Crock Pot Lasagna

As I have mentioned before, I have a love-hate relationship with my crock pot, but recently I have been seeing a lot of recipes for crock pot lasagna, and I thought that I should give my own lasagna recipe a try in the dreaded crock pot.  Turns out it was pretty good.  I still prefer the old fashioned lasagna in a pan, but for a day when I cannot be home to put it in the oven, this will do.

A few things I learned...

1. It does not hold together like a regular lasagna...treat it more like a really thick stew.
2. My kids like lasagna better in a bowl.
3. The noodles get quite soft.
4. I had to tweak the recipe a little bit from my old stand by, so if you decide to use your own recipe instead of mine keep that in mind.  One of the things that I decided to do was to leave out the eggs.  The eggs are used to bind your lasagna, so it may have been part of the reason that it did not hold together like a regular lasagna, however I would still not use eggs in this.
5. Normally you would let a lasagna stand for 15 minutes or so before cutting it which helps it to set.  With this lasagna you cannot do that.

Here we go...

Crock Pot Lasagna 

Ingredients:
1 pound of ground beef, cooked and drained
1 box Barilla no cook lasagna noodles (you will not use the whole box)
5 cups of your favorite tomato sauce (homemade or store bought)
4 cups of shredded mozzarella
1 Tablespoon of dried basil, or 2 Tablespoons of fresh basil
8 ounces sour cream
8 ounces cottage cheese

Directions:
Mix the basil, sour cream, and cottage cheese together in a bowl and set aside.

Pour one cup of tomato sauce on the bottom of your crock pot.  Place a layer of lasagna noodles on top of the sauce.  You will need to break the noodles in half to make them manageable to serve.  I found that I broke a few of them into more pieces to make each layer complete.  Work it like a puzzle.

Spoon 1/3 of the sour cream mixture on top of the noodles and spread it around as best you can.

Sprinkle 1/3 of the meat mixture on top of the lasagna.  Top with 1 cup of sauce and 1 cup of mozzarella cheese.

Repeat...

Noodles
1/3 Sour cream mixture
1/3 meat
1 cup sauce
1 cup mozzarella

Repeat again...

Noodles
1/3 Sour cream mixture
1/3 meat
1 cup sauce
1 cup mozzarella

Then for the last layer...

Noodles
1 cup sauce
1 cup mozzarella

Cook on low for 4 hours.

Crock Pot Chicken

The crock pot is not my friend.  People are always raving about these awesome crock pot meals that they make and I can never seem to make it work when I try them.  Often I find things get bland, or that everything made in my crock pot tastes the same.

I dislike my crock pot so much that I was actually excited when my old one broke during our move...like so excited that I didn't even file a claim about it with the moving company.

But...

There always comes the point where I want to make pulled pork, which actually tastes really good from the crock pot, and that point came last Fall during football season.  So...I went to the store and bought a new crock pot and recommitted myself to a cycle of trying meals I did not like.

But an amazing thing happened.  I have actually found several meals in the last 11 months that are turning out well in my crock pot!  I have discovered that I can make chicken and brisket and soup and other things that I never seemed to like that way before.

Maybe my old crock pot was just cursed ;)

This chicken that I started making in the crock pot is actually good for two meals.  I like to eat one on a Monday and one on a Wednesday...on the night in-between we eat something that is not Mexican food.  (Cook once, eat twice is one of my favorite rules).


Night #1--Chicken Tacos

Ingredients:
4 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 jar of your favorite salsa
2 Tablespoons of Taco Seasoning (I like Penzeys)
Flour or Corn Tortillas
Shredded Cheddar or Jack Cheese
2-3 Chopped Scallions
Sour Cream

Directions:
Place the chicken in the crock pot.  Pour the jar of salsa on top of it.  Sprinkle the Taco Seasoning all over.  Cook on low for 4-5 hours or until the chicken is thoroughly cooked.

Remove the chicken from the crock pot and shred only the amount that you need for the tacos.  Put the rest aside to cool and then refrigerate for dinner tomorrow night.

Heat the tortillas in the oven or the microwave.  If you heat them in the oven then wrap them in aluminum foil and put into a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes.  If you want to heat them in the microwave put them in a stack on a microwave safe plate and cover them with a wet paper towel.  Heat for 20-30 seconds.

Fill the tortillas with the chicken, cheese, scallions, and sour cream and eat!

Night #2--Chicken Casserole

Ingredients:
Leftover chicken from the recipe above, shredded (at least one cup is needed, but you can have up to five cups and the recipe is still great).
1 box of Spanish Rice, prepared according to their instructions (if you are supposed to add a can of tomatoes, like with Zatarain's which is my favorite, do that)
1 cup of salsa
10 ounces of frozen corn
6 ounces of cheddar cheese, cubed

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all of the ingredients together in a large bowl, then pour into a greased 9x13 casserole dish.  Cover with aluminum foil and bake 30-40 minutes until it is heated through.  Makes 8-10 servings.