{Recipes}: Easy Cheesy Lasagna

As you all know, I could eat Italian ALL day long! My stomach is growling just thinking about all the different choices I have when Italian is on the menu. There's fettucine alfredo, spaghetti, stromboli's, pizza and then there's my favorite... LASAGNA! Lasagna is one of my all time favorite Italian dishes. I love it with all of its cheeses! So since Kevin and I have gotten married I have only tried like five different lasagna recipes but none of them were quite right in my book. But I finally found a recipe and tweaked it enough that I think it is absolutely scrumptious! And better yet... it is super fast and easy to fix! And a girl like me that works for ever and a day, tries to work out and keep tan, and spend time with my family... well, time is of the essence! So I figured I'd share the recipe with my readers! You should try it but let me warn you... If you're on a diet... you won't be for long! 

What you need:

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1 24 oz. and 1 16 oz. jar of traditional spaghetti sauce
• 32 ounces cottage cheese
• 3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 teaspoons dried parsley
• salt to taste
• ground black pepper to taste
• 9 lasagna noodles
• 1/2 cup water

Directions:

1. In a large skillet over medium heat brown the ground beef. Drain the grease. Add spaghetti sauce and simmer for 5 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the cottage cheese, 2 cups of the mozzarella cheese, eggs, the grated Parmesan cheese, dried parsley, salt and ground black pepper.
3. To assemble, in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish evenly spread part of the sauce mixture until you can't see the bottom of the dish. Cover with 3 uncooked lasagna noodles, 1 3/4 cup of the cheese mixture, and 1/4 cup sauce. Repeat layers twice. Top with 3 noodles, remaining sauce, remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Add a few tablespoons of water to each edge of the casserole dish so the noodles don't dry out. Cover with aluminum foil.
4. Bake in a preheated 350 degrees oven for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 10 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.