The Frugal Slow Cooker-Lasagna Soup

I know, I know, it's not really fall. It's still warm out, including in Denver-although it's cool at night. But if you are like me, you're probably read for comfort food. And while I love summer grilling, the nature of the beast is that it often requires more expensive meats like chops, chicken breasts and so on.

I'm all about frugal food, laziness and taste. Trying to find ways to cook frugally in retirement is a challenge I still work on. Especially as a downsized family of two who don't love leftovers, at least on the next day..Because this recipe uses cans, I use it as is, (so I dont have half a can of crushed tomatoes sitting around)  Normally, I make smaller amounts or halves of recipes that are this big.  Our investment  in a small slow cooker has been amazing and well worth it's weight and cost.

Note: because I am a lazy cook, I use my own decision on browning veggies and meat before throwing them in a slow cooker. Since this has ground beef, I do so. But I rarely brown the stew meat I use for Italian stew, and rarely can you tell the difference when I do.

Note two: There are many places around the web with similar recipes. I wrote mine like this because I want to be able to use whatever I have on hand, and not be "committed". In a perfect world, mine would be half pork and half beef. I've seen recipes with chopped zuccini for example. But I tend to be the dump type of soup cook (with a few exceptions like Zuppa Toscana).

I cup ground meat (pork, ground beef, ground chicken, or sweet or hot italian sausage or any mix of the above)

one cut up onion

Two cans of tomatoes, use your judgment. I usually used two cans of diced, but one of crushed, two of crushed, one of each, what works for you or what you have on hand. 

The equivalent of four cloves of garlic. I use jarred, but whatever works for you.

A box of  broth (I always use vegetable no matter the soup, for flavor, and usually low sodium)

A couple peppers, again, use your judgment depending on price. I have had to give up green peppers, even chopped, so I often eliminate this. Tragic, I know.

A cup or so of mushrooms, depending on taste and allergies-I tend to think of mushrooms as their own food group.

Black olives, sliced-again, depending on taste, budget and allergies

Italian type seasoning to your taste, or just basil, parsley, salt and pepper. (I start with a teaspoon of each and move upward at the four hour tasting).

Spinach, frozen and thawed or fresh, two cups or so. Trust me, unless you absolutely hate spinach, it needs this one.

Pasta noodles of your choice. I tend to get lasagna noodle and just break them down, but it's your choice of pasta. I would say six ounces or so.

Toppings on hand. For us that's usually shredded or granular Parmesan, and whatever cheese we hand (Real ricotta is one of my personal splurges, I actually want to learn to make it). Sometimes Ricotta, sometimes Mozarella. And parsley.

1. Saute the veggies and ground beef as much as desired
2. Throw the meat, seasonings and everything but the pasta and chopped spinach into the cooker
3. Cook on slow for 7-8 hours. If you are home, stop the middle, stir and taste and judge seasonings, especially garlic (also it's own food group).
4. Cook the pasta al dente and drain (my next experiment is just to throw the pasta in, but I'm afraid with this much tomato-ness it will not work) I cut the pasta into strips or squares if I am using lasagna noodles)
5. Fifteen minutes or so before, add the chopped spinach and pasta.

Spoon into bowls and add toppings on hand. 

In our house, this eight serving soup usually ends up like this: half is used for dinner and perhaps lunches the next day, and half is immediately frozen for another day-so this ends up being four servings. This could have been cut in half, but I personally like two different kinds of tomatoes (plum and crushed) and so I did need two full cans. If you were happy with one can of tomatoes, you could probably adjust the other down.

Also, in this house, we generally always have various kinds of tomatoes on hand as well as a couple kinds of ground meat. Had I not had the kind of noodles I had, I would have simply used whatever (smaller) pasta I might have on hand. So for the most part, it's something we can make depending on what's in the pantry.

And there you have it, this week's fall slow cooker meal.Next week, I'm looking to combine a butternut squash/sweet potato soup recipe using three different one's Ive seen online to my own taste (because, among other things, turmeric is not my thing). 

Saturday, homemade soup. Sunday, homemade soup for lunch. Sunday night? Homemade quiche made in a regular pie crust. But that's another story.