Friday, April 19, 2013

Busy Mom's Lasagna

Hello, Friends! I just had to share this idea/recipe with you all, it is so amazing. Back a couple of weeks ago when our friend Chris came over to fix the computer, his sweet wife Mandy came with him. While Chris was working on the computer, we swapped recipes and talked about kids, cooking, school and husbands. Somehow we got on the topic of lasagna. My dear hubby and Teddy Bear really like lasagna, but I never really make it because I don't care for the ricotta cheese layer and I don't really want to fuss with the noodles. If we want pasta I just make spaghetti or baked ziti. Mandy said she didn't know why you couldn't just use cheese ravioli for the noodle and cheese layer. I agreed that that sounded like a good idea. And then I didn't think about it again, until this past Sunday when I saw the sales paper for one of our local grocery stores. They had cheese ravioli's on sale for buy one, get one free. And I remembered the lasagna conversation. So on Monday, which is my shopping day, I picked up some ravioli and also scored some sweet Italian sausage on sale.
I put down a little bit of sauce and then a layer of raviolis. Over this layer I added the Italian sausage  mixed with sauce and some sauteed onions.

This is the top of layer #1. After the sauce and meat mixture, I sprinkled some mozzarella on top. Repeat the process for layer #2, making the mozzarella thicker on top if you like. We like!

This isn't a very pretty picture, but this is all that was left after Teddy Bear, Princess, Daddy and I were done with it. It was so yummy! And it was definitely way easier than futzing with lasagna noodles and ricotta cheese. 
Now, if you wanted to streamline the process even more, you could keep precooked hamburger or Italian sausage in the freezer. If you have a day where you do some kitchen prep or cook ahead, you could cook the frozen ravioli's a couple of days ahead of time, too. You could even assemble the whole thing a day or two ahead of time so you could just pop it in the oven to bake while you get a salad or other vegetable together for dinner.

This is definitely a keeper of a recipe at our house! Thank you so much, Mandy, for the awesome idea!!! And I hope that you, Friends, find this as much of a blessing as I did.

Many Blessings,
Kelly

3 comments:

  1. I never made lasagna because I do not care for it either, but is the noodles I did not like. Too thick for me. And I never saw an easy recipe until now. Couple of questions for you - how long did you bake it and what temp? Did you cook the raveoli before assembling it?

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    1. Hi Linda! I'm so glad you dropped by.

      I used frozen raviolis, and yes, I boiled them before making the lasagna. I baked it at 400* until the cheese on top was starting to turn golden brown, that's how my family likes it. I think it took about 20-30 minutes, but I wasn't really paying attention.

      Thanks again for checking this out, and I hope that you and your family enjoy it!
      Many Blessings!

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  2. Followed you from the Clever Chicks blog hop ... this is an intriguing idea. Would be cute to do little individual ravioli lasagna cups! :) I'd love it if you stopped by my blog sometime: Anyonita Nibbles.

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