Stacy's Yummy Lasagna

I take great pride in having come up with this recipe myself. I have always enjoyed lasagna, but started to think of ways I could make it even better by making sure it was chock full of all kinds of ingredients. This recipe is fabulous (if I do say so myself) -- chock full of ingredients, not too heavy on sauce (I'm not a fan of marinara/spaghetti sauces). We like to serve this with toasted garlic bread. And we often make homemade Italian bread to do it. Without further ado, I present Stacy's Yummy Lasagna! --Stacy

Ingredients:
1 large jar of spaghetti sauce
1 box lasagna noodles
1 lb ricotta cheese
1 lb cottage cheese (or silken tofu)
1 egg
1 lb mozzarella cheese, grated
2 lb ground beef or turkey
½ lb mushrooms, sliced
1 green pepper, diced
1 onion, chopped
1 can olives, sliced
1 package frozen spinach Italian sausage (optional)

Instructions: Mix ricotta and cottage cheeses (we substitute tofu for the cottage cheese) with the egg and frozen spinach. Brown ground meat with sausage and season to taste. Drain and set aside. Spread a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of the baking pan. Then, add the remaining sauce to the meat. Lay some of the uncooked noodles on top of the sauce in the baking pan. Spread a layer of the cheese mixture on top of the noodles. Spread some of the meat sauce on top of the cheese mixture. Add the vegetables and top with cheese. Repeat layers (noodles, cheese mixture, meat sauce, veggies, meat sauce). The top layer should be noodles, which you then top with sauce and cheese. Bake at 350˚F until done, about 45 minutes.

Notes: This makes A LOT of lasagna, so if you are using a standard 9x13 pan, you’ll need two. We make it in our giant lasagna baking dish that is very deep. We always use Barilla lasagna noodles because you don’t need to add any water to the lasagna to cook them through. With others, you may need to add a cup of water at the end to provide enough moisture to cook the noodles. Be sure you have enough sauce and cheese to top the lasagna or the noodles will be extra brown and crunchy at the top. This lasagna tends to have a lot of liquid straight out of the oven, but it thickens with time. It freezes well and makes great leftovers. We tend to cover the pan with foil for the first 30 minutes or so, and then uncover toward the end. Experiment and see what you like.