In surveying the contents of my pantry & fridge earlier this week, I decided to make lasagna! Why not? Might as well embrace the cool weather! Not only that, but the sales and double coupon deals I've been getting the past few weeks at Albertson's allowed me to make some pretty inexpensive lasagna!
I use the Betty Crocker cookbook recipe as it's easy and I usually have all the items on hand. You can find the recipe here. I do change out a few ingredients, but it doesn't alter the recipe much and it makes it even less expensive.
Something else I do that's a little different is that I always make more than one lasagna at a time. We have 2 adults and 3 small children, so a big tray of lasagna will feed us all a few times. You can only eat so many meals of leftovers though, so to minimize potential waste, I split the recipe into 3 lasagnas and we eat one for dinner then freeze the other two. It's so nice to just pull a lasagna out of the freezer for those other 2 meals! Homemade lasagna, like many other made-from-scratch meals taste so much better than store bought!
Easy, Homemade Lasagna
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 3 tablespoons dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon dried basil leaves
- 2-3 TBSP sugar
- 2 cans diced tomatoes, 14.5 oz (undrained)
- 1 can tomato paste, 6 oz
- 15 uncooked lasagna noodles (not even an entire box)
- 1 container cottage cheese, 15 oz (2 cups)
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano leaves
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (8 ounces)
2. Stir in 2 tablespoons of the parsley, the basil, sugar, tomatoes and tomato sauce. Heat to boiling, stirring occasionally; reduce heat to low. Simmer uncovered about 45 minutes or until slightly thickened.
3. Heat oven to 350ºF. Cook and drain noodles as directed on package.
4. Mix cottage cheese, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, remaining 1 tablespoon parsley and the oregano.
5. Assemble all of your baking dishes, sauces and cheeses. I like to use foil dishes for the lasagnas I freeze- be sure to re-use them when finished!
Spread 1 cup of the sauce mixture in baking dish. Top with 2-3 noodles. Spread 1 cup of the cheese mixture over noodles; spread with 1 cup of the sauce mixture. Sprinkle with 2/3 cup of the mozzarella cheese. Repeat with 4 noodles, the remaining cheese mixture, 1 cup of the sauce mixture and 2/3 cup of the mozzarella cheese. Top with remaining noodles and sauce mixture. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. I like to sprinkle a little parsley on top too!
6. Cover and bake 30 minutes. Uncover and bake about 15 minutes longer or until hot and bubbly. Let stand 15 minutes before cutting. 
To freeze, spray 1 side of plastic wrap lightly to prevent sticking, then cover lasagna. Wrap entire lasagna with foil. When you're ready to eat it, there's no need to defrost, just unwrap and heat in oven about 1 hr at 350 degrees. 
Here's the one we had for dinner!
I did make a loaf of homemade bread to go with it of course! See my the bread recipe I use here. 
