Slow Cooker Lasagna

Over at Parenthacks they are having a discussion about good crock pot recipes, and this is by far my favorite. I couldn't tell you where my Mother got it from, but both of my picky eaters love it.

Slow Cooker Lasagna

1 pound bulk Italian sausage
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
3 15 oz cans Italian-style tomato sauce
2 teaspoons dried basil leaves
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (8 oz)
1 container (15 oz) part-skim ricotta cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
15 uncooked lasagna noodles

Cook sausage and onion in 10-inch skillet over medium heat 6 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until sausage is no longer pink; drain.
Stir in tomato sauce, basil and salt.
Mix the Ricotta, Parmesan, and 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese together in a bowl. (Refrigerate remaining mozzarella cheese while lasagna cooks.)
Spoon one-fourth of the sausage mixture into 6-quart slow cooker; top with 5 noodles, broken into pieces to fit.
Spread with half of the cheese mixture and one-fourth of the sausage mixture.
Top with 5 noodles, remaining cheese mixture and one-fourth of the sausage mixture.
Top with remaining 5 noodles and remaining sausage mixture.
Cover and cook on Low heat setting 4 to 6 hours or until noodles are tender. Sprinkle top of lasagna with remaining 1 cup mozzarella cheese.
Cover and let stand about 10 minutes or until cheese is melted. Cut into pieces and serve.

Here are a few of my own little notes.
- In my crock pot it is always ready at 4 hours. If you go a lot longer than that, the bottom and sides can get over cooked. I'm sure different crock pots will vary.
- I've cooked it with cottage cheese instead before and it is pretty good. However I've found that depending on brand and sales, I can find Ricotta cheese cheaper, and it does taste better.
- I've had trouble finding Italian style tomato sauce, so I just add Italian seasoning to regular tomato sauce.

I can not say enough how delicious this stuff is. YUMMY!

Morgan is in her crib!

Morgan has a nursery{mostly}! On April 1st she started taking naps and sleeping part of the night in her new bed. I'm usually too tired to but her back in her room after her middle of the night feedings, so she still spends some time in the co-sleeper. I can't wait to get some more decor going on the room, but we still have to figure out exactly were things will be going permanently. I realize a crib isn't exactly a "big-girl" bed, but compared to the co-sleeper it is. Therefore I spend a lot of time telling her about her big girl bed. She does look pretty tiny when she is laying all swaddled on a big crib mattress.

Big Sale at JCPenney

JCPenney is having a big sale right now, they have a lot of things for 40% off plus they have some Buy 1, get another for $1. I loaded up the kiddies this morning and we got our shopping on. Here is what we got. (Click on the picture to see a larger version of it.)


The light green dress was about 85% off making it $4.99 from $29.99.
The blue ribbon dress was 40% off plus an additional 10% off coupon making it, $10.79. I LOVE it to pieces though. I could just squish it to death and hang it from my rear view mirror.
I have discovered that while yellow is not a good color on me or my son, Morgan looks FIERCE in it. So I have just been buying it all up.

Joshua got a dino-shirt because he has recently started caring what shirt he wears and throws a fit when it is time to take off the dino pj's. He got to pick from several dinosaur shirts and that was his favorite.

I of course need to thank Grandma for her generosity in footing the bill for this little excursion. She offered to buy an outfit for each of them but did the awesome grandma thing and bought lots of things for them. THANKS MOM!

Semi-homeade spaghetti

Well I've already covered my love for Alton Brown, now let's move on to discussing Sandra Lee. When I first saw her show, Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee on the Food Network, I had such high hopes. I thought, Wow I might actually be willing to cook some recipes I see featured on a cooking show. (A lot of recipes have things I think sound gross or are way too time consuming.) I love the concept of utilizing certain store bought products and adding your own touches to have a homemade meal. However, Sandra Lee seems a bit too tied up in cocktails and tablescapes for my taste. Perhaps I need to spend more time online perusing her recipes or pick up her cookbook. For now however, I sort of ignore her.

On to the spaghetti. My Mom makes her own spaghetti sauce which I really love. However I don't really see myself ever making it, and my family at this point doesn't really enjoy all the vegetable chunks so I've taken a semi-homemade approach to spaghetti sauce.

- Brown 1/2 lb super lean ground beef(97% lean). I'm sure ground turkey would be nice too. (Drain fat if necessary)
- Add one can/jar of spaghetti sauce of whatever brand or flavor you enjoy most.
- Add Italian seasoning.(My jar is not quite as fresh as it could be, so I add a lot.) My bottle of "Italian seasoning" contains: Basil, Oregano, Thyme, Rosemary, Marjoram, and Garlic.
- Simmer on low-ish for awhile until the sauce is hot. I usually have it simmer while the noodles are finishing up.

Adding the Italian herbs is really what makes the most difference.

Not rocket science by any means and my Michelin star isn't in the mail, but it gets a good dinner on the table quick. That to me is what it is all about.

Freepeats Phoenix

A website I love, Babycheapskate, launched a forum called Freepeats. Essentially if you have baby/toddler/maternity items you can give them away to people locally. That also means that if people are giving away things that you want, you can take them. They just opened up a phoenix forum today. They already have some nice stuff up there. I have posted formula and some formula coupons, since we are boobie people at this household. If you sign up by the end of the month you get free lifetime membership. If you join after April, the cost of a full time membership is $4.95. Join now even if you aren't sure you have something to give or something you need. The more people involved, the more items there are to choose from!
The website is: http://freepeats.org

Now get Freepeating!