My Short Cut Lasagna is complete comfort food for me and something I always take to friends after they’ve had surgery, a new baby, or need to feed a crowd. But, we are back on the Weight Watcher bandwagon and I’m all in on adapting our favorite recipes to be a little skinny in calories but high on taste. This Skinny Lasagna Soup is totally Weight Watcher friendly with low points and lots of deep earthy and cheesy flavors that come from cooking in the slow cooker all day.

Who said you can’t have oven-ready comfort foods in the middle of the summer while dieting and developing better eating habits?

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Oh and before we jump too deep into this, if you are not using Slow Cooker Liners, they will change your life. I have a white bowl in my Slow Cooker and I HATE cleaning lasagna or taco soups out of that thing. Slow Cooker Liners save my rear every time. Much like foil on the bottom of my sheet pan meals, they are THE ONLY WAY TO GO if you are cooking in a slow cooker. The end. Period. End of Sentence. This is what big sisters do, they save your rear when it comes to easy clean up after dinner!

Print Recipe

Weight Watcher Skinny Lasagna Soup

This three-point Weight Watcher Skinny Lasagna Soup is full of rich, deep earthy and cheesy flavors without all the fat. And, this soup cooks in the slow cooker all day so you can have it any time of the year without the hassle that comfort food dinners usually bring.

Prep Time20

Cook Time8

Course: Main Course, Soup

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: comfort food, crockpot, italian, pasta, skinny, slow cooker, soup, weight watchers

Servings: 12 bowls

Ingredients

2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion
1 bell pepper
2 pounds lean ground turkey or turkey sausage crumbles I do 1 pound each
15 oz can Italian stewed tomatoes
15 oz can tomato sauce
15 oz can crushed tomatoes
4 Tablespoons tomato paste
2 cups fat-free chicken broth canned or homemade
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons Italian Seasoning
Salt and pepper to taste
1 box frozen or 2 cups fresh spinach optional
2 chopped zucchini optional
2 cups diced mushrooms optional
2 cups whole wheat rotini or bowties or 8 sheets lasagna noodles
Fat-Free Ricotta or Cottage Cheese
Fat-Free Mozarella cheese for topping

Instructions

Add a slow cooker liner to crockpot.
In a skillet, heat oil.
Dice onion and bell pepper.
Add to hot oil.
Saute for 4-5 minutes, or longer until onions are translucent and softened.
Scoop into the bottom of the slow cooker.
In same pan, cook meat, unless using sausage crumbles.
Once the meat is browned, add to the slow cooker.
Into Slow Cooker, add tomatoes, sauce, paste, chicken broth, and seasonings.
Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Longer means deeper flavor.
30 minutes before serving, add spinach, zucchini, and mushrooms if using.
20 minutes before serving, cook pasta*.
Serve – ½ cup cooked pasta in the bottom, 1 spoonful cheese, ladle over soup, sprinkle with mozzarella

Notes

Notes: This is adapted from a Pioneer Woman recipe and others I’ve had before from Pinterest. To make it Weight Watcher Friendly, I subbed out the meat for a lean turkey and added in lots of veggies and tomato flavors that get a deep and rich flavor from simmering in the slow cooker all day. I’ve replaced the cheesy part of the lasagna with one big scoop of Fat-Free ricotta or cottage cheese. I put mine in the bottom since my husband likes the taste but not the look. But, it could be a really fun bowl of food with that scoop of cheese on top. And, feel free to sub out fresh herbs any time you have them. The meat can be added when you build your bowl of soup if you do not want it simmering in the sauce all day.

*NOODLES – Many recipes call for you to add the dry noodles to the soup two hours before you are ready to eat this. I find the noodles just continue to absorb the liquid and turn into a really soft texture that I just don’t like. So, I like to keep my noodles separate and just spoon the soup over them as we eat this. If you were storing it for lunches or putting half in the freezer, just stir them together. But if keeping for leftovers later in the same week, store them separately in the refrigerator and serve them fresh in layers, like you did the first time.

PESTO – pesto is one of my favorite ways to season Italian foods. You can add 2 Tablespoons in with the seasonings. It only adds one more point per serving, but a big punch of flavor. Substitute 2 tablespoons of Pesto for 1 tablespoon of Italian seasoning.

Slow Cooker vs. InstaPot

I’m a Slow Cooker gal. So many people are always trying to get me to switch over to the InstaPot and I”m not there. You wanna know why? I can start a dinner recipe in the morning, when I have time and go about my business and when my husband calls that he is on his way home, I can pack up my projects for the day and BOOM! most of dinner is already cooked.

When it comes time for dinner, I”m usually spent. I’ve either been out running errands or I’ve been wrangling a toddler and while I love cooking dinner, I just don’t have it in me every day to make a lavish, healthy meal when its 6 o’clock at night! Can I get a witness?!?!!?

So, I’m a Slow Cooker gal. I love to fix it and forget it and stay busy during the day all while multi-tasking away on my dinner. I sometimes feel even more productive when I go to be cooking things like my Slow Cooker Apple Butter and wake up the next morning to not only breakfast being ready but a bunch of goodies I can and share with my friends. What’s better than that?

So, for this stage of life and my cooking style, the slow cooker is my best friend. I’m a never say never gal, but I’ve just not jumped on the InstaPot bandwagon. But, all that being said, I’m pretty sure this would be a perfect recipe for your InstaPot, you’ll just have to work on your own directions, but hey I provided the ingredients list!