Crowd Pleasing Lasagna

As often happens in the kitchen, sometimes the best food is born out of resourcefulness. What is that old saying? Necessity is the mother of invention? I think that anyone who has ever spent any time in a kitchen will tell you how true that is. Many years ago my cousin was making lasagna when she belatedly realized she didn't have the right cheese on hand. She rummaged through her frig and saw she had swiss cheese, cottage cheese and mozzarella. Long story short...the family lasagna recipe was born. I know most of you (and especially any Italians) are thinking, 'Swiss cheese? Cottage cheese? In lasagna! Are you crazy!', but I promise this is beyond delicious.

Lasagna

Ingredients
1. 1 - 1.5 lb. lean ground beef
2. 1 box lasagna noodles - do NOT be tempted into buying the "no boil" pasta
3. 2 jars of spaghetti sauce - you can certainly make your own sauce but I really like the taste of Classico Tomato and Basil
4. swiss cheese- I like Sargento Deli Style Sliced Swiss Cheese. It comes with 12 slices which is more then you will end up using but it's nice to have on hand for sandwiches.
5. cottage cheese- I buy a 1 lb. tub of it and end up using approximately 1/2. My mom makes her's with reduced fat but I like the Horizon Organic best.
6. mozzarella cheese- Again, I'm partial to Sargento brand shredded mozzarella cheese. You certainly won't use up an entire bag since this is only going on the last layer but cheese is always a good staple to have in the frig.

Directions
1. Brown the meat in a deep pan and drain off any grease.
2. Add the two jars of tomato sauce. Turn the heat down to medium low and just let it simmer.
3. In a large pot bring water to a boil. Salt slightly and put lasagna noodles in. The noodles should be completely cooked in under 10 minutes. You want to take them out slightly before they are al dente. They will finish cooking in the oven.
4. In a 9x13 inch pan spread a thin layer of tomato sauce out. This will keep the lasagna from sticking to the pan after baking.
5. Put down a layer of lasagna noodles. I can usually fit around 3 or 4.
6. Take the meat/sauce mixture and spoon a pretty good layer on top of the noodles.
7. Take your swiss cheese slices and lay them down on top of the sauce. I can usually fit 4 slices.
8. Take a spoon and dollop out the cottage cheese on top of the swiss cheese and meat mixture. I don't have precise measurements I just eyeball it. Just do about a dozen or so quarter size dollops all over.
9. Over the cheese add another layer of the meat/sauce mixture.
10. Repeat steps 5-9 until you get to the top of the dish.
10. For your last layer after you have added the sauce over the swiss and cottage cheese you will add a heaping layer of mozzarella cheese. Be generous with it. This will brown and become the "crust" of the lasagna.
11. Put into a 350 degree oven for approximately 15 minutes or until the mozzarella cheese has melted into a deep golden brown.
12. Serve hot with garlic bread. This recipe makes enough lasagna to feed a small army so if you are planning on having guests over you should absolutely consider this!

Tim Gunn in the kitchen

My husband and I try to do one big grocery run at the beginning of the month and a small "odds and ends" run towards the middle of the month. I plan our meals for the ENTIRE month before we go to the store. This prevents us from just walking the aisles throwing random items in the cart and then getting home and having to figure out what I can make with what I have. Our monthly food budget including eating out is between 200-300 dollars. That's basically $3.00 each for breakfast, lunch and dinner per day. The problem with this setup is that the end of the month means my supplies are dwindling. Tonight I looked in the frig and the pantry and nothing really jumped out at me. I joke that I have become the Tim Gunn of the kitchen because my motto is ,"make it work!" When I only have a few ingredients I throw something together and use my creativity to just "make it work." Tonight I realized that we had the ingredients for tuna casserole. Yup...this is probably the same exact casserole your mom made you when you were a kid. It's cheap, it's quick and it's pretty tasty. I didn't take a photo because I didn't think the recipe warranted it. It's so simple I can hardly say it's even cooking! But here it is just in case you have never had it and are interested in trying. I honestly have no idea where the recipe came from. I'm guessing it's a Campbells recipe but I'm not sure.

Ingredients
1. 1 can cream of mushroom soup
2. egg noodles
3. 2 cans of tuna
4. 1 cup frozen peas
5. 1 tbsp. butter

Directions
1. Cook egg noodles until they are al dente (approximately 12 minutes). Make sure to salt the water slightly.
2. Drain egg noodles into a colander and then return them to the pot they cooked in.
3. Add the cream of mushroom soup
4. Add the two cans of tuna (drained and flaked up)
5. Adding the butter is optional but my mom always used it so I do.
6. Add the frozen peas
7. Mix the whole thing together until well incorporated

Voila! You have a circa 1985 meal the whole family will love!