Jennies Flavorful Cottage Cheese Lasagna Recipes

JENNIE'S FLAVORFUL COTTAGE CHEESE LASAGNA

Steps:

• Preheat your oven to 350.
• Lightly grease or spray a 13x9 baking pan.
• Start by sauteing your mirepoix veggies in a little oil over medium high heat - about 5 minutes. (Hate veggies? Ok - you can skip this - but please at least add some onion powder!) Add your hamburger and cook until well browned. Add your favorite jar of pasta sauce and mix to combine. (I use Prego Italian Sausage & Garlic -- because I like it and because I'm too lazy to make my own sauce -- no lectures, please!) Set aside.
• In a small bowl, add egg (beaten), all your spices (salt, pepper, garlic, Italian seasonings), the cottage cheese (any kind - I use 4%), the Parmesan and HALF (1 cup) of your mozzarella cheese. Stir to combine. Can you use Ricotta instead of the cottage cheese? Yes! Of course! It's your kitchen! I'm just using cottage cheese because I have some and it reminds me of how my mom used to make lasagna. You do what you want!
• Now - take a big scoop of sauce and slather it on the bottom of your baking pan. Layer 4 noodles across to cover the bottom. Take half of your cheesy mixture and spread all over the noodles -- try to cover it evenly. Now add half of your sauce mixture. Now more noodles. Then other half of your cheese mixture. Another layer of noodles. Now the rest of the sauce. And finally top with your remaining 1 cup of mozzarella cheese! Doesn't it look and smell good already?!
• Cover with a piece of tin foil (I get a large piece and try to "tent" the top a little so the cheese doesn't melt to the tin foil -- that stuff is gold!) Bake for 45 minutes. (You may want to put your baking dish on a baking tray while cooking in case it boils over during the baking process -- cleaning a tray is much easier than cleaning an oven.).
• After 45 minutes -- visit your lasagna and take off the tin foil. Yum, right? Let it cook 15 minutes more.
• Now the hard part -- take the delicious lasagna out of the oven and LET IT REST for 20 minutes! What?! You wanted to eat it right away?! Me, too - but too bad -- it needs to rest! If you want a soupy, runny mess of hot lasagna -- then go ahead and eat it right away. But if you want a beautiful, photo-worthy cut piece of lasagna that is Pinterest worthy -- just wait. Sit down and have some wine -- make a salad -- or garlic bread!
• This feeds 6 big eater,s OR 8 regular eaters, OR 12 small eaters.
• Ok - that's it! Enjoy your lasagna!

COTTAGE CHEESE SPINACH LASAGNA

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Spray a 13x9 pan with cooking spray.
• In a large bowl, combine the mozarella cheese, eggs or egg substitute, cottage cheese or ricotta cheese, spinach, salt, oregano and pepper.
• Mix well.
• In the prepared pan, layer 1/2 cup sauce, 1/3 of the uncooked noodles and 1/2 of the cheese-spinach mixture.
• Repeat the layers.
• End with sauce on top.
• Pour the 1 cup of water around the edges of the lasagna.
• Cover tightly with aluminum foil.
• Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
• Remove from oven.
• Let stand covered for at least 15 minutes.

POOR MAN'S LASAGNA

Steps:

• Brown meat in a skillet. Drain fat from meat (I usually rinse it under warm water.).
• Meanwhile, boil noodles according to package directions (its OK if they're a little underdone.).
• Meanwhile mix the egg and cottage cheese in a bowl, and set aside.
• Spray a 9x13 pyrex. Coat the bottom with a very thin layer of pasta sauce. Layer about half of the noodles on top of the sauce. Layer the meat on top of that, followed by another thin layer of sauce. Layer the cottage cheese mixture on top of that, followed by the remaining noodles. Add the remaining sauce on top of the noodles (I prefer it thin on top, so that the noodles get crispy-chewy.) Sprinkle all of the cheese on top of the lasagna.
• Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes depending on how crunchy you like your noodles.
• I have found that half of a container of cottage cheese is perfect, so I usually go ahead and mix the remaining half with an egg, and freeze it. It defrosts quite easily in the fridge next time.
• I also usually buy the meat on sale in bulk, and freeze it in pre-cooked portions. If you do that, you can easily put this meal together quickly. It's also easy to make 2 lasagnas at once, and freeze one for later. You can reheat it in the microwave, or in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes, covered.

COTTAGE CHEESE LASAGNA

Steps:

• Melt butter in skillet.
• Add onions and minced garlic and saute until tender.
• Add ground chuck and cook until meat is browned.
• Add tomatoes, tomato paste, salt, pepper, oregano and sugar.
• Simmer one and one half hours until the meat sauce is thick.
• Cook lasagna noodles in boiling salted water until they are tender, approx 10 minutes.
• Rinse in cool water until the noodles are cooled enough to handle.
• Drain.
• Lightly grease 13x9" pan.
• Place a small amount of meat mixture on bottom of pan.
• Arrange 1/3 of the noodles on top of meat mixture.
• Cover noodles with 1/3 of meat mixture, 1 cup cottage cheese, and 1/3 each of Cheddar cheese and Parmesan cheese.
• Repeat layers twice, using remaining 1 cup of cottage cheese on middle layer.
• Top layer only has meat sauce and cheeses.
• Bake at 350°F for 30-40 minutes.