The "Macy" Version of Lasagna

Well, to be fair, this should be called the "Melissa" version, not the Macy version! The Macy version was emailed to me by my dear mother in law, who is an excellent cook and actually MEASURES food for recipes, unlike yours truly!

Since this my own creation, adapted from both the Macy version and the Lasagna Florentine from Mary's book, I will post this entire recipe! I was amazed that it turned out because I used way too much of some ingredients and probably not enough of others ... added a few things not called for in the recipes ... and the noodles were not pre-cooked ... they turned out very al dente!

I doubled this and made two tonight, cooked them both and will freeze the one we didn't eat for another meal in a couple of weeks!

• 1lb ground beef
• 1 chopped onion (I cheated and used a bag of pre-chopped onions)
• 2tsp minced garlic
• salt, pepper, and dried parsley to taste
• 32oz jar spaghetti sauce of your choice (I used Classico tomato and basil)
• 1/2 cup water (add to jar and shake then pour into cooking pot)
• 10oz package frozen chopped spinach
• 15oz container low fat ricotta cheese (or small curd cottage cheese, but I personally don't think it melts as well as the ricotta)
• 2 eggs
• 8oz package fancy Italian cheese blend
• 8oz package uncooked lasagna noodles

Thaw and drain spinach (most important part!!!!). Squeeze out excess moisture from spinach and set aside.

Preheat oven to 375.

Cook ground beef. Remove from pan, reserving fat in pan. Add onions and garlic to pan and saute until onions are cooked. Add back ground beef and mix. Add spaghetti sauce and water and simmer until hot.

To thawed and drained spinach, add ricotta and eggs, mix together. Add 1/2 package of Italian cheese and combine.

In 7x11 foil pan layer sauce, uncooked noodles, cheese mixture and repeat until all noodles are used. End with sauce layer and top with remaining shredded cheese.

Cover tightly with foil (I'd recommend you place your dish on a cookie sheet) and cook for 1 hr.