31 Days to Surviving Sports Seasons Sanely: The Crockpot Is Your Friend, Part 2
I am very blessed that my extended family lives close and gathers on Sundays for dinner most weeks. My mom feeds as many of the 19 of us who show up and we enjoy the afternoon together. My children and their cousins are very close, and I’m relatively close to my siblings and their spouses because of this practice.
I also don’t have to plan, cook, or otherwise deal with a big meal on Sunday. I am very grateful.
This fall I’ve had to rely on my crockpot for more Sundays too. But, if I believe that Sunday is a day of rest and I want to enjoy that same restfulness in the morning before worship, I’ve learned to actually load the crockpot on Saturday night and refrigerate overnight. All I have to do is drop it in the machine and turn it on.
I do try for nicer meals on Sunday, it is a celebratory feast day, after all. We also worship with a congregation that is 30 minutes away. That means, it’s often as late as 1:30 before we get home.
Crockpot lasagna is easy and tasty. You can make your own lasagna recipe and simply use oven ready noodles (or, even better, fresh pasta if you can find it!) You have to break the noodles to fit your crockpot and sometimes they’re not perfect.
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| Crockpot lasagna is also a hit for carry-in dinners at church. |
It is lovely to come home to dinner and maybe a loaf of bread in the bread machine (another fine convenience). I can also have a salad prepped and ready to serve in the fridge. And dessert, for Sunday. (A favorite make ahead dessert of mine is Barefoot Contessa’s Panna Cotta).