I like to serve my Salisbury Steak with mashed potatoes, as I’ve already mentioned. Because of this, I doubled the sauce so that we’d have enough to use as gravy for the potatoes. That’s the only change I made to the original recipe. The descriptions with my pictures are for the doubled sauce. The recipe posted at the end has the original measurements so you can make it however you like!

You’ll need:

1 1/2 lbs ground beef, bread crumbs, 1 egg, Lipton onion soup mix, cornstarch, ketchup, mustard powder, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce

Combine packets of onion soup mix in a bowl with 1 1/2 cups of hot water and let sit for 5 minutes.

While that’s resting, in a large bowl combine 1 1/2 lbs of ground beef

1/2 cup of bread crumbs

1 egg. It’s there, I swear… it’s hiding up there in the corner.

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

And finally, 1/3 cup of the onion soup mixture that’s been resting since the first step.

Get in there and mix it all together until it’s all very well combined. I suggest using your hands, it will be much easier. Divide the mixture and shape it into 6 oval shaped patties. I don’t have a picture of this step because, well, my hands were covered in raw meat.

If you can handle having several things going in the kitchen at once, you can go ahead and start browning the meat. If you’re like me though, and things on the stove generally require your full attention, set the meat aside and start on the sauce.

Take the remaining onion soup, and add two teaspoons of corn starch.

Stir until the corn starch is well incorporated.

Add 1/2 cup of water. And yes, I realize that this picture probably looks exactly like the last one.

Add 1/2 cup ketchup

2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

And 1 teaspoon dry mustard powder.

Stir it all together, and set aside.

In a large skillet over medium high heat, brown the patties on both sides. As you can see in this picture, they are still very pink on the inside. That’s okay. You’re just trying to brown the meat, it will finish cooking with the sauce.

Drain off as much of the extra fat as you can.

Pour the sauce mixture over the meat.

Cover the pan, and cook for approximately 20 minutes. I don’t any pictures of the finished product because my company had arrived, it smelled SO good, and I was too eager to start eating. And I just plain forgot. But trust me, it was good! I served it over mashed potatoes and we all ate until we were stuffed.

Salisbury Steak
From The Baking Beauties

1 package of Lipton onion soup mix
3/4 cup hot water
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
1/2 cup dry GF bread crumbs
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black ground pepper
1 tsp cornstarch
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup water
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp mustard powder

Combine onion soup mix and hot water in a dish & let sit for 5 minutes. OR, you can use a can of condensed french onion soup (not sure if that is GF though).
In a huge bowl, mix together 1/3 cup of the onion soup mixture with ground beef, bread crumbs, egg, salt and pepper. Shape into 6 oval patties.
In a large skillet over medium-high heat, brown both sides of patties. Pour of excess fat.
In a small bowl, blend cornstarch and remaining soup mixture until smooth. Mix in ketchup, water, Worcestershire sauce and mustard powder. Pour over meat in skillet. Cover, and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

If you’ve been reading for awhile, you’ve probably guessed that I’m a big fan of tacos, and taco flavored things. I should have learned by now that if a dish has “taco” in the name, but does not have taco seasonings in the ingredients, I’m probably not going to be happy with the finished product. That being said… I do think this would be a decent casserole if I used a regular can of beans, and a packet of taco seasoning instead of relying on a can of chili beans to provide the flavor for the meat layer. It will probably be a long time before I get around to trying again, so you’ll have to let me know what you think.

I don’t remember where I found this recipe, but I’m thinking it may have been in my Betty Crocker cookbook. Here’s what you’ll need.

1 lb ground beef, 1 can chili beans in sauce, salsa, sour cream, tortilla chips, onion, tomato, shredded cheese, lettuce.

First, brown up your ground beef with the onions until the onions are soft and the ground beef is no longer pink. Drain off fat, if necessary.

Add your can of chili beans, undrained.

Plus one cup of salsa.

Mix together.

Layer two cups of broken tortilla chips in the bottom of a 2 quart casserole dish.

Layer your meat and bean mixture on top of the chips.

Spread 3/4 cup of sour cream on top of your meat mixture.

Followed by your tomato.

And finally, sprinkle on 1 cup of shredded cheese. I used a cheddar jack Mexican blend.

