Egg Muffins, Lasagna and French dips...OH MY!

Whether you leave for work early in the morning and don't have time to make breakfast or if you work from home and find yourself grazing all morning...we could all use a quick grab and go breakfast!  I discovered this idea a while ago and have made them multiple times!  Egg Muffins are carb free and full of protein, and low in fat.  You can add whatever things you prefer in your eggs and make it a complete meal! 

EGG MUFFINS:

There is no CONCRETE recipe for this.  But here are the base ingredients needed.

Egg  beaters (or just eggs and milk scrambled together)
A Muffin Pan
Non-Stick cooking spray and LOTS of it!

Any diced veggies, meat or cheese you would like in your scrambled eggs.  Some combos I like:

Sausage, spinach and swiss cheese
Broccoli, bacon and Cheddar cheese
Ham, bell peppers and cheese
Celery, onions and turkey

Directions;
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Dice up vegetables, meat and cheese that you desire
Mix eggs and milk together (or use Egg Beaters, that is what I Prefer)
HEAVILY spray muffin pan with cooking spray.
Add diced ingredients first
Pour in egg mixture or egg beater until muffin cups are almost full.
Add some salt and pepper to the top for seasoning

Put in oven for about 15 minutes, until eggs are set and have reached 160 degrees inside.

Let cool in pan for a minute (NOTE...the egg muffins will deflate, that is normal!)

Remove from pan,  either eat right away, or you can put 2 of them in a snack size ziploc bag. They can stay in the fridge for a couple of days and in the freezer for a couple of weeks.  To reheat from the fridge, throw in the microwave for one minute for 2 muffins.  If you freeze them, they should be thawed out over night, then heated in the microwave.








Perfect for a quick bite on your way out the door!  Even the kids eat them!






CROCKPOT FRENCH DIPS:

Ingredients:  4 pound beef roast of your choice (or whatever is on sale)
1 packet Onion soup mix
1 can of beef broth
sliced onions
can of mushrooms (drained)
Hoagie rolls (I like to pick up day old bread from Jimmy Johns..it's about 25 cents a sandwich)
Provolone Cheese

Directions:

Put sliced onions and the can of drained mushrooms in the bottom of the crockpot. 
Put roast on top
Add beef broth
put onion soup mix on the top of the roast
Cover and Cook on Low for 7 hours.
Remove meat from crockpot and slice across the grain.
Put sliced meat back on the juice for one more hour on low.
remove meat, and put on hoagie buns.  Top with provolone cheese
Broil in the oven for a couple minutes just to melt the cheese

Serve with the au jus left in the crockpot!

Can used the leftover juice to make French Onion soup as well!





Gretchen's Homemade lasagna!

One of my favorite meals is lasagna...always has been and always will!  Growing up. my mom always made great lasagna.   Now that I do it myself I use some of the stuff from her recipe, mixed with a few ideas of my own and it turns out DELICIOUS!

Ingredients:
1 pound Italian sausage (I like the spicy stuff)
Pepperoni slices
1 26 ounce jar of spaghetti sauce
2 containers ricotta cheese (or could use cottage cheese, done it may times and it works great!)
2 eggs
2 cups shredded mozzarella
1 cup grated Parmesan
1 box frozen spinach, thawed, rinsed and dried on a paper towel
1 box of lasagna noodles (I personally do not like the oven ready ones, I think they always turn out gummy or hard)
1 tsp. dried basil or 1/2 cup fresh basil
1 package fresh mozzarella cheese (sliced)

Directions:

PREHEAT OVEN TO 350 degrees
Bring a large stock pot of water to a rolling boil and cook lasagna noodles until al dente, rinse will cool water
Brown the Italian sausage, and drain off excess grease. 
Add spaghetti sauce, reserving about 1 cup for the top layer.
Combine Ricotta cheese, eggs (slightly beaten) shredded mozzarella, Parmesan, spinach and basil in large bowl.
Slightly grease a 9x13 inch glass baking dish. 
Start with the sauce/meat mixture on the bottom. 
Then top with a layer of noodles
next come the cheese and spinach mixture
Top with a layer of pepperoni slices (about 12-15 per layer)
THEN REPEAT!
On top of the third layer of noodles, I use the remaining 1 cup of plain spaghetti sauce, then the slices of fresh mozzarella.  I also like to add some basil, salt and pepper to the top layer!  if you have some leftover cheese/spinach mixture you could put drops if that on the top as well!

Bake at 350 for about 50 minutes, until heated through.

This can easily be assembled ahead of time, then refrigerated until ready to bake.  Whenever I make lasagna, I double the recipe and then freeze one for later.  I do like to bake it first, but you don't have to before freezing.  Let the frozen one thaw out overnight in the fridge before cooking.

I wish I had a picture to show you, because it makes your mouth water just looking at it!  But it goes too fast to remember to take a picture first!  When I pull the other one out of the freezer, I will take a picture and add it to this for you!