Cheese Lasagna ala Summer

Ahh, Spring Break has come to an end (for..half of us, at least). We were all a little bagged, so it's a good thing Bliss chose an easy recipe for us this time: cheese lasagna! Yep, the most basic of basic of all the lasagnas.

Again, we had some additional guests!

This is Sabrina (@SabrinaaK, yes I accidentally called her Sabs last night, a handful of times).

This is the look she gave us when she realized that these chefs won't give her people food. Poor girl!

We started the prep work while Bliss got creative with her after school snack

The super duper easy recipe:

Ingredients

16 ounces uncooked lasagna noodles

1 (26 ounce) can spaghetti sauce

1 pound cottage cheese

8 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese

8 ounces shredded Cheddar cheese

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.

In a blender or with an electric mixer, blend tomato sauce and cottage cheese together until smooth. Spoon a little of the sauce mixture in the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Place a layer of cooked noodles over the sauce, and sprinkle a portion of the mozzarella, the cheddar and the parmesan over the noodles. Repeat layering of sauce, noodles and cheese; finish with a cheese layer.

Bake in preheated oven 30 to 45 minutes, until cheese is bubbly and golden.

We grated the cheese in tandem, as it was faster and funner that way

I guess I grated mine wrong. I require heavy supervision :|

It got the job done! Sauce, noodles, cheese, sauce, noodles, cheese, sauce, noodles, cheese, and then...the most exciting part...

sauce, noodles, cheese!!!

et voila.

We ate in shifts last night, haha. Bliss n' Michelle had practice right as the food was cooling. While Eldon is a lovely (albeit picky) food critic, we convinced Farid to test out our recipe.

Round one: 100% approval rating. I loved it, Summer loved it, Farid went for seconds, and...

Eldon, what did you think?

Like I said: 100% approval rating.

Round 2, the rest of the posse came home, and enjoyed as well!

Round 3, Grandpa stopped by and...alls well that ends well!

Here's the garlic bread recipe. It was super garlicy, but since most of us are either getting sick or getting over being sick, it was AOK.

(I cut the recipe in half; Eldon and Summer gnawed at the other half of the loaf until it was widdled down to bread-nubs)

Ingredients

3 bulbs garlic

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 (1 pound) loaf Italian bread

1/2 cup butter

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley (optional)

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Slice the tops off of the garlic bulbs so that the tip of each clove is exposed. Place the bulbs on a baking sheet, and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 30 minutes, or until garlic is soft.

Set the oven to broil. Slice the loaf of bread in half horizontally, and place cut side up on a baking sheet.

Squeeze the cloves of garlic from their skins into a medium bowl. Stir in the butter, parsley, and Parmesan cheese until well blended. Spread onto the cut sides of the bread.

Broil for about 5 minutes, until toasted.

Even this guy couldn't have done it better himself :)