Look at the pretty layers!

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and everything’s hot and bubbly.

Serve with extra tortilla chips, shredded lettuce and salsa, all optional. This dish has potential with some changes, but the originally written recipe left a lot to be desired for me. I don’t think I even ate any of the leftovers.

Fiesta Taco Casserole
1 lb lean (at least 80%) ground beef
1 can (15 to 16 oz) spicy chili beans in sauce, undrained
1 cup salsa
2 cups coarsely broken tortilla chips
3/4 cup sour cream
4 medium green onions, sliced
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 cup shredded cheddar or monterey jack cheese
tortilla chips, optional
shredded lettuce, optional
salsa, optional

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In 10 inch skillet, cook beef over medium heat 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally until brown, drain. Stir in beans and 1 cup salsa. Heat to boiling, stirring occasionally.
In ungreased 2 qt casserole, place broken tortilla chips. Top with beef mixture. Spread with sour cream. Sprinkle with onions, tomato and cheese.
Bake uncovered 20-30 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Arrange tortilla chips around edge of casserole. Serve with lettuce and salsa.

Or it was the second time, when I bought the right tomatoes, and not the ones with the Italian seasoning. Italian seasoning and taco seasoning just don’t play well together. In any case, I found this recipe on the Crockpot 365 blog, which is AWESOME if you have never been there.

You’ll need: 1 lb ground beef, 1 packet taco seasoning, 1 packet ranch dressing dry mix, 2 cans kidney beans, 2 cans pinto beans, 2 cans corn, 1 can tomatoes with green chilies, 1 large can of diced tomatoes. Optional: cheese and sour cream.

Brown your ground beef, drain, and add to your crock pot.

Pour in your packet of taco seasoning.

Followed by the packet of ranch dressing mix.

Drain and rinse two cans of kidney beans, and add those to the crock pot.

Same with the pinto beans– drain and rinse, then add to the pot!

Add in 2 cans of whole kernel corn, this time without draining.

Add one can of tomatoes with green chilies, without draining.

Finally, add your large can of diced tomatoes, also without draining.

Give it a good stir, put the lid on and cook on low for 8-10 hours. This smelled absolutely amazing while it was cooking! I could hardly leave it alone in the kitchen!

When it was finally done, I dished it into a bowl.

And topped it with some cheese and sour cream. This was exactly what I was going for. I felt like this recipe hit all the points that left me disappointed in the last taco soup. It’s probably more of a chili that’s taco flavored than the other one was. Either way, I was happy with the results!

Taco Soup
From Crockpot 365

2 cans kidney beans
2 cans pinto beans
2 cans corn
1 large can diced tomatoes
1 can tomatoes and chiles
1 packet taco seasoning
1 packet ranch dressing mix
1 lb ground beef
cheese and sour cream

Brown meat, add to crockpot. Sprinkle the seasoning packets on top of the meat. Drain and rinse the beans and add. Add the cans of corn and tomatoes without draining.

Cover and cook on low 8-10 hours. Serve with cheese and sour cream, if desired.

I found this recipe at Slow and Simple. I thought it sounded promising, but there are a lot of taco soup recipes available out there and I have to say this one is not going to be my favorite. Part of that could be my fault as I think I added too much water, but even though this was good, it just didn’t have quite what I was looking for. That’s why it’s Taco Soup, Take One. I fully intend to try a different recipe soon! But let’s get started with this one, maybe you’ll like it better than I did.

You’ll need 1 lb ground beef, 2 pkg taco seasoning mix, 1 can corn, 1 can black beans, 1 can tomatoes with green chiles, 1 onion, 1 green pepper (The original recipe also called for black olives, which I don’t like, and tomatillos as an optional ingredient. I left both out.) Don’t worry, my meat’s not bad, it’s just still frozen.

Gratuitous picture just to show off my new crockpot. Woohoo!

Brown and drain your ground beef on the stove top, then add it to the bottom of your crock pot.

Add in your two packets of taco seasoning mix. I kind of stirred it in before moving on to the next step, but I don’t think that’s a requirement.

Throw in your chopped green pepper…

And your chopped up onion.

