This past week I went for my second attempt at lasagna in the slow cooker, and I have to say, this time was even better than the first! I posted a quick photo on instagram of my reheated portion from lunch today, and a few people asked for the recipe, so I thought it would be easiest to write it up here for posterity!

Ingredients:

1 Box Regular Lasagna Noodles

1 Jar Tomato Sauce (with Italian flavors, your choice of type! 3 cheese, italian meat, whatever you like!)

1 28oz Can of Crushed Tomatoes (I used no salt added)

1 Pound Ground Beef (I used 93% lean)

2 Green Peppers

1 Onion

1 Small Yellow Squash

1 Small Zucchini

1/2 Cup Fresh Spinach

1 Small Container Button Mushrooms

2 Cloves Garlic

2 tbsp Italian Seasoning

1 Small Ricotta (part-skim or regular, either works well)

1 Small Mozzarella (Optional, for topping only!)

How to Cook It!

1. The first thing I did here was brown the beef. Essentially the meat is completely cooked off in the saute pan before even going into the slow cooker. To do that, I heated up my saute’ pan, popped in the beef, broke it up with a wooden spoon and just really let it do its thing.

2. As the beef is browning, I suggest first chopping up your onion and mincing your garlic, since you’ll be tossing that in with the beef in a few minutes. Keep that separate from the rest of your veg.

3. Chop the rest of your veggies, sans spinach! I suggest a really fine dice here — as you chop you can put it all in a bowl together and mix it up, your veggies will go into the lasagna together.

4. As the beef becomes about 3/4 of the way browned, add in your onions and garlic! Continue cooking the beef until it is fully browned and there’s no pink left.

5. Add in a liberal amount (if not all, trust your judgment here) of your crushed tomato, and your two tablespoons of Italian seasoning. Mix well!

6. Mix together your ricotta and spinach in a small bowl.

7. Bring your lasagna noodles, veggie bowl, ricotta bowl, and your beef mixture to your slow cooker, along with your jar of sauce.

8. Start layering! Begin with tomato sauce on the bottom of the slow cooker to avoid sticking, and then put a layer of UNCOOKED lasagna noodles next. Don’t be afraid to crack the noodles to make them fit into smaller spaces. Broken noodles are just as tasty, I promise! After that, put a layer of veggie, a layer of meat, a layer of cheese, and top with some of your jarred sauce. Repeat this process until your slow cooker has about 2 inches left from the top layer to the top of the cooker. I obviously recommend ending with a noodle/sauce layer on top!

9. Pop your slow cooker on for 3.5 hours on high or 5 hours on low… 10 minutes before your cooker goes off, layer some mozzarella on top and it’ll be nice and gooey and ready to eat!

**Mealprep Tip: This receipt reheats GREAT for workday lunches, either in a mini-crockpot, which is what I use, or just a regular microwave! I do admit to tossing a little extra mozzarella on for the reheat though.. #guiltyascharged **

If you have any questions, let me know! I’m more than happy to try and help out or answer anything I can!