I have a whole repertoire of portable meals for game nights, but practice nights are difficult. Gymnastics, basketball and baseball practices all seem to happen smack dab in the middle of the hour when I’d like to have dinner as a family.
We end up getting home right at the edge of what I personally consider an acceptable dinner time.
In an ideal world, I’d always think to make a crockpot meal for those nights. I don’t live in an ideal world, though, so I’m always looking for things I can prep before practice that can be eaten immediately when we get home.
My whole family loves my Skillet Lasagna so I thought I’d try making it in the crockpot. It worked!! Each kid gave it a thumbs up.
Things to consider:
I can do this in 2 hours because I pre-cook and freeze my ground beef.
It’s not gourmet. The lasagna noodles aren’t as perfect as they are in a legit lasagna. At an hour and forty-five minutes, they’re slightly al dente, but my family thinks they’re great.
Ingredients:
One 24 oz jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce (or equivalent amount homemade spaghetti sauce)
Equal amount of water (I fill the jar with water and swish it around.)
1 lb pre-cooked and frozen ground beef (no need to thaw)
8 oz (or so) shredded mozarella
Coupla’ shakes of parmesan cheese
8 oz (or so) lasagna noodles, broken into bite-sized pieces
Instructions:
Place cooked ground beef (unthawed or partially thawed to the point where you can break it up is fine) into crockpot with spaghetti sauce and water. Stir in broken noodles until they’re covered in liquid.
Cook on high for 1.5 to 2 hrs. I usually get it going about 5:25 and it’s ready when we get home at 7:15.
When you are ready to eat and the noodles are soft, stir in the mozzarella and parmesan. These melt right away. Amounts should be according to taste. I put WAY too much in last week, but even though each serving included strings of melted cheese reaching from the crockpot to the plate, my family declared it was fine.
That’s Hubby’s hairy arm, not mine. I had to show at least one of the TEN pictures he and the boys took of him dumping and stirring the cheese. I had to run an errand so he finished it up for me. (He has embraced his role as Husband of a Slob Blogger.)
I’ll be sharing other meals I make that are perfect for practice nights, so be sure to subscribe by email so you don’t miss them! Subscribing by email is THE best way to be sure you see all new posts. (And it’s free!)
--Nony
There is no such thing as “too much cheese”, much less “way too much cheese”.
Agreed! Was going to make the same comment!
Thank you for this recipe! I will be making this next week. I appreciate that it’s a crockpot recipe that doesn’t take all day. I get home from work by 5:15 and hubby gets home by 7:30 (yes, we eat late but it’s important we eat together) so this will be a great recipe to try.
Our family ate very late for years. It’s SO worth the effort to eat together. It makes my heart happy to see other families working hard to make it work! <3
Do they take at least 10 pictures when you cook dinner to completion?
I made this last night (because I had everything on hand already) and it was awesome! Everyone ate it too! The only change I made was that I used taco cheese (all I had on hand) and it was “taco” lasagna. Thanks for the awesome recipe!
So glad you liked it!!!
Do you have any after pictures? I’m curious to know if this recipe will be enough to feed my family. I don’t want to double and have tons of leftovers.
I don’t. I have three men and my daughter and I and this is barely enough because everyone likes it so much.
I made it today. It came out good! Thanks for the recipe! Can’t wait to try more!
What about adding cottage cheese or ricotta? Would that work in the crockpot?
You could try! I’d definitely wait to stir it in at the end like the mozzarella.
Dot spoonfuls of ricotta on top (sprinkled with parsley or oregano if you have any) and cover the crockpot until they are warmed through. Let each person stir it in on their own plate.
–better late than never
Have you tried cooking on low for longer? Did it turn out, if so?
I haven’t. I’m concerned the pasta would get icky.
Haha. I should have waited for that response. Yes, the pasta got icky! Now you can know for certain 🙂
A friend just gave me a similar recipe, but instead of using lasagna noodles, she uses frozen cheese ravioli. Going to try it this week.
What size crock pot did you use?
7qt
What if I have unthawed uncooked meat? What should I do?
I would not use frozen uncooked ground beef in this. It needs to be cooked first.
I haven’t tried this yet, but I’m wondering why it is cooked on such a high temperature and for such a long time? All the ingredients, except the noodles, are cooked already, aren’t they?
Hi! I’m listening to your podcast from the start (on Episode 68 at the moment) and LOVE this! I’m guessing they are NOT the pre-cooked noodles, right? Thanks!
Dana, you’ve changed my life! I’ve consumed all your books and recent courses, so now I’m going back to the beginning of the podcast. You mentioned this recipe in 75 (ish?) and because my dishes were done, I could try it out!
It was delicious and done in 20 minutes!
(I used an InstantPot and Gardein Beefless Ground which comes frozen.)
Just wanted to say this recipe is still delicious and relevant in 2021!