Simply Delicious Sunday????

Okay, I had an idea, let me know if you are interested. I am constantly trying to come up with new and interesting things to fix for dinner and I am especially on the hunt for EASY things to cook. I use my crock-pot alot, but my kids aren't huge soup eaters (well, actually two are and two aren't, but that's not the point.) So, I have figured about every possible way to prepare meat in the crock pot that you can imagine. But I had an idea that we could all tap into each other. Every Sunday, assuming there is enough interest, I will post a recipe for something easy and family friendly that I am making for the week. You put your recipe in the comment section. Then, anyone who logs on will have at least two or three (depending on participation) ideas for something different to make for dinner.

So, here goes. This week, I made a VERY yummy soup that I got from the "Family Fun" magazine. It's called Lasagna Soup and it's amazing! And easy!

1 1/2 pounds of Italian sausage
2 onions minced
4 cloves minced garlic
2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 can (28 oz.) diced Italian tomatoes
6 cups chicken broth
2 bay leaves
8 ounces fusilli pasta
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh basil
8 ounces ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1/2 tsp salt
pinch of pepper
2 cups shredded mozzarella

You brown the sausage for 5-7 minutes or until thoroughly cooked. Then toss in the onion and the garlic and continue browning them all together until the onions are tender. Next, I mixed all the ingredients EXCEPT the pasta and the cheeses into the crock pot and set it to cook for 8 hours on low/medium. Right before I was ready to serve dinner, I boiled my pasta until al dente and then stirred it into the crock pot with the other ingredients. Now, this is the key to the yummy-ness of this soup... you put a dollup of ricotta, and the Parm. and Mozzarella cheese to taste in the bottom of your soup bowl, ladle the hot soup on top of the cheese mixture and stir it until the cheeses are melted into the soup. YUMMY!!!

Seriously folks, this soup tastes ALOT like homemade lasagna without all the dirty pots and multi-prep issues. I only used 1 skillet and one crock, easy peasy and simple clean-up. In fact, I doubled the bang because I made my sausage in the morning in the same skillet I had cooked the breakfast sausage in, so the sausage served for both breakfast AND dinner.

Now it's your turn... can you help a sistah (and bored family) out? :)