Crock-Pot Lasagna

Do you use your crock-pot often?  I sure do!  It's so handy to be able to make a meal and forget about it while I'm at work.  I enjoy coming home to a delicious smelling house and a ready meal. 

Mike recently requested lasagna, but it can be a time consuming meal to prepare.  I certainly don't have time to make it and bake it after work...unless we want to eat at 8 at night!  We don't, of course, because that's practically bed-time for us! 

One day I got to thinking about using the crock-pot for lasagna.  I didn't see any reason why it wouldn't work, so I thought I would give it a try.  I figured the worst that would happen is it would be over or under cooked and we'd have to order a pizza instead.  I know Mike certainly wouldn't complain about that!  I was thrilled to find out that you can indeed make a lasagna in the crock-pot.  As you can see, it's not quite as pretty as a lasagna in a baking dish can be, but it still tasted delicious.  The edges of my pasta that weren't covered in sauce got a little crispy, but I just cut that off before serving.  That can easily be rectified by adding more sauce.  All in all, this was an easy way to make lasagna without the wait!

Crock-pot Lasagna

Makes 6-8 servings

1 pound ground beef, browned and seasoned

1 jar pasta sauce (I used Newman's Own Tomato & Basil Bombilina)

1-1/2 cups water, divided

9 lasagna noodles (you may need more or less depending on the size of your crock-pot)

1 cup cottage cheese

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1.  In a medium bowl, combine the ground beef, pasta sauce, and 1 cup water.

2.  Spread 1/4 of the sauce mixture onto the bottom of the crock-pot.

3.  Top the sauce layer with 1/3 cup cottage cheese and 1/3 cup mozzarella.

4.  Place 3 lasagna noodles on top of the cheeses.  You may need to break the noodles to fit your crock-pot.

5.  Repeat sauce layer, cheese layer, and noodles 2 more times.

6.  Spread the top layer of noodles with remaining sauce mixture.

7.  Pour 1/2 cup water around the edges of the crock-pot.

8.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours.  Mine was on for about 6 hours and then dropped down to the "warm" setting for another 2 hours before I got home from work.  The noodles were tender and the lasagna was heated through.

Source:  My original recipe