Slow-Cooker Lasagna

This was pretty good. I found the recipe in a cooking magazine (I can't remember which one or I'd give them credit!! I just pulled the page out and saved it!) and thought we'd try it out tonight since I had to go to Huron today for a baby shower.

Sorry, no pictures this time. (It burnt a bit around the edges and wasn't very photogenic!)

Here's the recipe... with some thoughts at the end on how to make it even better next time!

*******************************************

Slow-Cooker Sausage Lasagna

Serves 8
Prep Time: 25 Minutes
Total Time: 25 min + Slow Cooking

This meat sauce starts quickly on the stove, buy hours in the slow cooker add depth.

1 lb Italian pork sausage, casings removed
1 lb ground beef sirloin
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 medium carrots, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes in puree
9 lasagna noodles
2 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese (8 oz)
1) In a 5-quart Dutch oven or heavy pot, cook sausage and beef over medium-high, breaking up meat with a spoon, until no longer pink, 4 to 6 minutes. Add onion, carrots, and garlic; season with salt and pepper. Cook until onion has softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in tomato paste, then tomatoes; bring to a boil, and remove from heat.

2) Spoon 2 cups meat mixture into bottom of a 5- to 6-quart slow cooker. Layer 3 noodles (breaking them as needed to fit), 2 cups meat mixture, and ½ cup cheese; repeat with two more layers (refrigerate ½ cup cheese for topping).

3) Cover slow cooker, and cook on low, 4 to 6 hours. Sprinkle lasagna with ½ cup cheese. Cover until cheese has melted, about 10 minutes.
Per Serving: 376 cal

*****************************************
October 4, 2009: We omitted the carrots and used ½ Italian/½ Zesty Hot Sausage.
Changes we’d make for next time:
Less meat in each layer.
Add mushrooms.
Add ricotta? Or more cheese between layers.
Thinner layers, more noodles.
Cook on LOW – 8 hours?
Stick with just Italian sausage.

I cooked...

for myself last night.

Westin's on this "eat a big lunch and have cereal or something else small for dinner" kick lately.

It's driving me nuts because I've always been a small lunch eater and a HUGE dinner eater.

So last night I made my favorite meal from Kraft Foods and split it up into 5 serving bowls and put it in the fridge.

(Picture from KraftFoods.com)
So now I have lunches for the next few days and can eat a small, healthy dinner with him.

If you want the recipe, it's Italian Chicken-Pasta Skillet.

SO EASY and SO YUMMY!

****************************************************************************

On another (food) related note...

We had to buy (another) new microwave yesterday.

Apparently the one we bought a tad over a year ago was CRAP because it shorted out and kept tripping the breaker.

So here's the new kitchen addition:

...along with the Best Buy 4 YEAR microwave warranty!

(Kinda) Wordless Wednesday...

Have you noticed I'm not so good with the "Wordless" part?!

We learned how to make clowns in cake decorating class today.

Only my frosting is apparently (STILL) too soft...

so by the time I got home I had murdered melted clowns!

Frosting Friday??

Taking this one home tomorrow!

Wordless Wednesday!

The Email That Started it All...

This is an email I wrote a few weeks before I started blogging... Enjoy!

This is a moment for which I wish that I blogged. Too bad these moments are so few and far between!

Pizza Casserole. (Recipe follows at bottom.)

So on my way home from school today I told Westin that I was stopping at Target to pick up a couple of things first. Since he has class until 6:30 on Wednesday’s he asked if I would find something for dinner while there. No problem!

The idea of something out of the Target freezer section didn’t appeal to me tonight though... so I started thinking. Monday night my friend Jeanna (like Gina, only spelled uniquely!) asked for dinner suggestions via Facebook status and a friend of hers suggested Pizza Casserole. I thought it sounded delicious at the time and filed it away in my “ooh, remember that one” file in my head. (Yes, there is such a place… it just doesn’t always work very well!)

So I then had a plan... but was in the Target parking lot already and wasn’t going home to get the recipe. Thank heavens for cell phones and text messages! I texted Jeanna and she sent me the ingredients! So after Target I ran to the Big Bird (Giant Eagle... although I keep wanting to call it Fry’s, which was my store in AZ) and picked up the goods and came home.

First, I browned the meat... yum!!

(Bob Evans Italian Sausage, by the way.)

While I did that the noodles cooked. (My picture of this wasn’t pleasant looking... so I deleted right away – sorry!).

When all the pre-cooking was done, it was time to mix it all together. This is where the fun comes in. I’m new to the “having my own kitchen” thing and still collecting pieces to use. So I put the stuff in 1 bowl...

(picture pre-veggies) and soon realized I was going to run out of room...

enter bowl #2...

(again pre-veggies)...

and again, not enough room...

bowl #3!

Finally it was split up enough to be able to add my veggies

and actually STIR!

Once all stirred, I dished it up in my 9x13 pan as called for...

and quickly ran out of room!

So my 8x8 pan got pulled out of reserves and put on active duty.

Now it’s cookin’! Looks so yummy, I can’t wait to try it!

Ok, ok... recipe time!

Pizza Casserole

1lb ground beef - browned (I used the Bob Evans sausage listed above instead… sausage just sounds better on pizza!)

1 onion – chopped (I only used ½ of the onion b/c I wasn’t sure if Westin would want as much in it as I would.)

1 bag shredded mozzarella cheese

1 bag pepperoni (I didn’t use the whole bag, only b/c Westin’s the only one who eats it! Although he did later request more next time.)

2-16 oz. jars of pizza sauce (My choice – Mid’s. I was afraid this would be way too much in the beginning... but once mixing I almost wanted part of a 3^rd jar. The only other pizza sauce we had was Ragu and I wasn’t about to ruin my Mid’s with that!!)

1 box macaroni (elbow) pasta – cooked and drained

Any other pizza toppings of your choice – I only added fresh mushrooms, but green pepper sounds good too!

Once noodles and meat are cooked, mix all ingredients together. (Use a frickin’ huge bowl… or 3 regular sized ones!!) Put into 9x13 (and 8x8 if necessary!) dish and bake for 35 minutes or so. (I did it at 350* b/c Jeanna’s friend didn’t say how hot and that sounded good to me since it’s pretty much just heating everything up and cooking the veggies.)

Rumor is it’s delicious! Waiting for it to get out of the oven and Westin to get home now so I can try it!

And to let you know... it WAS delicious! And we ate it for a week straight! Next time I'd probably cut the recipe in 1/2 if it's just for the 2 of us! Mom made it a few weeks later. She and dad enjoyed the small pan and she took the bigger pan to work for a potluck. It was well received there as well! Oh, and mom got me a HUGE (8 qt??) mixing bowl for my birthday, so hopefully I'll be able to mix it all in one bowl next time!