Tweaked until it got right…
Posted on July 25, 2007
Filed Under Beef, Breads Biscuits and Rolls, Main dishes
This recipe originated out of the Derstine cookbook. I thought it was sorta blah, so I tweaked it here and there and now that my recipe is all marked up with a pen and pencil, I’ll try to make sense of it and put it in print! I barely ever make casseroles because I married a ‘meat & potatoes’ guy, but the 2 exceptions of all-in-one meals for us are: this lasagna and wet burritos. I almost always make the lasagna for carry-in at church. Once in awhile I make El Paso casserole, which I plan to feature sometime. I don’t like when my group is on for hot dish… I’m way more in my comfort zone with salad & dessert! That’s why I always make the same hotdish!
Kay’s Lasagna … this fits perfectly in a large crockpot (I don’t know the size, but I have a little one and a big one. The inside comes out of the big one.)
16 oz noodles …For the crockpot, sometimes I cook and cut up lasagna noodles, sometimes I use rigatoni or some other noodles. When I layer it to bake in the oven, I always use whole lasagna noodles.
1 1/2 lbs. hamburger
1/2 of an onion
1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning, more if using mozz cheese instead of Italian
5 1/2 c. speghetti sauce
2 c. ricotta cheese
About 2 lbs. shredded Italian or mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese
Cook noodles. Brown hamburger and onion; add speghetti sauce and Italian seasoning. Simmer 10 minutes.
For crockpot:
Layer in this order:
1/3 of meat mixture
1/3 of noodles
Sprinkle a little salt over noodles
1/3 ricotta cheese
At least 8 oz shredded cheese
A good amount of Parmesan cheese
Then, I press down on it a little bit. Weird, yeah, but I do it so that after it cooks down, the crockpot is still full. Repeat layers 2 more times. The lid will easy fit on, but the crockpot will be VERY full. Turn it on HI till you leave for church, plug it in at church, still on HI… and I don’t know what the food committee does with it from there!
This takes me about exactly an hour from the time I walk into the kitchen till the time it’s all in the crockpot and the kitchen cleaned up again. I do it Sunday morning, once every other month, usually from about 7:15 to 8:15.
For oven:
Same layer order as crockpot, but only 2 layers instead of 3. Bake at 375 for 40 minutes or until cheese is starting to brown… less if you don’t like your cheese browning.
This lasagna freezes well. When I make it, I put it in smaller pans, then it’s so handy to pull out on a busy day or on Sunday morning before going out the door.
The only pictures I have are of one time when I made a double batch for hot lunch at sewing and then took out enough for us to put in a smaller pan for supper. So here they are: 
Repeat layers.
Also that evening, I made a new breadstick recipe. This one will need a bit of tweaking too.
Italian-Style Breadsticks … from an Easy to Bake Easy to Make recipe card
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil or 2 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. chopped fresh oregano or 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/8 tsp. black pepper
1 can (11 oz) refrigerated breadstick dough
1 egg
1 Tbsp. water
Preheat oven to 375. Spray baking sheet with cooking spray. Combine first 5 ingredients in a small bowl; mix well and set aside. Unroll dough; separate breadsticks. Cut each strip in half crosswise.
On a lightly floured surface, with floured fingertips, twist the 2 halves together. Beat egg w\ water. Lightly brush tops of breadsticks with egg mixture.
(Side note: On this picture, can you tell that my photographer is about 3 1/2 ft. tall? Can almost see the breadsticks! 
Also, yeah, that’s a sweater… hard to imagine in this hot weather. This is from a backlog of recipes/pictures not featured yet, but made earlier this year.)
Sprinkle seasoning over breadsticks, turning to coat evenly on both sides. Place breadsticks on baking sheet, 1 inch apart.
Press down edges slightly to prevent twists from unraveling. Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Serve warm.
WAY TOO MUCH seasoning!!!!! Next time I’m going to try just sprinkling some Italian seasoning on them over the cheese instead. We could hardly eat them. But man, they sure looked good!!!
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Thanks for all your entertaining/interesting comments in the last post! And I’ll just leave you with a couple things coming in the next posts… Redneck Pizza (designed by my husband) and Steak Fajitas… which one should I feature first? 
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About Me
Hi! Welcome to my kitchen! My name is Kay. I'm from northern WI. I love cooking and baking. Especially baking. It's thereapeudic for me. I'm not a professional or gourmet cook by any means. I'm a Mennonite homemaker who happens to take pictures of some of the food I make. I have 2 little 'helpers'... Lexi (5) and Tiffany (2), who are young cooks in training. I don't do anything on the grill... that's where my husband comes in! He grills quite a bit, especially in the summer. So, sit back and enjoy browsing thro' the recipes. If you try some of them, I'd love to hear feedback on how you liked them!
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