15 in 3: Dinner 3 Lasagna

Welcome to the third installment of 15 in 3!  This is the place I am sharing my 15 favorite dinners over the next 3 weeks.  Stay tuned for easy homemade dinner recipes containing lots of whole foods, minimal processed ingredients, and straight forward recipes with everyday healthy ingredients.  Some posts will contain bonus breakfast and snack ideas.  Happy cooking!

Dinner 3:  Lasagna with Rolls and Butter

This is probably my favorite recipe passed on from my Mom.  I make my own sauce now, but other than that I still make this exactly the way she did.  It's relatively easy and wonderfully delicious.  I love that this is a recipe I know by heart.

The rolls are by a natural foods brand called Alexia that I highly recommend you become familiar with.  I think all of their products are in the frozen section (rolls, delicious combinations of vegetables, sweet potato fries, etc.).  Under normal circumstances both the rolls and the lasagna would be golden brown, but not in my Korean oven.

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef + 1 jar spaghetti sauce OR 1/2  recipe spaghetti sauce
9 whole wheat lasagna noodles
16 oz. cottage cheese
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
To taste, italian seasoning, Garlic salt, shredded parmesan cheese

1 package Alexia French Rolls
4 T. butter

Directions:
1.  Heat oven to 350 degrees F.  Cook noodles in boiling water until al dente, then drain.  Meanwhile, cook and drain ground beef, then add sauce and heat on medium low until warm throughout, OR use sauce recipe as linked above.

2.  Spread 1/4 sauce mixture into bottom of 9x13 baking pan.  Layer three noodles in a row.  Top them evenly with 1/3 cottage cheese and 1/4 sauce mixture.  Repeat with two more layers.

3.  Sprinkle mozzarella cheese followed by "to taste" seasonings and cheese on top of lasagna.  Bake 30-45 minutes depending on how long it takes your oven to warm the lasagna and make the top golden brown or not.

4.  Bake rolls according to package directions.  (You will love that these babies do not even need to thaw!  Take them right from the freezer to the pan and they're ready in less than 10 minutes!)

This recipe serves 8.  One serving is 431 calories, which includes one roll with 1/2 T. canola butter.  Add an extra 145 calories if you're like me and can't resist a second roll with melting butter on it.

Enjoy!!