Slow-Cooker Lasagna

I was just looking at the sidebar there and realized that September has been a very prolific month for cooking/baking. And there's still over a week left to go! Guess it's because it's fall and I always like to cook more in the fall, I think. Anyway this is tonight's supper. It's from the Kraft Food & Family Fall (2009) magazine that I get free in the mail, you can go to the link at the right sidebar to get to their website and get your own issues of this, it comes once a season. This one had quite a few coupons in it, for Kraft products of course, but that was very exciting for me because I like coupons! Last week my sister and I had a race to the kitchen at my mom's house to see who could get the coupons first (neither one of us gets the paper and we have an unspoken rivalry about who will get mom's coupons. It's never mom). Jessica threatened to kick me in my bad leg so she would beat me to them. I started out ahead of her, then, predictably, she passed me. As we got into the kitchen, she reached for them, grabbed her laptop with one hand, and went for the coupons with the other hand (the coupons were under the laptop. Yes, she had put them there out of my sight). As she did this, she went up on one leg, so her balance was off. I pushed her so she would lose her balance and use her other hand to save the laptop instead of grab the coupons. It worked. You would have done the same, I bet, for $0.55 off two boxes of cereal. She was fine and I won. She was all miffed that I pushed her, but she is the one who opened that can by threatening to kick me in my bad leg. Anyway here's the recipe. It's a crock-pot one, plus it's lasagna, so I knew it would be a hit with the fam. Will this be like Hamburger Helper lasagna?? Well, let's see.

Slow-Cooker Lasagna
1 lb ground beef
1 jar (26 oz) spaghetti sauce
1 cup water
1 container (15 oz) ricotta cheese
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese, divided
1 egg
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
6 lasagna noodles, uncooked


Brown meat in lg skillet; drain. Stir in spaghetti sauce and water. Mix ricotta, 1 1/2 cups mozzarella, 2 tbsp parmesan, egg, and parsley. Spoon 1 cup of meat sauce into slow cooker; top with layers of half each of the noodles, broken to fit, and cheese mixture. Cover with 2 cups of the remaining sauce. Top with remaining noodles, broken to fit, cheese mixture and meat sauce. Cover with lid. Cook on low 4 to 6 hours or until liquid is absorbed. Sprinkle with remaining cheeses; let stand, covered, 10 minutes, or until melted. (Then it says for best results do not cook on high setting).

So this was actually quite good. Once it was on the plates you couldn't even tell that it had been in a crock pot. I thought it was a bit too cheesy but nobody else thought that. Nathan did not eat it. He had chicken nuggets. But the rest of us ate it and liked it. There were two big servings left over for Steve's lunches. So I think this one will be a keeper. It was easy. Whenenver I don't cook the lasagna noodles I can always tell, and this time was no different. They're a bit chewier or something. But still, a good easy supper. We had it with garlic bread.