New Year's Eve Lasagna

So I was thinking about what could we have for dinner on New Year's Eve, and I thought of a meat lasagna. With a little bit of veggies on it.




Here are the ingredients you will be needing:

• 1 package of pre-cooked (or no-boil) lasagna noodles (I prefer Barilla Lasagne)
• 1/4 finely chopped onion
• 1/2 green bell pepper finely chopped
• 1/2 red bell pepper finely chopped
• 1/2 orange bell pepper finely chopped
• 1 lb ground beef (I use Sirloin)
• 1 bottle Hunt's Traditional spaguetti tomato sauce
• 1 pack of Cottage cheese (16 oz, large curd) 
• 3 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup shredded or grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tbsp Knorr's Beef Bouillon
• 4 tsp ground oregano
• 4 tsp crushed basil
• 10 laurel leaves
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp vegetable oil (you can replace with 1 tsp of salted butter)
• 1/2 cup water
  
  

Ok, that's a lot of ingredients, but it is definitely worth to try it. I can't describe the flavor, but it's really amazing. It's like you can taste every flavor: the pasta, the tomato sauce, the basil, the oregano, the meat, the veggies, even the onion. And on the cheese mix, OMG! You can taste the cottage, parmesan and mozzarella cheeses all the way!

So, for the meat layer: 

Start chopping the bell peppers (I usually use yellow pepper too, but this time I couldn't find any!).

Chop the onion.

Heat the vegetable oil (or butter) in medium heat and add the onions until they are transparent. 

Stir continously and add the bell peppers.

Continue stirring. My husband wanted to help so he was in charge of "stirring occasionally". Lol.

When the pepper start cooking a little bit, they should look a little bit darker.

That's when you will add the ground beef. Start stirring and let it almost-cook.

Then add 1 tsp of each: basil, oregano and 3 crushed laurel leaves. And 1/2 tbsp of Knorr's Beef Bouillon. 

 Continue stirring until meat is fully cooked. Almost!

Now it's done!

Now, for the cheese layer:

Start by placing the cottage cheese in a bowl.

Add the mozzarella cheese and the parmesan cheese.

Now, add the eggs, the pepper and the garlic powder. Add 1 tsp: basil, oregano and 3 crushed laurel leaves.

Stir until well blended. I use a spatula.

 Ready!

And at last, for the tomato sauce:

Medium heat a deep pot and add the tomato spaguetti sauce and the water. Add 1 tsp: oregano, basil and laurel. 

 Stir and let it simmer. Turn the heat off.

The sauce is ready!! Meat layer: check! Cheese layer: check! Sauce layer: check!

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).

Now, take your lasagna noodles and a 9X13 in. Pyrex and let's begin layering.

For the lasagna layers:

Place one sauce layer at the bottom of the pan. Now, top it with lasagna noodles. make sure you don't leave open spaces. In other words, overlay one lasagna noddle in top of the other, as shown in the next picture:

The next layer is a cheese layer. Make sure you cover all the surface and spread it around!

Looks yum!

Next layer: beef & veggies layer.

And we start again! Sauce layer.

Lasagna noodles layer.

Repeat until you reach the top. The last layers are as follows: lasagna noodles, then sauce (cover everything with sauce, so that the noodles won't go hard in the oven) and then a layer of the remaining mozzarella cheese.

Now, cover with aluminium foil and place it in oven for 45 minutes (or until you can hear or see the bubbling).

My lasagna took 30 minutes to cook (or start bubbling).

OMG, this looks so good!

Make sure you let it stand around 10 or 15 minutes: that way it will set. 

Do you want to try it?

Look at that cheese!

Yum!

Look how juicy it is!

Note: You can make any flavor you want. Four cheeses (just add any cheese you prefer to the cheese mixture and triple the dosis, lol), veggies, chicken, ham, sausage, oven dried tomatoes, etc. I prepare another one that is with chicken and Rajas con Queso. I will post the recipe for you another day.