The first time I saw this recipe, I was intrigued. It didn’t seem possible to make lasagna in a slow-cooker. It couldn’t be that easy. Well, it is. But I needed to Jennie-ize the recipe to get it to work for the Empty Nest. And then we had friends over to help us eat it so there wouldn’t be much left over. A win-win on all counts.
I originally found this recipe at The Charm of Home and revised it by adding eggs and more veggies.
Ingredients
- 1-28 ounce jar spaghetti sauce
- 9 whole wheat lasagna noodles -- uncooked.
- 1 pound of cooked and crumbled lean ground beef -- optional (for a veggie version, try soy crumbles)
- 1-15 ounce low-fat cottage cheese
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp Italian herbs of your choosing -- basil, oregano, bay leaf -- or be creative
- 2 cups fresh baby spinach and baby kale leaves
- 1 cup fresh mushrooms, sauteed and drained (optional)
- 3 cups mozzarella cheese (shredded)
Instructions
In cooking and assembling the ingredients, you are making five layers -- sauce, noodles, meat (optional), soft cheese mixture, veggies, and mozzarella.
On the bottom of the slow cooker, put a thin layer of sauce to start building the lasagna. I buy jarred organic spaghetti sauce with onions, garlic, and peppers already in it. Create your own if you want to make your own sauce.
Layer three uncooked lasagna noodles on top of the sauce. My rectangular slow cooker fits three almost exactly, and you have to break them in half in my round cooker.
Add a layer of meat if you are using it.
Add a layer of the cottage cheese/egg/herbs mixture. Mix the eggs and herbs in with the cottage cheese to help hold together the custard.
Add a layer of leafy veggies and a layer of mushrooms.
Add a layer of mozzarella cheese.
Continue layering -- how many layers you have depends on the size of your slow cooker. Mine only takes two layers. Sauce, noodles, meat, cottage cheese, veggies, mozzarella cheese. I finish with one more layer of mozzarella on top of the final noodle layer.
Cover and cook on high setting for one hour; reduce heat and cook on low setting for five hours. I put the cover sideways for the last couple of hours to reduce condensation. Turn off the heat and take the container out of the slow cooker to let it sit for about half an hour before serving.
Serves 6-8
https://gotmyreservations.com/2013/05/02/slow-cooker-lasagna/You may have noticed that there’s a little cross-pollination going on among my blogs. At The Seasoned Dish, I focus on tablescapes and how I set my table for meals. I much prefer the Zip-List format for recipes, so I’m doing some of my cooking posts here — at least for a while. Here’s the rest of the meal I served for friends last week, and here’s the link to the tablescape post at The Seasoned Dish if you’d like to see the dishes.
We started with champagne.
I made a simple salad with baby kale and baby spinach, and dressed it with a ginger balsamic vinaigrette.
There’s that yummy lasagna again!
Fruit and sweets for dessert — a light balance to the heavy lasagna.
The best friends are those that come bearing chocolate.
Feel free to repost — but be sure to give me appropriate credit as well as the original poster of this recipe. It’s all about being polite and ethical, friends.
