Crockpot Lasagna
1 pkg. uncooked lasagna noodles
1 lb. ground beef, sausage, turkey or veggie crumbles (and/or sliced veggies, spinach, etc.)
1 Tablespoon Italian Seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic powder (if you use fresh garlic, then include 1-2 cloves minced, into the pan when you’re browning the ground beef or turkey, then also add some to the sauce)
28 oz jar spaghetti sauce (or homemade!)
1/4 cup water or broth
1/4 cup canned or fresh sliced mushrooms (optional)
15 oz. ricotta cheese (or 2% cottage cheese)
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Cream cheese, softened (optional, 3-4 oz)
To make this vegetarian: use cut veggies in place of the meats, such as zucchini and/or yellow crookneck squash, eggplant. If you use veggies, be sure they are uniformly cut into slices or diced first. If you use spinach, frozen works well. If you prefer fresh spinach, then it's helpful to blanch it first. Also, it's nice to see the colorful veggies, so although I mix any meats in with the sauce, if I use veggies I layer them, but do not mix them in with the sauce. It’s also delicious to add some chopped or diced onions to the mix.
For the basic recipe, first brown the meat, drain. Then you want to have the meat, seasonings, sauce, water, and any veggies all mixed together, in preparation for layering. Set aside in a bowl or pan.
Mix the cheeses together, in preparation for layering, then set aside in a bowl.
Ladle just a little bit of the meat-veggie-sauce mixture into the bottom of the crockpot. Then break the noodles into manageable sizes and place half of them on that first little foundation of sauce in the crockpot. Then layer half of the rest of the sauce, half of the cheeses, then repeat with rest of broken lasagna noodles, sauce, cheeses. Save a little sauce for the top of the pot.
Put the lid on and cook on LOW for 5 hours. ENJOY! It's great and healthy to have something green to eat on the side, perhaps a healthy big salad.
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