Lasagna & Garlic Bread

Ingredients:

--Photo showing all ingredients laid out is NA--

Step 1:

Once the meat is browned, spoon off the excess fat.

Step 2:

Break off and peel a clove of garlic, and chop it into small pieces.

Step 3:

Add the garlic, basil, salt, tomatoes, and tomato paste to the meat

Step 4:

Mix the meat sauce well, and reduce the heat to simmer. Stir occasionally.

Step 5:

Combine the cottage cheese, parmesan, parsley, eggs, salt, and pepper. I do not recommend using low-fat cottage cheese. Its higher water content can make the lasagna runny.

Step 6:

If you break the eggs into the empty cottage cheese container, you can beat them without getting another dish dirty!

Step 7:

The cottage cheese filling should look like this when it's done.

Step 8:

If you're shredding your own cheese, which I rather enjoy doing, chop the block of Mozzarella into pieces about the size of a bar of soap, and carefully feed them into the shredder.

Step 9:

Here we have one pound (actually, about 1.5 pounds - I like cheese) of freshly shredded mozzarella.

Step 10:

Boil the noodles in a large pot of water. I usually use about 3/4 of a 16 oz package. A lot of people add oil to the water to keep the noodles from sticking together. I recommend that you do not do this - it makes cooking the noodles slightly easier, but makes assembling the final dish a pain, plus it won't hold together as well when you eat it. Stir the noodles carefully while they cook, and you'll be fine.

Step 11:

In this picture, I've already put down the first half of the lasagna, but the second half is assembled the same way. First, we have a layer of noodles...

Step 12:

... then half the cottage cheese filling ...

Step 13:

... then half the Mozzarella ...

Step 14:

... and finally, half the meat sauce.

Step 15:

When the lasagna is completely assembled, it'll look like this. Throw it in an oven, preheated to 375F, for about 30 minutes. When it comes out, it needs to sit and solidify for about 10 minutes before being cut, which will give us just enough time to make some garlic bread.....

Step 16:

Garlic Bread:

You will need:

Step 17:

Cut the loaf of bread in half. Take the first half and cut it into slices. Soak one side of each slice in butter.

Step 18:

Split the other half of the loaf lengthwise, and butter both sides. Arrange all the bread on a cooking sheet. Then sprinkle the bread with garlic powder. Use as much as you like. I like garlic, so I use a lot.

Step 19:

Put shredded cheese onto the half of the bread that was split lengthwise. Throw the bread into the oven at 375-400F for about 5 minutes, or until the bread is slightly crispy and the cheese is melted.

Step 20:

It should look like this when you take it out of the oven: