Crock Pot Egg Bake

Today I made my favorite Tater Tot Egg Bake in my crock pot. So easy and it cooked while we were at church and was ready for brunch for us and our company when we got home.

I'm guessing it would work for any egg bake recipe, but here's the one I like best...

Spray crock pot with non-stick cooking spray. Line bottom with frozen potato rounds/crowns (the flat tater tots).

Cover with your favorite egg bake cooked meats (bacon, sausage or ham), sauteed veggies and grated cheese. Season with salt and pepper.

Beat 8 eggs and about 1/2 cup milk.

Pour over stuff in the crock pot.

Cook on low for 3-4 hours or on high for 2 hours.

Remove lid and let sit a couple of minutes before serving.

Crock Pot Beef Burgundy

This is a super easy meal to cook in the crock pot when you are short of time or forgot to start it earlier in the day. It was super tasty and tender! And it’s French… ooo la la! ;)

1/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper

2 pounds beef stew meat

2 Tbsp oil

1 onion, sliced

8 mushrooms, sliced

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

3 cloves minced garlic

2-3 bay leaves

1 cup burgundy wine

1/2 cup beef broth

Dredge the stew meat in the flour, salt & pepper mixture. Heat oil in large skillet and brown meat on medium heat. Place beef in crock pot. Pour wine and broth over meat. Top with remaining ingredients. Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours or high for 3 hours. Serve with mashed potatoes.

Cranberry Merlot Meatballs

This is one of my new favorite crock pot meals! I can make it in a snap and it tastes rather fancy and elegant. If I use frozen meatballs, it only takes a minute to throw it all together and cooks on high in only about 3 hours. We love it served over mashed potatoes but is also a lovely appetizer!

Whisk together:

1 can jellied cranberry sauce

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup merlot (or any red wine or cranberry juice)

2 teaspoons stone ground mustard (or any other hot mustard)

Pour over 30-40 meatballs.

Cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 5-6 hours, or until meatballs are hot.

Serve over mashed potatoes or as an appetizer.

Crock Pot Frittata

What’s easier than an egg bake? An egg bake you make in the crock pot! It only takes a couple of hours to cook, which makes it an option for supper or breakfast.

This is so easy that it hardly even qualifies as an actual recipe!

Spray your crock pot with non-stick spray because eggs stick like mad!

Sauté up your favorite combo of veggies. You only need to do it until they are a bit tender and a bit crisp. I did some green peppers, zucchini, mushrooms…

 

First I threw in a couple of good handfuls of baby spinach into the crock pot. Then I layered the other veggies on top. For a nice onion-y flavor, I chopped up a few chives from my garden. Lastly, I did some real bacon bits from Costco. I love those things!

Sprinkle the whole thing with shredded cheese.

In order to feed all 5 of us and use up my bounty oddly-sized eggs, I beat up 12 eggs to pour over the top. You could use anywhere from 8-10 large eggs.

Cook it on low for 3-4 hours or on high for about 2 hours.

Made a quick easy supper!

Blackberry BBQ Sauce

Behind the fence in the backyard is completely overgrown with blackberries which means a freezer full of blackberry jam every summer! The best way to get rid of the extra is to make Blackberry BBQ Sauce.

1 cup ketchup

3 Tablespoons brown sugar

1/3 cup blackberry jam

1 teaspoon mustard

1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar

Mix it in a small bowl. Use as you would any other BBQ sauce.

I poured mine over a beef roast in the crock pot and cooked it on low for 8-10 hours or high for 4-6 hours.

Shred the beef and serve on hamburger buns.

Buttery Beef and Mushroom Stew

I have made this a couple of times now and we LOVE it! It is best served over mashed potatoes. I know most stews have potatoes in them but I like them over or topped with mashed potatoes best of all!

This stew is tasty, quick and easy and cooks in the crock pot while you’re busy doing other things that you want and need to do. What could be better?

2 pounds beef stew meat

1 pound mushrooms, quartered

1 stick butter

2 Tablespoons dried parsley

1 teaspoon each of dill, garlic powder and dried onion flakes

1/2 teaspoon each of basil and ground black pepper

Combine everything in the crock pot and cook on high 4 hours or on low 6-8 hours or until beef is tender. Mix 2 Tablespoons cornstarch and 2 Tablespoons cold water until smooth. Stir into simmering stew until thick and well combined.

 

Serve over mashed potatoes.

Mexican Mocha Molten Lava Cake

This cake would probably be absolutely fantastic if anyone other than me made it… I am a dismal failure at these things! I can screw up anyone’s foolproof recipe. It breaks my heart because I desperately love the gooey chocolate goodness of a perfectly done lava cake.

My only advice would be to keep an eye on it and not let it get overdone! Oh, and serve it warm with vanilla ice cream… :o)

1 devil’s food cake mix

Prepare cake mix according to the directions on the box and substitute 1/4 cup of the milk or water for 1/4 cup of Kahlua or strong coffee. Also add 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon chili powder and 1/4 teaspoon cayenne.

Pour into a greased 6-quart crock pot.

