Day 208 (10/6): Crockpot Lasagne

I have to be better prepared and organized now that Colton is playing sports.  I've been trying out recipes especially crockpot ones where I can set it and forget it.  I've also been trying to walk while he is at practice so I can't go back home and have supper ready for him when he gets home so crockpot and oven baked casseroles will be on the menus probably 2-3 nights a week.

I was a little leary about crockpot lasagne but I was willing to give it a try. I had some french bread and salad ready when we got home and it was a complete meal.There are a few modifications for next time but overall it turned out pretty good and it was easy.  One modification is to remember to plug in the crockpot.  I turned it on but forgot to plug it in and had to cook it on high for 30 minutes for the hour that I noticed it was not plugged in.

Crockpot Lasagne

Ingredients:
1 box of oven ready lasagna noodles
jar of spaghetti sauce
2 cups ricotta cheese or cottage cheese (whatever you prefer)
2 cups mozzarella cheese
1 lb ground beef, browned and drained
1/4 c. water
1 crockpot bag
veggies such as mushrooms or black olives (unless you have picky eaters like I do!)

Directions:

1. Place the crockpot liner in the crockpot.  This is important for two reasons - seems to keep the mixture from burning on the bottom and makes it very easy to clean afterwards!
2. Combine the cooked ground beef, spaghetti sauce and water.  Mix thoroughly.  You can add the veggies to your meat mixture or layer them when you create your layers.
3. Mix your ricotta/cottage cheese and mozzarella cheese.
4. Place enough sauce mixture in the bottom of the crockpot to cover the base.
5. Lay your noodles over the layer of sauce.  You can break up the noodles so they fit better.  Feel free to overlap them too.
6. Spoon your cheese mixture on top of the noodles and then another layer of noodles.
7. Pour some meat mixture over your noodle layer.
8. Repeat layers making sure you end on a sauce layer. 
9. Cook on low for 4 hours. 

Modifications that I would make next time:  Don't buy cheap sauce.  If you do make sure you season it.  I used a store brand for $0.99 and it tasted pretty plain.  I'm not sure if it is because I added the water to it to soak into the noodles and essentially cook them.  I imagine if you made a runnier spaghetti sauce of your own it would taste fantastic!