Crock Pot Lasagna Week #1

Ingredients:
1 pound sweet Italian sausage
1/2 cup minced onion
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 (6.5 ounce) can canned tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil leaves
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
12 lasagna noodles
16 ounces ricotta cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
1. In a large saucepan, cook sausage, onion, and garlic over medium heat until well browned. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Season with sugar, basil, Italian seasoning, 1 tablespoon salt, and pepper. Simmer, covered, for about 1/2 hour, stirring occasionally.

2. In a mixing bowl, combine cheeses, leaving enough mozzarella to put on top.

3. To assemble, spread 1 1/2 cups of meat sauce in the bottom of crock pot dish. Arrange uncooked noodles lengthwise over meat sauce. I just broke my noodles to have them fit all over. Don't be afraid to overlap the noodles. Spread with one half of the cheese mixture. Spoon 1 1/2 cups meat sauce over cheese mixture. Repeat layers, and top with extra mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Cook on low for 4 hours, or until noodles are tender. Enjoy!

My Review:
First, I'd like to say that I LOVE using the crock pot liners. I decided to try them out due to the fact that we don't have a dishwasher and my husband does the dishes a lot. I figured, if I am going to bake something in the crock pot and have tomato sauce stick to the sides like glue, I might as well try them out and save my husband, (and potentially myself) a headache. They only leaked a little and I think that's from when I cut the lasagna. I used a knife at first, then realized that there was plastic underneath and cutting it would defeat the purpose of it. Some people might be concerned about cooking in plastic, but I did extensive reviews because I didn't want to "poison" my food. Everything I read was just fine! But if you choose to forgo the liners, be prepared for caked on tomato sauce.

So when cooking the meat mixture, I opted to skip adding the tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. BAD idea. The reason why I skipped it was because I thought that the can of crushed tomatoes looked like it gave it enough tomato sauce. Even if you think while cooking this that it will be really running, or that there isn't enough meat, WHATEVER you might think, just add all the tomato products. Also, I didn't think that the uncooked noodles would be cooked in just 4 hours on low. But they were! Odd how that happened. I ended up making about 3 or 4 layers. 

When the lasagna was done, it tasted really good!  Aside from the lack of sauce due to me being stupid and deciding to not add all of the tomato sauce. I thought that after I cut one piece, that it would just fall apart. But it held together pretty well! I will say, that the only benefit of cooking it in the oven would be that the cheese on the top did not get all brown and crispy. So if you can't stand lasagna that doesn't have the golden brown top, then this will not be the way for you to go.

 Other than that, this will definitely be made again :)