Has anyone not had a crazy Halloween day? Making sure you have enough candy, doing any last minute emergency repairs on costumes, making the kids actually finish homework before putting on the costumes, lighting the pumpkins, and oh, what’s for dinner?

How about a four cheese lasagna with meat sauce? This recipe is cooked in the crock pot (noodles included—no boiling required).

There are quite a few frozen lasagnas at your grocery store. However, I prefer this recipe because I can control the fat, sodium, and sugar content.

Best of all, dinner will be one less thing you have to worry about during your frighteningly busy day of costume preparations!

Ingredients:

• Two jars or cans of your favorite marinara sauce
  
  
• 1 package of lean ground beef
  
  
• 1/ 2 teaspoon of oregano or your favorite Italian seasoning
  
  
• 2 packages of your favorite shredded cheese blend
  
  
• 1 pack of lasagna noodles
  
  
• 1 jar of mushrooms
  
  
• 1 12 ounce container of cottage cheese
  
  
• 1/ 2 cup of water
  


Directions:

1. Brown ground beef in a pan. Add ½ teaspoon of Italian seasoning.
   
   
2. While beef browns, combine two jars of sauce and water in a bowl.
   
   
3. Spray the crock pot with cooking spray.
   
   
4. Place one layer of noodles (break the noodles in half—it doesn’t matter which way they are placed in the crock pot). It’s perfectly fine if they overlap a bit.
   
   
5. Follow with a layer of ground beef, a layer of sauce, a layer of mushrooms, and layer of cottage cheese. Repeat the layers one more time.
   
   
6. Sprinkle 1 cup of cheese on top. (More if you desire)
   
   
7. Cook on high for 1 hour and low for 2-3 hours.
   


Quick notes about this recipe:

1. It’s ok if you get the layers mixed up! Many times I’ve added the cheese too soon, or left out the mushrooms, but that’s why I love this recipe! It cooks wonderfully throughout no matter what order you layer the ingredients.

2. This is a perfect recipe to let kids help build the layers. As mentioned above, you really can't mess it up!

3. You can easily adapt the ingredients to what you have on hand. If you don’t have a four cheese blend, use cheddar—it will turn out fine!


Happy Trick or Treating!