Find comfort in a slow-cooker lasagna and other family meals

McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) - As belts tighten, most of us are producing more meals at home, and slow cookers are a big help in that area for many families.

If you got a slow cooker for Christmas or want to expand your slow-cooker repertoire, the "Fix-It and Forget-It Big Cookbook," by Phyllis Pellman Good (Good Books, $29.95), offers a load of helpful tips and 1,400 recipes collected from home cooks _ including some items you'd never have thought of making in a slow cooker.

There are recipes for overnight breakfast oatmeal, egg casseroles and peanut-butter granola. You can find dips, appetizers, spreads (including nine recipes for apple butter) and even a recipe for cereal-based snack mix. There's a whole chapter on slow-cooker breads. You could serve a recipe from the chapter on soups, stews and chilis every night from now until the end of next summer, and the chapter on beef main dishes is just as hefty. You can even make cakes and cobblers in your slow cooker.

Don't expect sophisticated, refined or cutting-edge recipes here. But, if you're looking for warming, easy family recipes, you can find plenty of them _ like this easy and economical lasagna contributed by Rachel Yoder of Middlebury, Ind., which can stretch a pound of ground beef to feed eight.

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CONVENIENT SLOW-COOKER LASAGNA

"Variations include adding chopped onion to the ground beef while browning, adding (˝ cup grated Parmesan cheese to the mozzarella and cottage cheese or topping the lasagna with ˝ cup additional shredded mozzarella 5 minutes before serving"

Serves 6 to 8

1 pound ground beef

2 (29-ounce) cans tomato sauce

8-ounce package lasagna noodles, uncooked

4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1 ˝ cups cottage cheese

1. Spray the interior of the cooker with nonstick cooking spray.

2. In a large nonstick skillet, brown the ground beef. Stir in the tomato sauce; mix well.

3. Spread Ľ of the meat sauce on the bottom of the slow cooker. Arrange one-third of the uncooked noodles over the sauce, breaking them up if necessary to fit better.

4. Combine the cheeses in a bowl. Spoon 1/3 of the cheese mixture over noodles.

5. Repeat these layers twice; top with remaining sauce; cover and cook on low for 4 hours.

Nutritional analysis per serving, based on 6: 704 calories, 36 grams fat, 51 grams carbohydrates, 45 grams protein, 127 milligrams cholesterol, 2,256 milligrams sodium, 5 grams dietary fiber, 46 percent of calories from fat.

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© 2009, Fort Worth Star-Telegram.