My mom and I were talking a couple days ago and it came up that she doesn't know how to make lasagna. That it seems too difficult to do. That's a crime, y'all. And just plain untrue. My family LOVES lasagna!! And I am by no means a froufrou cook. I stick to the basics. We had my not-so-famous-very-basic-but-delicious lasagna just last night and as always, my men had seconds and thirds and Audrey sat at the table humming a constant "mmmmm....." as she ate. If there are any others of you out there who think that lasagna has to be time consuming or froufrou or scary in any way, I'm here to help. I don't really do recipes when it comes to cooking, but here's the gist of it, feel free to tweak to your family's liking.
Easy Peasy 10 minute, 5 Ingredient Lasagna
what you need:
1lb of ground meat of your choice. We use grass fed organic beef, you can use ground pork or whatever you like.
1 jar/can spaghetti sauce. Any kind you like is fine and dandy.
uncooked lasagna noodles. You'll need enough to cover your dish twice. Mine takes 10 noodles. I use whole wheat.
1 container of cottage cheese.
3 cups or so of shredded cheese. I like to use white cheddar.
salt, pepper, basil, onion, etc to taste
Start off by preheating your oven to 350°.
Brown your ground meat. We have lots of onions right now, so I throw some chopped onion in the skillet and also some ground pepper and basil (we didn't grow herbs this year, so I use dried).
While that is doing it's thing, get out your glass casserole pan,then open up your spaghetti sauce and spoon just a smidge into your pan and spread it around. It'll diminish your chances of noodles sticking to the bottom.
Speaking of noodles go ahead and put your first layer of noodles on top of the thin layer of sauce. I think my pan is larger than some, I do four noodles the long way and then I break off about an inch or so and lay one on the end the short way. Under no circumstances should you cook your noodles! That is just plain silliness and a waste of time.
Your meat should be about done. When it is, drain it. Then, go ahead and dump your remaining sauce right into the skillet of meat and stir it up. This mixture is your next layer, so dump half of it over your layer of noodles and spread it around.
Next, dump half (or a little less) the carton of cottage cheese on the meat and spread that around.
Sprinkle half your shredded cheese onto the cottage cheese.
Repeat all layers. Noodles, meat/sauce, cottage cheese, shredded cheese. This time it's really important that your noodles are covered with meat/sauce. If you have dry ends poking out they'll likely be crunchy and not cooked. ewww....
COVER TIGHTLY WITH FOIL. This is very important since the moisture needs to stay in there so the noodles cook. Cook for 30 minutes, then remove the foil and cook for an addition 30 minutes till it's all browned and bubbly and oh so yummy. :)
Serve this up with a fresh salad and you've got a meal that's sure to please.
5 comments:
I rarely make lasagna. Maybe four times a year. It's not that I think it's too difficult, I just never think to make it. Just like I never think to make jello salad. Poor Joel is so deprived.
Joel will definitely survive without jello salad. eww... Even as a kid, the cold slippery stuff with random things hovering in the bowl made me cringe. You're a great cook though, he is not deprived. Last I saw him he didn't appear to be wasting away. ;)
I'll be sure to tell him that you said that.....just kidding.
Jello salad is NOT salad. Okay, off my soapbox now.
I make lasagne every 2 weeks. It's a family favorite around here. I'd make it every week except that beef is so expensive here.
I love it. I do a from-scratch sauce (they don't have jarred spag. sauce here-- or if they occasionally do, it's something like $13-15 per jar, imported... and then use a white soft cheese and add eggs and milk to make it like ricotta, and then use the no-boil noodles and a similar-to-mozzerella white cheese... it works. And it's one of our favorites.
I used to think it was too hard. What did I know? I used to think *EVERYTHING* was too hard,back in the land of convenience-cooking.
{eye roll}
Once we moved to China, and it took me 3+ hours in the kitchen to make good meals for our family, I started really learning how to cook. I still have a LOT to learn, but I've come a long way from where I was 2 & 1/2 years ago. :)
Jess
Jess~your lasagna sounds yummy! I admire how you have made use of what's available where God has placed you and your family.
I have a hard time believing that you were ever anything less than a wonderful cook! Your gift of homemaking is quite inspiring!! Thanks so much for stopping by!
Post a Comment