Tater Tot Breakfast Casserole ***

I say this every time, but I'm going to say it again.  Anything with "tater tot" in the name is a recipe that I am almost definitely going to have to try immediately.  This one was no different.  I jumped right on it, as soon as I came across it on Pinterest.  It's hard to find good breakfast casseroles, and as simple as this one is, it actually tastes pretty good.  I used Egg Beaters, since I had some to use up.  I'll absolutely do that again.  Super simple!  I think it would be great to use it as a jumping off point for adding veggies.  I'd love to try it with ham and mushrooms and green peppers.  The kids and hubs loved it.  We were leaving town that afternoon, so I took the leftovers to my parents.  They loved it too.  I'll definitely be making it again!

TATER TOT BREAKFAST CASSEROLE
(luckymommyto2boys ~ Amy ~ MessForLess)

6 eggs
2 packages of 10 oz sausage links
1 cup milk
16 oz Tater tots
2 1/2 cups shredded cheese
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 casserole dish. Brown sausage according to package directions and cut into bite-sized pieces. Spread cooked and cut sausage onto greased casserole dish.
In a large bowl, beat together milk, eggs, salt and pepper. Cover the sausage in the casserole dish with the egg mixture.
Cover with one cup of cheese. If you will be serving this the next morning like I did, cover and refrigerate at this point. You will be performing the next steps in the morning.
Spread 16 oz of tater tots on top of the cheese.
Add the remainder of the cheese on top.
Bake for 40 minutes at 350 degrees.

Frozen Lemonade Pie ***

I've made this several times, and it's always one of our favorites.  This is one of those awesome pies that you can throw together at the last minute before bedtime, and have a wonderful dessert ready to go the next day.  I always just use a premade graham cracker crust, which works perfectly for us.  The best part is that it makes too much filling for one pie crust, so we have leftovers we can eat from the bowl, hehehe.  To be honest, you could easily make two pies out of it.  It's not overly lemony, but it's just enough to cut back the sweetness.  I even use fat-free sweetened condensed milk and fat-free Cool Whip, and we can't tell a difference.  This year, I decided to use it for our festive St. Paddy's Day dessert, so I added a little green food coloring.  It's so, so good!

FROZEN LEMONADE PIE
(Amy - amylz - Recipe courtesy The Neelys)

Graham Cracker Crust:
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
7 tablespoons butter, melted
Lemonade filling:
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk, chilled
1 (12 ounce) container whip topping, thawed
1 (6 fluid ounce) can frozen lemonade concentrate, keep frozen
1 teaspoon candied lemon peel

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In medium bowl, combine cracker crumbs, 1/4 cup of sugar, and the melted butter. Press firmly on bottom and up sides of pie plate. Bake for 7 minutes and let cool completely. In a medium bowl, add chilled sweetened condensed milk and cool whip and fold gently. Add frozen lemonade and continue to gently fold. Do not let the mixture become soupy. Pour mixture into the pie crust and freeze overnight. Garnish with candied lemon peel.

Crockpot Apple and Brown Sugar Corned Beef ***

Well, we just finished our annual St. Paddy's Day meal, and it was a winner as usual. This makes the 7th year that we've had the same thing for SPD, and since we only have it the one time a year, it's always like a treat for us. The kids are always impressed that it's a "real Irish meal," lol. From the 9-year-old's first bite, he was thanking me for making it again and saying it was the best Irish meal he'd ever had. Again, remember that he also thinks that it's the only Irish meal he's had, so take it for what it's worth. We all devoured it, though. The sweetness of the apple juice really makes the whole thing. It even cuts the strong flavor of the cabbage, which is nice, even though I'm normally a big cabbage lover. This is just a nice change of pace and something exciting to look forward to every year. Plus, it's a one-dish meal, which totally rocks too. :)  The only difference I want to make is that it never has enough meat to leave leftovers for lunches.  Next time, I think I'm going to do two small briskets and cut back on the veggies some.