Followed by the 16 oz can of tomatoes with green chiles, undrained. (Sidenote- this may have also contributed to why I wasn’t thrilled with this soup. I got the hot can of tomatoes, but I don’t like spicy AT ALL. It was too much for me, I may have liked this better with a milder can of tomatoes.)

Add your can of black beans, undrained. This is where I started to worry about this recipe… have you SEEN what canned beans are floating in?? Still, I poured it into the crock pot.

Finally, add the can of whole kernel corn, also undrained.

I gave it a quick stir to make sure all the goodies were distributed.

Then I added two cans of water to fill the crock pot. If I were going to make this soup again, I’d cut it back to one can of water, and just keep an eye on it. I felt like this soup was not thick enough, and this is probably why.

Cover the crock pot, and cook on low for 5 or more hours.

This is what the final product looked like, dished up into a bowl.

I added a handful of cheese and sour cream to the bowl. Not pictured, the handful of Fritos I also added to help “thicken” it up.

If you make this, let me know how it turns out. I wasn’t impressed, but maybe it will float your boat!

1 lb lean ground beef, browned and drained
2 pkg. taco seasoning mix
1 16 oz can tomatoes with green chilies, undrained.
1 16 oz can black beans, undrained.
1 16 oz can corn, undrained
1 can black olives, chopped or sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 bell pepper, chopped
4 tomatillos, chopped (optional)

Place everything in a large crockpot, add water, if necessary to fill. Cook on low for 5 or more hours until flavors are blended. Top each bowl with a handful of shredded cheddar cheese. Serve with sour cream, taco chips, and salsa on the side.

No more preamble necessary, let’s get on to the casserole, shall we?

1 lb Italian sausage, onion, green pepper, garlic, tomato sauce, frozen corn, sliced mushrooms, cornmeal, flour, milk, sugar, vegetable oil, baking powder, salt, egg, cheese

Whew. For having so many ingredients, it was actually pretty simple to put together. I suspect it would have been even easier, and dare I say faster, if I wasn’t taking pictures of the process lol Anyways, start by preheating the oven to 400 degrees. Then we can start on the Sausage Pie part of this dish.

In skillet, place 1 lb Italian sausage.

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped. Or 1 teaspoon of the already minced stuff if you’re like me!

Add chopped green pepper,

and chopped onion.

Cook over medium heat until the sausage is no longer pink. Drain and return to pan.

Pour in your 15 oz. can of tomato sauce.

And your frozen corn. The recipe called for 9 oz of frozen corn, thawed, but I used 12 oz because that’s the size bag I had.

Add 1 jar of sliced mushrooms that’s been drained. And might I just ask, why do recipes always call for sizes of products that just don’t exist? At least not in my grocery store. I had a 4 oz can of mushrooms, but the recipe called for a 4.5 oz can. I highly doubt that 0.5 oz makes that much of a difference, but it does serve to annoy me.

Anyways, heat this mixture to boiling, and remove from heat. While that’s cooking, you can go ahead and get started on the cornbread mixture.

In a small bowl, pour in 2/3 cup corn meal.

Apparently a few pictures went missing… they’re not on Flickr, and not on my computer even though I distinctly remember taking them. Anyways, this picture shows the addition of 1/3 cup flour, 1 Tbs sugar, and 2 teaspoons baking powder.

1/4 teaspoon salt

Two tablespoons vegetable oil.

Add 1/2 cup milk.

And one large egg.

Beat vigorously with spoon for 30 seconds.

Stir in 1/4 cup cheese. The recipe called for shredded pepper jack cheese. I used Cheddar Jack cause it’s what I had.

Pour your hot sausage mixture into an ungreased 2 qt. casserole.

Pour the cornbread topping mixture over the hot sausage mixture and spread it out as evenly as possible. Some of mine seeped through to the lower layer of sausage.

Put it in the oven, uncovered, and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the cornbread topping is golden brown.

Here’s what it looked like dished out onto my plate. In the end, it was a decent meal. At first, I thought the cornbread had kind of an “off” taste, but that could probably be attributed to the fact that it’s not Jiffy cornbread like I’m used to.

It’s a dish that I’d consider making again, but only if I had company because while it was good, I wasn’t real interested in the leftovers.

Here’s the recipe again so you don’t have to pull it out from between the pictures.

