www.theotherpress.ca

Lire & STYLE.

 

Lunch of the Week: Slow cooker slop

Warm, mushy,
hearty goodness

Sophie
Isbister
Life & Style

lifeandstyle@theotherpress.ca

he name of this column is

turning out to be kind of
a misnomer: over the last few
weeks, Lunch of the Week has
focussed on all kinds of meals.
We covered breakfast, and even
a few dinner recipes that can be
converted into delicious leftover
lunches. Continuing in that vein,
Iam now going to spend my
precious words convincing you
all to buy a slow cooker and start
using the shit out of it.

I got my first slow cooker as
a hand-me-down. I don’t even
know the name brand because it
has worn off over time, but I like
to imagine it’s part of the Super
Awesome line from Timesaving
Cookware. Everything I have
made in it—stew, pulled pork,
chilli, turkey soup, and even
apple crumble—has been
delicious. More importantly for
my busy student lifestyle, the
ingredients that you throw into
it take almost no time to prep.
And, since meals take four to
eight hours to cook, you can
easily complete almost a week's
worth of reading while you wait.
It's win-win-win!

Being a pressed-for-time
student has meant that a lot of
my food has been of the fast

variety, or else made in huge
batches and then eaten for every
meal until I’m so sick of it I
could never eat another bite (I’m
lookin’ at you, chilli). I haven’t
even tried the time-consuming,
complicated dishes that I love,
like lasagne—that is, until I
discovered that slow cooker
lasagne is not only absolutely
delicious, but dead easy to make.

There are three steps to slow
cooker lasagne, and they take
about a half hour, maximum.
There’s the meat sauce step, the
cheese filling step, and then the
assembly step. After that, all you
need to do is wait—wait while
saucy, cheesy goodness fills your
house with delicious Italian
scents, as your hungry tummy
grumbles with anticipation.

This recipe works in four-, five-,
or six-quart slow cookers, and
serves about eight people.

To make the meat sauce,
first brown the beef with a
diced yellow onion. Drain the
fat (or don’t—decadent!), then
add your can of pasta sauce, an
extra can’s worth of water, all
your spices, and your prepared
veggies. Unlike with traditional
lasagne, there is no need to let
it simmer. All of that magic
happens during the sauce’s
lengthy stay in magic slow
cooker land.

While your beef is
browning, make the cheese
filling by mixing the ricotta,
mozzarella, parmesan, egg, and
a bit of pepper in a bowl. Set
aside 1/4 cup of the mozzarella

and half the parmesan cheese—
you'll need that later.

To assemble, scoop one
cup of your sauce into the slow
cooker. Then cover with three
lasagne noodles (they don’t have
to be the ready-for-the-oven
kind, any kind will do). You'll
have to snap them strategically
to fit in your slow cooker—this
is probably the hardest part
of the process. Then layer half
your cheese mixture on top of
the noodles, then two cups of
sauce, then noodles, then cheese
mixture, then the rest of the
sauce. That cheese you set aside?
After your tasty meal has cooked
on the low setting for four to six
hours, throw the extra cheese
on top. While it melts, you can
throw together a speedy Caesar
salad.

You will need:

1 Ib ground beef

1 can or jar (680 ml)
spaghetti sauce

1 green or red pepper

1 or 2 carrots, grated

1 cup water

1 container (500 grams)
ricotta cheese

1 cup grated mozzarella
cheese, divided

1/4 cup grated parmesan
cheese, divided

1 egg

1 tsp pepper
6 lasagne noodles,

uncooked and broken to fit

 

Proto courtesy of Sophie Isbister

 

What your smartphone
says about your
personality

Sophie
Isbister
Life & Style

lifeandstyle@ theotherpress.ca

Yu smartphone is with
you more than anyone
else in your life. If you’re

like me, you wake up to its
alarm, check your notifications
immediately, and then spend
the rest of the day splitting
your time between the real
world outside and the virtual
world contained in your shiny,
glass-screened best friend. If
you don’t have a smartphone,

 

maybe stop reading this article.

Apples or berries?

If you love your smartphone
as much as I do, then keep
reading to find out what it says
about your personality!

iPhone: If you have an
iPhone 4 or 45, you are the
classic student hipster. You’re
also savvy—you like your
things to be stylish and work
well. You need all the latest
apps and features, sign every
text with an emoji, and you
probably upgraded to iOS 7
and are regretting it because
it slowed your phone down.
If you have an iPhone 5, you
probably work in media or
have rich parents. How nice for
you. Oh, and whatever iPhone
you have, you probably take a
lot of selfies.

Samsung Galaxy S3 or
Nexus 4: You're a little bit
different than everyone else,

and you're not afraid to tell
people. Over and over. About
how amazing your phone

is. And you're never going
back to iPhone. Yeah, I get it,
Android is just so much better.
You adopted the technology
early. You're the kind of person
who has to modify your

IKEA furniture so it’s unique.
It's fitting that you have a
smartphone where you can
change every component of
its operating system—if you
ever get around to it. Either
way, you can rest easy at
night, knowing that you're a
trendsetter.

Samsung S i9000/older
model smartphones: You're
probably not really into your
smartphone. I bet you play
a lot of sports and have an
active and fulfilling social

life. Sometimes you use the
Facebook app when you're
bored and find a Wi-Fi hotspot,
and you don’t even notice
how laggy and slow your
phone is. God bless you.
Nexus 5: You're
very excited that the
Nexus 5 came
out and you're

puke up that sixth tequila
sunrise. The kind of person
who says, “I just don’t
like touch screens!” You're
business minded; you
like your phone to be
straightforward and
kind of clunky. You
might also be my
mom. If you have

 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

probably one of the new
waiting BlackBerry
for it to ship models, you

right now. Your
smartphone really
is your best friend.
You'd probably marry
it if that was legal.
BlackBerry:
You're the designated
driver—the reliable
friend who’s always
there to hold someone's
hair back while they

just don’t
give up,
do

you?

 

 

11