Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Healthy Easy Homemade Lasagna

This is my Homemade Lasagna recipe.  I make it a lot when we are having company over for dinner because EVERYONE is sure to love it. I also make it for friends when they have had a baby or have been in the hospital because you usually get another night of leftovers! It's an all in one meal but you could add a salad and garlic bread depending on how many people you are feeding. This Recipe is pretty easy and you can't really mess it up even if you don't follow the exact measurements! The BEST part about this is NO ONE can tell that there are tons of veggies in it!!!

Ingredients:

Meat Sauce
  • 1 lb ground meat (can be substituted with tofu)
  • 1 minced garlic clove
  • 1 Tablespoon Parsley
  • 1 Tablespoon Italian Seasoning
  • 1 small can of V8 or 3/4 cup vegetable juice
  • 1 lb can diced tomatoes
  • 2 6oz cans tomato paste
  • Optional: 1-2 cups of raw vegetables (ground up in food processor)
Cheese Mixture
  • 1 large 24oz container of cottage cheese (3 cups)
  • 2 Tablespoons parsley
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup parmesan cheese
Other Main Ingredients
  • 1 lb Mozzarella Cheese
  • 1 9oz package of Oven-Ready Lasagna noodles

First thing I do is blend up my veggies! Use whatever you have, this time around I had Carrots, Kale, Eggplant, and Red Cabbage. This made about two cups of veggies AND my husband, while eating dinner, ACTUALLY asked if I put vegetables in the lasagna!!!! He couldn't tell!!!!

Now you are going to make your meat sauce. Cook the meat and veggies in a large pot.

After the meat is fully cooked add the rest of your ingredient and let simmer for 20/30 minutes. Stirring occasionally.

 While your sauce is cooking, make your cheese mixture... just add all ingredients in a bowl, mix together, and set aside.

If you bought Oven ready lasagna noodles, then they can be used just out of the package. If you couldn't find them you will need to cook you noodles (as box instructs). 

Lasagna simply means layers. Pictured below is all of your "layers". The next step is to layer in a regular 9X13 cooking pan. First its Lasagna noodles, cheese mixture, mozzarella cheese, and lastly meat sauce. You will most likely be repeating this three times.

I wanted to show you a few pictures of my layers...they aren't thick and they hardly cover the whole area of the pan. This is ok because it will all cook together and come out perfect!!! You just want enough to make three layers of each ingredient!


Here is what my noodle layer looks like. Normally 5 noodles across and overlapping a little.

Bake at 375 Degrees F for 30 minutes! Everyone in the family will LOVE this dish and beg for more!!!!


7 comments:

  1. Anonymous6/08/2012

    Is there a way to make your recipes printer-friendly? When I go to print, it's 6 pages long, and the ads show up along the side :0) Thank you for the recipe though, really enjoy your site!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am soooo sorry about the printing problem.... I have looked it up and there is a way to make printer friendly recipes but it will take me a little bit to work on and get it in on each post! I will work on it first for this recipe! Also, if you make the Lasagna, let me know what you think! I always get RAVE reviews with it! =)

      Delete
  2. I will be making this recipe x 2 as I will be freezing one to throw in the oven after my little one is born. Do you know what Time/temp I should cook this from prepared/frozen? Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would got with your oven at 350 degrees for an hour/hour and a half.... Keep covered with foil till about the last 15 minutes! Of corse watch it so you don't over cook! =) Hope this helps! =)

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  3. Your recipe looks quite yummy! You are showing what looks like a 28 oz can of diced tomatoes in the picture but you mention a 1 pound can. Which is correct? Thanks, Colleen!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry about the confusion with the picture and ingredient list! With this recipe I would say it doesn't matter that much if the tomatoes vary a little but go for the 1 pound can and if you add a little more than that would be perfectly fine! I hope you and your family enjoy the lasagna!

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  4. I have no idea what is wrong with the internet when it comes to oven ready lasagna noodles. I am 3/4 Sicilian, my grandparent's on my dads side and grandfather on my mother's side are all Sicilian; right off the boat. I was raised on the finest Sicilian food known to man. Recently we bought the wrong lasagna noodles by mistake because the boxes looked do much alike. Oven ready lasagna noodles are disgusting compared to regular noodles. Yes they are easier to make but are grotesque compared to the normal type of lasagna noodles; you have to boil.

    ReplyDelete

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