Elbow Lasagna

Due to a massive lack of motivation and inspiration, the past two week's dinners have consisted of things  like grilled cheese, hot dogs (I made the horrible mistake of eating vegetarian "hot dogs" and am still recovering), breakfast for dinner, and pizza. Overall not my proudest "I went to culinary school and am trying to live a healthful lifestyle" moments. On that note I decided to make a dinner that took more effort than slapping cheese and butter on bread, albeit only slightly more as this took 15 minutes to toss together and one effortless hour to bake.


Please tell me this has happened to you! What are some of your lazy day meals?

16 oz low fat cottage cheese

1/2 cup 2% mozzarella

1 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp thyme

1/4 tsp sage

1/4 tsp garlic salt 

2 1/2 cups whole wheat elbow pasta

1 jar prepared Marinara sauce

2 oz shredded parmesan
1/3 cup water

Preheat oven to 375F

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add elbows, cook for 8 minutes (they won't be completely done but they finish cooking in the oven) 

Drain and set aside for now

Use a mixer or whisk to break up the curds in the cottage cheese so it is a little smoother (like ricotta)

Stir in mozzarella, basil, oregano, thyme, sage, and garlic salt

Spray a large baking dish with Pam (I used a 7x11 casserole and it was perfect) 

Put a layer of marinara in the bottom of your pan and then half the noodles, spread the cottage cheese mixture on top of the noodles, put a layer of sauce on top of the cheese, top with rest of noodles, then remaining sauce and parmesan
Pour 1/3 cup water around the outside of the noodles (this really helps keep everything moist while it's baking)

Cover with tinfoil and bake for 45 minutes

Uncover for the last 5 minutes of baking, you can broil it if you want your cheese a little crunchy

Let it sit for 5-10 minutes before cutting and serving

Servings 4

Per serving 450 calories