Low Maintenance Lasagna

It's been forever since I has a Recipe Wednesday post but I'll just have to say that life got in the way and I reverted back to tried-and-true recipes to save time rather than making something new. But with all this snow I tried a few recipes that I had pulled from magazines and this one turned out to be a hit!


I've only made real lasagna a couple times (one being the Pioneer Woman's which was wonderful but took a sweet forever) and so when I saw this crock-pot version I figured I'd try it because there's nothing that Jason likes better than lasagna. This recipe was really easy and quick and turned out great. I'll probably add beef next time but the beauty of it is that you could add anything -- spinach, meat, different cheeses -- and it would still be really easy and good! The recipe does call for carrots which I liked and I cut them up really small to try and sneak them past Charlotte. She ate everything for a little while but by the end of the meal she was putting bites into her mouth, eating everything but the carrot pieces, and then spitting the carrot pieces out. You can definitely feel the texture of the carrots -- they don't go completely limp in the crock pot -- so if that's something that weirds you out you might want to try it without it. You could also double the recipe to make it taller if you need to feed more people, that way a serving could be smaller but have the same amount of food.

Low Maintenance Lasagna
From Jan 2011 issue of Parents magazine
Nonstick cooking spray
1 26 oz jar pasta sauce
3/4 cup water
1 15 oz carton part skim Ricotta Cheese
1/2 c Shredded Carrot
6 regular lasagna noodles
1 1/2 cups part-skim Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
1. Coat a slow cooker with cooking spray. In a large microwave-safe bowl, stir together the pasta sauce and water. Cover with wax paper and microwave on high for about 3 minutes. In the meantime, in a medium bowl, stir together ricotta cheese and carrots; set aside.
2. Spook 1/2 cup of the sauce mixture into the bottom of the slow cooker. Break half of the noodles and arrange over the sauce. Spoon half of the ricotta mixture over the noodles. Continue layering in the following order: 1/2 c mozzarella, half of the remaining sauce, remaining noodles (breaking them to fit), the remaining ricotta mixture, 1/2 c mozzarella, the rest of the sauce, and the rest of the mozzarella.
3. Cover; cook on low heat for about 3 hours, until the noodles are tender. Remove slow cooker from liner; let stand, covered, for about 20 minutes so lasagna is easier to slice.

Calzones

Have you ever made calzone's before?  Until last week I hadn't, but one day I got the idea that if we could make a pizza surely we could make a calzone.  And with my addiction to bread the extra bread to sauce ratio was exquisite!  This is super easy and probably not new to most of you, but I'm trying to put together some simple, easy recipes for my newly graduated into the working world brother and this is a surefire winner!

Easy Calzone's

1 tube refrigerated pizza dough (the calzone above is half of one calzone made with one tube of dough)
Marinara Sauce
Mozzarella Cheese
Toppings (i.e. pepperoni, Italian sausage, mushrooms, peppers...the possibilities are endless)
Olive Oil
Red Pepper Flakes

1. Lay pizza dough out on a cookie sheet or pizza pan.  Spread with fingers to cover most of the width of the pan.
2. Brush olive oil on dough (light brushing).
3. Put marinara sauce on half of the pizza dough spreading it fairly close to the edge of the calzone.
4. Place toppings on top of the marinara.
5. Spread cheese on top of the toppings.
6. Fol the other half of the pizza dough over the top of the side with toppings.  Press down the edges to seal with your fingers.
7. Brush top with olive oil and sprinkle red pepper flakes (if desired).
8. Bake at 350 for approximately 20-25 minutes or until top is turning golden brown and the bottom is not sticking to the cookie sheet.