Lasagna is such a traditional American meal, which is totally ironic because it’s Italian food after all. But it’s a staple around our house. Monkey Boy would stage a revolt if I ever took it off our menu. But it’s a pretty time consuming meal to make from scratch, so we don’t have it all that often because I won’t settle for that crappity crap store bought, preservative filled junk.
So lasagna as a freezer meal is the perfect solution. Homemade lasagna without all the prep work and kitchen labor. Everyone wins. Freezer meals are awesome like that.
Freezer Meal Recipe – Lasagna with Meat Sauce
Ingredients
1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 {24 oz} jar of spaghetti sauce or 3 1/2 cups homemade tomato sauce
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 {1 lb} tub cottage cheese {you could use ricotta if you’d rather}
2 tbsp parsley
4 oz lasagna noodles, cooked then placed in cold water to cool
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese {I sometimes bump this up to 2 cups}
Instructions
In large skillet, brown ground beef with onion, salt and garlic powder. Drain, then add spaghetti sauce. Simmer for 10 min, stirring occasionally. While sauce is simmering, combine cottage cheese, Parmesan cheese and parsley in a separate bowl. Mix until combined and set aside.
Next up, you’ll layer the lasagna. I use 3 layers, but you could do more or less, depending on preference. I always coat the bottom of my 9×13 pan with a bit of spaghetti sauce to keep the noodles from sticking.
Then layer a single row of noodles…
Followed by about 1/3 of your sauce/meat mixture and then 1/3 of the cottage cheese mix {try to spread this out a bit}.
Followed by 1/3 of the mozzarella cheese. You can reverse the cheese, cottage cheese mixture layer. I’ve made it both ways & didn’t notice a difference. Just make sure you end with mozzarella cheese on top of your top layer. It browns up nice and bubbly!
Repeat 2 more times.
To Cook – Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until cooked through.
To Freeze – Cover with foil and place lasagna pan on a cookie sheet so it freezes flat. When ready to use cook from frozen for 60 -75 minutes at 350 degrees.
Looking for more easy freezer meal ideas? See the full list of freezer meal ideas HERE!
Celie says
So here’s my question, Mavis: do you reuse all of those aluminum foil pans? I’ve noticed that you freeze several different types of meals in them. Do you just buy more after you have your lasagna dinner or do you wash and reuse? If you reuse, what brand is good enough to do that with?
Thanks ahead of time for your response.
Mavis Butterfield says
I buy a large case of them from Costco and yes I reuse them when I can.
Sophie says
Any idea how much they come out to per pan? I have bought mine at the dollar store but am not sure if that is the cheapest way. Im not sure if Ive ever noticed them at my Costco before!
Chuck says
Not Mavis, but we use those pans and get the cheaper ones from a local dollar store for 1.25 US. We try to wash them all, but the burnt on cheese from pasta bakes is a bear. Luckily, our curbside service accepts both clean-ish foil and aluminum pans right alongside the aluminum cans.
Nancy D says
I sooo appreciate the way you use photos to explain your methods! Another awesome idea and recipe! Monkey Boy sure is lucky to have a mom like you!
Katie C. says
I’m loving all of your preserving/freezing recipes!! I think I’m going to go for it this week. Get a bunch of stuff in the freezer. Thanks for the recipes!
Mavis Butterfield says
You bet. I’m glad you like them.
dropofrain says
that looks really yummy and doable! will definitely try it this week. I just made your Chicken tortilla soup and it was awesome. Question: the ingredients above just for one pan, right?
Jesse W. says
This has nothing to do with this post but I just picked up two boxes of huge tomatoes!!!! I want to make some pasta sauce to can out of them…do you have a recipe for canning pasta sauce??? Much help would be appreciated!!! Thanks 🙂
Mary Ann says
To save a step in your lasagna making, did you know you can use the noodles uncooked? Add one cup of water to your spaghetti sauce mixture and then follow the same steps using dry, uncooked noodles. I have used different recipes with this method and it works out so slick!
Carole says
I haven’t cooked my lasagna noodles for years. No more burnt fingers or torn noodles. A little extra sauce and it works great.
Lisa says
I want to try your recipe, but my family is vegetarian. I was thinking I could crumble up some of our favorite veggie burgers to use in place of the meat or just use veggies and make a vegetable lasagna. Any vegetarians out there have suggestions?
Monique says
Lisa, while my family is not vegetarian, I use a slightly different recipe that might be more vegetarian friendly.
