Garfield Would Be Jealous Of This Lasagna

Our lasagna is so good, it gets eaten for breakfast!

I hope my friend doesn't mind that I exploit the story, but I made my go-to recipe (you know the one...you have it memorized, have most of the ingredients in your kitchen, have made it 1000 times!) for her family while they're going through a health scare.  

It's easy, you don't cook the noodles ahead of time and it refrigerates over night.  Who doesn't want to reap the rewards of yesterday's work?

She decided to cook it that next morning to take to her hubby in the hospital for lunch.  It was so tempting when she arrived, that lasagna for breakfast it was!

Another tip:  It's just as easy to make two batches as it is to make one.  It freezes well, either before cooking, or after.

Lazy Lasagna

1 lb. ground beef (or italian sausage or whatever critter you have, we have hunters in our lives so you never know what's in the freezer!)

1 jar spaghetti sauce (I use 24 oz jar of Ragu Chunky Garden Combination)***

1 - 8 oz tomato sauce 

1 c water

1 - 15 oz container ricotta cheese*

1 tsp chopped chive (dried)**

1 tsp oregano**

1 egg

8 oz box of uncooked lasagna noodles

3 - 6 oz packages of sliced mozzarella cheese or 2 packages of 10 slices of mozzarella

Shredded parmesan cheese

1. In a large sauce pan, brown meat.  Drain.  Return meat to sauce pan.  Add spaghetti sauce, tomato sauce and water.  Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer.  This will be extremely runny!
2. In a small bowl, combine ricotta or cottage cheese, spices and egg.
3. In 9"x 13” glass pan:
1. Layer 1:  1 ½ cup meat sauce, spread evenly
2. Layer 2:  ½ noodles
3. Layer 3:  ½ cheese mix (spread over noodles – it won’t be perfect)
4. Layer 4:  ½ mozzarella cheese slices
5. Repeat Layers 2, 3, 4
4. Top with remaining meat sauce.  
5. Sprinkle top with Parmesan cheese.  
6. Cover and refrigerate overnight, or put in the freezer for next time.
7. When ready for cooking, thaw completely.
8. Remove cover and bake at 350 degrees for 60 min.

*Update on 10/26/17.  We now use cottage cheese.  Which I normally don't like, but it melts into this cheesy goodness.  This is not the consensus in our family.  If you like the texture of gritty ricotta cheese, go with that.  Taste isn't much different, it's definitely a texture thing.  If you use cottage cheese, the egg is optional.

**Or you can use 2 tsp of Italian Seasoning

***Update on 05/04/26. I have tried this with many types of spaghetti sauce including homemade, Rao's (which is our most favorite everywhere else) and nothing compares to the Ragu Garden Combination.  AND, it is still good for breakfast, even cold, as our friend demonstrated on our girl's weekend.  

What is your favorite "go to" recipe?  Leave below in the comments!

Best, Laura