Skillet Lasagna with Italian Sausage Meatballs

 

Don't you love laboring for an hour (or more) assembling traditional pan lasagna and then waiting for another hour (or more) for it to bake?  Me neither.  (And, we won't even talk about all those dishes!)

But .... I do love me some lasagna.  So, what's a girl (or guy) to do?

Whip up this skillet lasagna in a fraction of the time while still enjoying all of the flavors of pan lasagna.  There - problem solved.

Yes, this recipe truly uses only one pan.  (No need to even pre-boil the pasta.)  Isn't that fabulous?

I chose to shape the Italian sausage into mini meatballs, but you could totally just break the sausage up and cook it as you normally would for a meat sauce.  (You could even use ground beef if you prefer.)  I utilize a good-quality marinara in this recipe, but if you have some canned or frozen from-scratch sauce on hand, go for it and use that!

Serves 4 - 6.
Adapted from Center Cut Cook.

Slow Cooker Lasagna - In Layered Disposable Pans

 

Yesterday was day six of the kids' spring break. The first few days were spent in a whirlwind of Easter festivities. We kept occupied with the whole shopping, cooking, egg-dying, egg hunting, ham-devouring, candy-overload and family-gathering aspect of it all. Once Monday rolled around and my husband left for the week for work (he's gone four days at a time out of state each week), the kiddos and I were left to our own devices with (pretty much) an empty schedule for several days.
 

May I just say that I enjoy very little more in life than chilling out at home with my children while we watch movies, play games, read, take naps and do just about nothing ... all with no set schedule and no where to be.

Life is good.

And, while it would have been lovely to jet off somewhere for a vacation during their time off from school, I have been perfectly content to spend some quality time with my kids this week ... to pull a chair up to the table to play board games with my competitive ten-year old son, to cuddle up on the couch with a stack of books to read to my darling, curly-haired five-year old girl and to dance to music in the middle of the living room with my fourteen-year old daughter. (Okay. So maybe I was the one dancing and she was the one churning out the tunes on her phone, but whatever. And, yes, I got lots of eye rolls, but that's okay! Ya know - typical mother/teenage daughter stuff.)

Last night we enjoyed lasagna in the slow cooker. 

I've tried making lasagna in the slow cooker before.  It wasn't a pretty sight!  The edges burned before the center was completely cooked and getting rectangular noodles to fit in an oval slow cooker was a nightmare.  I decided to give it another whirl using the same method that I use for my slow cooker oatmeal - prepare the lasagna in disposable aluminum pans and create a "water bath" within the slow cooker to allow for steam to help gently cook the lasagna.

It worked like a charm!

For just a couple of bucks, you can buy disposable aluminum pans in just about every shape and size.  I used rectangular ones that were about eight inches long and five or six inches wide.  This size fits great in my slow cooker insert.  You'll have to see what will fit best in yours.

I stack the two pans on top of each other, but I use something in between them so that the top one doesn't come into contact with or crush the bottom one.  Experiment with what works for you.  I use metal tongs or a couple of wooden skewers.  You could, also, possibly lay a few butter knives across the top of the bottom pan.

I used my recipe below for this method, but I'm sure you could try this techinique using your own fabulous lasagna recipe instead.

Yields 8 - 10 servings.

Lasagna "Cupcakes"

Lasagna "cupcakes" are super popular in the JD household. And, I love making them because I can get a pan of these into the oven from start to finish with only like, fifteen minutes of prep time. That's quite a difference in time compared to making full blown traditional lasagna. But, the flavor and texture is still all there. Winner!

 

Making lasagna in cupcake form solves the issue of everyone fighting over those coveted corner pieces of a traditional pan-baked lasagna.  Everyone gets crispy edges here, folks.  (The edges will crisp while the bottom part softens and takes on the texture of regular cooked lasagna noodles.)  And, another "plus" - these are just so darn cute.  These allow me to get my kids busy in the kitchen ... the layering is just so much fun! Also, using square wonton wrappers means no boiling noodles and is a total timesaver.

 

NOTE: Ground beef or Italian sausage could easily be added into one of the layers or combined with the sauce if you'd like a meaty version. Also, fresh spinach is a great add-in to one of the layers.

 

Yields 12 "cupcakes."

Lasagna Soup

We all know that making a huge pan of lasagna can be a time-consuming and labor-intensive task.  But, lasagna is one of those comforting dishes that most everyone adores. This particular recipe is a fun and simple twist on traditional lasagna. It's made right on the stove and there's only about fifteen minutes of actual hands-on prep time. You'll find all of the flavors and components of lasagna present here, but in soup form.

I chose not to add in any kind of ground beef or Italian sausage simply because my kids are not wild about those two ingredients. I would recommend about a half of a pound of either for this amount of soup if you'd like to include it. (It should be browned in the pot prior to the addition of the onion, garlic and green pepper.) Alternatively, you could swap in vegetable stock in place of the chicken stock should you desire to keep this completely vegetarian.

Regarding the pasta for this recipe, you can buy Campenelle pasta, which looks like mini lasagna noodles.  But, regular lasagna noodles work just fine. Just break them into pieces. I used about 8 - 9 large lasagna noodles. Any smaller-sized pasta would work, however. (I have even made this with egg noodles.)

Yields 4 - 5 servings.