Howdy Kitchen: Lazy Day Lasagna

 

Sunday night during my cooking time, I made this lasagna.

However, this was my first time making lasagna without boiling the noodles before hand.

In the end.....SUCCESS!!

It saves SO much time.  No need to wait for the water to boil, then add the noodles, then wait for the noodles to cook.

The longest prep this time was browning the beef.

Here's the recipe I used.

Lazy Day Lasagna

1 12oz carton cottage cheese

2 c {or more....to totally did more!} shredded mozzarella cheese

2 eggs

1/3 c chopped parsley

1 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp basil leaves {I omitted these, since the spaghetti sauce had them in it}

black pepper

1 32oz jar spaghetti sauce

1 lb cooked ground beef

9 noodles

1/4 c water

In a bowl, mix together the first 7 ingredients.  Set aside.

Mix together sauce and beef.

In a 9x13 pan layer noodles, meat mixture, and cottage cheese mixture.

Top with cheese!  {I used mozzarella and parmesean}

Pour 1/4 c water around the edges.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45-50 minutes covered.

Uncover and bake 15 minutes longer.

{Until cheese is beginning to brown.}

Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

This recipe was great.  SOOOO cheesy.  :)

The lasagna I normally make is just like this....minus the 1/4 cup water, and covering it for the first part of its cooking time.

I didn't realize the name of the lasagna until I started typing up the recipe.

I love it!  It seems very fitting.

One thing I did notice....the dry noodles do not fill up the pan.  Because of this, I decided to add a part of a noodle at one end to fill in the empty space.  Otherwise, a 9x9 pan would work well.  Your layers of meat and cottage cheese mixture will just be a little thicker. 

Mom, you will definitely want to give this lasagna a try.  :)

Now, as I'm sitting here on my final evening of kid wrangling since Friday night, I am definitely wishing I wouldn't have left the pumpkin bars I made spur of the moment Monday evening, in my office! 
I guess I'll get to enjoy them all day at work instead!  :)

 

Bakers Delight

Today I had the day off work, since the 4th lands on a weekend this year. However, I sure kept myself busy. I was asked/hired to make some food for a friend's party. It was fun, but took awhile. I thought maybe I'd get to my craft room, but that didn't happen at all.

Here's a look at what I made. I'll post the recipes for them later.

To start, I made 50 red velvet cupcakes....from scratch! When it came time to frost them, I wanted quick and easy...and decided to use my Pampered Chef Easy Accent Decorator. It was quite handy and efficient. I was certain that I was going to have to make 2 batches of the frosting. But nope, I got the job done with just one batch. Had I decorated them using a knife, I'm guessing I might have needed more.
The scotcharoos aren't complete. They need the chocolate topping...but were still cooling when I took the picture. I made a double batch of these. And you can probably notice the container on the right isn't full. That's because I split it up between the top two containers. The bottom one was a batch itself.

And here are 2 batches of blueberry crisp. It looked much better fresh out of the oven, before it settled. I've never made this before, so I sure hope it's okay!

The recipes for them will come later! So just enjoy the pictures for now. :)

I hope you all have a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend. While having fun, please remember those who are serving/have served our country for our freedom.

Freedom is not free!

Life on the Kid Farm, Part 2

To continue my previous post of Life on the Kid Farm.....on to the farm girls.

On this Friday, it was extremely hot outside. So there was only little spurts of playing outside. But while the farm boys took their much needed nap, here's what the farm girls had fun doing. I think this was the highlight of their day. :)

Here's a close-up of Jac's face. Notice the specks on the left side of her face? Yup. She wasn't being very careful about sneaking some bites. :)

And here are the cookies the girls decorated for me. They were yummy!

On a side note....did you noticed the pink and purple Nalgene water bottles in the pictures of the girls? Well, if you are looking for a good water bottle for your baby through whatever age, these are great! They have a stopper in them so are spill-proof, but it can be removed for the older kids. All the kids from a 9 month old - 6 year old enjoyed drinking from them. My sister picked them up at the Scheel's stores in both Waterloo and Cedar Falls, since one of them did not have enough. I found them on their website, but they are not available online right now. Bummer. Maybe another sports/outdoors store will have them. So go find yourself....I mean your kids or niece/nephews one. :)