Crock Pot Pizza Pasta

Annie has never been a big fan of pasta…..which is really sad because Barry and I are VERY big fans. However, the older she gets, the more she will eat. When she was young, I’d try to trick her and put some in her mouth when she wasn’t looking. After one puke, I stopped that. I’m glad she’s getting more into eating it. When we have company, I usually make pasta. It’s relatively cheap, crowd pleasing, and usually pretty easy. Combine that with a crock pot and you’re really saving some time and money! Let’s make some Pizza Pasta (P.S. – Annie did eat several bites!).

We’ll need meat (I used venison), pasta (I used bow-tie), cheese (I used a Colby and Monterrey Jack combo), cottage cheese, mushrooms, onion, spaghetti sauce, and pepperoni (I used turkey pepperoni because we like it best). Before I start getting comments about how I’m using white pasta and Prego sauce, I’ll nip it in the bud. Even though we’re on the path to healthy eating, I still have a bit of white pasta and canned stuffed in my basement. Being the frugal person that I am, I cannot just pitch it. We’re going to use it until it’s gone and replace it with better stuff. If I threw it away, I’d probably get up in the middle of the night and dig it out of the trash. I just can’t waste food. You can make your own sauce for this recipe or use organic if you like and use whole wheat pasta. In fact, we prefer whole wheat pasta over white. There, nipped in the bud.

First, bring your water to a boil and cook the pasta. It’s hard to get a good picture of cooking pasta. Imagine it looks awesome. Thank you.

While the pasta is boiling, brown the meat and chopped onion. I love my meat chopper from Pampered Chef (thanks Maria!!!). If it broke today, I’d totally buy another one…..today. Yeah, I’m fond of it. You can drain you meat if you want….I didn’t.

It’s a good idea to butter the heck out of your crock. You really don’t want the pasta to stick. It’s not fun to wash…….or scrub.

Pour your browned meat down into the crock. Steam is also hard to photograph. Man, are you feeling sorry for my photography skills yet?

Drain the pasta and add it to the crock, along with your pasta sauce. Sure, this is Pizza Pasta. You can use pizza sauce if you like but I just normally use spaghetti sauce in place of it. I think it tastes too similar to have a cow about it. Plus, spaghetti sauce is cheaper. Give it all a good stir.

After it’s all stirred up, put down a layer of mushrooms. We love cooked mushrooms. Barry likes them raw too, but not me. They have this weird texture thing going on. Yes, they also have a texture cooked, but it’s not as……..weird. If you are weird, you can leave them out. But that would just be weird.

Time to layer on some cottage cheese. Yes, I’m aware that pizza doesn’t have cottage cheese on it. Just humor me…..it’s going to be delicious!

Now, on the top put your cheese and pepperonis. If you like different toppings on your pizza you can also put them in this. I don’t like to go all crazy when we’re having company…..I only like to go all crazy on Barry and Annie. You can be crazy with your family and they have to love you. Company doesn’t. The end.

Cover and cook on low for 4 hours. Monitor it randomly to make sure your toddler doesn’t play with the dials.

This is what it looks like when it’s done. Pure yumminess! This makes a good amount – around 8+ servings depending on appetites. It would be a great, cost-effective dish for company. It also makes great lunches for the next day….and the next night’s dinner.Crock on!