Slow Cooker Lasagna
This is one of our favorite recipes that I blogged about last year...
I'm in love with my slow cooker. So much in fact that my honey bought me a new fancy one for Christmas to go along with old faithful. Since I'm a nurse who works 12 hour shifts and has a young family, I love my slower cooker even more! Tonight I tried lasagna. I have always been a little nervous about cooking noodles and other "oven" type meals in my cooker. My thought was that the noodles would get over cooked and soggy. Not true. I was so impressed! With a little more prep than my average Crock Pot meal, it turned out to be a winner with everyone in my family of 5.
What you'll need:
1 lb of ground meat cooked- we used buffalo
1/2 onion, diced to hide
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
handful of frozen mixed veggies- to make me think we are healthy!
2 cans of your favorite pasta sauce- we used canned Hunt's
garlic, basil, house blend- to season to your families taste
1 1/2 C of Ricotta cheese, give or take
1 1/2 C cottage cheese
3 handfuls of shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 can of water- mix in with sauce
1 box non cook lasagna noodles
1. Cook your meat. I added the garlic, onion and spices. Since we used Buffalo meat there was no need to drain fat, but do so if needed.
2. Add pasta sauce and all other veggies.
3. Simmer for a few minutes while you spray your slow cooker with non stick spray.
4. While sauce is still simmering, mix all cheese ingredients in a different bowl. This all should take less than 10-15 minutes. I already had cooked the meat and it was actually a left over.
5. Spread some of the sauce in the bottom of the slow cooker. Then a layer of your uncooked non bake noodles. Then I did- sauce again, cheese mixture, noodles, sauce, cheese, noodles... until I ran out of noodles and other stuff.
6. Top last layer with sauce and a few handfuls of mozzarella cheese.
7. Bake on low for 3-5 hours or until noodles are soft. You can add more or less to this recipe- that's the fun.
YUM!
