Crockpot Lasagna - Sunday Foodie Bits

I've fallen in love with my crockpot.

There, I've said it.
Until two weeks ago, it had been sitting forlorn on my kitchen counter, taking up space. Pretty sure the last thing I had used it for was apple butter (which is amazing, by the way!), and that was a good two years ago at this point. I thought it was only for stew, or meat, or things like that.

I was wrong. Oh so very wrong!

This week, I made up Crockpot Lasagna. My mom made this recipe for our family Christmas, and it was delicious.
I had to have this recipe, as it was delicious, and the Mister has had an obsession with lasagna recently.

The quirky thing about this recipe is that it uses cottage cheese instead of ricotta. Ricotta cheese is expensive - which is why I don't make lasagna! But cottage cheese? That can be gotten on sale for $1.25 - right up my alley!

And, same as last week, it called for the chopping of onion and garlic. I skipped both this time (instead of just the garlic), and just used powdered versions of both. More so than I would use for regular cooking, but not nearly as much as (if compared) the original recipe called for. I like shortcuts, and I like saving money, and powdered garlic and onion are things we already have on hand.
I didn't measure out the pasta sauce, either. The pasta sauce I buy comes in 24 ounce cans, so I used one and about half of another, which was just about the perfect amount. I have never seen a 35 ounce can of pasta sauce, and I don't know where one could be found, so I didn't worry about it.

Now, I don't know what oregano tastes like, but I know spices tend to be expensive. So I ditched it. Instead, I used cumin and red pepper flakes - we like our food with more of a "kick", and we have both of these at home already. I didn't add any salt, either, as I try to never add salt if I can get away with it.
Same with the cheese - use what's on hand. There was a 3/10$ deal on 16 ounce blocks, and I wasn't about to buy anything beyond what we would normally eat. So, for this recipe, I used about half of a cup of monterey jack cheese (instead of parmesan) and about 16 ounces of colby jack (instead of mozzarella). Both were shredded using the same cheese grater from last week (best cheese grater ever, IKEA!). It was all going to get melted anyway, so the size of the shreds shouldn't have been important - and it wasn't!

Again, I forgot to take pictures. I remembered this time, though, once it all got in the crockpot at least!

So far as the lasagna noodles went, I just broke them up into half of their normal length, and tried to arrange them as best I could, to get to two layers, but it wasn't exact.

Once in the crockpot, it looks alright, though a bit messy. I am not a person concerned with the presentation of my food, just the taste!

I figured 4 hours would do the job for cooking - my crockpot doesn't run warm, so far as I know, but my mom did hers for four hours and it was fine.
For the last half an hour or so, though, I did turn it up to high, just in case.
After the four hours was up, I let it sit for 20 minutes, with the heat off - which is habit for pasta I've acquired through the reoccurring cooking of Pasta Roni.

There is not a good way to get this stuff out, though, so it does end up a heap of noodle, cheese, and meat on your plate.
Not attractive.

But all that melty cheese? Ohhhh yes, count me in!

The verdict?
AH-MAY-ZING.

No seriously. The noodles were perfect - even the ones that were on the edges of the crockpot. The cheese was perfectly melted, the meat (spicy Italian!) was perfect, and it was just...ahh...heavenly.
There were plenty of left overs - I had some for lunch the next day, and we had a whole dinner of it the next night as well. Granted, there are only two of us, but we tend to eat a lot! If you had a larger group of people, you could easily get two meals out of it, if you added a salad and some bread sticks or garlic bread to the menu.

The hardest part of this meal?
The wait!
All it really takes is browning some meat, stirring some cheese, and waiting.
But the pay-off from all your "hard work"? Worth it!

~Havok

P.S. I've got a line-up of a few recipes I'd like to try in the coming weeks, but I'm always open to suggestions!

P.P.S. Edited on 1/13/15 to add to Linky Party hosted by FreshMommyBlog