Taste Test: Slow Cooker Spaghetti

After the clean eating week I did earlier in the year, we had supplies for one more meal that I wasn't able to squeeze into that week. We finally made it the other week and it was pretty good.

Ingredients:
1 lb lean ground turkey sausage (see recipe below)
1 jar spaghetti sauce
8 oz 100% whole wheat spaghetti (break into small pieces before adding to meat mixture)
1 cup low fat cottage cheese
1 cup skim mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 cup low-fat ricotta cheese
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
Kosher or sea salt to taste
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Turkey Sausage Ingredients:
1 lb ground turkey or chicken (we did turkey)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried sage (left out because I didn't have it)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (left out because I don't like spicy)
1 teaspoon dried oregano

Directions
Add all the sausage ingredients to a large mixing bowl and mix thoroughly. Cook ground turkey sausage in a large skillet over medium heat, breaking into small pieces while cooking. Ensure the turkey loses its pink color before removing from heat.
Drain, discard any fat, and set aside.
Combine meat with spaghetti sauce.
In a medium bowl combine cooked turkey sausage with the remaining ingredients and add to slow cooker.
Cover and cook on low 2 hours until cheese is bubbly.
Add spaghetti and 3/4 cup of water, stir thoroughly, and cook for an additional hour until the spaghetti is cooked through.
Serve and sprinkle with Parmesan if desired.

We cooked our noodles separate because we didn't want to wait another hour on them. The taste was really good, but it's just so hard to beat the convenience of spaghetti. The next time we made spaghetti, we used ground turkey, but made it the old school way. Stephen liked that lot better! This recipe made really good sauce, but I don't know that it was worth all of the extra time and work.

I'd say 7 out of 10.