Monday, January 10, 2011

Super Easy Lasagna!

I have had many requests for my super easy Lasagna recipe that I make often. Why do I make it often? For one, it's so easy!! Two, it's so yummy! Three, it's one of the least expensive meals I make for my family. Four, I can make it in the morning and it's ready to go into the oven at dinner time. Five, I can make it the night before church and set the oven timer to cook it at 11, OR I can make it ahead of time and freeze it. My mother taught me to make it this way, and I am so thankful for this easy, tasty recipe.


Ingredients:
*About 2 cups of shred. Mozzarella cheeese (or more for top)
* 2 cups of Cottage Cheese (16 oz)
*2 eggs
*1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
*Salt and Pepper
*Dried Parsley Flakes
*Spaghetti Sauce (I buy the large tin at Costco)
* 1 box of reg. lasagna noodles
* 1/2 cup of water
* 13 x 9 pan (or whatever size you want to make, you can adjust the recipe)

Directions:

In a medium bowl, mix together (by hand) 1 and a half cups of the Mozzarella cheese, cottage cheese, the eggs, half of the Parmesan cheese, a few tsps of salt, a little pepper and a TBSP or so of the dried parsley flakes. (They are really just for looks) It should look like this: (Except on this day I ran out of parsley flakes!)



In the 13 x 9 pan, begin with sauce on the bottom. Put about a cup of sauce down and spread it around. Then lay down your first layer of noodles. No need to cook the noodles beforehand!! Yay! You'll see how we get around that. For a 13 x 9 pan, you will be able to fit three rows of noodles across, and then a last row going the other direction, you just have to bust off the top part of the pasta so it fits. (you will see)





This is a good photo of how the noodles fit into a 13 x 9 pan.

So, pretend this is the bottom layer of noodles.















You then spoon some of the cheese mixture onto the noodles in little rows, like so.















Then spoon sauce over the cheese mixture.

















Now you're ready to lay down another layer of noodles. Repeat for a total of three cheese layers.



END the lasagna with noodles on top, then sauce over the noodles. Onto the sauce sprinkle the rest of the Mozzarella cheese (and more?), and the rest of the Parmesan cheese.
Here's the magic: Add 1/2 cup of water into the pan, I run dribble mine along the sides. (this is what steams the noodles and cooks them)
Cover TIGHTLY with tin foil. Bake at 350 or so for 45 minutes. Then remove foil and cook an additional 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let it sit for a few minutes before cutting. Enjoy!!