it's still frozen.

Dump everything except the cream and the shrimp into your crock pot

Cook on low for 8-10 hours, or until the potatoes are tender. If your veggies are too big for your taste, use an immersion blender to smooth it out. Since i don't have one I used a potoato masher and it left chunks which I LOVED!!!

30 minutes before serving, stir in your cup of cream and the frozen shrimp. Turn your crockpot to high for the last 30 minutes.

We served this with a crusty bread and a side salad. My husband thought it was great and the kids were mixed on it. They aren't big soup people. My 2 year old ate it all up and asked for more. So there you go.... I hope you like it!



and now for the super yummy-oh don't get me wrong...that chowder was wonderful, but I hold a special place in my heart for this one. There used to be a fancy restaurant in the town I grew up in. My first experience with this soup was there. I was on a date with my boyfriend and I ordered it. Fell in love instantly. So good. So when I saw this recipe I was beside myself. I tweaked it a tad and let me tell you, the end result is soooooooo good!!!

French Onion Soup
4 cans of beef broth

4 T butter

3 large onions

1 T granulated sugar

1/4 cup chicken broth

salt to taste

3 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 C dehydrated onions
french bread in slices, or whatever crusty bread you like. I used a whole wheat baguette

Mozzarella cheese, shredded

Heat your crockpot to high and plop your butter in to start melting

Slice the yellow onions into rings and -break up the onion slices with your fingers, and rub them around in the melted butter (at this point if you are going to let it cook longer don't forget to turn your temperature down to low).

Add the beef broth, sugar, chicken broth, dehydrated onions and garlic cloves

Cook on high for 6-8 hours or low for 10-12. It takes a while for the onions to get translucent and pliable, I cooked mine for 8 hours and it was perfect!!!

Just before serving:

Preheat your oven to a low broil

place the bread on a cookie sheet and top with cheese (however much you like, I like it extra cheesy)

Broil until the cheese turns a light brown.
Ladle soup into bowls and float each bread and cheese piece on top. Add extra cheese around the soup as desired.
Not as big of a hit with the kiddos, but I really loved it. The husband thought it was ok too. So maybe not one I'll do all the time, but I just had to give it a try. It took me right back to that restaurant when I had it the first time. And that's just what a good meal is supposed to do, take you somewhere. I hope it can do the same for you!!!

HAPPY EATING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WINNERS ANNOUNCED

Thank you thank you thank you to all who left comments! I loved all your cereal add-on ideas! We now have some winners!! A BIG thanks to MYBLOGSPARK for providing the goodie baskets!! I hope you guys enjoy them!

Winners, send me your mailing address to rebekahskitchen@live.com. Thanks again to all that played!!!!

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

7
5
4

Timestamp: 2009-02-19 14:37:56 UTC


MaybeMama said...

I love to add bananas and almond slices.

Betsy said...

Bananas and strawberries.

LeslieVeg said...

I put Low Fat Vanilla Almond Breeze on my Cold Cereal.. I'm a simple kinda Girl!
Now on my oatmeal... I put pumpkin, and some pumpkin pie spice!!! YUM to Both!

Stay tuned for some yummy soup recipes!!!

Baked Hawaiian Calzone

My favorite pizza is the Hawaiian pizza. I love the contrast of the pineapple with the ham and sauce. When I was little I never thought it sounded good, those things all together just didn't sound right, but once I tried it I fell in love with it. So here is a calzone that should be tempting to you if you like that kind of pizza. Super easy to do also!! And you could susbstitue just about anything on the inside. Make it your own!

Baked Hawaiian Calzone
1 bag pre-made pizza dough (I used the whole wheat version from Trader Joe's)-it's enough to make one pizza
1 can pineapple chunks
1 package Canadian bacon for pizza (small circles)
favorite spaghetti sauce or marinara sauce
2 C mozzarella cheese


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Roll out dough to a good size rectangle. Place topping on, start with bacon, then pineapple, then about 1 C worth of sauce and top with cheese. Roll up making sure that the ends are sealed up and place seam side down. Cut slits in top to vent or it might explode all over the pan. :O)

Bake for 30 minutes or until dough is nice and brown. You can do an egg wash to ensure it gets brown, but I chose not to do that since it was whole wheat dough.

Slice and serve with extra spaghetti/marinara sauce.

This was perfect! The kids all dove right into it and it was just enough ooey gooey goodness that made everyone's night!I probably could have eaten the whole thing.
Enjoy!!

HAPPY EATING!!!!!!!!

Another Giveaway!!!

Hello all! I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day with your sweetie, family, etc. Our family had a great day spending it together!!

I have another great giveaway!!! The folks at Cheerios have launched a new type. I love Cheerios, it's one of my favorite cereals. I love putting fruit in it and I could just gobble it up. Well like I said they have a new flavor: Banana Nut. Tastes just like banana nut bread. Yum!!!!

So I have 3 baskets to giveaway that will include a VIP coupon for Banana Nut Cheerios® cereal, banana tree with fruit basket, bread loaf pan and a set of two cereal bowls. I hope you enjoy it as much as we have!!

To enter this giveaway, leave a comment letting us know what you like to put in your cereal. My favorite it fresh fruit, specifically strawberries and blueberries!

Good luck and this contest will end

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, MIDNIGHT MST.