Slow Cooker Lasagna

Slow Cooker Lasagna

(from the weightwatchers.com recipe database)

POINTS® Value: 8
Servings: 6Preparation Time: 20 min
Cooking Time: 360 min
Level of Difficulty: Easy

No need to cook the noodles first or stay home while it bakes. Just let it sit a few minutes before serving so it can firm up a bit.

Ingredients
1 pound(s) uncooked lean ground beef (with 7% fat)
1 small onion(s), chopped1 medium garlic clove(s), minced
28 oz canned crushed tomatoes
15 oz canned tomato sauce
1 tsp table salt
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste
1 cup(s) part-skim ricotta cheese
1 1/2 cup(s) part-skim mozzarella cheese, shredded, divided
6 item(s) dry lasagna noodles, no-cook1/2 cup(s) shredded Parmesan cheese, strong-flavored like Romano or Parmigiano Reggiano

Instructions
Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add beef, onion and garlic; cook, stirring frequently, breaking up meat with a wooden spoon as it cooks, about 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, salt, oregano, basil and red pepper flakes; simmer 5 minutes to allow flavors to blend.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, stir together ric

otta cheese and 1 cup of mozzarella cheese.

Spoon 1/3 of beef mixture into a 5-quart slow cooker. Break 3 lasagna sheets in half and arrange over beef mixture; top with half of ricotta mixture. Repeat with another layer and finish with remaining 1/3 of beef mixture.

Cover slow cooker and cook on low setting for 4 to 6 hours. Remove cover; turn off heat and season to taste, if desired.
In a small bowl, combine remaining 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese; sprinkle over beef mixture. Cover and set aside until cheese melts and lasagna firms up, about 10 minutes. Yields 1/6th of dish per serving.

Notes
To boost your vegetable intake, add a can of zucchini in tomato sauce to the meat mixture. You can also add 2 cups of sliced shiitake mushrooms to the beef mixture.

Review: I had never cooked a lasagna before so this was a first for both this

recipe and lasagna from scratch in my kitchen. I cooked it about 5.5 hours and goofed a little on the tomatoes. I forgot to get the 25 oz of crushed tomatoes, so settled for 1 can of whole peeled tomatoes that I chopped up myself. While this wound up tasting fine, it would have been much better with the full 25 oz of crushed tomatoes! Woops!

I cooked this for my friend, his father and myself. Everyone loved it. I was really surprised that the end result wasn't too "soupy." It held up pretty well and had great flavor. I think next time I will add a little more basil to add a little more of a sweet taste and perhaps try turkey instead of ground beef.

My photo is less than amazing, but here is my meal!

Have you tried this recipe? What did you think?

Leave your comments below.

Jerk Chicken Thighs with Fresh Pineapple Salsa

From Comfort Classics by Weight Watchers, p. 154

PREP 15 MIN GRILL 15 MIN SERVES 4

4 scallions, chopped
1/4 c lime juice
1/4 c lightly packed fresh cilantro leaves
2 T + 1 t sugar
1 T low-sodium soy sauce
2 garlic cloves
2 quarter-size slices peeled fresh ginger
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded & chopped
1 t ground allspice
1/4 t cinnamon
4 skinless, boneless chicken thighs, 1 1/4-lb each, trimmed
1/2 peeled & cored pineapple, diced
1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
1 T apple cider vinegar
1 T chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 t salt

1 Place the scallions, lime juice, packed cilantro leaves, 2 T of the sugar, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, jalapenos, allspice, and cinnamon in a blender and process until smooth. Transfer to a zip-close plastic bag; add the chicken. Squeeze out the air and sea the bag; turn to coat the chicken. Refrigerate, turning the bag occassionally, at least 1 hour or up to 8 hours.

2 Meanwhile, to make the salsa, stir the pineapple, onion, vinegar, chopped cilantro, and remaining 1 t sugar together in a medium bowl. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

3 Spray the grill rack with nonstick spray; preheat the grill to medium-high or prepare a medium-hot fire.

4 Remove the chicken from the marinade, sprinkle with sale, and place on the grill rack. Discard the marinade. Grill the chicken, turning occasionally, until cooked through, 12-15 minutes. Serve with salsa.

PER SERVING (1 chicken thigh & 1/2 c salsa) 6 POINTS

Alterations: We made several alterations to this recipe and I'm not sure how they affected the points value.

1 We totally forgot to make the salsa.
2 We forgot to put the ginger in the marinade.
3 We substituted sweetner for sugar.
4 We left out the scallions.
5 We used regular soy sauce instead of low-sodium.
6 We served it with brown rice and green and yellow beans on the side.
7 We let it marinade for the full 8 hours.

Rating: We give it 4 stars (out of 5).

Review: We really enjoyed, this easy recipe. Don't be put off by the jalapeno peppers because you just get the flavour from them and not the heat. Instead of a hot flavour, you end up with a refreshing little dish that tastes of the Caribbean. We forgot to make the salsa but that ended up being fine since the chicken itself had plenty of flavour. The longer that you let it marinade, the better it will be. We don't think that this would be a good dish for picky eaters, as the texture of the marinade and the full flavour could be off-putting.

Have you tried this recipe? How did you like it?
Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Pulled Chicken Sandwiches

From Comfort Classics
by Weight Watchers, p. 103

PREP 10 MIN COOK 25 MIN SERVES 4

1/4 c ketchup
2 T packed dark brown sugar
1 T yellow mustard
1 T apple-cider vinegar
1 t chili powder
1/2 t ground cumin
1/8 t ground allspice
1/8 t ground ginger
4 1/4-lb skinless, boneless chicken thighs, trimmed & cut into 1-inch pieces
8 slices whole-wheat bread, toasted
12 bread & butter pickle slices

1 Stir in ketchup, sugar, mustard, vinegar, chili powder, cumin, allspice, and ginger together in a medium skillet; add the chicken and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is tender; 20-25 minutes.

2 Remove from the heat and shred the chicken with 2 forks. Serve the chicken mixture between the bread slices with the pickles on the side.

PER SERVING (1 sandwich) 7 POINTS

Alterations: We changed a few things about this recipe since we were serving it to non-Weight Watchers. We aren't sure how these alterations affected POINTS values.

1 Instead of apple-cider vinegar, we used rice wine vinegar.
2 We added some onions and garlic to the chicken mixture.
3 We used potato bread instead of whole wheat.
5 We topped our sandwiches with tomato.

Rating: We give it a 5 stars (out of 5).

Review: This is the very first dish we tried out of this cookbook and we thought it was amazing. It was so tasty! Our company loved it too. You would never know that this was a healthy recipe. The chicken tasted sweet and is the type of dish that you could serve to any crowd.

There was nothing exceptionally hard about making it, although pulling the chicken was a new experience. If we weren't trying to make as many different recipes as possible from this cookbook, we would consider having this for dinner several nights of the week.

We would recommend putting the mixture in a wrap to cut down on the POINTS and think that this would even be good cold. You could even mix it up a little by putting different toppings on your sandwich.

Have you tried this recipe? What did you think?
Leave your comments below.

Come One! Come All! Come Large! Come Small!

Introductions

We are so glad that you made your way over to our little blog! We hope you will join us on our weight loss adventure! We are Ali and Bruce and we attend Weight Watchers. Bruce just joined 7 weeks ago and already he has lost 20 pounds!!! Ali is a Lifetime Member who has just returned after having a baby in May and she's lost 13 pounds. The key to our success so far has been finding really great recipes that we look forward to making. (It doesn't hurt that Bruce is a professional cook.)

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