Better-than-Ever Cheesy Meat Lasagna

Update 3/1/13: I made this for an FRG meeting and it was GONE! Everyone loved it and I was really surprised that my husband, who knowingly ate it with cottage cheese in it, liked it. Both of us aren't really fans of lasagna anyways, so I'm excited to know that every blue moon when I am craving lasagna, he will eat this recipe of it.

This was my very first ever homemade lasagna. I've never really been a big fan, mostly because of ricotta cheese and I was incredibly skeptical to try a recipe with cottage cheese. But this recipe was fantastic.

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What you need:

• 3/4 lb. extra-lean ground beef
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 tsp. dried oregano leaves
• 1 jar (26 oz.) spaghetti sauce
• 1 large tomato, chopped
• 1 egg
• 1 container (16 oz.) cottage cheese
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• 9 lasagna noodles, cooked (or however many you may need)
• 1 pkg. (7 oz.) shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

**I used Barilla lasagna and it was the type you don't precook. So I combined the recipe on the Barilla box with this one and modified it to meet my needs. Make sure you check your lasagna noodles and modify as needed.

Directions:

Heat oven to 375. Brown meat with garlic and oregano in a large saucepan.

Stir in spaghetti sauce; simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; stir in tomatoes.

Mix egg, cottage cheese and Parmesan.

Spread 1/2 cup meat sauce onto bottom of 13x9-inch baking dish (I did 1/4 cup spaghetti sauce before I added it to the meat).

Top with 3 noodles (or 1/3 of the amount you have). Then half the cottage cheese mixture on top of noodles.

Top with 1/2 cup mozzarella.

Then top with 1 cup sauce. Repeat layers (noodles, cottage cheese, mozzarella and meat sauce). Top with remaining noodles and sauce; cover. Bake for 30 minutes or until heated through (my noodles said 50 to 60 minutes). Top with remaining mozzarella. Bake uncovered for 5 more minutes or until melted.

Let stand for 5 minutes before serving. Cut into squares and serve!

 Recipe courtesy Kraft