Dear Moms & Dads,
You can make meals that the family will eat and get in extra nutrients. Yes, you can!
My son hates mushrooms and um, like most, when something green is spotted, the panic sets in however, I sat my son at the kitchen island and said ‘Mister, we are going to make one of your favorite meals but there will be mushrooms & kale in it.’
He said ‘Mom, am I going to like it cause I don’t like mushrooms but I do like lasagna?!’.
I said ‘If you help make it I know it will taste great.’
We had a fun time and we decided to make it an adventure for Mommy by using a slow-cooker to cook and some cottage cheese in my Lasagna for the first time ever….but not the last. I am a new convert!!!
Ingredients:
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 sweet onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
20 ounces from a 32 oz. container part-skim ricotta
4-5 ounces of low-fat cottage cheese
1 large egg
1 cup coarsely chopped Kale leaves
6 oz. mushroom caps, stems removed, roughly minced
3 1/2 cups or so (maybe 30 ounces) of high quality marinara sauce (low sugar, low salt)
15 lasagna noodles (whole-wheat preferred), uncooked
1 cup shredded parmesan or reduced-fat cheddar
Coarse salt and ground black pepper, to taste
Directions:
1. In a skillet (I used the ninja cooking system so I cooked in it on stove-top function), heat the oil over medium heat. Begin sauteing the onion and green pepper, stirring often for about 5 minutes. Turn of the heat, toss in the garlic, stir and allow to cook 30 seconds or so.
2. Meanwhile combine ricotta, cottage cheese, egg, kale and mushrooms in a large bowl. Mix the saute mixture into the ricotta mixture and mix well.
3. Unless nonstick, coat a 6-quart or larger slow cooker with cooking spray and spread 1 cup or so of the marinara sauce on the bottom of the slow cooker. Place 4-5 noodles over the sauce, overlapping them slightly and breaking into pieces as necessary to fill up the space.
4. Spread some of the ricotta-vegetable mixture over the noodles followed by some marinara sauce. Repeat until you have used up all of the luscious ingredients.
5. Sprinkle the Parmesan or cheddar on top and set the slow-cooker on low for 1.5- 2 hours.
Have you ever tried making Lasagna in a slow-cooker?
Aline Pilani says
This sounds awesome! I’ll definitely try it. Thanks for sharing it
Linda says
Excellent lasagna!! And in the crockpot … who knew?:) Had to add ground beef for my meat-loving husband, but I would totally love it without. Nice addition of healthy kale. Thank you for this great recipe. It’s a keeper!!
Kali says
Hi, I recently made this lasagna and loved it!
I have posted to my blog as well with credit to you.
Thanks for sharing!
hillary says
had to comment how much i loved it 🙂 super easy and delish! i was hoping to be able to sub some of the ricotta for something else less fatty but wasn’t sure if i could put more cottage cheese and use less ricotta… hmmmm . thank you!
candice says
I’m going to certainly try this. I love a new slow cooker recipe. Thank you for sharing. Yum!
Lori @ RecipeGirl says
This is gorgeous, Girl! I love me a good slow cooker recipe!!
Jennifer says
Hooray!! Thank you so much for trying and sharing.
Angie @ Losing It and Loving It says
Made this tonight (subbed out kale for spinach) and it was amazing! I am already looking forward to lunch tomorrow.
Jeanette says
Love how you got your son to eat kale in this lasagna!
Angie @ Losing It and Loving It says
This sounds awesome! I’ll definitely try it. Been trying to find more vegetarian crock pot recipes so this is going on Pinterest lol