Crockpot Sausage Meal

My money savers on this one were sausage, sold on manager's special (that means it's discounted because it needs to sell that day and then can be taken home and frozen, or used right away) and potatoes from produce junction, one bag gave me two large meals (lots of leftovers)

Simple meal to throw in before you go out and leave it to cook in the crockpot. First you brown the sausage (leave it whole or in large pieces which you will cut right before serving) and then stick it in the crockpot with diced tomatoes, the cut up potatoes and whatever spices you like (garlic and basil are winners in this dish).

Before serving remove the sausage and cut them (much easier to cut when fully cooked) add them back in and serve.

Two out of three kids actually asked for seconds and hubby made it the next days lunch.

Part of the $5 dinner challenge, though I don't know the exact cost, math was never a strength of mine:)

Some of my favorite Flat Belly Diet Meals so far

Avocado Herbed Breakfast Tacos

Meatball Melt (substituted pesto (which is cheap at Trader Joe's) for Olive Oil and a whole wheat wrap for the pita, it's what I had:) Did you know you can get whole wheat wraps pretty cheap at Target? The meatballs are vegetarian (from Trader Joe's), or fake as my hubby says, but he keeps eating them.

Dijon Egg Sandwich (LOVED this one)

Soba Noodle Salad with snow peas - you can find soba noodles in the international isle of the grocery store or get them even cheaper at an Asian food mart. I've also seen people substitute whole wheat spaghetti if you can't find soba noodles.

Hearty Sausage with Brussels Sprouts - I will say this picture does not do it justice, it was actually a favorite that we've had twice so far (I got sausage on sale).

Turkey Avocado Cobb Salad - yes, even my kids ate it. I let two of them have ranch so they polished it off and my no frills one just ate it plain, he gobbled the turkey and turkey bacon ate the avocados and then had at least a little bit of the greens.

Actually my kids have eaten most of these meals without griping, except for my middle child who complains if I give him anything that isn't pizza. We've also eliminated most of the junk food (there's still a little bit) from the house so they're learning to snack healthy and don't seem to mind. It's much easier when it's not there, for me too:)

Get the recipes and portion sizes in this book, sorry, don't want to share copyrighted material.

Crockpot Meal - Vegetarian Italian Sausage Stew

I adapted this recipe from one of those 5-ingredient crock pot booklets you find at the register that I can never seem to pass up.

Really simple...
- 1 lb "Fake sausage" (as my family calls it) browned
- 1 32 oz. box of vegetable stock
- 1 15 oz. can of diced tomatoes
- 1 15 oz. can of cannellini beans
- some garlic & basil (to your taste, I like a lot of garlic)
- a sprinkling of flax seed (which I'm adding to everything I can nowadays)
- 1 16 oz. bag dried tortellinis (the recipe called for fresh but my budget called for dried)

Brown the "sausage" and throw everything in the crock pot on low for 4-5 hours. Before serving, cook the tortellinis and add. See - easy, and tasty.

Birthday Pizza Night

For my hubby's B-day dinner he requested pizza. So I made several options:)

Up top is your basic peppers and onions. Used a store bought crust, store bought tomato sauce, shredded mozzarella and sliced peppers and onions. Not too fancy.

I used Rachel Ray's "Spanakopizza" recipe and put in on a store bought whole wheat crust. I was really excited about it but not very thrilled with the finished product.

The sauce was roasted red pepper and kalamata olives pureed in the food processor, then I topped it with sauteed red onions and garlic, put some mozzarella and feta on top and baked it. After baking it gets topped with arugula, diced tomatoes and pepperocini. If I added more olives to the sauce, more feta in the cheese mix and more pepperocini I might have liked more.

Here's my hubby's heart attack pizza with a touch of veggies to make you feel better about eating it.

Again store brought crust. For the sauce I pureed fire roasted diced tomatoes (cause it's what was in the cabinet), garlic, and basil and then simmered to absorb the flavors. It was topped with a very small amount of shredded mozzarella, bacon, ham, sausage, peppers, and onions. This was definitely the favorite.