Recipe: Uber Yummy Lasagna

As I'm sitting here eating my extremely tasty left over lasagna from dinner a couple nights ago, it occurred to me: I should share this recipe!

Now, in honor of full disclosure, I made this recipe by melding two others I have collected from other people over the years and adding a few spices of my own. So, it's not really MY recipe, but you understand. I only took one picture, and obviously it was an after though since I'm just writing this up after having made it a couple days ago. I'm sure after you try it, you will forgive me!!



Ingredients:

1 T. olive oil
1 lb. ground beef (sometimes I use spicy Italian sausage)
2 cans (6oz) tomato paste
1 1/2 c. water
1/4 c. chopped onion
1 pkg lasagna noodles (I've used the no boil kind before, but I like the regular ones better)
1/2 c. parmesan cheese
1 can mushrooms (3 oz)
1 lb. cottage cheese
1 clove garlic, minced
2 small bay leaves
1/2 t. sea salt
1 t. fresh chopped parsley
1/8 t. pepper
1 t. thyme
1 t. dried oregano
3/4 lb. mozzarella cheese (thinly sliced from deli)

Here's how you do it:

Place oil in saucepan. Add meat and brown. Drain.
Combine tomato paste with water.
Add tomato paste mixture, onion, garlic, bay leaves, parsley, thyme, oregano, salt and pepper to meat.
Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes.
Cook lasagna noodles according to package directions.
Remove bay leaves from sauce. Add mushrooms.
Spread 1/3 of sauce in bottom of a 2 qt. (9x11) shallow baking pan; cover with 1/3 of lasagna, cottage cheese, mozzarella, and parmesan.
Top with 1/3 remaining sauce.
Repeat ending with parmesan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Let stand 10 minutes for easier cutting.

And there you have it! It tastes great and reheats well. I usually ditch one of the layers of mozzarella because my husband complains that I use too much cheese, but you can add as much as you want! I recommend trying the recipe first before tweaking the cheese factor because I have finally mastered the perfect amount of cheese for my liking after many tries! I would hate for you to add another pound of cheese and have it be too chewy!!

Enjoy! Let me know if you make it!