Lasagna

I have an enormous lasagna pan that I fill whenever I make a batch. One lasagna will feed me, morning, noon and night, for a week. Which means it'll feed a family for at least a couple of days. This also freezes very well--you can make a batch, eat half, and freeze half for those nights when you just don't feel like cooking.

Save any extra meat sauce for spaghetti. This can easily be made vegetarian--just leave the meat out of the sauce, add more tomatoes, and throw in sliced vegetables (zucchini, eggplant, tomato, etc.) between the noodles.

3 cups ricotta
16 oz grated mozzarella
8 oz grated Romano or parmesan
1 egg
¼ cup milk
3 tablespoons garlic
2 packages no-boil lasagna noodles
½ lb parmesan
Meat sauce (below)

Combine the first six ingredients in bowl. Spread 2 ½ cups of sauce on bottom of lasagna pan. Add layer of noodles, cover with layer of cheese, cover with small amount of sauce, repeat until you run out of cheese or noodles. Top the final layer with more sauce and parmesan cheese. Bake at 350 45 minutes to 1 hour. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Meat Sauce:
1/3 lb ground pork
1/3 lb ground veal
½ to ¾ lb ground beef
2 cups chopped onions
Lots of chopped garlic
2 28 oz cans tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
4 cups beef stock
Thyme, oregano, basic, crushed red pepper
2 bay leaves

Brown the meat in olive oil in large soup pot. Add onions, cook until soft. Add garlic and tomatoes, cook 2-3 minutes. Whisk tomato paste with the stock and add. Add seasonings. Mix well, bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium and simmer 2 hours.

Cost: The biggest cost will be the meat in the sauce, which can be cut back or left out entirely if you wish. A package of no-boil lasagna noodles runs about $1.99. The combined cost of the cheeses would be about $4-5, and the rest are standard pantry ingredients...you can put this whole thing together for less than $15, and like I said, it'll feed me for a week. 7 days x 3 meals divided by $15 is about 75 cents per serving. Not bad for a heaping mound of fresh, homemade lasagna.