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!!!!
