Farmhouse Crock Pot Lasagna
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
Making Lasagna in the crock pot is a super easy meal and the BEST way to make lasagna for our busy family! Mini lasagna noodles make the meal fun to eat!
Lazy Crock Pot Lasagna
Tender pasta covered in an easy homemade meat sauce and covered with cheese makes an easy crock pot meal that my family craves. Some call it Lazy Crock Pot Lasagna because there is very little effort required to be successful.
Our Farmhouse Crock Pot Spaghetti is a family favorite, so we knew a crock pot lasagna should be next! Both recipes are similar in that tomato juice, pasta sauce and spices simmer on low with hamburger or sausage
Pasta, cheese and sauce is exactly what my kids crave and the mini lasagna noodles in this recipe are fun to eat! They love Spaghetti Pizza Casserole and I love this lazy crock pot lasagna because it’s similar, but takes much less time to prepare since you start with uncooked noodles.
As adults we crave vegetables and love this Farmhouse Instant Pot Lasagna and Macaroni Grill Copycat Pasta Milano. Vegetables could also be added to the crock pot lasagna if that’s what your crowd enjoys!
Our family is all about the big batch pasta meals like this one and our Tuscan Chicken and Spaghetti. The meal tastes great the first time and the leftovers are easy to reheat for lunch or freeze for easy meals later on.
Here is a list of some of our other Easy Dinner Ideas for Kids with quick and easy meals the whole family can enjoy!
Slow Cooker Meat Sauce for Lasagna
Simmer your meat sauce in the slow cooker all afternoon to create a beautiful aroma, then add pasta and cheese in the last 20 – 30 minutes of cooking. We love that tomato juice is the base of the meat sauce and tastes so amazing when herbs and spices are added.
Conisder the recipe that we’ve provided below as a foundation for an easy meat sauce. Your favorite spices and flavors can easily be added to the simmering sauce.
When adding vegetables we like to cut them into very small pieces and stir into the meat sauce. Bell peppers can be added right away, but a more tender vegetable like mushrooms is best added in the last 1 to 1.5 hours.
Here is the uncooked mini lasagna stirred into the meat sauce. As the noodles cook they will swell and fill up more of the crock.
When we have time to make a batch of Homemade Instant Pot Pasta Sauce it tastes great in this recipe!
How to Make Easy Crock Pot Lasagna
- Brown ground beef, sausage or combination of the two in a skillet and drain. Place browned meat in a lined crock pot. Lean ground beef or Italian sausage are our family favorites.
- Add all remaining ingredients except lasagna noodles and cheese to crock and stir well.
- Cover and cook on low for 4 to 6 hours or on high for 3 hours. If I’m in the house I like to stir the meat sauce once or twice.
- Turn to high for the last 20 – 30 minutes and add mini lasagna noodles and 2 cups of mozzarella cheese. Stir well so that uncooked mini lasagna noodles are evenly distributed throughout the meat sauce.
- Top with remaining cup of cheese and serve when cheese is melted and noodles are tender. I was surprised to find how quickly the noodles cook and how much tomato juice mixture they absorb.
Tips for Making Slow Cooker Lazy Lasagna
- Your favorite type of ground meat should work well – we enjoy hamburger or Italian sausage
- Be sure to use the proportion of liquid to dry, uncooked noodles. Changing the proportion of these ingredients may dry out the lasagna or create a lasagna soup.
- Mini lasagna noodles can be substituted for other types of uncooked pasta, avoid using more than 1/2 a pound of uncooked pasta. Spaghetti and other pastas are much more dense and 4 cups would be way too much. If using other pastas you will need to test the ratio as we have only tested this recipe with mini lasagna noodles.
- If using full size regular or no boil lasagna noodles I recommend breaking them into small pieces and taking extra care to make sure that the pieces of noodles are separated by the liquid meat sauce. Use less than two cups of pieces of lasagna noodles if mini noodles aren’t available.
Other Easy Crock Pot Meals:
- Slow Cooker Pulled Pork
- Crock Pot Twice Baked Potato Casserole
- Crock Pot Brown Sugar Pineapple Ham
- Slow Cooker Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf
- Crock Pot Italian Chicken
- Check out all of our Crock Pot Recipes Here
Farmhouse Crock Pot Lasagna
Author: JenniferIngredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef or Italian sausage
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper freshly ground
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
- 1 1/2 cups pasta sauce
- 3 cups tomato juice
- 4 cups mini lasagna noodles
- 3 cups mozzarella cheese divided
Instructions
- Brown ground beef or sausage in skillet and place in a greased or lined crock pot.
- Add all remaining ingredients except noodles and cheese and stir well.
- Cover and cook on high for 3 hours. Add lasagna noodles and 2 cups of cheese in the last 20 minutes of cooking, stir well. Top with remaining cup of cheese and serve.Can be cooked on low for 4 to 6 hours and turn to high the last 20 minutes to cook noodles and melt cheese.
Notes
- Your favorite type of ground meat should work well – we enjoy hamburger or Italian sausage
- Be sure to use the proportion of liquid to dry, uncooked noodles. Changing the proportion of these ingredients may dry out the lasagna or create a lasagna soup.
- Mini lasagna noodles can be substituted for other types of uncooked pasta, avoid using more than 1/2 a pound of uncooked pasta. Spaghetti and other pastas are much more dense and 4 cups would be way too much. If using other pastas you will need to test the ratio as we have only tested this recipe with mini lasagna noodles.
- If using full size regular or no boil lasagna noodles I recommend breaking them into small pieces and taking extra care to make sure that the pieces of noodles are separated by the liquid meat sauce. Use less than two cups of pieces of lasagna noodles if mini noodles aren’t available.