I never met a Lasagna I didn't Like!

Ready to go in the oven

Garfield is clearly a lover of all things lasagna. Our family is also, and I've tried several lasagna recipes in the past. The only problem with lasagna is that now that I'm cooking for two most of the time, a pan of lasagna last a lo-o-o-ng time. Cutting out chunks of it to freeze didn't seem to work well either. So I recently tried Lasagna Roll-Ups. Instead of a big slab, this recipe presents lasagna in individual serving size rolls. I found these easy to make, serve, and freeze; so now perhaps "once again, my life has been saved by the miracle of lasagna".

Lasagna Roll-Ups

from Kraft Foods, I changed the proportions to use more ground beef. This made 10 lasagna rolls for me with a little sauce and meat left. I mixed that with the remains of a couple of bags of pasta found in the cabinet (and cooked) and pepperonis. Another freezer meal for later!

2 pounds ground beef
1 jar (26 oz) spaghetti sauce
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
2 eggs, lightly beaten
15 oz container ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
10 lasagna noodles, cooked, drained
1 cup Mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan (additional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brown meat in skillet and drain. Add half of the jar of spaghetti sauce and stir into meat. Add tomato sauce to the remaining spaghetti sauce.
Mix egg, ricotta cheese and 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese.
Cook noodles according to package instructions, adding a few to the water at a time and stirring. Cook to the al dente stage. Remove the noodles from the boiling water in first-in-first-out order. When noodles have cooled slightly, spread each with 2 heaping tablespoonfuls of ricotta/egg/Parmesan mixture, Top this with a scant 1/4 cup meat mixture and 2 heaping tablespoons mozzarella cheese.

noodle-ricotta-hamburger-cheese

and roll

Roll up each noodle from a short end. Place in a greased 9x12-inch baking pan. Pour spaghetti/tomato sauce over noodles. Sprinkle with remaining Mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Cover with foil and bake 45 minutes or until hot and bubbly.