Here’s what I do:
Make a pot of your fave spaghetti sauce, I go pretty basic here– To make 4 square 8×8 or 9×9 lasagnas, I use 2 diced green bell peppers, 1.5-2 med or large yellow onions diced, 1 bunch of celery finely chopped, 8-10 cloves of garlic finely minced (i just throw the garlic in a mini chopper) and 2 or 3 fresh organic carrots finely diced as well as 15-20 small/med button mushrooms sliced.
We use 1 lb of extra lean ground sirloin, but you could easily sub veggie ground round in.
Using one tbs oil of your choice, saute 2/3 of the garlic, the onions, peppers, celery and add liberal amounts of dried oregano and basil–remember this will mix into your lasagna. once softened, almost translucent for the onions, add your veggie ground round and then add your carrots about 2 mins later. I then add 3 small cans of tomato paste and 6-8 cans of water. add the mushrooms, cover and simmer for 15-20 mins. add salt & pepper to taste.
Then, I layer the sauce first on the bottom, a sheet of fresh lasagna pasta (pick up in your refrigerator section or deli of the local store) a layer of ricotta (I use a 32 oz container of Frigo part skim ricotta mixed with 5 eggs and a dash of pepper), another layer of sauce then mozza shreds (2 mozza balls that I’ve grated, also Frigo brand), Then rinse and repeat, pasta, ricotta mix, sauce, mozza, pasta thin layer of ricotta, cover with sauce and then mozza. At the end, you’ve got 3 sheets of noodles, but its perfect.
I then take the parchment sheets that were inbetween the fresh pasta in the package, put that overtop to stop the cheese from sticking to any wrappings I use, and then wrap with press n seal til they’re fully sealed (usualy once around in both directions) and then freeze them. Same cooking directions as Mavis…and by only shortly cooking the sauce, the veggies have a very slight bite to them giving it a bit of texture.
Leanne says
Either way would be great. I make mine with eggplant and it is really hearty. Whatever veggies you decide to use, make sure they freeze well. You don’t want veggies that get really soft or “runny”.
Stacey says
Hey Mavis, I’ve got a shortcut for you! Don’t cook the noodles. When they started selling no cook noodles I thought I would give them a try and they worked….then I thought what could they be doing differently to the noodles, they seemed exactly the same so the next time I made lasagna I used the regular noodles but didn’t cook them first. Delicious! Turns out there is plenty of moisture in the lasagna to cook the noodles for you!
Sophie says
I just picked up some pans at the dollar store last week. Now Im inspired to spend some time making a few freezer lasagnas this weekend!
maari says
If you plan to use this as a frozen meal do you bake it before freezing it??
Mavis Butterfield says
Nope. I prepared these and then popped them in the freezer. 🙂
Nikiloh says
Hi Mavis,
I’m a little late in my home cooking skills but learned how to can, freeze and dehydrate all in the last two months. I’m in heaven. This was my first time making lasagna from scratch ever andi have a question. When layering, I seemed a little short on ingredients in each layer. Does it all melt together when it’s finally cooked? Because I found myself trying to stretch the quantity of meat sauce and cheese on each layer.
Mavis Butterfield says
It will all ooze together in the end and be delicious. 🙂
Mari Buckley says
Hi Mavis
I’ve tried making meals and freezing them before but never had much success! I cook them and freeze them in those foil trays but when I get the out of the freezer later to use them for a meal they always look grey and unappetising and I end up throwing them all away….I’m obviously doing something wrong and perhaps it’s because I’m cooking them before I freeze them….until I found your website tonight it hadn’t even occurred to me I could freeze them “uncooked”….but how would I know which meals to put into the freezer cooked, and which to put in uncooked?!! 🙂
Michelle Teeter says
I will try this recipe. I have been doing this for a bit. I do not cook my noodles first I just throw it all together and cook it when I am ready.
michelle says
Is your ingredient list-per pan? I cant see how this would be enough to make 4 pans. thanks
Mavis Butterfield says
Yes. Per pan. 🙂
Katie says
9×13 pans seem like a large portion for my current family, how would you size this down to 9×9 or 8×8 square pans?
Mavis says
I’ve never tried it, but I suspect you might be able to divide it & make 2 8×8 pans out if it!
Lisa says
Do you cook frozen covered with foil or uncovered?
Mavis says
Covered in foil.
Mel says
um, you say 3 but i see four pans in the pics…? is this recipe for 3 pans or 4? thank you.
Sara says
Ok, I’ve cooked it from frozen for at least an hour and 20 took foil off at hour and it’s still pretty cold inside anyone else had this problem?