Easy lasagna: Garfield, eat your heart out

I love lasagna. If Garfield® stepped in between me and a pan of lasagna he would have to pray for his life.

I don’t make a habit of battling cartoon characters, but I’m not the only one in my household he would have to get past.

Lasagna night yields no leftovers in my house, it’s gone within minutes.

When I first started making lasagna I tried these huge, elaborate recipes that took hours to make. Then I had to wait another hour, or more, for it to bake before I would finally get to eat it. This was never something I would try during the week, it was just way too time consuming and labor-intensive.

I have made lasagnas where I boiled noodles, chopped vegetables and cooked the meat. After all that prep, I would begin the production of layer after layer of noodles, vegetables, meat, sauce and cheese. By the time I had finished the preparation of the lasagna I was exhausted! I was glad to have an hour to relax while it baked.

I got tired of lasagna that took too long, and I was not about to stoop to store-bought, frozen lasagna. Ick!

Well, in my search for a better lasagna recipe, I finally found one that can be “whipped up,” even during a busy week day. Better yet, it can be made ahead of time and left in the fridge for a day or two or put in the freezer for later.

I make this lasagna a couple times a month, at least. It always gets polished off. You can double the recipe for a bigger group, or appetites, or if you just want leftovers.

This lasagna is good, simple and will impress your friends that you “whipped up” lasagna for dinner. Serve it with a salad and garlic bread for a well-balanced meal.
Enjoy!

Easy Lasagna

Ingredients

• 1 pound of ground meat
• 1 jar spaghetti sauce
• 12 lasagna noodles, uncooked
• 1 16 oz. tub ricotta cheese
• 1 16 oz. bag shredded Italian cheese

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat an 8-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
2. Cook the ground meat, season to taste. Drain if necessary. Add spaghetti sauce and combine.
3. In 8-inch baking pan add enough meat and sauce mixture to cover the bottom; top with layers of 3 lasagna noodles, one-third of the ricotta cheese and Italian cheese, 3 more lasagna noodles and half of the remaining meat sauce. Repeat layers once more and top with Italian cheese. Cover tightly with greased foil.
4. Bake for 50 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 10 minutes or until heated through. Let stand 15 minutes before cutting to serve.

Tips & Techniques
Ground meat can be hamburger, sausage, ground turkey or turkey sausage. For an easy vegetarian dish, or to save time, substitute the ground meat for Morning Star Farms® crumbles in original or sausage-style.