CROCKPOT APPLE AND BROWN SUGAR CORNED BEEF
(luckymommyto2boys ~ Amy ~ Recipezaar)

1 corned beef brisket
1 quart apple juice
1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
8 small red potatoes
2 medium carrots, pared, and cut into chunks
1 onion, peeled, and cut into eighths
1 small head cabbage, cut into chunks

Place all ingredients in a large crock pot (cut meat in half if necessary); stir to mix.
Cook on HIGH for 4 to 5 hours or on LOW for 8 to 10 hours.
Remove meat and vegetables and some of the cooking liquid.
Slice meat thinly across the grain.
Serve with vegetables and some of the liquid.

McMuffin Casserole ****

I've made this so many times over the past year, and it still gets requested regularly.  This past year, it was even requested as our Christmas morning breakfast, which is kind of a big deal for us.  Only the good recipes make it to that point, lol.  It's just so easy and so good.  Hubby normally can't stand English muffins, but even he loves this one.  The recipe below is with my updated amounts.  The original recipe is in the link under the title.  I've kept all of the ingredients as-is, but I like making it in a 9x13.  Plus, all of our English muffin packs come in 6, not 4.  Seems silly not to just use them all.  I can usually squeeze breakfast for all four of us one morning, plus breakfast for just the kids a second morning, out of one pan.  So perfect.  I just use plain semi-thinly-sliced ham in ours, though.  This time around, I used Egg Beaters instead of eggs.  Still just as good!  Now I'm wishing I had the stuff to make this again tomorrow morning. :-)

MCMUFFIN CASSEROLE
(luckymommyto2boys ~ Amy ~ PlainChicken)

6 English muffins, split
9 oz Canadian bacon
1-1/2 cups cheddar cheese
6 eggs
1-3/4 cup milk
salt
pepper

Grease a 9"x13" square baking dish. Cube English muffins and chop Canadian bacon. Add half of the cubed English muffins in a single layer. Top with half of the Canadian bacon and 1/2 cup of the cheese. Layer the remaining English muffins and Canadian bacon and 1/2 cup more cheese.
Whisk together the eggs, milk, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl until combined. Pour the egg mixture evenly over the casserole. Wrap the baking dish with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for at least 1 hour, or up to 1 day.
Bake at 325 degrees 45 to 50 minutes.
Serves 6.
**luckymommy/Amy's notes: I use Egg Beaters and regular sliced deli ham.

Previous reviews:
7/29/14 ~ We loved this!  Hubby had already left for work, so he didn't get to try it yet.  The kids and I thought it was amazing, though.  I'm normally not a huge fan of overnight casseroles that use bread as the base, since it always ends up so soggy.  However, on this one, the English muffins hold together beautifully, and there's none of that mushy, undercooked eggy feeling to it.  It's a breeze to throw together, too.  I will definitely be making this again.

Creamy Slow-Cooker Tortellini Soup ***

This was pretty good.  I dearly love both spinach and tortellini, so it didn't surprise me much that I loved it.  I made a few changes, but none of them were intentional.  I only had 3 cups of spaghetti sauce, but I had some pizza sauce and diced tomatoes I could sub.  Then I had some frozen browned ground turkey to add to it.  I ran out of Parmesan, so I just topped with mozzarella.  I let my tortellini sit in there on high for about 30 minutes, and they still could have stood just a little bit longer.  There's no way they would have been ready after 15 minutes.  I used regular cream cheese, cut into squares, but it still didn't melt completely.  It wasn't noticeable in the taste, though.  All in all, it was pretty yummy.  I'd definitely make it again.

CREAMY SLOW-COOKER TORTELLINI SOUP
(luckymommyto2boys ~ Amy ~ HeatherLikesFood)

6 cups of your favorite homemade meaty spaghetti sauce or 24 oz jar prepared spaghetti sauce + 1/2 lb browned ground beef + 1/2 lb browned Italian sausage
1/2 bag (4.5 oz) fresh spinach leaves
4 C chicken broth
8 oz cream cheese
8 oz sliced fresh mushrooms
16 oz frozen cheese tortellini

Combine spaghetti sauce (and meat if adding it in separately), spinach, cream cheese, chicken broth, and mushrooms in a slow-cooker. Cook on low for 6 hours, on high for 2-3.
20 minutes before serving, turn heat to high if it isn't already an stir in frozen tortellini. Cover and cook for 15 minutes or until tender and hot.
Serve topped with Parmesan cheese.