Happy Monday to ya! Hope your week is off to a great start. Mine was slightly better than normal because I had some awesome leftovers to look forward to during my lunch break!
Lasagna!!
I got semi-crafty in my kitchen yesterday afternoon, and decided that it had been far too long since I made lasagna. So I made sure to pick up some lasagna noodles while grocery shopping, and whipped this baby up!
Meaty Lasagna Recipe
Ingredients:
- 3/4 lb. ground beef (or turkey!)
- 3/4 lb. ground Italian sausage
- Garlic salt
- 1 jar pasta sauce/marinara sauce
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1 box whole wheat lasagna noodles
- 2 eggs
- 15 oz. container Ricotta cheese
- 2 cups reduced fat Mozzarella cheese
- 3 tbsp. parsley (chopped if fresh)
- 1/2 cup cottage cheese
- Salt & pepper
To begin, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Brown the meats together in a large sauce pan.
Drain off extra grease, add a couple hearty sprinkles of garlic salt, marinara sauce, and water. Let this meaty sauce mixture simmer on low while you prepare the cheese mixture. Stir it occasionally and don’t let it stick!
In a medium size bowl, combine the ricotta cheese, cottage cheese, parmesan cheese, 1 cup mozzarella cheese, parsley, 2 eggs, and salt and pepper (around 2 tsp. of each).
Avoid the urge to taste this cheesy concoction – there’s lots of raw egg in there! Now you can start layering the lasagna into a 13″ x 9″ baking dish. Turn off the heat to the meat sauce if you haven’t already. Begin by pouring about 1 cup meat sauce into the bottom of the baking dish.
Next place 3 lasagna noodles lengthwise on top of the sauce followed by adding 1/2 of the cheesy mixture on top of the noodles, spread evenly.
It’ll look kinda like that! Now do the sauce, noodle, cheese layers one more time. On top of the last layer of cheese add one more layer of noodles followed by the remaining pasta sauce.
Mmm look at those layers!
Once everything is spread evenly, layer the remaining 1 cup mozzarella cheese over the top.
Now cover the top with aluminum foil and bake at 350 for 45 minutes. OR you can cover it and refrigerate it for a few hours until you’re ready to start baking – this is what I did! After it bakes for 45 minutes, remove the foil and let it continue baking for an additional 10 minutes. Don’t overbake it because your noodles will start to get mushy!
And voila! After those final 10 minutes, you are all done! And your house should be smelling mighty fine. 🙂
Yummo! Nick and I both had seconds….and yes, I took my Lactaid to help my tummy digest ALL the dairy!
And now we have leftovers for days. I love it! It will make lunch prep super fast and easy for the week..or maybe the first part of the week at least.
Well now I hope I’ve inspired you to make a semi-homemade lasagna for your family in the near future. It took less than 30 minutes to put together and was a big hit!
Have a great evening! Nighty night. 🙂
Mac & No Cheese 