If you haven’t tried the skillet lasagna recipe from the Spend Smart. Eat Smart website,  I highly recommend it.  Here’s why I like it:

• It’s a nutritious tasty recipe that only costs $.75 per serving.
• You can make it on top of the stove or in an electric skillet.  I don’t like to use the oven in the summer so this is a perfect ‘no oven’ hot dish.
• It’s easy.  There are not very many ingredients and you don’t have to cook the noodles first…saves on dirty dishes and time. 
• It tastes good, I recently made it when my 20 year old son and 3 of his friends were at the house.  They all loved it.
• It’s a very versatile recipe.  My youngest son loves meat and likes it with a bit more meat in it.  The original recipe calls for 1/2 pound of ground beef.  Since it makes 8  1-cup servings, that provides 1 ounce meat per serving.  If you double the meat you really aren’t overdoing  the protein, it will provide 2 ounces per 1 cup serving.  This will increase the cost to about $.90 – $.95 per serving — still a really good buy.  You can also make this recipe without any meat at all. 

My personal cooking tips:

• My family has a favorite spaghetti sauce brand that comes in a jar, but for this recipe I use a store or generic brand canned sauce (28 ounce can).  It costs less and still tastes great.
• I stir in 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning and 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder to the cottage cheese before spooning it on.
• You want to make sure you thoroughly heat it after you put the cheese on top.  The recipe says to cover and heat it for 5 – 10 minutes after putting the cheeses on.  During that cooking time, I occasionally remove the lid and insert a spoon in a few places throughout the skillet.  I’m not stirring it, just allowing some of the juices on the bottom to sort of rise up and mix with the cheeses a bit. 

Skillet Lasagna

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound ground beef
• 1/2 onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced or 1/4 teaspoons garlic powder
• 3 cups spaghetti or pasta sauce (26 to 28 ounces)
• 1 cup water
• 8 ounces wide noodles
• 1 (10-ounce) package chopped spinach, thawed
• 1 (12-ounce) container lowfat cottage cheese
• 1/2 cup (4 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese
• Optional: fresh or canned, drained sliced mushrooms

Instructions

1. Wash hands.
2. Cook ground beef, onions, and garlic together in a large skillet or electric fry pan; stir to prevent sticking. When ground beef has turned brown transfer mixture to a colander set over a bowl and rinse with hot water to remove grease. Return mixture to skillet.
3. Add spaghetti sauce and water to skillet and bring to a boil.
4. Add uncooked noodles, stir, cover with lid, turn down the heat, and cook 5 minutes.
5. Squeeze the thawed spinach with your clean hands to remove the juice and then stir into the pan. Add mushrooms if you like. Cover and simmer 5 minutes.
6. Spoon cottage cheese over the top. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese, put the lid on and let it heat another 5 to 10 minutes until heated through and noodles are tender.

– comments from Renee Sweers