“Mostly Homemade” Lasagna

Haha! But seriously.. maybe one of these days I’ll make homemade lasagna noodles and sauce, but for now the oven ready kind and Ragu haven’t done me wrong!

When I was learning how to cook, and I honestly had no clue what ricotta cheese even was, much less where to find it, my friend Angie gave me her recipe for lasagna. It was ricotta cheese-less and cottage cheese-less. So to me, it was less intimidating. It was so easy and so delicious..I’ve never looked anywhere else for a lasagna recipe, ever. It has a secret ingredient guys- cream cheese. And sour cream. Mix them up and bam...who needs ricotta cheese?! 😏

Here’s the recipe:

Summer’s Lasagna

🥖 1lb ground beef, seasoned and browned

🥖 1 jar spaghetti sauce

🥖 8 oz cream cheese

🥖 8 oz sour cream

🥖 1 box oven ready lasagna noodles

🥖 shredded cheese (about 1 1/2 cups)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Season your ground beef as you’re cooking it. I like to add thyme, basil, oregano, salt, and my fav Cavendar’s all purpose Greek seasoning. If you’re local, I know that Vadder Mercantile has a good Italian seasoning blend you can use.

While the beef is cooking, combine your cream cheese and sour cream. It’ll be chunky and that’s totally fine. Drain the grease and return the beef to the skillet. Add the jar of spaghetti sauce. Stir it up good. Spread a little of the sauce on the bottom of the 9x13 pan so there’s a little juice under the noodles.

Lay three noodles lengthwise in the pan.

Add the combined cream cheese/sour cream mixture to the top of the noodles. Be sure to cover all of the corners so there’s no crunchy noodles after baking.

Add the meat sauce to the top of the cream cheese/sour cream layer.

Continue layering in this order until you’re out of noodles and/or meat sauce. Finish with the meat sauce on the top layer.

Add cheese to the very top. If you have Parmesan or Romano cheese, then by all means, please add appropriate Italian cheeses to your lasagna! But if you’re like me, then go ahead and top it with whatever cheese you have on hand. I have used cheddar; cheddar and Parmesan; colby jack/cheddar combo; and today..fiesta blend. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I have never not liked it!

Bake at 350, covered with foil for about 45 minutes. Take the foil off and finish baking 10-15 minutes more.

This recipe is also good to prepare up to a day ahead and then you can just bake it when you’re ready. Simply do all the steps except baking it. Store it in the fridge for up to a day, or you could even freeze it at that point then thaw and bake. I have never done that though..just to be honest. I have prepped it and then prepared it later out of the fridge. It’s so delicious. 😍

I hope you try it out!! And thanks again to my friend Angie, for sharing her recipe with me all those years ago! ♥️

With love,

Summer ☀️