Crockpot Lasagna: the Secret Ingredient

My Farmer loves the crock pot.

He likes when meals are cooked in one dish

so there aren't tripping hazards and towers when he comes in for supper.

He also likes a good lasagna,

so I set about to find the perfect crockpot lasagna.

There are a lot of recipes out there for crock pot lasagna,

so I tried a few,

gathered the recipes together

and combined what I like

with what I wanted changed:

one was too dried out, the other, too much liquid.

I also used some different cheeses for my final recipe run,

and my Farmer was impressed.

So here's how it went:

The ground beef, onion, and garlic got cooked up together in a skillet first.

While that was going on,

I got my cheeses ready:

mozzarella,  farmers' cheese (made by a local Amish woman), 

Parmesan,

and,

the surprise ingredient:
plain yogurt.

(Of course, if you do not have or want to use the farmers' cheese and yogurt,

you can substitute the same amount of Ricotta)

 These cheeses got an egg and some parsley mixed into them.

Once the ground beef was cooked,

the layers were put into the crock pot:

a bit of sauce,

some of the meat,

 4 noodles,

cheeses.

And then repeat,

in that order...

or similar

(sometimes I mix the order of the meat and sauce,

because I am a rebellious lasagna maker),

until you have three layers of four noodles.

I start my crock pot out on high to get it going for a while,

and then turn it down to low;

but you could just cook it on low

or high

and not be difficult about it like I am.

It is good to let it stand when it is finished for 10 - 15 minutes:

the noodles have time to absorb more of the juices this way.

I usually always try to get a finished product shot,

so you can see how wonderful it looks,

(or maybe not,

 as my sister informed me about my beef tongue recipe,)

but I forgot about my poor lasagna;

and when I remembered,

all there was left was this:

Maybe this is a good though?

Do you have any secret tips for lasagna?

This is part of my 31 days of blogging series.

Kellyskornerblog.com
Wearethatfamily.com
Bystephanielynn.com
Keeping it Simple:Motivate me Monday
Homemakeronadime.com
The Prairie Homestead: Homestead Barn Hop
Betweennapsontheporch.blogspot: Metamorphosis Monday

Crockpot Lasagna