This recipe works well on days when you feel like making dinner in the morning so you don't have to make it later. As we all know, lasagna always tastes better the next day; this recipe bypasses that phenomenon. The reason I call it sneaky is two-fold: 1) you don't have to spend extra money on no-boil lasagna noodles, just follow my method. 2) you will note I throw in healthy extras which are virtually non-detectable.

Ingredients: 1 16 oz. box of lasagna noodles, (wholegrain if you've made that leap; I haven't yet)
1-2 lbs. of ground beef, turkey, or chicken (or a combo), browned
1 lb. part skim ricotta cheese
1 lb. part skim mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, more or less
1 8 oz. can dark red kidney beans
1 46 oz. can of V-8 or store brand 100% vegetable juice
a wee bit of olive oil

This generally makes two 9x13 inch pans, so oil them up. Then pour a thin layer of V-8, enough to submerse dry lasagna noodles, which you then make the first layer with, adding cooked meat, spoonfuls of ricotta, sprinkling of mozzarella, a few kidney beans here and there, sprinkling of Parmesan. Just keep making layers until you run out of ingredients or you get to the top of the pan. Make sure it looks soggy with V-8. Cover with aluminum foil and cook for 45 minutes to one hour at 350 degrees. I take the foil off after a while and add more cheese to the top, and if I'm feeling festive, I grate carrots or add slices of green pepper on top. This tends to be meat-heavy, which the troops like. It can be made without meat (but it will not go over as well). I was surprised that no one complained about the kidney beans; in fact now if I make lasagna and leave them out, I get comments. Once, after reading cinnamon had special health benefits, I even threw some of that in, and made them guess "the secret ingredient". You can add whatever herbs or spices you like. So, if you make this early in the day, it has time to age, hence tasting like next day lasagna. Happy eating!

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