Sweet Potato Fries

Never have I made sweet potato fries before (purchased from Trader Joe's, yes - on my own, no!). So I decided that they looked easy enough to make. They were!

Sweet Potato Fries

2 sweet potatoes

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Cut sweet potatoes into fries. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Put on a baking sheet and into the oven. Flip over after 10 minutes and then continue cooking until as crispy as you like!

Crockpot Lasagna

So freakin' easy.

Seriously. And um, I do have to say that getting a piece of lasagna out of a crockpot is NOT easy. Trust. It looks like the lasagna leaped out of the pan and decided to plop down on the plate. HA.

I digress.

Still. EASY.

I added dried basil to the cheese mix and omitted the parsley. I used Barilla pasta sauce and added 1 can of garlic roasted tomatoes. After reading the comments in the original recipe, I cooked on low for 3 1/2 hours instead of 5. Any longer and I think this would have been mush.

Crockpot Lasagna (click the link to see the original!)

• 1 pound (16 ounces) ground beef
• 1/2 cup diced white onion
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 (24 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese
• 2 cups mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 whole egg
• 2 Tablespoons fresh parsley or 2 teaspoons dried parsley
• 6 uncooked lasagna noodles

1. In a large skillet brown beef and onion. Add garlic and cook for one minute. Drain.
2. Add spaghetti sauce and water and simmer for about 5 minutes.
3. Mix ricotta, 1 1/2 cups mozzarella, 2 Tablespoons Parmesan, egg and parsley.
4. Pour 1 cup of spaghetti meat sauce into a 4 to 6 quart sized slow cooker. Place half of the noodles and half of the ricotta mixture on top of the sauce. Cover with 2 cups meat sauce. Top with remaining noodles (If the noodles don't fit exactly break them to fit) and cheese mixture and meat sauce.
5. Cook on low for 4 to 5 hours or until noodles are soft. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of mozzarella and remaining parmesan. Cover with the lid to melt the cheese and let it sit for 10 minutes before serving.
6. Do not overcook and don't try to speed up the process by cooking it on high.
7. *Works best with a 4 to 6 quart size slow cooker.

Monkey Update

Holy crap. She's close to 8 months old!

I think all and all, I've finally got a routine down during the day (that doesn't much include the computer, sorry...). We've got naps timed now (thank goodness because that way I can actually eat a decent meal that's not just cheese & crackers), solid foods are going well (yay for sweet potato fries!) which means that I'm cooking a heck of a lot more than I have in the last few months.

Phew. Things are back to a new normal.

2012 Craft Fair Info

MIA. I went MIA. Totally flew under the radar. Didn't do much. Except crochet, rake, bake some squash.

But my fingers hurt. I've been crocheting for a very long time! OUCH!

BUT - check out the Holiday Boutique right HERE. And you can even see my little feature spot HERE.

Come and shop - there's tons of local artists and not just me - there's so many awesome items that I think this will be a ton of fun.

Here's the details:

Finch's Holiday Time Boutique:

Sat. Dec. 8th 11am - 5pm & Sun. Dec. 9th12noon-5pm 

10200 Hillside Lane West Minnetonka, MN 55305