Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Crock pot Lasagna



WELCOME NEW FOLLOWER...ANDREA!
Only 1 more follower and I will random.org a winner for the basket of my favourite things. (I have a few more things I will add the beginning of next week.)
I have wanted to try lasagna in my crock pot for awhile but 2 things have held me back.
all the recipes I found called for some type of a pre-cooked noodle, and I can't find a healthy noodle. Finally I just decided to try my fast and easy, family size recipe.

Easy Crock Pot Family Lasagna
mine

8-12 uncooked regular lasagna noodle (I think I used 12, but I still had 8 left in my 16 noodle package?)
about 1 1/2 lbs. ricotta cheese
about 1 1/2 lb. grated mozzarella cheese
3 cans (about 26 oz.each-I use Hunt's 4 cheese -see note)
1 cup water

opt.
cooked and drained ground beef or sausage
frozen spinach-defrosted and all liquid sqeezed out
pepperoni...

This recipe makes a large (oval) pot of lasagna, but the left-overs are great. I start by turning my crock pot to high as I assemble. Spray your crock pot and pour about 3/4 of a can of spaghetti over the bottom. Then lay down 3 noodles. (I broke the corners off on the side ones.)
Spread 1/3 of ricotta cheese (I was going to stir the drained spinach into the ricotta-but I forgot.), then sprinkle about 1/4 of mozzarella cheese and pour on aboy 3/4 of a can of sauce.
Top with the rest of the sauce and then the rest of the cheese. (I sprinkled the cooked ground beef on 1/2 at this point. Hilary won't eat ground beef.) Then I poured 1 cup of water around the edges of the pot (for the noodles to absorb). Last of all, I stuck a couple of broken noodles near the out er edge. (These were so I could test it :^)
Lower the heat to low and cook for 3-4 hours. (I usually top my lasagna with pepperoni that I have microwaved between paper towels for about 30-45 seconds.) This was really good lasagna. Maybe my best using a canned sauce. Everything was cooked just right. The cheese was stringy. The noodles were perfect. (Use your "testers" to check for gumminess. For mine, that meant not done.) This was a hit.
note-We like Hunts 4 cheese sauce. It is not too sweet and the flavour is a good blend. (No pepper taste, etc.) Also, it goes on sale and is priced great for food storage (I paid $.69 for the ones I have now.). It is low in fat. The biggest reason is that many many years ago when we used a glass bottled pasta sauce, a child went to bring a jar up, and it fell and broke. It was terrible to clean, so I use cans.
In 2 1/2 days Mark and Ashley will be married. WHOO HOO!
(Spell check did not find any misspelled words. I hope you don't.)

3 comments:

Emily said...

I think it was the best lasagna I have ever had!

Unknown said...

The adding pics are easy. I am going to tell you how to do it. Ready: Log onto your account and go to a new post. At the toolbar (font, color, etc.) there will be a photo button (third from the end, hover over it and it should say add image). Click on it.a new screen will the pop up and click on browse. A new windown will pop up and you then add your photos (if it on the desktop on your computer, click desktop on the side then the photo).
Hope this makes sense. If it does not, just call my moms house and I'll walk you thru it. You have a great blog, you need to learn how to add your own photos, too. :)
Lasagna sounds good. Can't wait to see your photos.

Anonymous said...

how exciting for mark and ashley! there invitation on my parents fridge is so so cute! congrats!

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