So it was Friday night and I was trying to keep myself busy while I awaited the return of KLT. 🙂 I had gone shopping to buy him some things to take make his new temporary pad in Nashville nicer and was really busy doing laundry. I decided that I would make up a couple of lasagnes in loaf pans and freeze them so he could bake them later. Now let me just say that KLT is very capable in the kitchen and really doesn’t need me to make meals for him. I just want to extend a bridge between the three homes and two states we are currently occuping. This also makes it easier for me to have food, I eat very little and cooking for one while in this condition proves to be a problem. Cooking and freezing leaves me just enough left overs to make one meal for myself. So here is my cheater’s lasagne.
First I brown some meat; sometimes it’s hamburger, sometimes it’s sasuage and sometimes it is a mixture of both. Today it is 2 lbs of ground beef (from Charlie of course) seasoned with Spagetti seasoning. While that is cooking I prep the pans by linning them in foil, placing sauce in the bottom with 1 lasagne noodle.
By far my favorite lasagna noodle is Barilla Oven-Ready Lasagne Pasta. Also while waiting on the meat to brown it’s a good time to mix up your cheese. This particular batch contains 1 tub of ricotta cheese, 1/2 a cup of shredded Parmesan cheese, 1/2 a cup of Italian blend cheese, 1/2 a cup of frozen chopped spinach and a hand full of parsley as the plant is still alive and it contains such a great amount of vitimans. Oh and don’t forget to add a beaten egg or two to keep it together.
Ok so here is where the cheating comes in. Once the meat is done it’s time to add the sauce. Now I ave spent all day making homemade red sauce only to find that a store bought jar tasted just as good and was far less work. So here I am adding 2 jars of store bought sauce.
Layer, Layer, Layer until you have reached the top! But save room for the mozzarella. Once again I pulled out the Belgioioso Fresh Mozzarella and placed a nice thick layer on top.
From here I covered the tops with aluminum foil and placed them in the freezer. The next day I removed the foiled contents from the loaf pan and placed it in a seal-a-meal bag. I have been on a kick lately of sealing EVERYTHING!
So what do you do with your little space packed meal? I recommend placing it in a loaf pan and in the fridge before you plan on baking it. Bake it covered at 350 until it it’s almost done depending on how big you made it that could be anywhere from 30 min to 1 hour. Take the foil off the top for the last 10-20 min so you can get it bubbly with brown edges. TA DA! Grab some garlic bread and a bag of salad and you have an entire meal! This works as a great gift for new parents or others who could benefit from not having to cook. One more possibility is to use the extra large muffin tins and make individual size portions but then you are cutting noodles which may require cooking them.
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