Recipe Review: Lazy Day Lasagna (Picky Eater Approved!)

So, funny story...  I hate lasagna.  I mean, I think I do.  Or I did.  

On the last day of my high school internship, I attended our senior scholarship banquet, which was a LOVELY evening of food, family, and celebrating good ol' fashioned academic achievement.  I was so proud to have been part of the school community that nurtured these kids, even if it was only for a couple of months.  But I digress.

We worked hard all day, ironing out logistics of this first-ever event at a facilty none of us were familiar with, and schlepping heavy stuff all over the place.  So when dinner time rolled around, I was HUNGRY!  And the only choices: lasagna or starve.  So I ate the lasagna.  And it was the best thing I think I'd ever tasted!  I came home gushing to Ethan about how it wasn't gritty and weird, and he said that they must've used cottage cheese instead of ricotta.  I'd never heard of this, but I put it on my mental to-do list to find a recipe like it.

Then, in Barbados, while I was dealing with OHSS and eating, like, 300 calories a day, the cravings started hitting.  (Because each of my 35+ follicles started releasing progesterone, and my trigger shot was hCG, these hormones mimicked early pregnancy symptoms. Like, all of them.  I almost hurled when Ethan brought scrambled eggs - one of my favorites - into the room where I was.  Food aversions are weird.)  Lasagna was one of my top cravings, but we didn't want to chance a frozen version that would've cost an arm and a leg there, and may have been gritty... plus, I couldn't have eaten more than a few bites of it.  But my wonderful husband scoured the internet until he found a simple recipe using cottage cheese... I made it about a week after we got home.  :-)

So, check out this recipe from "Life in my Kitchen...and beyond", especially if you have picky eaters in your house!  Odds are pretty good that I'm pickier than they are ;-)  I can't stand tomato chunks, so we picked a jar of relatively smooth spaghetti sauce, and I used extra meat. The recipe is a little strange, in that it calls for 1.5C browned ground beef, instead of a specific weight.  I browned 2 pounds, and it was definitely more than 1.5C... I didn't measure it, but I'm guessing it came out to to somewhere between 2.5 and 3C.  So, maybe try browning a pound, if you'd rather err on the side of less meaty, or a pound and a half if you like a meatier lasagna.  The tons of extra we used was delicious, but JUST barely fit in the pan.  :-)   I also topped it with more shredded cheese when it was fresh out of the oven, because there's no such thing as too much cheese!  

This recipe DEFINITELY earned a spot on my "Recipes I Love" Pinterest board!  Hop on over and follow that board (or all of them!) to see what else is making the cut in this picky-eater's kitchen :-)