Lasagna is such a traditional American meal, which is totally ironic because it’s Italian food after all. But it’s a staple around our house. Monkey Boy would stage a revolt if I ever took it off our menu. But it’s a pretty time consuming meal to make from scratch, so we don’t have it all that often because I won’t settle for that crappity crap store bought, preservative filled junk. So lasagna as a freezer meal is the perfect solution. Homemade lasagna without all the prep work and kitchen labor. Everyone wins. Freezer meals are awesome like that.

Ingredients

1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 {24 oz} jar of spaghetti sauce or 3 1/2 cups homemade tomato sauce
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 {1 lb} tub cottage cheese {you could use ricotta if you’d rather}
2 tbsp parsley
4 oz lasagna noodles, cooked then placed in cold water to cool
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese {I sometimes bump this up to 2 cups}

Directions

In large skillet, brown ground beef with onion, salt and garlic powder. Drain, then add spaghetti sauce. Simmer for 10 min, stirring occasionally. While sauce is simmering, combine cottage cheese, Parmesan cheese and parsley in a separate bowl. Mix until combined and set aside.

Next up, you’ll layer the lasagna. I use 3 layers, but you could do more or less, depending on preference. I always coat the bottom of my 9×13 pan with a bit of spaghetti sauce to keep the noodles from sticking.

Then layer a single row of noodles…

Followed by about 1/3 of your sauce/meat mixture and then 1/3 of the cottage cheese mix {try to spread this out a bit}.

Followed by 1/3 of the mozzarella cheese. You can reverse the cheese, cottage cheese mixture layer. I’ve made it both ways & didn’t notice a difference. Just make sure you end with mozzarella cheese on top of your top layer. It browns up nice and bubbly!

Repeat 2 more times.

To Cook – Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until cooked through.
To Freeze – Cover with foil and place lasagna pan on a cookie sheet so it freezes flat. When ready to use cook from frozen for 60 -75 minutes at 350 degrees.

Looking for more easy freezer meal ideas? See the full list of freezer meal ideas HERE!