ITALIAN CHEESY TORTELLINI

It’s Monday morning and here I sit at my kitchen table with my first cup of coffee and my laptop in the peace and quiet. No one else is up, no one is asking for breakfast, and I don't actually have anything to do today. Maybe it will be a ME day? After working all weekend and having heard all the news releases and the announcement from Food Network about not renewing Paula Dean’s contract I am just worn out. So I am sitting here secretly hoping maybe, just maybe if I stay home today that the Food Network might call me in as her replacement. They have an open spot now right?  What do you think? Cooking With The Crockologist, coming soon on Sunday evenings prime time. Can I even begin to fill her shoes? I am not sure I have that many crock pot recipes yet and certainly not with butter. I had better get started working on those recipes! So with that said here is my recipe of the week. This was a really quick and easy dinner for me this week.  The original recipe called for browning the meat but I didn't do that because the meat would cook and be covered by the marinara sauce. The only thing I did do was before adding the tortellini I scooped out some of the grease with a big spoon. I would have eliminated this step if I had browned the meat first but I am lazy and didn't want to wash another pan so I did it before I added the cheese and tortellini. Anyway the finished product was very delicious and cheesy. Tasted almost like lasagna. I served it with a salad and garlic bread. Another quick way to make this would be to use Italian meatballs as the meat and you could cut the cooking time in half and not have the grease either. Then you say why use a slow cooker,why not just use my oven? I use a slow cooker a lot because it allows me to leave the house and do other things like take phone calls from the Food Network, sign contracts, do kitchen remodeling and still feed my family.

INGREDIENTS:

½ lb. of hamburger meat

½ lb. of Italian sausage with casing removed

1  14 oz.  jar of marinara sauce

1 can of sliced mushrooms

1   9 oz. package of cheese tortellini thawed 

½ cup of shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup of mozzarella cheese

DIRECTIONS:

Spray crock pot with PAM.  Combine the ground beef and Italian sausage and place in crock pot. Then add the mushrooms and marinara sauce. Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours or on high for 5 hours. Thirty minutes before serving stir in the tortellini and cover with cheese and cook on low until the tortellini is tender.