I’m still on the prowl for frugal (and picky family friendly) recipes so if you have any good links leave them in the comments please!

Here’s what is on the menu for this week:

• Monday – Easy Peasy Crockpot Lasagna
• Tuesday – Lemon Pepper Chicken and Pasta
• Wednesday – Homemade Waffles, Turkey Bacon, Fruit
• Thursday – Family Casserole
• Friday -Tostadas
• Saturday – Beans, Smoke Sausage & Cornbread

Menu Plan Monday is hosted by Laura @ I’m and Organizing Junkie!

*This recipe is adapted from A Year of Crockpotting’s ‘Super Easy Crockpot Lasagna.’ *

Easy Peasy Lasagna in Your Crockpot

Need:

• 1 box Ronzoni whole wheat lasagna noodles
• 2 jars/cans meat spaghetti sauce
• 1/2 lb to 1lb ground beef (optional)
• 1 15oz tub part-skim ricotta cheese
• 2 16oz packages Italian style shredded cheese
• one large crockpot

Directions:

1. Break lasagna noodles in thirds into a large bowl and fill with hot water to soak.
2. Brown and drain the ground beef, add meat flavored spaghetti sauce and heat.
3. Ladle enough meat sauce into the crockpot to cover the bottom. Layer the lasagna noodles on top of the sauce and cover with another layer of sauce. Add a large spoon of ricotta cheese and spread it around. Sprinkle shredded cheese on top and cover with another layer of noodles.
4. Repeat (noodles, sauce, ricotta, cheese) until the crockpot is full. Finish off with a layer of meat sauce and top with plenty of cheese.
5. Cover and bake until the top noodles are done–about 3 hours on Hi. (The original recipe calls for 8 hours on low OR 4 hours on Hi, but I shaved some time off by pre-soaking the noodles and using hot meat sauce.)
6. Serve with your favorite salad and enjoy!

Tips and Tricks:

• When I make spaghetti, I use a can of meat flavored sauce and a pound of ground beef and I freeze almost half of it. Having that on hand, I defrosted it and heated it in the microwave with the new meat flavored sauce. By doing this, I did not need to buy ground beef for this recipe, and I did not actually have to cook anything on top of the stove during preparation.
• This makes quite a large amount, and with proper rationing (a.k.a. proper portions and supplemented with a large salad on the side) could conceivably leave enough leftovers – making for a free lunch the next day!

The results:

My entire (uber-picky!) family loved this. My eldest only ate a little but she deemed it “okay.” My husband had half a plate full!

The noodles were well cooked but not mushy (and NO ONE said anything about them being whole wheat – which I attribute to how well they cooked in the crockpot and also the good quality of the Ronzoni pasta – which I love.)

It was very easy to put together, delicious, and in the end very pleasing. Two thumbs up!

I’m looking for recipe suggestions that we could make for breakfast Christmas morning – either overnight in the crockpot, or something that you prepare and keep in the fridge and then bake in the oven when you get up.

Any ideas? Lend me your tried and true recipes, please?

Whether you’re talking about the drive-thru eating on the way down to my mom’s house, or the take-out pizza we ate Saturday night.. my diet has been pretty much thrown out the window while on vacation.

And though it may not be as bad as the schnitzel smothered in cheese and tomato with a side of german potatoes (or the cherry pie and ice cream we had for dessert)… the Java CrockPot Roast probably wasn’t ideal, either. At least, not with the second helping.

BUT IT WAS GOOD.

OH, SO GOOD.

I agree with Stephanie that if I didn’t know there was coffee in there, I never would have guessed that’s what the rich flavor was from. So if you don’t like coffee, don’t let that stop you from trying it.

Now it’s not anything MY family is EVER going to eat. The kids didn’t care for the “gravy” and my husband wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole – but perhaps YOUR family would. If they will, then lucky, lucky you! This recipe was so easy and ten times as delicious as it was easy. I had to try hard not to overeat.

I said try.

I didn’t say I succeeded.

Here’s the first part of the recipe and I’ll let you click over to Stephanie’s site for the rest:

The Ingredients.

–3 lb chuck roast, trimmed of fat
–3/4 cup brewed coffee
–1 yellow onion, chopped
–1 red bell pepper, chopped
–8 oz sliced mushrooms
–1 t garlic powder, or 4-5 chopped cloves
–1/2 tsp salt
–1/4 black pepper
–1 T Worcestershire sauce
–3 T red wine vinegar
–4 oz cream cheese (to add at the end)

Click here for the directions.

Let me know if you try it, I’d like to know if you love it as much as I do. Of course, be sure and tell Stephanie first!!

Fat and Happy,

Amber