Cheesy Tortellini

I like to swap recipes with my friend Laurie. Today's recipe is one she sent me, and it is so good. I have made this several times now and love it because it's not only easy to make, but it makes great leftovers. It even freezes well.
This is a great option for company, because you can serve it with salad and garlic bread and have a great meal! It's also great if you have a week when you need meals for yourself, but you don't have time to cook every night. (That would normally be the case for me.)
Hope you love it!<

/em> The Recipe
1 pound ground beef
1 jar of spaghetti sauce
1 can of sliced mushrooms (4 ounces)
1 can of diced tomatoes undrained (14 ounces)
1 package of refrigerated or fresh tortellini (9 ounces)
2 cups shredded cheese

Brown ground beef and drain. Combine cooked beef, spaghetti sauce, mushrooms and tomatoes in a slow cooker and cook on low for 7-8 hours or on high for 4 hours. Stir in tortellini and cheese, cook for 15 minutes more on low or until tortellini is tender.
I had never cooked with tortellini before this, so I had no idea where to find it. I finally tracked it down in the cheese area. You can use any kind of cheese you have on hand - mozzarella, cheddar, a blend of cheese. The same is true of the spaghetti sauce and the tomatoes - add in some extra flavor with one of those two things if you like! You could use sausage if you prefer, but I typically have beef on hand and use that.

As always, I put a slow cooker liner in before dumping in all this stuff - makes it MUCH easier to clean later. I put in the sauce, the tomatoes, and the mushrooms first.

Then I add the beef on top of that.

Mix it all up! I usually make this on my lunch hour and then it's ready after work...so I do the four hours on high cooking option.

And here's what it will look like after cooking.

Add the tortellini. Sometimes I get whole wheat just to make myself feel better. :)

And some cheese on top, of course.

Let that cook for a little while....

Put some in a bowl, add a little more cheese on top - and eat!!