Sausage Pie

1 lb Italian sausage
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
1 small bell pepper, chopped (1/2 cup)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
1 box (9 oz) frozen whole kernel corn, thawed
1 jar (4.5 oz) sliced mushrooms, drained

Corn Bread Topping

2/3 cup cornmeal
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1/4 cup shredded pepper jack cheese

Heat oven to 400 degrees.
In 10-inch skillet, cook sausage, onion, bell pepper and garlic over medium heat 8 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until sausage is no longer pink. Drain. Stir in tomato sauce, corn and mushrooms. Heat to boiling; remove from heat.
In medium bowl, stir all topping ingredients except cheese. Beat vigorously with spoon for 30 seconds, Stir in cheese.
Spoon sausage mixture into ungreased 2 qt casserole. Pour topping over hot sausage mixture, spreading evenly.
Bake uncovered 20 to 25 minutes or until topping is golden brown.

Let me preface this recipe by saying that when I was reading the list of ingredients, I was not overly impressed, and probably would have just kept right on going. However, my mom had already made it to rave reviews, and it looked simple enough so I decided to try it. It was SO good, and I even thought the soup was better when I packed it in my lunch a couple of days the next week. So, without further ado, I give you Pizza Soup. ((My mom found the recipe online… I can’t find it now, but if I can locate it later, I’ll link it up. Give credit where credit is due, after all!))

The Ingredients: 1 onion, 1 green pepper, 8 oz. mushrooms, 2 cloves garlic, 1 lb. ground beef, 14.5 oz. can petite diced tomatoes, 12 oz. tomato paste, two 14.5 oz. cans chicken broth, Italian seasoning, 3 oz. sliced pepperoni and mozzarella cheese.

First up, ground beef in a large stock pot over medium-high heat. The original recipe called for lean ground beef, but I had 83/17, so that’s what I used.

Next I diced up my green pepper (discard the seeds)

and added that to my pot with the ground beef.

Then I cried. I mean, I diced up some onion. This is a little less than half of the onion pictured with the ingredients, just for reference. Add more onion if you like, but I’m not really an onion person, so it should be impressive I added them at all.

Add the diced onions to the ground beef and green peppers already in the pot.

Then throw in 2 cloves of minced garlic. This is one teaspoon if you’re using the pre-minced stuff like I am. If you’re using fresh sliced mushrooms, you’ll want to add them at this point. Otherwise, saute these ingredients over medium high heat until the ground beef is browned and the veggies are tender. Since I did not use lean ground beef, I also had to drain some grease off at this point.

So now I have less-greasy ground beef, veggies and garlic.

I used canned mushrooms, so I drained them and added them to the pot at this point. Remember, if you were using fresh mushrooms, you’ve cooked them with your meat already.

Add your 14.5 oz can of petite diced tomatoes.

And 12 oz. of tomato paste. A little trick here, and I’d have taken pictures if I’d had enough hands, but an easy way to get tomato paste out of the can is to use the can opener to remove BOTH ends. Then you simply remove one end, and push the other end THROUGH the can to the other side. It will remove all of the tomato paste with it. MUCH easier than trying to scrape it out of the teeny can with a spoon.

Pour in two 14.5 oz cans of chicken broth. No tricks required here, these cans had tabs on the top like pop cans– wonderful!

Add two tablespoons Italian seasoning.

Finally, add 3 oz. of sliced pepperoni. The original recipe called for turkey pepperoni, I used regular. I also thought whole pepperonis might be too big, so I sliced them in half.

Stir well to combine all the ingredients. Bring to a boil, then reduce to low and let simmer for 20 minutes.

This is what it looked like after cooking down for 20 minutes. It smelled WONDERFUL at this point too… this is about when Sarah arrived, and she said she thought I must have been cooking something fantastic in the crock pot.

So I dished some into a bowl

and topped it with some mozzarella cheese. Yummy! And like I mentioned before, this soup kept very well in the fridge. I cooked it on Sunday and when I took it to work a couple of days last week, I thought it tasted better than it had the first day. I put a portion in a container in the freezer, so one day soon I’ll have to get it out and see how it held up.

