Crock Pot Lasagna & Sparkling Dishes Courtesy of Finish Dishwashing Detergent

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SparklySavings #CollectiveBias

We love Italian food in our house.  And ever since I made my very first homemade lasagna earlier this year, I’ve been itching to make another one.  I mean, it’s not terribly hard to make, it freezes well, and my family goes absolutely crazy for it.  But with a brand new schedule complete with early wake up times and kids scattered at schools all over town, time isn’t on my side lately.  And that huge mess that often follows an Italian meal?  A mess that would give even the best dishwasher detergent a run for it’s money?  Nope.  No time.

So lasagna was out.

That is, until I found a slow cooker lasagna recipe…well, yes, that I do have time for.  The recipe was a snap to make and perfect for those days when we have dance, t-ball, or are just running late.  I just love coming home to a meal that is ready to serve!  But then it happened…the mess.  The recipe might have been easy to prepare, but those crispy edges that indicated it was done really wreaked havoc on the inside of my slow cooker.  It actually looked like this:

As my 3 year old would say – Ewww.  And since this was supposed to be a ready made meal on a day when we didn’t have much time, the idea of scrubbing it wasn’t all that appealing.  After all, we still had homework, baths, and story time.  Not to mention all the work I do behind the scenes after the kids go to bed.  So after a quick rinse, I put it right in the dishwasher.  No soaking.  No scraping.  No prying off the baked on food.  It looked almost identical to the picture above.

I then loaded all the other dishes – turns out the inside of the slow cooker wasn’t the only casualty.  After the dishes were loaded and I couldn’t possibly add one more dish, I added the Finish Quantum.  We started using Finish while I was on maternity leave.  Looking for ways to cut financial corners, I could always get a great deal on Finish and there were some great coupons.  We were so happy with it, that we never even thought about going back to our old, much more expensive dish detergent.  Plus, it’s on rollback now through October at Walmart, and when combined with coupons (you can find one at the bottom of this post), it’s an unbeatable deal.   And I just love that it it’s an all-in-one capsule design, complete with Powerball to power through even the dirtiest dishes.  It’s never let me down…and I secretly prayed that it wouldn’t let me down this time either.

So imagine my surprise when I hesitantly opened the dishwasher to find these – sparkling dishes!Gorgeous, right?  Turns out this really is a keeper of a weeknight rush recipe…as long as Finish is involved!

Want to make this delicious dish?  Here’s the recipe – and don’t forget the Finish Dishwashing Detergent! 

It’s essential to this recipe and can be found in the dish cleaning aisle at Walmart!

You will need:
6 lasagna noodles, uncooked and broken to fit the size of your slow cooker
1/2 lb. lean ground beef
1/2 lb. Italian sausage
1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce (24 oz)
1 cup water
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. basil
1 container Ricotta cheese (15 oz)
2 cups shredded Italian cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg
salt & pepper, to taste

Step 1 – Brown ground beef and Italian sausage in a skillet over medium heat; drain excess fat.  Remove skillet from burner and stir in pasta sauce, water, minced garlic, and basil and stir.  Place to the side.

Step 2 – In a medium size mixing bowl, add Ricotta, shredded Italian cheese, half of the Parmesan cheese, and egg.

Step 3 – Pour 1 1/2 cups of the pasta sauce mix into the bottom of your slow cooker.  Top with 3 of your uncooked lasagna noodles and 1/2 of the cheese mixture.  Pour 2 cups of sauce into the slow cooker and top with 3 of the lasagna noodles and remaining cheese mixture.  Pour the remaining sauce on top and cover with lid.

Step 4 – Cook for 4 hours on low heat, or until it starts to get crispy on the sides.

Step 5 – Remove lid and sprinkle the top with remaining shredded Italian and Parmesan cheeses.  Let sit for 15 minutes to allow cheese to melt.  Enjoy!