Crockpot lasagna requires no oven
It’s hard to believe that winter is almost over. In just two weeks, spring will arrive. Early March, though, can be a fickle thing. It can’t seem to make up its mind, teasing us with warmer temperatures, then slamming us with frigid days and nights. Remember, folks, the storm of the century that blanketed the Scenic City with feet — not inches — of snow back in 1993, happened on March 12. The week before that, people were outside enjoying temperatures in the 60s.
All this is getting around to the fact that it’s still crockpot season. I don’t know why we associate slow cooking with cold days, but we do. So don’t put your cooker away yet.
Lately I’ve been experimenting with my slow cooker and came upon a recipe for lasagna that sounded intriguing and worth the time it took to buy and assemble the ingredients. Other than the spices, lasagna ingredients are nothing I usually have on hand — ricotta cheese, ground beef, fresh parsley and the like.
I’d never made lasagna in the slow cooker before and was somewhat skeptical. When all was said and done, the slow cooker did a nice job of making the lasagna, and it made a ton. Much more than my husband and I could eat. Lasagna freezes well, thank goodness.
This recipe is much easier than my traditional lasagna recipe, which I prefer. (You can find that recipe here: timesfreepress.com/ news/2022/feb/22/lasagna-allseason-favorite). But when in a pinch, I’ll keep this one for the slow cooker in the files.
Slow Cooker Lasagna
1 pound ground beef
1 small onion, finely diced 1 tablespoon minced garlic 1 (26- or 32-ounce) jar
spaghetti sauce
1 cup water
15 ounce container small curd
cottage or ricotta cheese 2 cups shredded mozzarella
cheese, divided
1/2 cup grated parmesan
cheese, divided
1 large egg
Pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons fresh parsley,
chopped (optional)
4-6 uncooked lasagna noodles
Brown and crumble ground beef in a large skillet (or if your crockpot has a saute setting, use that.)
Then add in onion and garlic, and cook for additional 1-2 minutes.
Drain excess grease from beef, and put back into skillet. Pour in spaghetti sauce and water. Give it all a good stir.
In a separate bowl, mix together cottage cheese,
1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, 2 tablespoons parmesan cheese, egg, pepper and chopped parsley.
Spray crockpot with nonstick cooking spray. Scoop approximately 1 cup of meat sauce into bottom of slow cooker.
Top with one layer of uncooked lasagna noodles. Just do your best to break them up to fit into the crockpot.
Next top with a layer of cheese mixture. Keep adding layers, ending with meat sauce.
Put the lid on, and cook on low for 4-6 hours. You want most of the liquid to be absorbed and noodles to be soft.
When it is finished cooking, add remaining cheeses and sprinkle with parsley.
Put the lid back on for about 10-15 more minutes until cheese is melted.
A NEW CHIK IN TOWN
Krystal has entered the doughnut craze with an ingenious addition to its menu. The Chattanoogaborn burger chain has long been known for its chicken and biscuits, but now it’s like the two got married and given birth to a doughnut.
The new DonutGlazed Chik Biscuit is a big biscuit with a warm doughnut glaze on the outside and a crispy chicken breast inside. It’s one of the yummiest things to come out of the Krystal test kitchen in a while.
The biscuit also comes in a spicy version with a seasoned chicken breast, so I would imagine it tastes something like a Nashville hot chicken doughnut-biscuit. There’s a plain biscuit option with no chicken, too.
The Donut-Glazed Biscuits made their debut this week and are in area Krystals now.