Cooking is something people do daily in one way or the other. Whether we are cooking breakfast, lunch or dinner, making a tuna sandwich or baking a cookie, we need a recipe to follow. At times we may not think that we are following a written recipe because it is something that is very simple and we have it memorized, like making a sandwich, but in actuality we are following a recipe even though it is one that is in our subconscious. People are also more health conscious these days. An increasing number of people are on a healthy diet and they want to cook healthy diet food. They know that a complete meal should have every food group such as meat, carbohydrates, vegetables, fruits, and so no. The healthy diet pyramid shows you what you should have in your ingredients.
Here is a wonderful crockpot recipe for a pasta dish main course that consists of ingredients from almost every food group. This pasta dish is chicken lasagna. The name might sound like a simple dish but it is wonderfully tasty. This recipe serves 4 people and takes approximately 5 hours to prepare. It is not complicated to make but not too easy either. However, the end result is so tasty that it is well worth the effort.
Chicken Lasagna Ingredients
You will need approximately 1 pound of cooked, shredded chicken breasts or more if you like more meat in your lasagna. Then, you need 1 large onion, finely chopped, 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped, 2 jars (17 oz.) of spaghetti sauce, 1 package (18 ounce) “no-cook” lasagna noodles, 1 package (9 oz.) of shredded mozzarella cheese, 1 container (9 oz.) of ricotta cheese, 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, 1/4 cup milk, and 1 egg. Now, if you have your favorite vegetables, such as eggplants, you may add some too but make sure they are finely chopped.
Get Ready with the Crockpot
First you need to brown the onions, any other vegetables, and garlic in a non-stick pan. Then you will add the spaghetti sauce and mix everything together very well. In a separate bowl, you will mix the cheeses, milk and egg. It is best to grease the crockpot a little. Place 1/4 of the spaghetti meat sauce mixture in the bottom of your crockpot then, 1/3 of a layer of noodles. You can break the noodles so that they fit into your crockpot. After that, you can place roughly 1/3 of the cheese mixture on top. Then, repeat the process of: sauce, noodles, cheese for two more layers. Put the remaining meat sauce on top. Cook in the crockpot on low setting for roughly 6 hours until the noodles are soft.