Instant Pot Lasagna Kids Favorite
This instant pot lasagna is the perfect meal for kids, especially picky eaters. The recipe is simple to make, a lot quicker and easier than traditional oven methods.
Instant Pot lasagna is easy to put together, and the result is perfectly cooked, tender noodles with just the right amount of sauce and cheese.
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Ingredients Used in Instant Pot Lasagna
- Ground Beef — Use lean ground beef, otherwise you may need to drain the meat after the browning process. If you’d like to use ground pork, turkey or chicken, you can sub those for the ground beef.
- Oregano — If you feel this green will cause issue, you can leave it out!
- Salt — Himalayan, ground, enhances the flavors.
- Pepper — Freshly ground black pepper.
- Marinara Sauce — We use our favorite, Victoria White Linen Sauce that we get from Costco. It has a mild garlicky flavor and some larger chunks of tomato pieces. You can puree it if you think the tomato pieces will be too big, but the Instant Pot will break them down some. You can use your favorite marinara sauce.
- Lasagna Noodles — Dry, uncooked, ready cook or non ready cook, low carb, etc. Basically any dry lasagna noodles will do.
- Marbled Cheddar Cheese — You can use plain cheddar cheese shredded, but we always have the marbled variety on hand.
- Havarti Cheese — Sliced Havarti cheese is nice to include, sometimes if we don’t have it, we just use additional shredded cheddar cheese.
What to Serve With Instant Pot Lasagna – Kids Favorite
Your kids will love this lasagna with grated parmesan cheese and garlic bread. You can also include a salad and some chopped vegetables on the side.
For an appetizer that the adults will especially appreciate, try baked spinach artichoke dip. You can also try asparagus cucumber tomato salad – it’s another super option.
Tips for Making Instant Pot Lasagna Kid Friendly
Some extra but optional steps, depending on your kids preferences.
We use a tomato sauce that has some larger pieces of tomatoes in it, so I put the sauce in a deep container and quickly puree it with an immersion blender. Although, the instant pot does a good job of breaking the sauce down so if you don’t get to this step, it’s ok.
I don’t add any ricotta cheese to this because of the texture. That’s why I use shredded cheese and sliced cheese. Feel free to experiment with the layers if you would like to make this with different cheeses. I keep ours very plain because I get two thumbs up from all and the kids say it’s the best ever lasagna just as it is. I don’t want to mess with a good thing. 🙂
As for the meat, ground beef or ground turkey, whatever you use, the pieces only break down to a certain point during the browning process. Before I add the two cups of water, I sometimes do a quick puree of the browned meat with the immersion blender, just a few pulses, to break it down a bit more. You could use a food processor, but I find that the immersion blender while in the instant pot is quick and easy. I find the smaller meat pieces sneak into the lasagna better and the kids will probably eat a bit more meat rather than push it to the edge of the plate.
The lasagna once cooked, can be a little tricky to get out of the instant pot. First of all, I let it cool a few minutes. Then, I use a spatula to cut the pieces and a large serving spoon to dig under and pull out one portion at a time to each plate. If it gets a little messy, that’s ok, because we cut it up into bite sized squares anyhow. Toss on some freshly grated parmesan cheese and the mess gets even better!
As mentioned, this lasagna is mainly for kids, although it is really good and you will find that the grown ups do like it as well. If I was making it mainly for adults, I might add more to it, but as a basic lasagna it works!
Time Saving Tips for Large Family Cooking
In our family, we love to cook meals with plenty of flavor, but for every spicy dish we make, there’s at least one other mild dish. Instant Pots make it easier for us to cook for both kids and adults.
If you have a large family and don’t always like to eat mild food, and also need to save time, check out our article about the Benefits of Owning Two Instant Pots.
We like to cook one mild Instant Pot recipe that you can find in our Kid Friendly section, and of course, a second spicier Instant Pot recipe you can find in our Instant Pot Recipes section. This has worked very well for us and may be a good solution for you if you need ways to get food on the table quickly, while satisfying the whole family.
While the two instant pots are working their magic, you can manually prepare salads and chop veggies, and use the stove top or oven in addition, to round out the meals, if necessary.
Other Favorite Kid Friendly Meals
Some tried and true recipes that kids love:
- Instant Pot Mac and Cheese
- Almond Flour Parmesan Chicken Nuggets
- Instant Pot Spaghetti and Meatballs
- Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes
- Instant Pot Pasta Sauce
- Pizzadillas
- Margherita Pita Pizzas (For kids, omit the garlic and sub shredded mozzarella cheese for the fresh mozza if they prefer it)
- Mini Crêpes
- Mini Waffles
You can find these and more in our Kid Friendly Recipes Section. Don’t forget to check out our best five star kid meals for picky eaters!
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Instant Pot Lasagna Kids Favorite
Equipment
Ingredients
- ½ Pound Ground Beef
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ½ teaspoon Black Pepper
- ½ teaspoon Oregano
- 2 Cups Water
- 12 Lasagna Noodles, dry
- 2 Cups Marinara Sauce
- 2 Cups Marble Cheddar Cheese, shredded
- 4 Slices Havarti Cheese
Instructions
- Heat Oil in Instant Pot on Saute mode. Once hot, add ground beef, salt, pepper and oregano.
- Brown ground beef. Optionally use an immersion blender a few pulses, to break down the meat to even smaller pieces.
- Add two cups of water to the browned ground meat in the Instant Pot.
- Layer four dry lasagna noodles (each broken once) and make them fit. Do your best to cover the entire surface area.
- Cover with half of the shredded cheddar cheese.
- Add a third of the tomato sauce on top of the cheddar cheese. You can spread it out to the edges using a spoon.
- Break and arrange four more dry lasagna noodles to cover the surface.
- Add the remaining shredded cheddar cheese and the four slices of havarti cheese.
- Add another third of sauce. Spread out to the edges to cover cheese using a spoon.
- Break remaining four dry lasagna noodles and arrange to cover.
- Pour on the remaining sauce, make sure the top is covered to your liking with enough sauce. You can add a little more if you have extra sauce available.
- Fasten lid securely and set Instant Pot to Pressure Cook on High setting for 8 minutes.
- Naturally release the remaining pressure (for about 10 minutes).
- Open lid, allow to cool sufficiently, before transferring portions to each individual plate. Use a spatula to cut the squares and a large serving spoon to help scoop out the portions.
Nutrition
Note
The above nutritional values are estimates and should only be used as a guide. If you are following a specific diet or have dietary restrictions, please use your preferred nutritional calculator. If you have a food allergy please ensure that none of the listed ingredients are part of your restrictions. As well, always use a food thermometer to ensure safe cooking temperature of the food items.
