Slow Cooker Lasagne

Being a one income family I have learnt in order to not waste money or food if I make an effort to sit down and work out a meal plan for the week then shop around it on Sunday the whole week feels a little less stressful and ends up saving a heap of money. Each day I know what to get out of the freezer for tea and I am never put in the position where ordering pizza is easier.

All of my meals are 30 minutes or less from the fridge to the plate as most days that is all the time I have to play with. My motto is it’s never too early to start dinner, so if you have a quiet moment at 11am there is no reason you can’t cook the pasta then and warm it back up at 5pm. Anything that saves time or money is worth doing. Any left over’s are frozen and used as a lunch or dinner for during the week or next week.

See here for Meal Plan One or Meal Plan Two or Meal Plan Three that I have posted previously.

Today I wanted to share my slow cooker experiment that turned out amazing. Lasagne in the slow cooker, I know genius right! Here’s how I pulled it together:

1. I defrosted the mince and plopped it raw in a mixing bowl.

2. Added a jar of pasta sauce, I filled the jar half way with water, shook it and added the pasta sauce coloured water to the mix.

3. I then added chopped cherry tomatoes (from my garden) and frozen chopped onion, salt and pepper and stirred the raw mix.

4. Then plop a layer on the bottom of the slow cooker, sprinkle with grated cheese, and layers of lasagne. Repeat until you run out of mix. I’m not a white sauce person but feel free to top it off with that I just sprinkle grated cheese on top of my meat.

I set it on high and came back 3 hours later and tea was cooked! It had worked.

I love lasagne but hate having to cook the mince up then put it together in a dish then cook it for an hour in the oven. So by chucking it all in the slow cooker raw it made no dishes and only took 10 minutes to prepare and 3 hours to cook unsupervised! Doesn’t get much easier than that! Give it a try, even if you use your normal lasagne recipe just mix it raw in a bowl then layer in the slow cooker. So easy you will love it.

Renee

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