5 Cheese Lasagna

You know what my favorite thing about lasagna is? It lasts forever. Granted I live in a household of two, but this one pan can last me and Tim 5 days. Lunch and dinner. And it's wholesome, too. Who doesn't love to come home to a warm piece of lasagna with fresh bread, a salad and a diet coke? A crazy person, that's who.

So please, my lovely readers, forgive me for making something so simple. I don't mean to undermine your skills or intelligence, but don't we all need a little simplicity in our lives from time to time?

Enjoy. Seriously.

Ingredients:

• 1 box lasagna noodles (if you can tell me what major grocery store sells whole wheat lasagna noodles, I will love you forever and ever. I can't find them anywhere!)
• There are magic noodles out there that do not need to be boiled, and while I like using them, I find the noodles are always uneven. They tend to be softer in the middle where the weight of the sauce lays, and the outsides are kinda' crunchy. Not worth it to me.
• 1 lb. Italian sausage (or 1 lb. ground beef)
• 1/3 cup minced onion
• 1/2 stick butter
• 1/3 cup milk
• Minced garlic
• 1 large can pasta sauce
• I realize that we could go the difficult route and make this from scratch with crushed tomatoes and paste and blah blah blah, but who has the time? Really? 
• In case you're relatively new, I normally add some butter and milk (or cream) to my marinara sauces. I realize this adds about 2,334,839,104 calories to the sauce, but the taste of creamy spaghetti is unreal.
• Oregano
• Basil
• Garlic salt
• Salt/Pepper
• 8 oz. bag shredded cheddar cheese
• Before you stare at me dumbfounded that I use cheddar cheese in my lasagna, let me tell you this: at a youth event, we had to make about 50+ large lasagnas for a few hundred students, and we ran out of mozzarella and had to use cheddar. With the combo of those two cheeses, it was honestly the best lasagna I had ever eaten. Just give it a try.
• 8 oz. bag shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 4-6 slices of provolone cheese
• 16 oz. container of ricotta cheese
• 1 egg

Directions:

• Cook the noodles according to package. Drain and set aside.
• While that's happening, cook sausage/ground beef and drain. Set aside.
• In a separate (large) pan, saute the onion with the butter. 
• Once the onions are a light brown and somewhat tender, add some minced garlic and turn the heat down and let the onions and garlic get to know each other for about 3 minutes. How much garlic you use is up to your own discretion; however, I always use way too much...and love it.
• Add the pasta sauce and milk and combine well.
• Add cooked meat, stir, cover and turn the heat down low.
• Just like with our classic spaghetti, the trick is to let it simmer. The longer it simmers at a low heat with the top on, the richer it will taste.
• In a small bowl, beat the egg until smooth.
• Grab a large bowl and throw the ricotta cheese in there. Add some more garlic, the egg, a small handful of mozzarella cheese, and some salt. Combine.
• Now it's time to layer everything in your 13x9 pan. Here's the order:
• Meat sauce on the very bottom (about 1 cup)
• Noodles
• Half of ricotta mixture
• Mozzarella cheese
• Cheddar cheese
• Noodles
• The other half of the ricotta mixture
• More mozarella
• More cheddar
• Meat sauce
• Noodles
• Provolone slices
• Parmesan cheese
• Sprinkle with basil and oregano.
• Bake at 375 for 20-30 minutes. Serve with garlic bread, salad, and cheesecake for dessert (duh) to gain 20 lbs. To justify this, go watch "Heavy" on Netflix. You'll feel better about yourself.

Love and my-husband-just-made-fun-of-me-for-saying-"duh,"
Rachael
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One-Pot Sour Cream Lasagna

Italian food. Need I say more? It's filling, cheap and absolutely divine. My heart loves it; my thighs rebel. I once worked with a woman who had 8 kids, and she told me something that stuck with me from that day on. She said, "I serve potatoes, bread or pasta at every single meal — sometimes all three together. It's cheap, and it fills ya' up." Tim has been begging me to come up with some new recipes, and I threw this together on a whim. It took a total of 15 minutes and I had all but one ingredient in my very own pantry.

Ingredients:

• 1 box of bowtie pasta
• 1/2 lb. ground beef
• Olive oil
• 1 can pasta sauce
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup sour cream

Directions:

• Throw the pasta into a pot of boiling water. Let it sit until cooked.
• Brown ground beef in large pan over high heat. Once cooked, add garlic powder and Italian seasoning
• Drain ground beef when it's thoroughly cooked. Put back in skillet.
• Add cooked pasta
• Add about 1/4 cup olive oil and mix
• Pour in entire can of pasta sauce and combine well
• Add shredded mozzarella cheese and sour cream
• For the record, you can get a block of fresh mozzarella cheese for about the same price as a large bag of it shredded. I find the block tastes so much better. Go for it.
• Keep heat on medium, stirring constantly. Let it warm all the way through.
• Serve with salad and some fresh sourdough bread. 

I feel confident in saying that this will become a new staple for your family dinners. I also feel confident that if I can type all this out in less than 5 minutes, you can cook it in less than 15 minutes.

Love and simplicity,
Rachael

Mexican Lasagna

We all have purposes in life. This lasagna is why God created me, I'm sure of it. The size of this lasagna is outrageous, and will last a few days for the two of us. I'm still confident that it'll last a family of 4 at least two meals. It's all my favorite things all thrown into my amazing corningware.

I highly recommend it — both the lasagna and the corningware.

Ingredients:

• Prepared Spanish rice 
• Black beans
• 1 can of corn
• 1 lb. ground beef
• Taco seasoning
• 1 large can refried beans
• 1 pack of tortillas (larger the better)
• Mexican cheese (be generous — I used a medium bag of shredded Mexican cheese)
• Taco sauce (I used a total of 2 bottles of Taco Bell taco sauce, which are $1 each)
• Any toppings (oregano, sour cream, salsa, etc.)

Directions:

• Prepare Spanish rice according to previous blog. If you don't have the time or desire to make it from scratch, grab 2 or 3 packages of microwaveable Spanish rice. Add the drained black beans to prepared rice.
• Cook ground beef over medium high heat on the stove
• Drain and add taco seasoning
• Pour canned refried beans in a pan over medium heat. Add some taco sauce, taco seasoning, stir and let it warm up.
• Grab a 13x9 baking dish and pour 1/2 cup of the taco sauce on the bottom of the baking dish and spread with a spoon.
• Top with first layer of tortillas
• The ones that I bought were so big that I had to cut them in half to use. Don't be afraid to tear and arrange the tortillas so that they fit.
• Layer with all the rice/bean mixture
• Top with half the bag of cheese
• Layer with tortillas
• Spread the refried beans over second layer of tortillas
• Pour 1 bottle of taco sauce over refried beans
• Spread all the meat over the taco sauce
• Add the corn and spread evenly
• Top with another layer of tortillas
• Cover with remaining half bag of cheese
• Bake uncovered at 375 degrees for 30-40 minutes
• Serve with your favorite toppings and tortilla chips

That's it! The only real efforts come with the ground beef and rice. Everything else is practically made for you. So I have faith that you can do this!

Love and lasagna,
Racquel. Or whatever.