Lasagna

Ingredients

• 2 (15 ounce) cans tomato sauce (Hunt's)

• 1/2 green pepper, diced
• 1/2 onion, diced

• 1 (8 ounce) container mushrooms (optional)
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1 1/2 lbs ground beef or ground turkey

• 1 (8 ounce) box lasagna noodles
• 1 teaspoon butter

• 1 (16 ounce) container small curd cottage cheese (not ricotta)
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 2-4 cups mozzarella cheese

Directions

1. 1

   Brown meat, onion, and green pepper (and mushrooms if desired), adding garlic salt. Drain fat.

2. 2

   Add tomato sauce and bring to a simmer, cover and cook for at least 1 hour.

3. 3

   Meanwhile, cook the lasagna noodles in salted water (reserve the cooking liquid) until barely al dente (about 7 minutes) and combine the cottage cheese and mayonnaise in a bowl.

4. 4

   Preheat oven to 350°F.

5. 5

   Grease a 13X9 pan with butter. Evaluate the sauce, if it has cooked for a long time and lost a lot of liquid, thin it by adding 1/4 cup at a time of cooking liquid from the noodles. Add as much as desired to get the right consistency: thick but spreadable. This will also make your sauce "sticky" so it will coat the noodles.

6. 6

   Spoon a thin layer of sauce into the bottom of the dish. Layer noodles (overlapping if necessary), 1/2 meat mixture and 1/2 the cheese mixture.

7. 7

   Cover with the rest of noodles, meat and cheese mixture. Top with shredded mozzarella.

8. 8

   You can store this in the refrigerator or freezer at this point until ready to heat. Allow extra time for reheating from cold or frozen state. Spray a sheet of foil with cooking spray and cover the lasagna with it. Bake for 1 hour.

9. 9

   Uncover and continue baking until the cheese is bubbly and browning.