Sunday's Plate

I've been making a lot of lasagnas lately, and the children just love them. It's usually a cumbersome, long job that never seems to end, but we've found some shortcuts, and today I'm going to share them with you so that lasagna becomes a twenty minute prep for you too!

Buy the best, least fat ground meat you can. I usually buy round - it requires little draining. I brown about 2 lbs of meat for forty children and add two cans of tomato sauce and Italian spices and garlic salt and set aside. (At home, if you use veggies, brown veggies with the meat.)

I buy oven ready lasagna noodles - not the best health quality, but I only know of only one whole grain lasagna noodle, and the only place to get them is the Grocery Outlet in Newburgh and they take an hour to make.

I mix a gallon of cottage cheese, two cups of Parmesan cheese and five eggs in a bowl, mix and set aside. At home, a pint of cottage, 1/2 cup Parmesan and two eggs will do. ( Eggs keep cottage from melting away.)

Spray your pan with pan coat; spread two layers of noodles; put your cottage mix on noodles; more noodles; sauce; shredded mozzarella on last and bake 350 degrees until top is brown and sides are bubbly.

For more industrious dinner makers, make more thin layers. For school, I do one layer each because it all looks the same when you serve it no matter how many layers there are.

This is the fastest lasagna I know - about twenty minutes.