Best Yet!

So tonight's Crock Pot Lasagna Soup may be one of my best recipes yet.  The Fiance and I couldn't stop saying how good it was while we were eating it!  It had the perfect lasagna flavor without having to burn your hands layering hot lasagna noodles!  Shaun and I are lasagna lovers, but I rarely make it because for one, it's so much work layering everything and two, because Matty won't eat the ricotta cheese.  I've made "lazy" lasagna before, but even that is a lot of work. ha! 

Well, this Crock Pot Lasagna Recipe is quite simple!  I chopped up a white onion and a green pepper and put into a bowl.  I then minced about 4 cloves of fresh garlic. 

The green pepper I used was ginormous, but the white onion 

was a medium sized onion.

I then gathered all of the dried ingredients and canned goods I knew I would need for the recipe.

I poured the chicken broth into the crock pot and then pulled out a separate bowl for all the other good stuff.  In the bowl, I combined the tomato sauce, tomato paste, fire-roasted diced tomatoes, and all the spices - basil, crushed red pepper, oregano, and fresh ground black pepper.  I gave it a stir before I threw it into the crock pot.

mmm... tomato deliciousness!!!

I knew I wanted to add some sort of protein, but I didn't want to spend the time browning ground beef, so I opted for chicken sausage!  You could use regular sausage, but you'd have to brown it first.  I just so happened to have a package of chicken sausage handy for today's recipe!

Shaun and I agreed that the "Mozzarella Basil" chicken sausage 

would be even better in this recipe!

The package has 4 links, but I felt 3 would be enough.  I sliced them horizontally and then sliced them into smaller bite-sized pieces. 

Yumm-O!!!!

I then threw the bowl of chopped sausage into the crock pot, set that baby on low and hit the timer for 8 hours.  

You have NO idea how good our apartment STILL smells!!! :)

When there was 30 minutes left, I broke up 5 whole-wheat lasagna noodles and threw them in.  Of course, stir everything together too! :)

Woohoo! It's done!!! :)

While the noodles were cooking, I whipped up a garlic base for some whole-wheat bread we had in the freezer.  I melted 1 tablespoon of I Can't Believe it's Not Butter and added a dash of paprika, basil, garlic powder, and fresh ground black pepper.  I brushed it onto 2 pieces and threw it in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes.

Oops, I forgot to take a picture of the finished garlic bread!

This is before it went into the oven. Sorry!

I topped the lasagna soup with some reduced-fat mozzarella cheese and put it into the oven for about 5 minutes to get all melty.  Yummy! 

Lasagna deliciousness in a bowl!

Of course, ya'll know presentation is key, so here's what everything looked like:

It was seriously amazing!  I can't take complete credit for it though because I loosely followed another recipe that I found online.  However, the recipe that I followed online made it on the stove top and I decided it's much more fun to use the crock pot!  The recipe I loosely followed can be found here!

For dessert, we opted for strawberry shortcake!  It is strawberry season here in Florida so we're crazy for berries right now!

:) Such a pretty dessert! :)

Now that my tummy is completely stuffed (I don't know the last time I ate this much food), I'm off to do more lesson planning for this week!  It's going to be a busy week in room 408! :)

Have a nice and relaxing Sunday night folks! :)

Crock Pot Lasagna Soup

1 white onion, diced

1 green pepper, diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 32-oz carton chicken broth

2 8-oz cans of tomato sauce

1 small can of tomato pasta

1 15-oz can of fire roasted diced tomatoes

1 tablespoon oregano

1/2 tablespoon basil

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

3-4 chicken sausage links

5 uncooked lasagna noodles (I used whole wheat)

reduced fat mozzarella cheese

1. Chop up the white onion and green pepper.  Mince 4 cloves of garlic.

2. Pour chicken broth into crockpot.  

3. In separate bowl, mix together all the other ingredients.  Then pour into the crockpot.

4. Chop up the chicken sausage into bite sized pieces and put into crock pot.

5. Cook on low for 8 hours.

6. When there are 30 minutes left, break up the lasagna noodles and toss into the crock pot.  Stir baby stir! :)

7. Pour into oven-safe bowls, top with mozzarella cheese, and bake in oven until the cheese is melty! :)

8. ENJOY!  Beware - it's going to be HOT, so don't burn your mouth! :)

Sweet Hugs,

Lauren