Lasagna Soup

I’ve decided that for the duration of the winter that’s just started, I want to have a crockpot meal on Sunday. It warms the house, it makes everything smell delicious, and it’s just so easy to throw everything in a pot and leave it alone for the day. To kick off Crockpot Winter 2013, I made lasagna soup, and it was really easy. Ingredients are:

1 LB ground beef (or, if you want it to be vegetarian, omit this)
3 cups beef broth
1 cup water
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
1 TB dried parsley
1 TB dried basil
½ cup chopped onion
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
1 6-oz can tomato paste
1 cup V8
2 cups uncooked shell pasta
¼ Tsp pepper
¼ Tsp salt
Shredded mozzarella cheese, optional

In the crockpot, mix together the tomatoes and can of tomato paste. Add broth, beef, garlic, parsley, basic, onion, V8, salt and pepper. Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours or high for 4-5 hours. When there is 30 minutes left of cooking time, add in the cup of water and noodles. Put lid back on and cook for final 30 minutes.

So, I put ours in at 3:00, and added the pasta in at 6:00. I omitted the water, because I was like, this is runny enough, but then when it was finished, it wasn’t soup at all, just a pasta dish. I may add the water, if I cook this again. But it was really good, and I added some mozzarella cheese when I spooned myself up a dish, which I think made it much better.