Something New Sunday - Lasagna w/ White Sauce

 "The trouble with eating Italian food is that 5 or 6 days later you're hungry again." George Miller, British writer

 

This is EXACTLY how I felt after I got done eating this new crock-pot recipe and the breadsticks I made to go with it were the perfect "Italian" touch.

Lasagna with White Sauce

Ingredients:
 1 - 8 oz box of lasagna noodles; cooked & drained
 1 - pound ground beef
 1 - chopped onion
 1 - 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes
 1 - can of tomato sauce
 1 - beef bouillon cube (I used beef bouillon granules since I didn't have cubes)
 1 1/2 teaspoons - Italian seasoning
 1 1/2 teaspoons - black pepper
 1 teaspoon - salt
 1/2 teaspoons - red pepper
White Sauce:
 2 tablespoons - melted butter or margarine
 3 tablespoons - all purpose flour
 2 cups - milk
 1 cup - mozzarella cheese
 1 teaspoon - black pepper
 1 teaspoon - garlic powder

Directions:
   Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 5 minutes; drain. (I used the non-boiling, ready to use lasagna noodles and it still turned out yummy).  Brown ground beef and onion together, until onion is tender and beef is no longer pink in center; drain.  Mix in tomatoes, tomato sauce, bouillon and seasonings (I opted out the salt, since I'm trying to cut back salt in all my cooking recipes). Pour in bottom of crock-pot and layer lasagna noodles on top (I had to break the noodles to cover the meat).
   Meanwhile, in a small bowl mix together melted butter, flour, milk, cheese, pepper and garlic powder.  Cover the white sauce over top the noodles.
   Cover and cook on LOW for 4 to 6 hours or on HIGH for 2 to 3 hours.  In the last 30 minutes, turn crock-pot to HIGH (if cooking on LOW) and top with more mozzarella cheese.  Serve when cheese is melted.  Serves 10 to 12

Well, I just finished up cleaning up the dishes and let me tell you, this meal was delicious! The meat sauce was delicious (and a lot healthier then using processed spaghetti sauce) and surprisingly the white sauce was really great (and might be seen in more recipes).  I was worried during the whole time the dish was cooking that the noodles wouldn't cook properly, but I was so wrong; they were soft but crunchy on the edges like my mom's lasagna was growing up.  Mine was cooked on LOW for about 4 hours and then on KEEP WARM mode for about 45 minutes, cause the edges were starting to brown.  30 minutes before serving, I turned it back to LOW and topped it with cheese; so total cooking time for me was little less then 5.5 hours.  My parents joined my boyfriend and I for the meal and they both agreed it was superb and my dad even went back for 'thirds'.  This will definitely be a repeat dish.

Today was actually a two recipe Something New Sunday, as I made Pesto Breadsticks (seen in picture above), but it's getting late so I will try post that recipe tomorrow. 

Goodnight Folks and Enjoy!!

~Kellie Anne