Lasagna in a Slow Cooker

This slow cooker lasagna from the Simply Sugar and Gluten Free cookbook is a much healthier alternative to the kind I usually make. For starters it's gluten-free and sugar-free, but it also uses ground turkey instead of ground beef, and it has spinach. Oh, and less cheese. :) But there is still cheese -- and it still managed to fill us up!

You will need brown rice pasta for this meal. It's nice that you don't have to cook the noodles before assembling the lasagna. Saves a step.

1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb ground turkey
8 oz tomato sauce, divided
28 oz petite diced tomatoes with juice
1 1/4 tsp salt, divided
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried parsley
3/4 tsp pepper, divided
2 c part-skim ricotta cheese
10-oz package frozen spinach, thawed and drained
9 brown rice lasagna noodles
2 c part-skim shredded mozzerella cheese
1/4 c water

Spray the insert of a 5-6 quart slow cooker. 

Spread 2 tbsp of tomato sauce in the bottom of the crock. 

Heat oil in large nonstick pan over medium heat. 

Saute onion for three minutes; add garlic for one minute. 

Add turkey and brown at medium-high. 

Add to cooked turkey: remaining tomato sauce, tomatoes with juice, 

1 tsp salt, basil, oregano, parsley, and 1/2 tsp pepper. 

Stir till heated through.

Squeeze the spinach dry and stir it into the ricotta in a medium bowl; 

season with 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper.

Arrange one layer of noodles in the bottom of the insert, breaking noodles as needed. 

Spread one third of the meat mixture over the noodles, 

and one third of the ricotta mixture over the meat. 

Add two more layers of noodles, meat, cheese.

Sprinkle mozzerella over the top. 

Pour the water around the edge of the slow cooker. 

Cover and cook on low for 3-5 hours, till cooked through and noodles are tender. 

The lasagna keeps nicely on the warm setting for one hour, if needed.