1 (1 lb.) pkg. Italian veggie ground round (Yves Veggie Cuisine; or use regular ground beef)
1 (32 oz.) jar pasta sauce ( Classico tomato and basil)
1 (6 oz.) can tomato paste (Hunts)
1 (15 oz.) can diced tomatoes (Hunts)
1/2 (8 oz.) tub fresh sliced mushrooms
1 yellow onion, diced
1 zucchini, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 fresh tomato, diced
2-3 tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese
1 (15 oz.) tub ricotta cheese
1 (8 oz.) tub cottage cheese
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes (if you like it a little spicy)
2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp. minced garlic
3 uncooked lasagna noodles
1 (12 oz.) pkg. whole-wheat wide noodle (Ronzoni Healthy Harvest)
1/2 cup (2 oz.) shredded Mozzarella cheese
1/4 tsp. crushed basil (for garnish)

So I started off by throwing all my pasta/lasagna sauce ingredients into my Crock-Pot on low/high heat (depending on how long you have to cook).

This includes: mushrooms, onions (I like to sauté half of them and add them to the Crock-Pot with the other half not sautéed), zucchini, bell pepper, tomato (both fresh and canned), can of tomato paste, and pasta sauce, vegetarian ground beef (this doesn't need to be cooked so I just throw it in. If you are using ground beef then cook it and add it when it is ready).

I then season it the way I like: ground cumin, red pepper flakes, Worcestershire sauce, minced garlic.

I then left the Crock-Pot on for a number of hours (I had it on low heat for 8 hours, but you could probably do it on higher heat for 4 hours).

Next I boiled water (with a little bit of oil) in a big pot and cooked both the 3 lasagna noodles and the wide noodles. When this is ready, take out a small amount of sauce (to be used later) and then add the wide noodles to the Crock-Pot and mixed the noodles in with the sauce (I added it a little less then the whole package of noodles).

For the cheeses, I took a bowl and mixed together Parmesan cheese, ricotta and cottage. When this was done I spread it on top of the sauce/noodle mixture in the Crock-Pot to make an even coat.

I then placed the 3 lasagna noodles on top of the cheese layer to simulate the top layer of a lasagna. On top of this layer, pour the pasta sauce you set aside on top of this in an even coat. Next add your shredded Mozzarella on top of this layer. Close the lid and let this mixture cook for another 15 to 20 minutes to let the cheese melt.

Finally, add crushed basil flakes to make the lasagna look nice and you are ready to eat!

EXTRA NOTES:

For the lasagna sauce I used what I had laying around, but feel free to use whatever you like to use for your lasagna sauce.

I decided to go vegetarian and not use ground beef. I actually found out that this soy ground beef tastes almost exactly like real ground beef.

For the noodles I was thinking wide egg noodles like the ones used in beef stroganoff, and then bought the wheat ones to get less cholesterol. Feel free to use any other noodles here instead.

I knew I would be busy later in the day, so I prepared the Crock-Pot, made the cheese mixture, and cooked the noodles in the morning. I then placed the cheese mixture and the noodles in the refrigerator all day and left the Crock-Pot on. This way I could come back, add the noodles and the cheese and be ready to eat within 15 minutes (rather then have to boil water and stuff now).

Thank you and enjoy!

Submitted by: Guy C.