Pizza Soup

1 onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
8 oz. mushrooms
2 cloves minced garlic
1 lb. ground beef
14.5 oz can petite diced tomatoes, undrained
12 oz can tomato paste
2 14.5 oz cans chicken broth
2 Tbs. Italian seasoning
3 oz. pepperoni slices
mozzarella cheese

Saute first five ingredients (through ground beef) in large stockpot over med-high heat until beef is cooked and veggies are tender. Add all other ingredients and stir well. Bring to a boil over medium heat then reduce to low and simmer for 20 minutes. Top each serving with cheese.

You’ll need 5 cans of Brooks Mild Chili beans, 2 cans of chili ready tomatoes, 1 can of tomato soup, 1 can of water, 1 can of tomato sauce, and 1lb of ground beef. Not pictured: an onion. I forgot to buy one, and I don’t like them anyways, so I left them out.

First brown and drain your ground beef (and your onions, if you’re using those). The ground beef will be the first thing you add to your pan… and make sure you use a big one. I used the biggest pan I have (which is admittedly not all that big) and barely had enough room.

Dump in your 5 cans of Brooks mild chili beans. I’ve been told that it HAS to be this brand of chili beans… we’re usually pretty store brand friendly around here, as you can probably tell from my usual ingredients photos, but apparently other brands of chili beans “just aren’t the same.” That’s what my mom says anyways, and since she’s been cooking the chili I like for a long time, I decided to trust her on that one. We like a lot of beans in our chili, but you’re welcome to scale down the amount if you feel like it’s going to be too much.

(See? I told you the photos get lousy…) Next, add in your two cans of chili ready tomatoes.

Followed by your can of tomato sauce.

Your can of tomato soup.

And then your can of water.

Finally stir it all together, and let it cook! Basically you’re just waiting for it to get hot enough to eat… the longer it sits, the more it thickens. In my opinion, the chili is better the second day than it is the first day too.

Oh! I almost forgot the secret ingredient– Hot Dogs! I sliced up half of the package into my pot of chili. Obviously, hot dogs are not a necessary ingredient if you’re not feeling it, but I have to tell you — the hot dogs have always been my favorite part.

I was too impatient to wait for it to thicken up much at all, so the first night, I ate it pretty soupy as soon as everything was hot. Add some cheese, sour cream, and crackers if you have some, and you’ve got a wonderful warm and filling chili for cold winter evenings! This chili is not very spicy, which fits my bill exactly. I took some over to my best friend, and she declared it was better than her mothers. Score one for me and my hot dog filled chili!

This week’s Monday’s Menu is nothing too exciting… just the fixings for taco salads. What you see there is tortilla chips, cooked taco meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato, sour cream and salsa. I make taco salads a lot because they are highly customizable! Got someone who doesn’t like lettuce? That’s fine, just leave that off of their plate. You can use salad dressing instead of sour cream and salsa. You can put as many veggies on top as you’d like– lettuce, tomato, green pepper, onions, black olives… You can make taco salads using chicken instead of ground beef. You can add refried beans, which I would have done if I hadn’t forgotten to buy refried beans at the grocery store yesterday! You can scale up the amount of meat and fillings to fit the group you have. Easy peasy!

The best part of taco salads for me is that because I live by myself, there’s always leftovers. They heat up really well, and I don’t have to worry about figuring out dinner for a couple of days!

First up, brown the two pounds of ground beef with 2 cloves minced garlic (or the equivalent from a jar of pre-minced garlic as I have done).

Steam makes pictures blurry too!

Meanwhile, cook elbow macaroni according to package directions. I snuck in about half a cup extra of the pasta because it just didn’t look like enough. Once my meat was finished cooking, I added the rest of the ingredients.

Stir them all together.

Add in the cooked macaroni and transfer to a 13×9 baking dish. Cover and bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Don’t be like me. Cover it the first time, don’t put it in the oven, take it back out, cover it, and return it to the oven.

Remove from the oven, carefully uncover, and sprinkle on two cups of reduced-fat Mexican blend cheese. Bake for an additional 5 minutes or so until the cheese melts. Eat, and enjoy!!

I wasn’t too sure how this was going to turn out, and Sarah who was the guinea pig for this particular meal, and I were both kind of nervous. In fact, we had back up plans to head to Taco Bell for dinner if it wasn’t too good. But I dished it up with some corn on the side, and it was delicious! We were both pleasantly surprised by how much flavor it had!

