Meat Lasagna On The Fly

Easy Meat Lasagna

Originally I was planning on making stuffed peppers for supper, but when I realized I didn't really have a pan big enough to bake them in, I decided to amend my original plan and make a meat lasagna. I vaguely remembered my mother making it, but I didn't have a recipe.

How hard could it really be? 

The Attempt:

 1/2 lb chopped meat

1+   cup mixed peppers

1/2  an onion, chopped

Jar of marinara sauce

A couple of shakes of: Onion powder, garlic powder, basil, salt, pepper

2 Tbs oil

uncooked lasagna noodles

Filling:

Heat oil in large skillet. Sauté onions and peppers until soft. Add meat, brown. Add around half a jar of marinara sauce and spices.  Heat through. 

To assemble lasagna: 

Cover bottom of pan with a layer of marinara sauce. Add a layer of uncooked lasagna noodles. (Because I was using a smaller pan than the typical 9x13 I had to break the lasagna pieces into smaller pieces.) Place a layer of the filling on top.  Add another layer of lasagna noodles, then another layer of filling. Add another layer of lasagna noodles over filling. Top the noodles with more marinara sauce. 

Makes 3 servings.

The Verdict:

A+.  This was really good. Definitely a repeat. A couple of things to note. 

• All my servings are small. I make just enough for me and Prince Charming, plus a little extra. If you are making this for more people, double the recipe.

• Since it was a small recipe, I didn't make it in a 9 x 13 pan, but rather a 1 1/2 qt. pyrex dish. Because of that, I had to break up the lasagna pieces. It didn't look pretty and it wasn't even, but once the dish had cooked you couldn't tell the difference. 

• I felt like it needed more spice, maybe more salt. Prince Charming didn't think it was missing too much but then again he's in middle of finals and wasn't paying much attention. Next time I make it, I'll experiment with adding a few more shakes of the spices. 

• The top was too crunchy to eat, I think it needs to be completely covered with marinara sauce in order for the noodles to cook, so the next time I will add more sauce. 

• I made this dish in the morning, went to a midday vort (engagement party) in Lakewood, NJ, sat in mucho traffic, and when I was an hour away from home asked Prince Charming to pop it into the oven. I'm not sure, but it is possible that the time the lasagna spent chilling out in my refrigerator might have contributed to the lasagna noodles getting softer- because they were sitting in the meat sauce. The next time I make it I'm going to have to put it in the oven right away to see what happens.