Over the past few weeks, I have made meals for a few friends who have either been under the weather or just on the run and crazy busy. I find Lasagne an easy meal to make for friends for a number of reasons:
1. Most kids like Lasagne
2. It’s an easy meal to transport
3. You can jazz it up by adding spinach, grated carrots and other ‘hidden’ veggies
4. Couple it with a salad, some garlic bread and the meal is ready to go.
For whatever reason, our famous Sohn Lasagne is something people seem to love. The recipe has been requested time after time so tonight I finally found a moment to pull it all together. This recipe is familyroom tried and true, it has passed even the toughest of palates so relax and know that it won’t disappoint.
~ Oven Temperature: 375 | Cooking Time: 1 hour | Pan Size: 9x13 inch ~
This recipe freezes well. If you slice it up and put it in zip lock bags it works really well for kids’ lunches {if microwave is available}. I take it out of the bag in the morning, place it in a glass container, pop it in their lunch bags. The Lasagne coupled with a piece of fruit a veggie and maybe a cookie and your child has a perfect, very filling hot lunch.
Serves 12-14
Ingredients
Meat Sauce
2lbs ground beef
4 cloves of chopped garlic
½-1 tsp oregano
1 Tbsp salt
2-15oz cans diced tomatoes
2-6oz cans tomato paste
1 cup chopped onions
OR If you’re pressed for time, you can cheat and buy a store prepared sauce. If you do this, I would buy the roasted garlic meat sauce and as natural as possible.
Cottage Cheese Mixture
3 cups dry cottage cheese {if you can’t find dry put your wet cottage cheese in a strainer and let it drain}
3 beaten eggs
2 tsp salt {you can leave this out if you want. I usually do}
½ tsp pepper
2 Tbsp parsley flakes or preferably fresh parsley chopped
½ cup parmesan cheese {the finer the better}
1 bag shredded mozzarella cheese
Method
1. Fry ground beef and drain grease .
2. Add other ingredients and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.
3. Combine cottage cheese mixture, except mozzarella
4. In a greased baking pan place a layer of noodles + ½ the cottage cheese mixture followed by a layer of mozzarella then the meat mixture {this is where I add my own flavour to the mix…. I add spinach, eggplant, zucchini or whatever you want. Alternatively, you can grate veggies and add them to your meat sauce if you have a ‘picky’ eater. This is an excellent dish to ‘hide’ a lot of goodness. Get creative and make this your own}.
5. Repeat beginning again with the layer of noodles, cottage cheese mixture, mozzarella and finish with the meat mixture and mozzarella and any left-over parmesan to sprinkle.
6. Bake. Recommended baking time is 1 hour however I usually take it out after 50 minutes. The last 10 minutes seems to brown it up just a little too much. This is best cooked ahead of time and then reheated. For some reason, it holds together better that way.
