CrockPot Chicken Canneloni

I am running out ideas for hubby to take for lunch. I like to try different things to keep the interest level up. I also want things that the posse will eat. The criteria I work with are: must have meat in it (meatless meals not met with great enthusiasm from the posse), must be easy to chew (for the little people of the posse), and must be tasty. I bought a box of oven-ready canneloni on sale a few weeks ago. Canneloni are basically pasta tubes that can be stuffed and cooked. Sounded appealling, kind of like a lasagna with less noodle.

From the recipe on the box and the internet I pieced together a recipe that would work in the crock. It was very tasty and cooked surprisingly quickly. The only issue that I had was that the pasta doesn't really maintain its shape. I expected nice little round tubes of stuffed pasta but it was certainly more of a layered lasagna consistency. Perhaps it would be better done in the counter top oven but everyone ate it. It was even more tasty the next day.

You will need:

• 1 box oven ready canneloni pasta
• 1 chicken breast sliced thinly
• 500 ml 1% cottage cheese, drained (this is supposed to be ricotta cheese but apparently they don't sell it in my small town)
• 1/2 bunch spinach chopped or 1 package frozen spinach drained and chopped
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
• 1 jar spaghetti sauce
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• olive oil
• 1 cup grated cheese of your choice (I used marble cheddar)

Saute chicken breast in a small amount of olive oil until cooked. Set aside to cool. In a large bowl mix together cottage cheese, parmesan, salt, pepper, basil, chopped spinach, eggs and half the grated cheese. Dice cooled chicken and add to cheese mixture. Mix well. Spread a thin layer of spaghetti sauce on the bottom of CrockPot (I used a 3 quart crock). Stuff cottage cheese/chicken mixture into each canneloni tube and place into crock. Cover layer of canneloni with a thin layer of spaghetti sauce and continue layering canneloni until you have used all of the cottage cheese mixture. Cover top layer of canneloni with thin layer of spaghetti sauce. Cook on High for 1.5 hours or Low for 3 hours. Half an hour before the end of the cooking time, sprinkle the top with remaining grated cheese.