This recipe is really good! It’s easier than most lasagna recipes because YOU DON’T PRE-COOK THE NOODLES! This makes the recipe so much easier!

LASAGNA

One box of lasagna noodles (you might not use the whole box)
One 10-oz container of ricotta or creamed cottage cheese
One “regular”-sized container of Prego(or whatever brand you like) spaghetti sauce
1 – 1 1/2 pounds of ground beef
2 cloves of garlic
One onion
One egg
Italian seasoning
One-pound bag of shredded mozzarella cheese OR shredded mozzarella and provolone cheese mixed
Water
Seasoned salt
Meat tenderizer

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Chop the onion and garlic in a chopping machine or by hand. Place onion and garlic into skillet with ground beef. Cook the ground beef until it’s no longer pink. Drain off excess fat. Sprinkle some seasoned salt and meat tenderizer onto ground beef. Pour spaghetti sauce onto ground beef. KEEP THE SPAGHETTI SAUCE JAR. WE’LL NEED TO USE IT LATER. Mix spaghetti sauce and ground beef together and cook in skillet until it’s hot and bubbly.

Mix one egg and Italian seasoning into cottage/ricotta cheese. Spray lasagna pan (or rectangular-shaped pan) with non-stick spray. Place one layer of UNCOOKED NOODLES into the pan. Place a layer of sauce over the noodles. Place a layer of ricotta/cottage cheese over sauce. Sprinkle mozzarella/provolone cheese over ricotta cheese. Repeat this process once. After you’ve repeated it once, the last layer will be a layer of noodles, covered with sauce, covered with shredded mozzarella/provolone cheese.

Take spaghetti sauce jar and put some water into it. (I’m not sure how much since I’ve never measured it. You might want to fill the jar half way with water). Put the lid on the jar and shake it up to mix the excess sauce with the water. Take the lid off and pour this water into the corners of the pan. YOU WILL WANT TO FILL EACH CORNER WITH WATER. You might need to get more water in order to fill each corner. Once each corner is filled with water, cover the pan with foil and place into oven and bake for 45-50 minutes. (Cooking times may vary according to your oven.) Remove foil and bake an extra five minutes so that cheese can brown. Remove from oven and let it cool before serving. The water that was added before cooking makes this dish moist, plus it cooks those hard crunchy noodles, making them soft and well done.

Of course, the ingredient list can vary. I just made this for my family last night, so I used what I had on hand. However, sometimes when I brown the ground beef, I’ll add sliced mushrooms and chopped bell peppers to the mixture.

I usually get lots of compliments when I make this recipe. It’s great with garlic bread, however, we didn’t have any on hand, so we just ate it as is! When we do eat it with garlic bread, we usually use the frozen garlic bread you get from the freezer section of the grocery store! Also, we usually eat this with a green garden salad on the side!

Enjoy!

Cecelia Dowdy