Who doesn't love lasagna?

Tuesday night was grocery shopping night. Since I had been in NY visiting the wonderful fam, Dan had done no grocery shopping. Like usual, it waits until I get back, but I can deal with it because then I get to pick what I want! As we're walking around in the freezer section of Target, Dan spies Stouffer's lasagna and calls out, "Hey Beck, will you make lasagna?" How can I say no? Anytime I can have it, I'm all for it. So we had to get some ingredients for it: cottage cheese (Dan won't eat ricotta), sauce, and cheese (2 bags because the cheesier the better).

Because Wednesday night is gym night for us, and we can't do pasta on gym nights, Dan decided on Thursday night. I knew that I had to make it Wednesday night because I had an eye doctor's appt Thursday after work. So while our frozen pizza was "baking" in the oven, I got to work on my lasagna.


1 lb. ground beef (or turkey or chicken, you choose)
1 jar spaghetti sauce (whatever flavor you like)
2 cups cottage cheese (or 15 oz. ricotta cheese)
2 cups mozzarella cheese (or if you're like me, MORE)
lasagna noodles
garlic powder
thyme
oregano
basil


Directions:
1. Put pot of water on to boil for noodles. When water is ready, add the noodles, and cook until they're done to your liking. I like mine cooked all the way through. None of that al dente junk. I don't want "crunchy" pasta!
2. Brown meat in large skillet. I chose to sprinkle in some garlic powder while the meat was cooking.
3. When meat is browned, drain, and return pan to stove and add sauce.


4. At this point in time, I sprinkled in oregano, basil, thyme, and more garlic powder.
5. Pour cottage cheese into bowl and add oregano and basil and stir.
6. When noodles are done, drain and I try to rinse them off a little bit to get them unstuck.
7. To assemble lasagna...
a. Pour some of meat sauce mixture in bottom of baking dish (enough to cover the bottom).


b. Put enough noodles in the dish to cover the sauce.


c. Pour about half of the cottage cheese mixture over the noodles and spread to cover the
noodles.


d. Sprinkle half of the mozzarella cheese on top of the cottage cheese.


e. Repeat once, starting with the sauce mixture and ending with the mozzarella cheese.


8. Cover with aluminum foil and bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.
9. Remove foil and bake for another 15 minutes or until cheese is golden and bubbly.
10. Let sit for about 15 minutes so it can set, or if you're like me, put it on the table and let everyone dig in.

Mine sat in the fridge overnight and I didn't cook it long enough because it wasn't as golden as I would have liked on top, but that doesn't matter, people It was done and delish!

Normally when I make this, I do add Parmesan cheese to the cottage cheese mixture, but I was trying to convince Dan's mom (who despises cheese, but will eat pizza and Stouffer's lasagna) that my lasagna is really good. And no surprise, I was right! She even helped herself to seconds and said that it was good. I'm proud of her for trying something different!