Lasagna, Bread, Noodles, and ...Hamburger Helper?

While cleaning out my refrigerator I found 2 zucchini that I’d forgotten about as well as 3 tubs of cottage cheese stuffed to the back of the shelf. So I decided that today after “work” I’d use the 4 pounds of ground meat (2 pounds beef, 2 pounds turkey) that I have in my freezer to make some lasagna for dinner. No… I’m not using all of the meat just for the lasagna. You’ll see..

Here’s what I’m starting with. See the yummy peppers? My friend gave those to me today so I’m going to throw those in. (I actually munched on one while I was cooking.. Sooo good!)

I wanted to snap a picture of the time so I could keep track of how long it takes me to get this done…

Normally I would think ahead for something like this and have the meat already defrosted, but since I didn’t, I will chop the vegetables while the meat is defrosting in a sink full of warm water. It’s ok if it doesn’t get totally defrosted, I can finish thawing it as I sauté it.

While I’m waiting for the meat to thaw a little longer, I’m starting a batch of noodles for the lasagna. I should have measured everything as I put it together, but I didn’t.. so I’ll guesti- mate for you..

3 cups flour, 2/3 cup water, 1 egg, 1 Tbsp. olive oil. Put ½ the flour into a bowl. Make a dent in the center, and drop in the egg, water, and oil. Mix well- it will be sticky. Add more flour gradually until dough pulls from sides of bowel. Drop dough onto clean , floured surface and work dough until smooth and elastic. Now you need to let the dough rest! I like to let mine sit for at least 30 minutes- makes it SO much easier to roll out!

The meat is thawed enough, so now I’ll sauté it. Once the meat is all browned, add the veggies and cook until they are tender.

 

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I started a double batch of my “bread machine mixes” this morning before I went to “work”. [I don’t actually even have a bread machine so I figured since my sis had mixes I could just sub it with 4 recipes of my own. In this case I’m using my friend’s No Knead Bread recipe - just a couple changes but it’s good exactly as is. It is SUPER easy. Thanks for sharing Becca] Here’s what it looks like now after it’s been sitting for 12 hours.

It’s not something that you’d want to knead anyway…

Back to the lasagna… The veggies are now tender so my meat mixture is almost done. I just threw in some spices (1 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper, 1 tsp oregano) to finish it off and now I‘m ready to make my spaghetti sauce. I‘ll take about 7 cups of the meat mixture and put It into a 5 qt pot. To that I add 10 cans of plain tomato sauce (8 oz cans) and two cans of Italian-style stewed tomatoes. I also had just one small can of mushrooms in the pantry so I’ll throw that in too. The sauce will need to simmer for 30 minutes or so to thicken it up.

Three cups of the meat mix goes into a freezer bag. I‘ll use it down the road when I make chili.. Or something. We‘ll see.
 

- and look at the time! I’m not going to be able to have lasagna for dinner tonight (unless I want to feed my kids at 8:30.. Which I don’t) So I leave the remaining 1 cup of meat mix in the pan. I’ll add some Hamburger Helper to it and a can of green beans for dinner instead. (See, I really am eating canned veggies!)

 
Now, while dinner is simmering along with my spaghetti sauce, I’ll finish my noodles. The dough is nice and soft! Roll the dough out to about 1/8- 1/16 inch thickness. Then cut with a pizza cutter into nice wide noodles good for lasagna.
 
 

Back to the sauce. Looks good, but still needs seasoning. For a big pot like this I like to put in about ¼ cup Italian seasoning (or at least 3 packets spaghetti seasoning). Don’t forget the basil.. A lot of Italian seasoning doesn’t include basil. (I know.. How can they even call it Italian?)

Alright! Finally time to start assembling the lasagna. I made enough of everything for two lasagnas, but I only have one foil pan.. So I’m making my own pan with heavy duty foil and my 9x13 casserole pan.

You don’t have to pre-cook the noodles before you assemble the lasagna, but you can if you want to. (It takes more time and doesn’t, in my opinion, change the taste)

Ok, dinner is ready, lasagna is assembled and in the freezer.. Don’t forget to save your extra sauce for another day.

Also freeze the extra noodles for another meal.

Time to eat. Just one problem.. The kids all ran out the door so we played at the park and let dinner get cold. Ah well. We still ate by 7:00...

Oh and the bread… Here’s what it looked like before it went into the oven.

 
 

And just a note… It really is important to dust the pan with some cornmeal or course flour before you add the bread dough…

Whoops, just realized that I didn't include any recipes other than the noodles... so:
Meat mix:
4 lbs ground meat (I used 2 lbs beef, 2 lbs turkey)
about 6 cups chopped veggies
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp oregano
   I used: 1 bunch green onions-from the garden
              about 8 large jalepeno sized sweet peppers
              2 small zucchinis
  (you can also use celery, spicy peppers, spinach, etc.. just make sure they're mild veggies that can be used in a variety of recipes)
Spaghetti Sauce
7-8 cups meat mix
10 (8oz) cans tomato sauce
    or you can use 3 (26oz) cans spaghetti sauce (like ragu, etc)
2-4 cans Italian style stewed tomatoes (I only used 2 because that's all I had)
2 cans sliced mushrooms (or 8oz fresh)
1 small can sliced olives (optional)
Easy Lasagna (x2)
2 tubs (16oz) cottage cheese
1 1/2 lb mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
about 12 cups spaghetti sauce
24 oz lasagna noodles

For each lasagna: Spread 1 cup spaghetti sauce onto bottom of pan. Layer in this order: Noodles, about 2 cups sauce, 1/2 tub cottage cheese, 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese. Make two layers like this. For the last layer: Sauce, 1/4 - 1/2 cup mozzarella, 1/4 cup parmesan. If you are freezing lasagna, there is no need to pre-cook the noodles. Just be sure they are completely covered with sauce. To cook, bake thawed lasagna covered at 400 F for 1 hour. Uncover, cook 10 minutes more until cheese is browned. (If cooking while still frozen, add at least 30 minutes to covered cooking time and do NOT pre-heat the oven first)