Crock Pot Pizza

I think I first had this at a church carry-in, but the recipe was given to me by my friend, Marie. We'd gone to a party somewhere, and she took this. It was so fabulous that I knew I had to have it. I love to make this when I'm having company, because it feeds several (and would feed several more if I had a bigger slow-cooker!) and can cook while I'm doing something else.

This also makes a great dish to take to someone as a whole meal, which I did just a couple of weeks ago. My friend Rachel was moving, and I figured her time was more needed in the world of packing than the world of cooking, so I made dinner and took it over to her and her husband. She just kept the slow-cooker on warm until he got home and dinner was ready!When I took this to her, I also took over a loaf of garlic bread and some veggies with dip. (And of course, brownies...that recipe coming soon.) Makes a pretty easy meal!

One other nice thing about this is that you can alter the recipe to fit your pizza topping preferences.
The Recipe:

1 1/2 pounds of ground beef
1 pound rigatoni noodles
2 jars of pizza sauce
4 cups of mozzarella cheese
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1 medium onion, chopped
1 package of pepperoni
1 can of mushrooms
any other pizza toppings you like (sausage, peppers, etc)

Directions:
Brown ground beef and drain. Cook noodles and drain – spray with cold water. Take 1/4 of the ground beef and place it in the bottom of a five quart crock pot and proceed to layer all of the other ingredients. Repeat until gone. Cook on low for four hours. Do not stir.

This recipe was based on a five-quart slow-cooker, and mine is only three, so I've had to alter the amounts of some ingredients. I only use a pound of ground beef, and I don't use quite as many noodles. I only use one jar of pizza sauce, and usually I don't end up putting in quite the whole can of cream of mushroom soup (which, by the way, I know sounds really weird to put in this kind of recipe, but it works, and you can't really taste it).

I actually use the tri-color rotini for this, just to add color to the dish, but I think I've also used shells and bowties, and all sorts of other pastas when I needed something in a hurry and didn't have the normal stuff on hand. And as usual, I skip the chopping onions part and just use the dried flaked onion. Because it cooks so long, it's perfectly fine.
Sometimes I brown the beef the night before I assemble this. Since it only cooks for four hours, if I need it for dinner, I'll often assemble it on my lunch hour. Browning the beef the night before saves a huge chunk of time the next day.

If I do happen to prepare it all at once, I let the pasta cook while I brown the beef. If I'm doing the next-day thing, I don't prepare this part ahead.

Rinse them off...aren't they colorful?

To make it easier, I usually create a little assembly line with all the ingredients, so I can just go right down the line with my layers. I try to just guess at how much each layer should contain, but I admit my bottom layer is usually skimpy and the top layer is packed with all the leftovers. LOL. Fractions were never my thing. One thing about the pizza sauce...if I do end up with some left over, I just refrigerate it and use it for those little pizza-lets later!

I definitely use the slow-cooker liner on this to make clean up much easier!! Just begin layering...

And gradually add the toppings. The more, the merrier!!!

The finished, pre-cooked product! I fill it all the way to the very tip-top.

And after cooking.....yummy!!! This does warm up nicely, so if you have leftovers, they'll still be good the next day!!!!