Crockpot Lasagna

Okay, I've given in and decided to have lasagna this week after all. I had all the stuff and nothing else on my menu for the week sounded good for tonight. It's really too hot here to eat, but I guess we must.

As I've said before, I love my crockpot. I can't remember if I've made lasagna in it before or not. I kind of think I have, but I can't remember when it would have been. This recipe is from the "Fix It and Forget It Slow Cooker Cookbook." It's a must-have if you own a crockpot. I also have the "Light" version but some of the stuff in there is weird.

Crockpot Lasagna (technical name is Violette's Lasgna)
8 lasagna noodles, uncooked
1 lb. ground beef
1 tsp Italian seasoning
28-oz jar spaghetti sauce
1/3 cup water
4-oz can sliced mushrooms
15 oz. ricotta cheese
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Break noodles. Place half in bottom of greased slow cooker. Brown ground beef and drain. Stir in Italian seasoning. Spread half over noodles in slow cooker. Layer half of sauce and water, half of mushrooms, half of ricotta cheese, and half of mozzarella over beef. Repeat layers. Cover. Cook on Low for 5 hours.

*****

I used ground turkey because there was some in the inside freezer. I didn't want to brave the inferno I call my garage to get out ground beef. I also added in some onion and garlic when I was browning the meat. And I skipped the canned mushrooms. For one thing, canned mushrooms are weird to me. For another, the sauce I had was "mushroom and green pepper" so I figured I was okay.

I love that dinner is cooking away while I do my chores this afternoon. Of course, I still need to clean up the kitchen after assembling it. I think that is my least favorite chore...dishes and cleaning the kitchen. The ironic part is I hate having a messy kitchen. I forgot to run my dishwasher early in the day yesterday, so there wasn't room in it last night for our dinner dishes, so not only are there lasagna dishes to clean (okay, just the skillet from the turkey meat), but there are dishes from last night.