Hearty Lasagna

I got this recipe from Home Baked Memories. I've never made a lasagna without using a jar of spaghetti sauce. This only had a couple more steps to it, and my family LOVED it.

I modified it just a bit. Here's the lowdown:

Brown your hamburger, onion, and garlic.

 Then add your stewed tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

Let that simmer for 2 hours. Yeah... 2 entire hours. Go do something productive. OR you can take my route, and get on facebook. But it's up to you!

About an hour and a half into your simmer, boil your water and start cooking those lasagna noodles. Throw in a pinch of salt for luck... er, flavor.

 Now you'll start layering. Spread a little of your sauce down in the bottom of your casserole dish.

 Add your noodles. Mine look a little skewampus, but don't worry. It's lasagna, it doesn't have to be pretty!

Add your sauce. I like to add a pretty thick layer.

Glob on your Ricotta. If you're not a big fan of Ricotta, you can take a tub of cottage cheese, place it in a strainer and wash off all the cream, and use that instead. But my husband won't eat cottage cheese, and I'm not going to waste time making food he won't eat!

Now shmear the Ricotta around. It's okay if it mixes with the meat sauce a bit. :)

Add your cheese. I happened to have a mozzarella blend from Costco on hand (80% mozz, 10% cheddar, 10% parmesan), but use what you have. An Italian blend would be great, but plain Jane cheddar would taste yummy too. After the cheese layer, you can add your parmesan cheese if you didn't. Or if, like me, you just wanted to add more cheese. Repeat that layer, then for your final layer, you'll add the noodles and cheese. Cover with foil and bake.Here's the finished product. Aren't you just ready to dive into it? It really was so good, and my family of 4.5+ (one dad, one pregnant mom, two kids, and a toddler) stuffed ourselves on half the lasagna. So hubby and I have lunch for the next couple of days. I just LOVE when dinners make my life easier the next day! Okay, here's the recipe, and of course, your recipe card is below.

Hearty Lasagna

2 lbs Lean Hamburger

1/2 Onion, chopped

2 Cloves of Garlic, chopped

Brown together in a skillet. Drain off excess fat and add:

2 Large cans of Stewed Tomatoes

2 small cans of Tomato Paste

2 tsp. Salt

2 tsp Oregano

1/2 tsp pepper

2 tsp. garlic powder (to taste)

Simmer for 2 Hours

3 c. of mozzarella blend cheese

15 oz. Ricotta cheese

1 Cup Parmesan Cheese

Cook One 16 oz package of Lasagna Noodles until tender.

Put a little sauce in the bottom of a casserole dish - layer of noodles, then meat sauce, cottage cheese, shredded cheese, parm cheese. Repeat and then top with Cheese. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes until bubbly.