So, this is how dinner rolled out.
First of all, last night, I used a three ingredient slow cooker total cheat recipe. I used a packaged of frozen boneless chicken breasts, a can of condensed cream of chicken soup (some people use cream of mushroom) and I tossed that in the slow cooker on high. No water needed! That took only about an hour and a half to cook even with the chicken breasts frozen solid. The third ingredient was one cup of rice thrown into my awesome fuzzy logic rice cooker and the chicken was placed over the cooked rice. I was thinking I could of slipped finely chopped cauliflower in the slow cooker and no one would of been the wiser! Yummy!
So, on to tonight's dinner. This was the original recipe:
Crock-pot Ravioli Casserole
1 1/2 lbs. lean ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 (15 oz.) can tomato sauce
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
salt/pepper
10 oz. frozen spinach, thawed
16 oz. bowtie pasta, cooked
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
1 1/2 cup mozzarella, shredded
And now for the magic...Brown ground beef with onion and garlic. Put in crock-pot and add sauce, tomatoes and seasonings. Cook for 6-7 hours on low. Add the last 4 ingredients during the last 30 minutes of cooking and turn crock-pot to high. Add the spinach, pasta, parmesan and 1 cup of the mozzarella and mix it all up really well. Then add the last 1/2 cup of mozzarella to melt on the top.
So this is what I used:
1 onion,
1 tbs. minced garlic,
2 15oz cans of tomato sauce,
1 can of petite diced tomatoes,
2 tsp. Of Italian seasoning, (it has plenty of oregano for me),
salt/pepper,
1 box of farfalle pasta,
1 cup shredded parm cheese,
2 cups of shredded mozzarella,
20 oz of extra lean turkey
I basically followed the same instructions, but shortened the crockpot time down to about 3 hours, adding all the prepared ingredients at once. I only boiled the pasta to al dente before adding it to the crockpot, so adding the little extra water softened the pasta to just the right point. I added 1/2 of the cheeses at the beginning of the crockpot cooking time and the remainder about 15 minutes prior to eating. I actually completely forgot the spinach *hitting myself in the head*, I had fallen asleep prior to preparing and was in a rush when I went to make it. So it lost the veggie aspect as so many of our meals seem to. Oh well! It was 1/2 twin approved and adult approved, which is what I expected and leftovers for tomorrow.
