As I posted previously, I'm cooking for a crew for 3 days this week. No breakfasts. Paper plates. Lots of cleaning. Before and after. My little kitchen is busy. I made breakfast for DH, Banana Nut Bread, Soft and Fluffy Rolls, Cherry Cheesecake Bars, and fed this baby girl by 7. She's doing well:
I may need a nap.
Some of ya'll requested I share recipes. I'm keeping things pretty simple and basic this week. Yesterday's menu: Mini Lasagna Casserole, green beans, salad, soft and fluffy rolls with a new Cherry Dessert that was good, but I have a couple other ones that we like better . After running a search, it doesn't look like I've shared this main dish so that's today's recipe. This is another one I've been making for over 20 years.
Layered Mini Lasagna Casserole
2# lean ground beef
1 chopped onion
2 cloves minced garlic
48 oz pasta sauce
1 8 oz bag mini lasagna noodles
4 C ricotta or cottage cheese (I use 1/2 ricotta and 1/2 cottage cheese)
1 egg
1/4 C chopped parsley
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
3 C shredded Mozzarella Cheese
Grated Parmesan
*Preheat oven to 375°. Brown ground beef with onion and garlic. Stir in pasta sauce and simmer for a few minutes. In the meantime, cook pasta and drain. In large bowl, stir together ricotta, cottage cheese, egg, parsley, pepper, and salt. In 9"x13"x2" pan, layer 1/3 meat sauce, 1/2 of the pasta, all of the ricotta / cottage cheese mixture, 1 C Mozzarella. Repeat 1/3 meat sauce, 1/2 pasta, 1/3 meat sauce, Mozzarella. Sprinkle with Parmesan. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes.
The original recipe calls for 1# of ground beef, but I doubled it (as usual) so you would only need 24 oz of pasta sauce if you went that route. The crew will be back on Thursday and Friday, but DH and I welcomed leftovers today:
