Pioneer Woman's Lasagna

I love pasta and almost every other Italian dish known to man.  But lasagna?  For some odd reason I don't love it.  I don't really like ricotta cheese and lasagnas usually seem to have it.  Bleh.  I saw that Pioneer Woman's lasagna doesn't have ricotta, though, and knew I had to try it.

It takes a while to make this because it says to simmer the meat for 45 minutes after browning it, so I decided I would make this over the weekend and freeze it.  I've never done this before so I was a little hesitant but it worked out just fine.  The only issue I had was it taking forever to bake - but if I had taken the advice I was given and covered the lasagna with tin foil from the get-go, it wouldn't have taken much longer than it normally does.  So, if you end up freezing this, bake it covered in tin foil.

Into the freezer it went...

And here is the baked, finished product.

And HERE is the recipe.  I used the noodles you don't have to cook to save a little time and they work just perfectly.

Now, we had friends over for dinner who are big lasagna lovers.  They loved it and thanked me repeatedly for it (so nice).  Also, my husband said it was "amazing" and "better than most restaurants".  I was quite pleased with the results and how much everyone loved this.  I thought the bites with basil were pretty amazing... I think I would add a little more basil because I love it so, so much.  But if you make this exactly as directed, you won't be disappointed.  Also, if you don't like the idea of cottage cheese, what the original post of the recipe says is true - you have no idea that there is cottage cheese in it, not in the least.

Finally, a lasagna I actually like!