Ninja System: Pasta Fagiole Soup

Recipe and pictures by Sonja Hackett :)

Pasta Fagioli in the Crockpot~ just like Olive Garden
2 lbs ground beef
1 onion, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
2 (28 ounce) cans diced tomatoes, undrained
1 (16 ounce) can red kidney beans, drained
1 (16 ounce) can white kidney beans, drained
3 (10 ounce) cans beef stock
3 teaspoons oregano
2 teaspoons pepper
5 teaspoons parsley
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce (optional)
1 (20 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
8 ounces pasta

Directions:
Brown beef in a skillet.
Drain fat from beef and add to crock pot with everything except pasta.
Cook on low 7-8 hours or high 4-5 hours. Add pasta the last 30 minutes.
Serve with a nice crisp green salad and some garlic bread!
Enjoy

Ninja System: Lasagna Caprese Roll Ups

Recipe and picture by Michael Wright and Vanessa Pellegrino :)

Here's the recipe. All my wife did different is use fresh mozzarella instead of shredded. 

Caprese Lasagna Roll Ups -
loaded with Mozzarella, fresh tomatoes and fresh basil!

Ingredients

8 lasagna noodles, uncooked
14 oz freshly shredded, low-moisture part skim Mozzarella cheese, divided
3/4 cup Ricotta cheese
1 large egg white
1/3 cup freshly, finely shredded Parmesan cheese (about 1 1/4 oz)
freshly ground black pepper
3 - 4 medium Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced (about 1/6 inch thick slices)
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil, plus more for garnish
1 cup marinara sauce, recipe follows
Simple Marinara Sauce
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup finely chopped yellow onion
2 cloves garlic finely minced
1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook pasta according to directions listed on package to al dente. Drain pasta (DO NOT rinse with water) and align lasagna noodles in a single layer on a large sheet of parchment or wax paper.

For filling, in a large mixing bowl, whisk together ricotta cheese and egg white until well blended. Stir in Parmesan cheese. Mix in 12 oz. of the Mozzarella cheese and season with black pepper to taste (I wouldn't recommend seasoning with salt just because the cheeses already have plenty of salt).

Place 1/4 cup of the cheese mixture over each lasagna noodle and spread into an even layer, going from one end of the lasagna to the other. Align 4 thin tomato slices over cheese mixture then sprinkle fresh basil over top. Snugly roll lasagna noodles to opposite end. Spread about 1/4 cup pasta sauce in the bottom of an 11 x 7 inch baking dish. Align lasagna roll ups, seam side down in dish. Top each roll up with about 2 Tbsp of the pasta sauce (covering edges of pasta so they don't dry out while baking). Sprinkle top with remaining 2 oz. shredded Mozzarella. Bake in preheated oven 30 minutes. Remove from oven, plate pasta and garnish with plenty of basil ribbons. Serve warm.

Ninja System: Pesto Pasta With Shrimp

Recipe and pictures by Wendy Copper :)

1 box bow tie pasta, cooked , rinsed,drained and cooled. (Pasta was cooked in Ninja)
1 lb medium cooked shrimp
Grape/cherry tomatoes
Cucumbers, sliced
1 8 oz jar of classic pesto sauce
1/2 cup mayo
salt/pepper to taste
Cook pasta, set aside. Mix together pesto and mayo in separate bowl. Combine everything together and chill and serve.
Very yummy if you like shrimp and pesto flavor

Slow Cooker/Ninja: Ranch Pesto Chicken

Recipe and pictures by Wendy Copper :)

(Crockpot/Ninja or lunchbox) Ranch Pesto Chicken with carrots and parmesan noodles. Doesn't look pretty, but tastes good. 
Chicken breasts or thighs
1 8oz jar pesto
1 ranch (dry) salad dressing packet
1/2cup chicken broth (or water and a chicken bouillon cube)
Mix ingredients together and pour over chicken.
Slow cook for 6-8 hours on low
Serve over pasta or rice..

Burton Lunchbox: Eggplant Lasagna With Meat Sauce

Recipe and pictures by Tomas Ventura :)

 1/2 a small eggplant
1/3 cup pasta sauce
1 egg
1/4 cup mozzarella
1/4 ricotta
1/4 cup Parmesan
1/4 # ground beef
1/4 cup mushrooms
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 TBS olive oil

Brown the ground meat, sliced mushrooms and garlic..Drain and add sauce Peel and slice eggplant. In a small bowl mix together 3 cheeses and egg. 
Start building the lasagna. In the loaf pan start with the sauce on the bottom of the pan. A layer of eggplant and a layer of cheese mixture. Repeat till the lasagna reaches the top. End with sauce. Garnish with a little mozzarella on top. 
Bake 1hour and a half. Let set 15 minutes and enjoy.

