George’s Meat Lasagna

From George’s latest cookbook, Still Livin’ Low Carb, this noodleless lasagna is perfect for entertaining — or for serving when you don’t have company. This time, I made it in five small casserole dishes so I could pop them out and freeze the extra portions.

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 cups diced celery
• 1/2 cup diced red onion
• 2 pounds ground beef
• 15 oz. tomato sauce (no sugar added)
• 1 tsp. minced fresh garlic
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper

Cheese Filling:

• 15 oz. ricotta cheese
• 4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup granted parmesan cheese
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 tsp. minced fresh garlic
• 2 tsp. dried Italian seasoning
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the celery and onion, and cook until slightly tender.

Add the ground beef and cook until browned. Drain off the excess fat with a spoon or turkey baster.

Add the tomato sauce, garlic, garlic powder, salt, and pepper, and simmer for 2 more minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat.

Mix the ingredients for the cheese filling together in a bowl, using only half of the mozzarella.

Fill the bottom of a 13 x 9 baking dish with the meat filling and top with cheese filling.

Cover the top with the remaining 8 ounces of mozzarella cheese.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until the top starts to become golden and bubbly.

Let cool for 10 minutes before slicing (the lasagna will hold together better).

If you look at the pic at the top of the page, you notice the top looks awfully red. There’s a reason for that. I was two rooms away from my oven timer when it went off, completely unaware that the baking time was being exceeded (plus, by putting it in 5 small pans, I should have baked it a shorter time in the first place). It ended up staying in the oven nearly 10 minutes too long, which wasn’t a good thing. It got dry. Really dry. So, I whipped out another can of tomato sauce, added a little Italian seasoning and half a packet of Splenda, and topped each one with tomato sauce while still really ot. That added another kick of flavor and helped solve the dryness problem.