Stretching a Buck Lasagna

This lasagna "recipe" is our favorite! It's simple and easy and uses whatever food you already have on hand. I came up with this a few years ago as a way to make lasagna but avoid some of the higher priced items that many lasagnas have.

What you need:

• Lasagna noodles
• Cottage Cheese
• Shredded Cheese
• Hamburger
• Pasta Sauce

Here are the ingredients I had on hand to make this today, lasagna noodles, cottage cheese, cheddar cheese, hamburger, and leftover pasta sauce from a previous meal.

Mix together the cheese and cottage cheese. Usually we prefer mozzarella cheese with the cottage cheese when I can get it. In this cheese mixture you can add any herbs or spices you might want, we like to add a little garlic salt or onion salt. You will need about 2 cups of shredded cheese and 2 cups of cottage cheese for a 9x13 pan although if you have less, don't worry about it!

Spread just a little of the sauce and the meat on the bottom of a 9x13 pan. You don't need too much, just enough so the noodles won't stick to the bottom of the pan.

Add a layer of noodles on top of this meat sauce, then scoop 1/2 of the cheese mixture on top of the noodles and spread it around. If you don't have lasagna noodles you can also use any other kind, I've done that before to make more of a pasta bake and it works fine!

Place another layer of noodles on the cheese mixture. Top that with a layer of sauce and meat and the rest of the cheese. Add a third layer of noodles and pour the rest of the meat and sauce on top. You will need about a quart of sauce and at least 1/2 lb of meat to make the sauce. Finally pour about 1/2 c. water around the edges of the dish.

Bake at 350F covered for 30 minutes and then uncovered for 15 minutes or until bubbly. This dish freezes really well!

(linked to Unwasted Homemaking, Pennywise Platter Thursdays, Crockpot Ladies)

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