Crock Pot Lasagna

There is just nothing nicer than coming home after church to lunch/dinner (linner?) waiting for you in the crock pot. I seriously think we do not give the crock pot the applause it deserves. If you ask me, the crock pot deserves its own national day of remembrance. And probably a line of Hallmark cards. Something.

Here’s what we came home to this afternoon:

Crock Pot Lasagna

(Note: If you have a stash of homemade spaghetti sauce, use that … otherwise, use jarred spaghetti sauce and just don’t say a word.)

• 1 lb sausage or hamburger
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 tsp Italian seasoning
• 30-32 oz spaghetti sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 15 oz container of ricotta cheese
• about 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• garlic powder
• about 6 cups mozarella

Brown sausage or hamburger till most of the pink is gone. Add garlic and Italian seasoning and cook till meat is brown. Drain. Add spaghetti sauce and 1/2 cup water and cook on low for 15 minutes.

In a small bowl, mix ricotta cheese, eggs, garlic powder, and Parmesan cheese.

In crock pot, begin making layers. Layer one:

1. Add a generous scoop of spaghetti sauce/meat mixture, about 1/4 of the total
2. Cover with 5 lasagna noodles, breaking to fit crock pot. It’s okay if you have noodles upon noodles–use all five and fit the best you can
3. Scoop out dollops of the ricotta mixture (1/3 of mix). Resist the urge to spread it out evenly … it’s okay to leave it in dollops
4. Cover with about 1/3 of the mozzarella

Layer two: 1/4 sauce, 6 lasagna noodles, ricotta, mozzarella

Layer three: 1/4 sauce, ricotta

Layer four: 5 noodles, remaining sauce, remaining mozzarella.

Pour about 1/2 a cup of water carefully around the edges of the crock pot. Cover and bake on low for 4 hours. Can be kept on warm for another hour if need be. Serve with buttery garlic bread.

And yes, you read that right. You are really and truly putting UNcooked lasagna noodles in there. You’re welcome.

Here’s one more picture, and before you say anything, I know. It’s not the best picture you’ve ever seen. In a perfect world, I would have included a piece of the garlic bread I made to go with this … and maybe a nice sprig of parsley, arranged just-so. But in the real world, I was too hungry to do anything but scoop, snap, and eat. I think you should just be glad I didn’t simply scoop and eat.

Well, here’s a nice surprise. Someone tried the recipe and posted a YouTube video of the results: