Divine Lasagna – Kitchen Messes and Mishaps
While sausage is browning mix up the mozzarella, ricotta, spinach (thawed, drained and dry) and butternut squash in a bowl.
In the midst of this the spaghetti sauce lid slipped out of my hand and splattered on my kitchen rug…this is not part of the recipe. But, this is real life. No cooking show ever shows you the real mess and mishaps in the kitchen. I’m all for life outside the 4 borders of a perfectly filtered photo. Quickly tossed the rug out onto my porch so my dog wouldn’t get into spaghetti sauce and potentially cause another mess and kept going…
Layer in a greased crock pot, sauce, noodles, sauce, cheese mix, noodles, sauce, cheese mix, noodles, last of sauce.
{Here I didn’t realize you were to reserve some sauce, and had used it all. Thankfully on a whim at the store I had picked up a second jar of spaghetti sauce to have in the pantry and had to use a couple of spoonfuls as the last sauce layer. The rug incident had me a little rattled and I was talking to my Mom on the phone about potential stain remover tricks while layering and half reading the recipe.}
Oh, but your sink probably looks like this and that rug stain must be addressed….
Dishes washed, sink cleared, dishes all put away…
Finally, a plate served and it was delicious! When I was putting away to the fridge I put some into the freezer as well, save it for a day when I need a quick dinner after the rat race of school is back in session and time is limited. I did really like that this recipe could be made in an afternoon, I know lots of people do, but I don’t like leaving a crock pot on all day at home while I’m away…
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| I am no food photographer, these are all my own highly sophisticated iPhone 5 images. 🙂 |
So, despite the mess and mishaps, it was a success and definitely a recipe I would make again. Might even roast the butternut squash and just layer it in instead of mixing with the cheese. You can make this your own with additional favorites added in, or simplify it as well taking some out! I would also suggest thawing spinach, squash, anything else earlier in day to make sure drained and dried. I defrosted mine because decided to make this on a whim. Here’s the recipe:
- 1 lb sausage browned, grease drained
(I used sage pork sausage, use any kind you like, or use ground beef!) - 1 jar of spaghetti sauce
- 1 small can mushrooms
(sliced, buttons, stems & pieces – whatever you like or fresh ones too) - 1 tsp. Italian Seasoning
- 1/2 tsp. Salt
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 small container (15 oz) Ricotta cheese
- 1 package (2 cups) shredded Mozzarella Cheese, divided
- 1 package (10 oz) frozen spinach, thawed, drained, dried
- 1 package (10 oz) frozen cubed butternut squash, thawed, drained, dried
{maybe roast for a bit in the oven, but point in using crock pot was not to heat up the house with oven on when it’s 100 degrees outside}
By the way…I’ve found this squash at Target of all places - Oven ready lasagna noodles (need 8-10 noodles, depending on crock pot size)
- Prep…thaw spinach and squash early, drain and pat dry
- Brown/drain sausage
- While sausage is browning combine ricotta, 1 cup Mozzarella, dried spinach, dried squash in a bowl and stir it up.
- When sausage is browned/drained combine with spaghetti sauce, mushrooms, seasoning, salt, and water in a 2nd bowl and stir to mix it up.
- Grease crock pot bottom and sides
- Layers….
— 1 cup of sauce in the bottom
— Noodles – break apart to best fit, I used about 2.5 noodles per layer
— 1 cup of sauce
— 1/2 of cheese mixture
— Noodles
— 1 cup of sauce
— 1/2 of cheese mixture
— Noodles
— Remaining sauce mix – should be about a cup left
— Remaining cup of mozzarella cheese - Lid on, crock pot set on “Low” heat setting, cook for 3-4 hours.
(I cooked about 3.5 and it was definitely all done)
Blessings to you in your kitchen, persevere through trials, mishaps, messes and ultimately enjoy! As always, keep up with me on Instagram here, Facebook here, or Twitter here. 🙂 #besocial