Lasagna, Surprise…I actually like it!

Remember in elementary school when they’d have Chef’s Surprise on the menu and we all got a little scared? Those were always the days I brought my lunch. So it has been with Lasagna night at our house. I skipped it, never made it. However, one of the little mouths had lasagna somewhere and loved it so I was on the hook. Find a recipe that I (and they) would actually enjoy.

Little Mouth, the Lasagna Lover, has a High School Musical cookbook. It has a recipe for Lasagna and she’d been chasing me around the house with it for several days. That recipe called for cottage cheese. However, the sight of those little curds floating around in sauce has always been enough to make my stomach do a flip flop, and not in a good way, like when you’d see your most recent crush across a crowded cafeteria. None of us cared for ricotta cheese in the mixture, so what to do???

I got out my handy, dandy shiny new Cuisinart and whipped the cottage cheese into submission with the steel blade and added a little crushed garlic for flavor. YUM. Reminded me of hummus and you could completely add a few herbs and eat the stuff on pita chips.

Jessica Seinfeld has a cookbook called Deceptively Delicious. I don’t make many of the recipes in there, but it did teach me that you can sneak in a little extra nutrition into everything you make. She is a wiz and weekly cooks and purees scads of fresh veggies and stealthy adds them to her family’s breakfast, lunch and dinner.

This summer when the farmers markets were everywhere, I did cook and freeze quite a bit of squash, etc. but it isn’t something I am going to be able to consistently keep up…then it hit me. There is a source of pureed veggies of every kind. One that has stringent quality and nutrient standards and is in EVERY grocery store. Baby food!

I use the large “Junior” jars and it works great. It often gives the dish a little extra flavor and more than one guest has questioned what that little extra “something” is…but I’m not telling!

Lasagna, Surprise…I actually like it!


1 pound ground beef, sausage or meat substitute
1 jar tomato sauce
1 large jar pureed carrots (Junior Baby Food)
2 cups cottage cheese (I used reduced fat)
2 cloves crushed garlic
2 cups mozzarella cheese
¼ cup grated or shredded parmesan cheese
6 large lasagna noodles or 12 of the smaller, no cook ones


If you are using regular lasagna noodles, boil water and prepare them to the package directions. Careful to not overcook or they will be mushy.

While the ground beef is browning in a saute’ pan over medium heat, put the cottage cheese in a blender or food processor with the garlic. Puree until smooth and slightly fluffy. Remove the ground beef from heat and drain well. Add 2/3’s of the tomato sauce and pureed carrots and mix.

Add the reserved 1/3 of the sauce to the bottom of a 9 X 13 baking dish (or use two square ones and freeze half) then add the first row of noodles.

Now comes the tricky part. Every last recipe I have read for lasagna calls for the rest of the ingredients to be layered in the pan. Now, I know I have the dexterity of a one armed paperhanger, but I have never managed to be able to “layer” all of these sticky ingredients. If you can…do that now. If you’re like me, mix the cottage cheese mixture, 2/3’s of the mozzarella cheese and the 2/3’s meat/sauce mixture in a big bowl and put half of that on top of the noodles. Add another row of noodles and repeat with the rest of the glop you have left in the bowl. Add another row of noodles and top those with the rest of the meat sauce followed by the rest of the mozzarella cheese and the parmesan cheese.

Cover the pan with foil. Now you can do one of three things. Freeze, Refrigerate, or cook at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. Remove the foil and continue to brown the cheese for 10 more minutes. If the cheese isn’t browning well, flip on the broiler for the last few minutes, but watch closely. My kids won’t touch it if it looks “burned.”

The Little Mouths are split on this one. One thumbs up, one down.

Big Mama gives this recipe thumbs up, all around for fix-ahead-ability, Cost and Taste with an honorable mention for Easy Cooking.