Birthdays... My boys favorite lasagna

My boys are getting too big, too quick.  Isn't that how it goes?  They turned 7 and 4 this summer.  Which makes the Little Man no longer a baby.  It's undeniable, I guess. 

And birthdays in our house mean that you get to pick the dinner. I was pretty happy when Big Man asked for lasagna.  I don't make it often, because it's quite a bit of work and it makes so much... but a birthday party is the perfect place to get rid of  eat the whole pan.

My lasagna is pretty easy, a combination of the things others have recommended to us, tweaked until it's perfect for my family. 

Ingredients:
8 oz cottage cheese (you can use ricotta if you want, but aldi's doesn't always have it, and since we shop there, we use cottage cheese)
parmesean cheese
1 egg
1/4 tsp fresh grated nutmeg

1 lb hamburger
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
2 c spaghetti sauce (We used homemade, since we had an abundance of tomatoes!)

3 cups mozzerella cheese

lasagna noodles, I prefer the no cook, barilla square ones.  I will go out in search of them, because I love them!

Instructions:
In a small pan, brown the burger with the onion and garlic powder.  Add the spaghetti sauce.

In a blender, blend the cottage cheese, nutmeg, egg and 1/4 c parmesean cheese.

In a deep 9x13 pan, spread the meat sauce on the bottom of the pan.

On top of that, layer the noodles, the ricotta mixture, mozzerella cheese and then more meat sauce.

Do this until your pan is full.  I usually get three or four layers in.

Cover with alumninum foil and bake at 350 for 1 hour. 

Remove the foil and then broil on low until it is browned.

Serve to your family and CELEBRATE!

Enjoy!