Lasagna: The Perfect Food!

I love lasagna. Ever since I was a little kid, lasagna for dinner was always my favorite. I was scared to try to make it at first, but discovered that it is super easy to make, and always turns out delicious. I sometimes forget the proportions of cheese and stuff, so what I normally do is loosely follow the directions on the box of whatever lasagna noodles I buy, modifying it to my liking! I recently made a giant batch of lasagna and it was one of my best to date. These measurements are really... rough, as I kind of just eyeballed the amounts.



Ingredients:
1 pound of ground turkey thighs
a small tub of part skim ricotta cheese (I think its 8-10 oz)
a hunk of part skim mozzarella
shredded parmesan
1 egg
A jar of basic marinara sauce. I picked one with italian seasonings
about a dozen mushrooms, sliced
half an onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 package of lasagna noodles (I bought Spelt by mistake and they were great!)
Spices: basil, nutmeg, salt, pepper. You could use some cayenne or chili powder for spice if you want.

So, to make the lasagna. First cook the meat. Once that is cooked, add in the onion, mushrooms, and the garlic. Also add in some basil, salt and pepper to taste. Once the mushrooms and onions are cooked up nicely, add the jar of sauce and let simmer. In the meantime, cook the pasta according to the package directions. Some noodles do not require pre-cooking, and generally I prefer those just because it is less work. But the noodles I bought turned out fantastic.

For the cheese mixture, mix the following in a bowl. The whole tub of ricotta (the small one, not the giant pound one or whatever), about 2 cups of shredded mozzarella, about a teaspoon of nutmeg, a little salt, a little pepper, a small handful of the shredded parmesan and one egg.

Next is the fun part, layering.

First some sauce on the bottom of the pan (greased, by the way). Next, a layer of (cooked) noodles, with the edges slightly overlapping. Next, a layer of cheese mixture, then a layer of the meat/onion/mushroom/sauce mixture. Then more noodles, followed by more cheese, more meat/sauce. Then more noodles, more cheese, more meat/sauce. Finally, whatever cheese left on top.

Bake covered on 350 for about 45 minutes. In the last 15 minutes you can sprinkle some of the shredded parmesan on top and remove the cover of foil. Let cool for about 10 or 15 minutes and dig in! Amazingggggg!