Foody Friday - Crockpot recipes

Lasagna. Usually a time-intensive, chisel out 2 hours before dinner time to assemble and cook type meal (unless you do it ahead or freeze it).

Did you know Lasagna can be made in the crockpot? Any old recipe for lasagna works. It works best if you don't cook the noodles first, just break into pieces to fit in the crockpot.

I love this because it cooks for 4 hours, so I make it during naps/quiet time and then it's ready at dinner time.

Here's an interesting twist, which can be modified umpteen thousand ways to fit your tastes... It's delicious as is, and as well as fitting into my family's dietary requirements, it's very healthy.
This is a dairy-free version, but if I were cooking only for myself, I would use cottage cheese or ricotta, and regular mozzarella. And add parmesean. Generously. It contains a lot of spinach, so this recipe works as the entree AND the salad. :) I serve with bread and voila, it's an easy dinner.

Crockpot Spinach Lasagna

2 Tbsp. olive oil (or water)
1 onion, chopped
8oz mushrooms, *optional
2 cloves (or more) garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp oregano
1 lb. spinach, fresh or frozen
1 lb. firm tofu, drained and rinsed
2 Tbsp. dried parsley
1 jar (26 oz) pasta sauce
1 bag (8oz) shredded soy mozzarella cheese
No boil or regular lasagna noodles

Saute onion, mushrooms*, garlic, basil, and oregano in olive oil until softened. Add frozen spinach. Simmer until mixture is heated through.

In food processor, combine tofu and parsley processing until consistency of cottage cheese.

When spinach mixture is heated through, drain excess liquid. Next, add tofu mixture to spinach mixture and stir well.

In a crock-pot, make 4-5 layers of the following:

Sauce (just enough to cover the bottom for the first layer)
Noodles
Spinach/Tofu mixture
Soy Mozzarella Cheese

Cover and cook on LOW for 4 hours.

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Here's a link my friend Michelle sent me with some crockpot ideas. I've done the homemade yogurt recipe before, I'm inspired to do it again. Check it out...