Slow Cooker Lasagna

My mother, living in Hawaii, likes to use her slow cooker a lot to avoid heating up her condo.  Because I was doing a lot of the cooking while we were visiting, I adopted her cooking habits.  I came upon this recipe for slow cooker lasagna from Fix it and Forget it Big Cookbook, which is fast becoming my new go to book for quick and cheap dinners.  It made an absolutely HUGE amount that we ate for a few days and then threw out, I'm sure you could halve it.

Convenient Slow Cooker Lasagna adapted from Fix it and Forget it Big Cookbook

Serves: 6-8

Cooking time: 4-6 hours on LOW

Use a 6 quart slow cooker

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef

2 29oz. cans tomato sauce

1 onion, chopped

10 oz. elbow macaroni

4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1 1/2 cups cottage cheese

3/4 cups water

1.  Spray the interior of the cooker with nonstick cooking spray or line with a slow cooker bag.

2.  Brown the ground beef and the onion in a nonstick skillet.  Drain off the drippings.  

3.  Stir in the tomato sauce.  Mix well.

4.  Spread one-fourth of the meat sauce on the bottom of the slow cooker.

5.  Arrange one-third of the noodles over the sauce.

6.  Combine the cheeses in a bowl. Spoon one-third of cheeses over the noodles.

7.  Repeat these layers twice.

8.  Top with remaining sauce.

9.  Add water.

10.  Cover and cook on LOW 4-6 hours.

Papaya and Cottage Cheese Salad

My mother made this simple salad of a halved papaya filled with cottage cheese to accompany the lasagna.  At first I wasn't sure about it but the combination of the sweet/salty, lumpy/creamy consistencies really works.  Of course it helps being able to find papayas this sweet and ripe at the local farmers market.

You couscous, don't you?

Last night was literally a fly by the seat of my pants night (one of my father's favorite phrases).  I am still on my cleaning kick and had decided to go through all of my CD's, alphabetize them and take them out of their jewel cases and put them into CD sleeves in a binder.  (It was raining and I needed an indoor activity.  Still sounds a little lame huh?)  Anyway, I finished my project (it is beautiful and so much neater if you still think me lame) just in time for my husband's arrival from work and my children's stomach grumblings.  I had left myself no time to cook.  I knew had a ham steak in the refrigerator that I could fry up quickly, but what to do for a starch?  Hooray!  Fast and friendly couscous to the rescue!

Couscous is often thought of as a grain, but it is actually a very tiny pasta that is basically flavorless but will serve as a base for all sorts of Middle Eastern and fantastical creations.  Another bonus?  It is done in 5 minutes.  Here in Eastern Washington, you can buy it pretty cheap at the health food store but in more progressive areas it is starting to appear in the grocery stores by the rice and grains.  For my couscous, in order to pander to kiddy palates, I put the known entity of raisins in to soften the blow of a new dish.  It ended up being quite good and the leftovers are good cold.  Enjoy!

Lemon Raisin Couscous with Peppers and Scallions by Joie de vivre

1 lemon, zested and juiced.

1/3 cup golden raisins

1 cup couscous

1/4 chopped red bell pepper

1 whole scallion, chopped 

1/4 cup sugar (optional)

1 1/2 cup water

Place the water in a saucepan with raisins, sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice. Place over high heat and bring to a boil.  When water is boiling, add the couscous, stir, cover and remove from heat.  Leave for 5 minutes.  After 5 minutes, uncover, fluff with a fork, add the chopped red pepper and scallion and stir.

Side note:  Shame to the French me.  You can see from my plate above that I started out with a reasonable portion of ham, but the steak was sitting in front of me and I kept picking at it until I probably doubled my portion of ham!  Note to self:  remove the serving dishes from the table and place on counter!

Tomato wanderings

My feelings on food could probably be summed up with the idea that food picked at the height of ripeness in the right season does not need a lot of "messing around" with it to make it taste amazing.  Hence, my current preoccupation with tomatoes.  Here in eastern Washington, we have such a short tomato season, and must endure pasty, flavorless, shelf stable tomatoes for so long in the year, that I just want to gorge on them when they are at their best.  This week, along with the tomato soup from the previous entry, I made two simple tomato salads of note.  Make sure you use the most flavorful tomatoes you can find.  Enjoy!

Tomato and Basil Salad with Lavender Salt by Joie de vivre (pictured above)

(earlier in the season when lavender was in bloom, I dehydrated some and added the blossoms one to one with course salt.)

1-2 Tomatoes

10-12 Basil leaves

Olive Oil

Lavender salt.

Cut your tomatoes into slices and arrange nicely.  Top with basil leaves, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with lavender salt.  Voila!  Instant summer goodness.

Tomato, Melon, Cucumber Salad by Joie de vivre

2 Tomatoes

Watermelon

1 Cucumber

4 oz. Soft goat cheese

3 Tbs. Red Wine Vinegar

1 Tbs. Olive oil

Pinch of sugar

Salt 

Pepper

Peel cucumber, cut in half, remove the seeds and slice.  Slice tomatoes and watermelon (remove rind).   Toss together in a bowl.  Make a dressing by whisking together 3 Tbs. red wine vinegar, 1 Tbs. olive oil, pinch of sugar, salt and pepper to taste.  Pour dressing over salad and toss.  Sprinkle with goat cheese and eat immediately.