Crockpot Lasagna

After being nervous all day about the lasagna drying out in my crockpot, I must say that I was beyond scared when I opened up the crockpot and saw this:



Even though I added a ton of extra sauce, it totally curled up and burned on the edges.

But really? It wasn't bad at all! I STILL had to add even MORE sauce when serving it (I probably used close to 3 times the amount in the original recipe), but only the top layer was a bit crispy. Everything else? Yummy.

I got this from Kelly, but hers looks MUCH better. I bet mine would have been nicer (and less dry) if I hadn't had to leave it on the "warm" setting for as long as I did.

I certainly wouldn't use this as my default lasagna or anything, and it did take a little more prep work than I would have liked, but not too shabby.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1/2 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 8 oz package of no-bake lasagna noodles
• 1 jar of spaghetti sauce (I ended up using about 4 cups of homemade marinara, PLUS a little less than a full jar of sauce)
• 1/3 cup of milk
• 15 oz of ricotta cheese
• 1 egg
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella
  

1. Using a little olive oil, add onion and garlic to a saute pan. Then add beef. Over medium heat, cook until completely browned. Add sauce to meat and simmer for a few minutes.

2. Mix milk with ricotta cheese, add egg and mix completely. Add shredded cheeses and mix well.

3. Using cooking spray or crisco, cover sides and bottom of crockpot.

4. Pour 1/4 of meat mixture into crockpot, then a layer of noodles (you will probably need to break them in order to fit), followed by a layer of the 1/3 cheese mixture. Repeat 3 times. Then top with remaining meat mixture. Make sure all noodles around the edges are covered with sauce

5. Cook on low for 4-5 hours.