#51 New Recipes: Slow Cooker Lasagna

I have achieved success with my slow cooker! After my Crockpot Roast Fail I was a little hesitant to try out the slow cooker again, but my new diet helped spur me to give a new recipe a try! I've decided not to take frozen lunches to work anymore, because they aren't very healthy, especially when it comes to salt intake. The last time I went to the doctor she warned me that my blood pressure was a little high, something I've never had a problem with before... but I've been eating frozen lunches every day for almost two years now. That's really the biggest change since the last time I've been to the doctor, so I decided no more frozen lunches! Even if it has absolutely nothing to do with my blood pressure, it's still a good idea.

So instead, on Sundays, I've decided to make things that I can easily pack up into separate containers and take to work during the week to eat. This slow cooker lasagna seemed like a good idea! There's not a whole lot of prep work involved and then I can just toss it in the slow cooker and make my Sunday dinner!

Ingredients:
1 lb lean ground beef (I substituted chicken - even leaner! =)
1 jar spaghetti sauce (the recipe didn't say how big, I used a small jar of Traditional Ragu)
1 cup water
1 15 oz. container of ricotta cheese
2 cups Italian Cheese mix
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 egg
2 tabsp parsley
6 lasagna noodles, uncooked
2 tbsp garlic powder (I added this myself, originally the recipe only called for Parsley... but what kind of Italian dish doesn't have garlic in it?! You can also add other seasonings if you like.)


1. Brown meat in large skillet; drain. Stir in spaghetti sauce and water.

2. Mix ricotta, 1 1/2 cups Italian cheese, 2 tbsp parmesan, egg, parsley and garlic.

3. Spoon 1 cup meat sauce into slow cooker; top with layers of half each of the noodles, broken to fit, and cheese mixture. Cover with 2 cups meat sauce. Top with remaining noodles, broken to fit;

 cheese mixture and meat sauce. Cover with lid.

Now, I used more than 6 noodles total. I basically just made sure that I had a complete noodle layer in between the meat and cheese... because I love pasta. But if you wanted to keep this a little lower carb you can stick to just 3 noodles per layer.

3. Cook on low, 4-6 hours or until liquid is absorbed. Sprinkle with remaining cheese; let stand, covered, 10 min or until melted.

The lasagna smelled soooooooo good that I scooped some of it out before I remembered to take a picture. It was moist, flavorful and just all around delicious. This is definitely one of my new go-to recipes, and it'll work well with any kind of ground meat. Chef Hubby is a big fan too! This would be a really easy thing to make for a party or small gathering of people. I don't have a very big crock pot, but there's a surprising amount of lasagna in there!