BEST Lasagna Recipe (31 Days of Delicious Easy Recipes Day 10 )

I know, I know, you think any lasagna recipe is too complicated and expensive.  Right?  Stop what you’re doing and listen up honey – I’m tickled to share a wife hack that makes this dish super simple.  Also, if you’ve been following along with how to save money on groceries at Kroger (without clipping coupons), it can be cheap too!

My first attempt at a lasagna recipe was a complete fail and like other dishes that intimidate me, I’ve pretty much avoided trying again.  As I was preparing this series of 31 days of delicious easy recipes, I had a flashback to a trick that a restaurant cook told me years ago as I gave him a haircut.  I decided to try it out to see if it worked.

Oh. My. Gracious. 

Not only did the trick work to make my old-fashioned lasagna recipe faster, but the taste is scrumptious!

Best Lasagna Recipe Ever

I’ll describe exactly what I did below, but here’s the main secret – You do not have to cook the lasagna noodles before you build the simple layers in your casserole dish of this lasagna perfection.  This saves 10-15 minutes of your precious time.  Oh, and there are only 4 main ingredients.  Only 4!

Add one can of pasta sauce to cooked ground meat and spread 1/3 of it along bottom of 11 x 7 casserole dish.  Lay 3 uncooked lasagna noodles on meat mixture.  Spread half of the container of ricotta onto noodles, and add a layer of mozzarella cheese over ricotta.

Repeat the layers … add the next ‘third’ of meat mixture, 3 noodles, ricotta on noodles, layer of mozzarella over ricotta.  Add the remainder of meat mixture on the top.  Here’s trick part #1 … add 1/4 of hot water around the edges of casserole dish.  Yes, carefully pour hot water around the edges (not on top of) the layers you just made.  Here’s trick part #2 … cover casserole dish with two layers of heavy-duty aluminum foil.  Place dish in preheated oven at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.

Set that timer and go do something productive and fun for 45 minutes!  🙂

Remove foil and cook for additional 10 minutes.  Optional: add extra mozzarella on top before cooking uncovered for these last 10 minutes.

*what I did today*  I had to run in and out of the house today so I cooked the lasagna recipe for the 45 minutes covered with the double aluminum foil.  I took out of the oven, removed foil, turned off oven, and had to run out the door for a couple hours.  I came back home right before dinner – added a little mozzarella on top and placed dish in preheated oven at 375 degrees for 10 minutes.

Oh my!  It was incredible.  Seriously.  Let’s just say that there were only three of us for dinner and there was only one serving left in the casserole dish.

Here’s your printable lasagna recipe card:

When will you make my Lasagna recipe?

31 Days of Delicious Easy Recipes for Busy Wives: Protein Bites (Day 1)

Baked Potato Bar (Day 2)

Crockpot Chicken (Day 3)

Stir Fry (Day 4)

Slow Cooker Soups (Days 5)

Quick Red Beans and Rice (Day 6)

Jalapeno Cornbread (Day 7)

Meatloaf (Day 8)

Homemade Hamburger Helper (Day 9)

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You won’t believe what your Fam can do at this place!