I ran into a recipe online and read it. I cannot find it again but remembered enough to toss my own together. This worked out well. I want to post it here to preserve it for myself. One of the things that I liked about it was that it did not call for riccota or cottage cheese. These are my least favorite parts of real lasagna anyway.
I used about 8 lasagna noodles. I don't bother with the no-boil ones because they are not necessary.
1 to 1 1/2 pounds of ground beef
26 oz. pasta sauce of your favorite flavor
1 jar of alfredo sauce
8 oz can of tomato sauce (the pasta sauce was not quite enough and I didn't want to open another big one)
I used a small can of sliced ripe olives and a small can of mushrooms undrained. Totally optional.
About 3 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese
about a 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese
A little extra water.
Brown the beef (or sausage)
Spray your crock with nonstick spray (or use a liner)
Open your spaghetti sauce and pour a layer on the bottom of the crock.
Line the bottom with 2 noodles breaking to fit. Use the pieces around the edges
Sprinkle with half your browned meat, 1 cup of the mozz, half of the veggies and add layer of the red sauce over.
Three more noodles fit across my crock here. Then I poured the entire jar of alfredo sauce (reserve the jar for a few minutes).
Again, sprinkle with the other half your browned meat, 1 cup of the mozz, half of the veggies along with their juices if using those small cans.
Add on top about a 1/4 cup of parmesan
Then 3 more noodles. Top those with the last of your sauce (reserve that jar too) and if you have run out like I did, now is the time to open that small tomato sauce.
Now, I took all of the reserved sauce containers and rinsed them out with about a 1/3 cup of water total and poured that over to help keep up with what those uncooked noodles would absorb.
The last of the cheeses (1 cup mozz and 1/4 cup parm) goes on top here.
I cooked mine on high because I wanted it done in about 4-5 hours. But you can cook on low while you are gone to work all day for about 8-10 hours or more.
This used a pan to brown the meat and the crock to cook in. Minimal mess in general. No boil-over in my oven mess. I like it a lot. I have a new favorite way to cook lasagnas. Now the two types of sauces, white and red, pretty much melded in there so there is no 'white' layer. But the flavor is excellent.
I will try this with a vegetable lasagna next with alfredo sauce and cheddar cheese and maybe other cheeses.
