What could be better than an easy cheese fully loaded lasagna recipe? How about a delicious lasagna made in the slow cooker with all of the flavor and very little work!
Lasagna is one of those meals that everyone in my family can agree on!
Layer upon layer of seasoned tomato meat sauce, tender lasagna noodles and a rich creamy cheesy filling!
While I do love lasagna, it can be very time consuming (and dish-dirtying) when you’re making a homemade sauce, boiling noodles, browning meat and making the filling. This extra easy recipe takes a fraction of the time, makes way less mess but has all of the delicious flavor you expect from a baked lasagna.
My favorite part of this recipe is that there is no need to pre-cook the lasagna noodles (I use regular noodles, not the no-boil variety). Adding them to the Crock Pot raw allows them to cook in the sauce adding tons of flavor and thickening the whole lasagna mixture.
When browning the beef, I like to break it up using a chop and stir which makes a great texture and creates the perfect sauce. Feel free to add in your own favorite seasonings to the sauce or to sneak in chopped veggies. I often grind veggies like mushrooms and zucchini in the food processor to create a chunky sauce loaded with flavor and texture (and my kids don’t even know it’s in there). If you leave out the meat you can use shredded vegetables and create a slow cooker vegetarian lasagna.
If you have it on hand, a package of frozen chopped spinach can be defrosted, squeezed dry and added to the ricotta mixture.
To make this into a complete meal, we love to serve it with a delicious Cheesy Bread and a fresh side salad.
Like most casserole type dishes, this recipe is just as good (if not better) the next day and freezes beautifully!
sy Cheesy Crock-Pot Lasagna
Prep Time
20 mins
Cook Time
4 hr
Total Time
4 hr 20 mins
Ingredients
- 1 lb lean ground beef
- 1 jar pasta sauce 24 oz.
- 15 oz Ricotta Cheese
- 8 oz Shredded Mozzarella Cheese divided
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese divided
- 1 egg
- 6 lasagna noodles uncooked
Instructions
- Brown ground beef in large skillet; drain. Stir in pasta sauce.
- Mix ricotta, 1-1/2 cups mozzarella, 2 Tbsp. Parmesan, and egg.
- Spoon 1 cup meat sauce into slow cooker; top with layers of half each of the noodles (broken to fit) and cheese mixture.
- Cover with 2 cups meat sauce. Top with remaining noodles (broken to fit), cheese mixture and meat sauce.
- Cover and cook on low for 4 to 6 hours or until liquid is absorbed.
- Sprinkle with remaining cheeses; let stand, covered, 10 min. or until melted.