Slow Cooker: Lasagna

Recipe and picture by Melissa Hatfield :)

 1lb of ground lean hamburger 1 lb of Italian sausage , 1 bag of pepperoni I used the tiny ones , 1 small container reccotta cheese, 1 container cottage cheese, 1 can mushrooms, 1 can black olives 1 large jar of pasta sauce 2 cups of water and I used the no boil noodles. Cooked the meat in the crock pot on high for 2 hrs then added reccotta cheese and cottage cheese with sauce and water broke up noodles and added to the crock pot. Coverd and cooked on low for 3 hrs and then added more cheese and cooked for a hr. Dished out and enjoyed . There is enuf left for 2 more meals.

Slow Cooker: Baked Spaghetti Squash

Recipe and picture by Kim Truitt Southers :)

 Quick sauce:
- large can of crushed tomatoes (I season myself, but see then with basil & oregano already in them)
-1 onion
-1 bell pepper
- garlic (I like 3-5 cloves)
- mushrooms, Italian, sausage, or whatever you like
-1 small - med spaghetti squash
- shredded cheese (I've never met a cheese I didn't like)

The spaghetti squash can be cooked whole (well pierced) or halved & seeded then cooked. Crockpot-2? Hours on high with a little water for steam, 15-18 min in the micro or 30-45 min @350 in oven (I use a bit of water for steam). 

Mix sauce, cheese & squash. I prefer to bake mine for 20-30 min to brown the cheese, but it's not necessary. (When we didn't have an oven, I'd just put it all in the crock & leave it on "warm" until we were ready to eat it. )

Slow Cooker: Cheese Tortellini and Italian Sausage

Recipe and picture by Bernadette Nicholson Richards :)

Crock pot cheese tortellini and sausage

1 (19oz) bag of frozen cheese tortellini
1 bag fresh spinach
2 (14.5oz) cans diced Italian style tomatoes, drained
1 (8oz) cream cheese, softened and cut into chunks
1 lb sausage (I used Johnsonville Italian sausage links)
2-4c chicken broth (start with 2 & add as needed..I used about 3)

Brown the sausage (if using links..slice into coins).
Place all ingredients into the crock pot. Mix well. Cover and cook on low 4-6hrs. Serves 3-4

Slow Cooker: Sausage Tortellini

Recipe and pics by Wendy Copper :)

First you fry up a1lb of sausage and drain as much fat out as possible (I used a garlic cheese sausage)
Then add about 2 1/2 cups of chicken broth (I added 4chic boullion cubes also) *recipe calls for 3-4 cups of broth..but that would make it too soupy, in my opinion*
Then add 2 cans 14 oz italian style diced tomatoes
1 bag of baby spinach
1 8oz block of cream cheese cubed on top
Recipe calles for adding in 19 oz bag of frozen cheese tortellini at the same time. And cook low for 5/6 hrs.
But I thought the tortellini would be too over cooked so I added it about 11/2 hrs before eating.

Antipasto Salad

Recipe and picture by Petra.

Ingredients:

Jar of marinated artichoke hearts

Jar of roasted red bell peppers

Half red onion

Small tub grape tomatoes

Genoa salami

Fresh mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup pitted kalimata olives

1/2 cup green olives

Classic Italian dressing

Julienne the onion, salami and bell peppers. Slice the cheese in chunks/strips. Add all ingredients and add a drizzle of Italian dressing. Put in fridge for 1 or 2 hours before serving.

Burton Lunchbox: Spicy Italian Sausage Lasagna

Recipe and pictures by Steve McFarlin :)

Before and after Lasagna with spicy Italian Sausage. It only takes an hour or so in a lunch box oven. Use no boil lasagna pasta, Ragu, ricota and six cheese Italian shredded cheese and Johnsonville Italian Sausage removed from the casing. Start with a little ragu in the bottom of a foil loaf pan. Just enough to cover the bottom. Then pasta more sauce ricota and cheese them sausage. Repeat until pan is full. Bake for an hour or so. You'll thank me later.