Easy Crockpot Lasagna ***

I've been making lasagna once a week for the past few weeks, since the 6-year-old ds declared himself a lasagna conoisseur last month.  I've been making the Pepperoni Lasagna, as it's his favorite, but it just takes so long.  I decided to try to find a lasagna for the crockpot that might work for us.  This is pretty darn close.  I did throw in a little extra cheese, since I had some that needed to be used up, but I won't do that next time.  It was a bit too cheesy for my tastes.  I have no idea how many lasagna noodles are in 8 oz, so I just used 9 noodles total.  That seemed to work well.  The sauce still tasted fairly "ketchupy" to me when I combined the ingredients, so I ended up added about 2 tsp of Italian seasoning and about 1 1/2 tsp of cumin.  I would definitely do that again.  I also added a can of sliced mushrooms, to put in a little extra veggies.  I really think it would do well with some shredded zucchini or something.  I doubt it would even be noticeable.  As always, I subbed ground turkey for ground beef.
The family loved this, though.  I want to look through some other recipes and maybe tweak the sauce a bit, but this is an excellent jumping-off point for an easy crockpot lasagna recipe. 

Photo courtesy of Recipezaar.com

EASY CROCKPOT LASAGNA
(luckymommyto2boys ~ Amy ~ Recipezaar)

1 lb ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (29 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 cup water
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano
8 ounces lasagna noodles, uncooked
4 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 1/2 cups small curd cottage cheese
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated

Brown beef, add onion and garlic - cook until onion is softened.
Stir in tomato sauce, water, tomato paste, salt and oregano - mix well.
Spread one fourth of the meat sauce in an ungreased slow cooker. Arrange one third of the noodles over the sauce.
Combine the cheeses.
Spoon one third of the cheese mixture over the noodles.
Repeat layers twice.
Top with remaining meat sauce.
Cover and cook on low 4-5 hours.