Tortellini with Broccoli

Today's crock pot meal felt like cheating. It didn't even feel like cooking, but I guess that's one of the perks of the crock pot, right? :-)

Today's meal was from the Fix-it And Forget-it 5-ingredient Favorites cook book (LOVE this cook book!) - page 160. Here's the recipe as it was printed in the cook book (use a 4qt crock pot):

1/2 cup water

26-oz jar pasta sauce

1 tbsp Italian seasoning

9-oz pkg frozen spinach and cheese tortellini

16-oz pkg frozen broccoli florets

1. In a bowl, mix water, pasta sauce, and seasoning together
2. Pour one-third of sauce into bottom of slow cooker. Top with tortellini.
3. Pour one-third of sauce over tortellini. Top with broccoli.
4. Pour remaining sauce over broccoli.
5. Cook on high 2 1/2 - 3 hours, or until broccoli and pasta are tender but not mushy.

I modified this slightly based on the ingredients that I could find/get.

The tortellini came in 19 oz packages (not 9) and I think this might have been a typo in the cook book, because I can't imagine there would be less than 1/2 of the tortellini. I also didn't have Italian seasoning, so I added what seemed Italian to me: garlic sauce, basil, oregano and black pepper.

It felt like there wasn't a lot of sauce - but I think that's because I really like sauce and expected it to have more. Next time, I might buy the larger size pasta sauce so I would have a little bit more.

I was a good girl this time, didn't peek or lift the lid. But honestly, it was a little difficult to know if it was done because there was no sauce boiling or anything. After 2.5 hours, it was definitely done. 

The tortellini actually started to stick to the sides (I guess that's why you needed sauce in the bottom of the pot), but not too bad. 

(This is not the best picture - it tasted much better than in looks. :-)

It was really yummy. Super simple and plenty of leftovers! Yeah, this was so much better than fast food or some other sort of takeout.