The Recipe
Chili Mac Casserole

1 cup uncooked elbow macaroni
2 pounds lean ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can (16 ounces) kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
1 can (4 ounces) chopped green chilies
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded reduced-fat Mexican cheese blend

DIRECTIONS

Cook macaroni according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large nonstick skillet, cook the beef, onion and garlic over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in the tomatoes, beans, tomato paste, chilies and seasonings. Drain macaroni; add to beef mixture.
Transfer to a 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish coated with cooking spray. Cover and bake at 375° for 25-30 minutes or until bubbly. Uncover; sprinkle with cheese. Bake 5-8 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Yield: 10 servings

The Ingredients

Lasagna noodles, 1.5 lbs of ground beef, 1lb of Italian sausage, minced garlic, parsley flakes, dried basil, cottage cheese, 2 eggs (not pictured), parmesan cheese, mozzarella cheese slices, whole tomatoes and tomato paste. And no, the amaretto in the background was not in the ingredient list.

Making Lasagna
The first step was to brown the 1.5 pounds of ground beef with the one pound of sausage, and 1/2 tsp. minced garlic. The original recipe called for Hot breakfast sausage, but I’m a wimp, so I went for Italian instead as it’s slightly less “Oh my goodness, my mouth’s on FIRE!” It also called for 2 cloves of garlic, minced, but I’m lazy and bought a jar of ready to use minced garlic instead. In the pan it went.

In the original, she begs everyone not to drain all of the fat off, for PETE’s sake, but I couldn’t help it. I’m usually a “rinser” so I resisted doing that before returning the meat to the pan. That has to count for something, doesn’t it? Right?
Well anyways, then it was time to continue making the meat sauce, so to my cooked meat, I added 28 oz. of whole tomatoes, 12 oz. of tomato paste, 2 tbs. parsley flakes, 2 tbs. dried basil, 1 tsp. salt.

You’re supposed to let it simmer, uncovered for about 45 minutes. This is what mine looked like about 35 minutes in.

Then it was time to make the cottage cheese mixture that gets layered in the lasagna. 3 cups of cottage cheese, 2 beaten eggs, 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, 2 tbs. parsley flakes, and 1 tsp. salt. A few people had complained in the comments of Ree’s recipe post that it was too salty, so I was skimpy on that teaspoon of salt, thinking some could be added later, if need be.

For the life of me, I can’t believe that I didn’t get a picture of the mixed up cottage cheese mixture, or of the first layer of noodles in the pan. Oh well… the noodles were my second cheat. Instead of attempting to cook them myself, I opted for Oven-ready lasagna noodles. Those went down first. Then, half of the cottage cheese mixture was spread evenly on top.

Following that, one pound of mozzarella cheese slices was layered on top.

Followed by one half of the meat mixture.

At this point, I didn’t find it necessary to photograph each additional layer. You simply rinse and repeat: another layer of lasagna noodles, then cottage cheese mixture followed by mozzarella cheese, and the remaining meat sauce. Finally, you sprinkle a generous amount of parmesan cheese on top.

Then it goes in the oven at 350 degrees for “20-30 minutes, or until hot and bubbly.”

Very good. So how was it?

The Verdict
Well, my Oven Ready Lasagna noodles did not finish cooking in the 30 minute time frame, so the lasagna went back in the oven while we all ate our salads. For this, I was very disappointed since I had envisioned a lovely photograph of a plate with a piece of lasagna, garlic bread, and a serving of my favorite salad. Alas, that was not to be. Oh well. I was mostly concerned about the fact that the noodles hadn’t cooked thoroughly. Novice, nervous cookers do not like anything to go wrong.
In the end, we all agreed that the lasagna turned out very nicely. Everyone gave it a thumbs up, but we all held back from calling it the best lasagna ever. Good? Yes. But the best? We still have our reservations. My mom did say, though, that it was a recipe worth making again.

What I’d do differently
I think next time, I’ll actually cook my lasagna noodles. It will be a good, non-frightening experience, and then my lasagna will actually be done on schedule!
I’d also add more cheese, and a layer of noodles on top. I felt like the cheese/noodle/meat ratio was way off. But that’s probably exactly what makes this lasagna so appealing to everyone else.