Easy Lasagna

I love lasagna.  I think it has to be one of my favorite dishes.  Not only is it yummy, I think it tastes better the second day as leftovers.  The one thing I hate about making lasagna is cooking the noodles.  It never fails I get burned from the water splattering everywhere, water tends to boil over the pot and everything turns into a big ole mess.  Not fun. 

Well, a few years back I came across a recipe by Kraft where you don't have to cook your noodles.  Wait, what?!  Sign me up!  Have you seen the boiling required noodles?  They are great!  You will never go back to cooking lasagna noodles again.

It truly makes making lasagna stress free.  You can makes this ahead the night before while your little one is sleeping or during nap time the day you will be having it for dinner.  I love meals like this.  In my case, I whipped it up during Vivian's nap this morning.  After making it I put it in the fridge to be ready to toss in the oven tonight.  Voila, dinner made easy!  

First you want to brown 1 lb of lean, extra-lean or full fat ground beef.   While your ground beef is cooking, in a bowl add 1 lightly beaten egg, 1 - 1/4 c mozzarella cheese, 1/4 c parmesan cheese and 1 15oz container of part-skim ricotta cheese.  Mix until well blended.  Set aside.

After your ground beef is cooked, drain and return to your skillet.  Add a jar of your favorite pasta sauce.  I use Newman's Own.  Then fill your jar with  1 cup water.  Put lid back on and shake.  Add to your ground beef and sauce.  Stir.

The recipe calls for using a 13x9 dish, but I use an 8x8 since its just the two of us.  Add some of your meat sauce to the bottom of your dish.

Top with your lasagna noodles.

Add your ricotta cheese spread.

Top with your meat sauce.

Add your noodles and repeat 2-3 more times.  I don't measure how much ricotta cheese spread or sauce to add between layers. I like to eyeball it.

After adding your last of your lasagna noodles, top with another layer of cheese spread and meat sauce.  Then add 1 cup, more or less of mozzarella cheese and 1/4 c, more or less of parmesan cheese.

Wrap with aluminum foil and pop in the oven at 350 degrees for an hour or if you prepared before hand just stick in the refrigerator.  Easy enough?  It's really good guys.  Enjoy!!!

Kraft Simply Lasagna recipe here.

Ingredients

• 1 lb of ground beef
• 2-1/2 cups of Shredded Low-Moisture Part-Skim Mozzarella cheese, divided (I used Sargento cheese)
• 1 container (15 oz) Part-Skim Ricotta Cheese
• 1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese, divided (Again, I used Sargento)
• 1/4 cup Chopped Fresh Parsley (I omitted.  B wouldn't eat this if it had parsley)
• 1 Egg Lightly Beaten
• 1 Jar (24oz) Spaghetti Sauze
• 1 cup Water (I added water to jar, shook and added to meat sauce)
•  12 Lasagna noodles, uncooked

Directions
HEAT oven to 350°F.

BROWN meat in large skillet on medium-high heat. Meanwhile, mix 1-1/4 cups mozzarella, ricotta, 1/4 cup Parmesan, parsley and egg until blended.

DRAIN meat; return to skillet. Stir in spaghetti sauce. Add 1 cup water to empty sauce jar; cover with lid and shake well. Add to meat mixture; stir until blended. Spread 1 cup meat sauce onto bottom of 13x9-inch baking dish; top with layers of 3 lasagna noodles, 1/3 of the ricotta cheese mixture and 1 cup meat sauce. Repeat layers twice. Top with remaining noodles, meat sauce and cheeses. Cover with foil sprayed with cooking spray.
BAKE 1 hour or until heated through, removing foil after 45 min. Let stand 15 min. before cutting to serve.