two ways to tango

You asked, you got it: recipe for Crock Pot Lasagna. Two different ways!


I actually stole the basic recipe from a different blog that i can't seem to find right now. If I do find it, I'll give it some credit. It's somewhere in the backlogs of my GoogleReader.


Also, I'm not exactly sure how big our crock pot is. 2-quart? It's pretty small, so you might need to double the amounts if you have a real-sized crock pot.


Squash Crock Pot Lasagna


You need:

• whole wheat uncooked lasagna noodles (I think I wound up using about 1/4 of the box?)
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 1 jar red alfredo sauce (ooh, so fancy, huh?)
• 1 medium yellow squash, cut into rounds
• 1 1/2 cups raw spinach
• 1lb cooked ground beef (or other ground meat of your choosing)
• however much shredded cheese you want (I think we used either cheddar or colby jack.)

How to make:

1. Spread tomato sauce on the bottom of the crockpot (I think this is to keep the noodles from burning onto the bottom. You can also grease the pot, but I think most of them are non-stick these days, anyhow.)
2. Put down lasagna noodles, meat, squash, spinach and alfredo sauce in even (or uneven, I don't really think it matters) layers until you have used up all your ingredients. Make sure to end with cheese!
3. Put crock pot on high for about 4 hours. (I tend to start this at lunch and eat it at dinner. I love cooking in the crock pot, because you can turn it off and the meal will stay hot, even if you go to the gym for two hours!)
4. Serve and enjoy.

Eggplant Crock Pot Lasagna

You need:

• whole wheat uncooked lasagna noodles (surprise! betcha didn't see that one coming)
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce (can you predict the next ingredient?)
• 1 jar regular alfredo sauce (hah! fooled you!)
• 16oz cottage cheese (of your curd and % milkfat choosing)
• 1lb cooked ground beef (etc, etc.)
• 1 medium eggplant, cut into rounds
• 1 1/2 cups chopped mushrooms
• however much shredded cheese you want!

What you do:

1. Spread tomato sauce on the bottom of the crock pot.
2. Put down layers of lasagna noodles, meat, eggplant, cottage cheese and alfredo sauce (I kind mixed these two together,) mushrooms and shredded cheese until you use up everything! Finish with cheese (cause it gets an awesome baked cheesy crust, of course.)
3. Put crock pot on high for 4ish hours. (Then come home, turn it off and force yourself to go to the gym while smells of cheesy deliciousness waft from the kitchen. Cry about it a little, it's ok.)
4. Serve ad enjoy.

That's it! Super easy, super delicious. Not terribly healthy, but it does have whole wheat noodles and vegetables, see?

(as a side note: I did find that the regular alfredo sauce plus cottage cheese plus shredded cheese made the second recipe more salty than the first. In case you care about that sort of thing!)