Crock Pot Lasagna

This is another entree roughly based on a recipe in the Make It Fast, Cook It Slow book by Stephanie O'Dea.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground beef, browned and drained - I always thaw 2 pounds of meat and brown them both.  Then I freeze whatever I don't use for the current meal.  So, on this day, I just pulled a container of the already browned and drained meat from the freezer.
• 1 jar pasta sauce (25 ounces) - I used a jar with basil flavoring this time
• lasagna noodles
• 1 small can sliced mushrooms, drained
• 1 container ricotta cheese (15 ounces)
• 1 deli slice pepper-jack cheese
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/4-1/2 cup water

Directions:
Mix the meat and sauce together.  Layer in 1/3s as follows:

• Meat mixture
• Noodles, break up as needed to fit
• Ricotta Cheese
• Mushrooms
• Motzzarella Cheese
• Crumbled pepper-jack cheese (used all on one layer)

Repeat twice.  When I got to the last noodle layer I pressed them down a little to help get moisture to all of the noodles.  (Picture is prior to pressing down.) 

Continue with the other items.  Top with water.  Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.  About an hour before serving I again pressed everything down to make sure the top layers got tender as well.  I cooked it for almost 7 hours and it got very brown around the edges, maybe too brown.

The day I made it everyone seemed to enjoy it. 

Kent of course picked out the mushrooms, but that was no surprise.  There were quite a bit of leftovers and those haven't seemed to go over as well.  So, I either need to adjust the ingredients and reduce the lasagna by a layer or invite friends over the next time I make it.