1 small box of instant chocolate pudding mix

Prepare box of pudding with 2 cups milk. Beat for 1-2 minutes.

Pour over cake batter in crock pot but DO NOT STIR!

Next sprinkle 1 bag of dark chocolate chips over the entire surface. Again, DO NOT STIR!

Turn on high and bake for 2-3 hours. It is done when the pudding starts to bubble out on the top. If the top is dry, it has cooked too long! (It is still a fine moist cake but just not the same.)

Serve immediately with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Breakfast Sundaes

I am going to confess that I had this for breakfast because I desperately wanted to use the super cute parfait glass I bought at the second-hand store last Saturday! It turned out so good it was almost too cute to eat… ;o)

This one was honey Greek yogurt with strawberries, bananas, granola and Nutella. Yum!

Next time I want to make it with my homemade Crock Pot yogurt. (recipe HERE)

I also didn’t have enough granola… but then I LOVE my granola! (recipe HERE)

It also didn’t have enough Nutella… I’ll layer more in between next time.

See… looks nice but not enough

Like most of my favorite things to make, it is simple and has endless possibilities!

I think it would be really yummy with tropical fruit muesli (recipe HERE) and fresh mango and pineapple with toasted coconut on top! If only I hadn’t eaten the last of the muesli already… :o(

Irish Beef Stew

I have made this twice now and we really like it! The first time we ate it as stew, this time I made it into a shepherd’s pie. Both were that perfect comfort food for cold winter evenings!

2-3 pounds beef stew meat, chunks

1 small onion, chopped

3-4 large carrots, peeled & sliced

6-10 mushrooms, rough chopped

5-7 potatoes, peeled and chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2-3 stalks celery, sliced

1 bottle Guinness stout beer

1 Tablespoons semi-sweet chocolate chips

3/4 cup beef broth

1 teaspoon thyme

3 bay leaves

salt and pepper, to taste

2-3 cups cabbage, rough chopped

2 Tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped

Brown stew meat in a bit of oil in a skillet.

Add meat and remaining ingredients, except for cabbage and parsley, to the crock pot. Cook on high for 5-6 hours or on low 8-10 hours, or until tender and bubbly.

Add cabbage last hour of cooking. Stir in parsley just before thickening.

Thicken with flour & water mixture and whisk in until smooth and stew is thick.

Here’s what you do if you want to make shepherd’s pie with it.

Leave out the potatoes when making the stew. Make them into mashed potatoes instead.

When the stew is done, spoon it into a glass baking dish and top with mashed potatoes. If you want, sprinkle the potatoes with shredded white cheddar cheese.

Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes, until potatoes are a bit golden and cheese is melted.

Slow Cooker Apple Cracked Wheat

What’s better than hot breakfast on a cold winter morning? Hot breakfast waiting for you in your slow cooker!

This is a rather sweet and fruity way to enjoy cracked wheat, but is so lovely with a cup of hot tea or coffee.

This recipe makes 2-3 servings. I make it in my really small 1.5 quart crock pot. Cracked wheat is pretty filling, you don’t need much to fill you up!

1/3 cup apple, chopped

1/3 cup cracked wheat

1/8 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup apple juice

1/2 cup water

1 teaspoon butter

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon salt

splash of vanilla

Stir everything together in your crock pot. Turn it on low before going to bed. Do not cook longer than 8 hours. Give it a stir and let sit for a few minutes before serving.

Crock Pot Cracked Wheat

I really don’t like making breakfast, which is kinda strange since I’ve done it every day for about 17+ years now. Breakfast is my least favorite meal of the day but it is my guys’ FAVORITE meal of the day! So I have made LOTS of breakfasts! That is until this year…

My two oldest started attending college and it is just too hard to coordinate everyone’s morning work and school schedules for a sit-down breakfast. So now it’s an everyone-on-your-own affair. I LOVE it! I feel like I have just gained my freedom from slaving over my griddle/waffle iron/skillet every morning! Wait, I did! :o)

On the other hand, I really miss starting out our day with a sit-down breakfast. We would pray for our day, read and discuss the daily newspaper… It was a great way to start the day! But I don’t miss cooking breakfast…

All this is a round about way to say that I have found a way to have a hot breakfast ready to go whenever it’s needed without cooking in the morning! And it’s all thanks to my crock pot!

You can make cracked wheat in the crock pot the night before and it is all ready to go in the morning! And if you’ve made too much, you can freeze the leftovers in microwave safe containers. Just thaw them in the fridge the night before, add a bit of milk or water, and zap it for about 1 minute or so! Hot breakfast without cooking yet again!

Here’s how you do it:

Pour 1 cup of cracked wheat cereal into your crock pot. Pour in 3 cups of cold water. Give it a quick stir. Turn the crock pot on low and go to sleep for 7-9 hours.

Wake up. Go check your cracked wheat. Give it a stir.

Plop some into a bowl. (Yeah, it really does kinda plop, but it’s hot cereal.) Dress it up with milk, brown sugar, butter, dried fruits, nuts… whatever suits your fancy.

Turn the crock pot on warm if you need it to wait for more eaters.