Food Friday: Lasagna!

I love pasta...spaghetti, lasagna, manicotti, ravioli...I love it all.  I mostly make spaghetti at home because its quick and easy.  Lately I have been making lasagna more often because of this awesome recipe that I found in the Jarratt Volunteer Fire Department Ladies Auxiliary Cookbook.  The cookbook contains recipes from men and women in the community and I have found lots of recipes that I use regularly.  If you have one you should definitely pull it out and use it.  This lasagna recipe is actually Laci Lynch's and it has become my go-to when I want to make lasagna.

 

The recipe actually calls to use a 9x13 dish but I somehow manage to stuff as much of the ingredients into an 8x8 dish since its just for Michael and I.  I have made it in a 9x13 dish before but it just seems like we have so much leftover.  When I make it in a smaller dish it usually all gets eaten in a couple of days.

 

Ingredients:

2 cans Hunts Garlic Tomato Sauce (I buy Hunts Garlic, Basil, and Oregano Tomato Sauce and I had to get 4 cans because I could only find the small cans)

1 1/2-2 pounds hamburger (I use a package of ground chicken)

Lasagna noodles (I use the no boiling required type)

1 Large Container Cottage Cheese (If you are using the smaller baking dish, you won't need the whole container)

2 Cups Shredded Cheese (Sometimes I use cheddar and sometimes mozarella, or a mixture of the two if I have it.  Both are really good.)

 

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and brown your ground meat...

Pour a layer of tomato sauce in the bottom of your dish...just enough to cover.

Add a layer of noodles on top.

Next a layer of meat.  I used 1/2 of mine.

Next a layer of cottage cheese and then a layer of shredded cheese.

Then another layer of tomato sauce...I may be a little heavy handed with the sauce...I love tomato sauce.  You may want to go a little more light :)

More noodles...

Another layer of meat and sauce...

And a final layer of cottage cheese and shredded cheese.  I could be heavy handed with the cheese too.  Its not a good lasagna unless your ingredients are bubbling out of the top :) 

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.  You can cover it for about 50 minutes and then uncover for the last 10 to brown the top.

OK so is it just me or does it look burnt?  haha...I don't know why this picture showed up like this but it turned out perfectly and was delicious!  This recipe is a little more loose (it could be all the sauce and cheese that I loaded in there) than some lasagnas but it tastes so good.   I made this on Tuesday of this week and it was all gone Wednesday night....I'd say it was a success, especially considering that Michael doesn't like leftovers! 

 If you own a JVFD Ladies Auxiliary Cookbook, or any cookbook put together by local people, pull that thing out and use it...there are lots of great recipes to be tried!