Perfect Lasagna

When I was little, Mom made the best lasagna.  It was my favorite food.  AND, she let us kids help.  We would mix the bowls of ground beef, tomato sauce, cottage cheese, Italian seasoning and garlic powder together.  Yum.  It smelled so good, and then about an hour later, it would taste so good, too.

And then (about when I was in high school) I was introduced to store bought lasagna.  You know, the kind that comes in a red box.  The yummy layers of cheese and meat and lots of noodles.  Mmm-mm.  I was sold at first, but after awhile I started to miss Mom's lasagna.  Because it was Mom's, and home-cooked tastes better than over processed factory food.

So, in college, I started making lasagna Mom's way.  Mixing all the layers together, just like mom.  But being out in the big wide world, I also noticed that mom's recipe wasn't the way most people made lasagna.  So I started trying different recipes.  Cookbook recipes didn't taste right--too much filling, not enough yummy noodles, and they usually only had a couple layers, instead of 3, like my mom's, and trying to add another layer didn't work out as well as I hoped.

And then it hit me.  Why not put layers of noodles between the cheesy filling and the meat filling?  Then you get the yummy noodle taste & you don't have to add lots more ingredients.  Two birds, one stone.

Last night I made lasagna.  And it turned out divine.

Here's how to do it:

1. Cook 15 lasagna noodles
2. Brown breakfast sausage, add just over half a jar of 6 cheese spaghetti sauce
3. Mix one tub of cottage cheese, about 1 cup mozarella, 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons Italian seasoning, and 1/2 to 1 tablespoon garlic powder
4. Spray your lasagna pan with pam, and then coat the bottom with some of the left over spaghetti sauce
5. Lay down 3 noodles, and then cover with half your meat sauce mixture
6. Lay down 3 noodles, and then cover with half your cheese mixture
7. Repeat steps 5 & 6
8. Lay down 3 noodles, cover with the remaining sauce, and then cover with mozzarella cheese. 
9. Cook for 30 minutes (I cooked it about 25, since my noodles were hot).  Let it cool for a bit before eating.

Dan and I both had seconds (I had thirds, small thirds, but still) but the real test was Emily, who doesn't always like cheese.  She had seconds.