Vegetarian Lasagna 7/10

this was more of an experiment than anything, and from that perspective it was successful. tom has a great lasagne recipe from his mom that we both love but he wanted to try a vegitarian version and i found this weird slow-cooker recipe so we decided to try it. i really didn't believe that we'd be able to make pasta in the crock pot but we actually did. and it was actually pretty good! it was a tasty meal but just not quite as good as our usual recipe and really not any less work. i think next time we'll just use his usual recipe and add some veggies.

Vegetarian Lasagna
from "quick and simple" magazine feb 07

Stuff
25-26oz jar marinara sauce
14 1/2 can diced tomatoes
8-9 oz package oven ready (no-boil) lasagna noodles wheat worked great
15 oz container part-skim ricotta cheese low-fat
8 oz package frozen chopped spinach thawed and squeezed dry used a bunch more, probably 2xs as much
1 cup frozen veggie crumbles (such as Morningstar Farms or Boca) these weren't at the commissary so i just used broccoli instead; it was a tasty addition...

Directions
1. In a medium bowl, combine marinara sauce and tomatoes with their juice
2. spray 41/2-6 quart slow cooker bowl with nonstick cooking spray or use one of those insanely expensive slow cooker bags. Spoon 1 cup tomato-sauce mixture into bowl. Arrange 1/4 of noodles over sauce, overlapping noodles and breaking into large pieces to cover as much sauce as possible. Spoon about 3/4 cup sauce over noodles, then top with 1/3 of the ricotta (about 1/2 cup) and 1/2 cup shredded cheese. Spread half of the spinach over cheese.
3. Repeat layering two more times, begining with noodles, but in middle layer, replace spinach with frozen veggie crumbles or broccoli. Place remaining noodles over spinach, then top with remaining sauce and shredded cheese.
4. Cover slow cooker with lid and cook as manufacturer directs on low setting for 2 1/2-3 hours or on high setting for 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours, or until noodles are very tender.

see? pretty successful. it actually set up really nicely even though it's kind of hard to tell from this picture. after it was done cooking (about 2.5hrs on low) i turned it to warm for an hour or 2 and then just let it sit til we ate it (maybe 2 more hours). successful food experiment! keep eating you experiments...