I’ve heard that sometimes when you push a baby out, your brain comes out with the baby. I’m here to tell you that it’s true. It happened to me.
I can’t remember anything these days, y’all. Whatever transpires between the hours of 10pm and 6am vanishes mysteriously into the brain equivalent of a black hole, even though I am awake and active periodically throughout the night, feeding the baby, changing her, pumping. (Can I get an “Amen!” from my fellow breastfeeders?!)
I write full blog posts in my head in the middle of the night while rocking the baby back to sleep. They are genius blog posts. Hilarious. Insightful. Sharp. And totally forgotten by morning.
And most of the conversations in my house go about like this:
ME: “Mike, will you remind me to drop off the drycleaning tomorrow?”
HUBBA BUBBA: “Sorry, I couldn’t hear you… what did you say?”
ME: “Huh? Did I say something? I have no idea what it was. I don’t even remember talking.”
Anyway, many thanks my Past Self for assembling, photographing, and then freezing a deelish lasagna while I was still preggers with Eleanora and still had a brain in my dome.
But no thanks to my present brainless self. When I finally baked the lasagna last week, I set the camera out on the counter so I wouldn’t forget to take a photo of the cheesy, bubbly, melty goodness…
And… I forgot.
So instead of lasagna, here’s a picture of Eleanora.
MAKE-AHEAD BEEF LASAGNA (pdf)
Adapted from a recipe in Southern Living
12 lasagna noodles, cooked according to package directions
1 (24 oz) container 4% small curd cottage cheese
1 (16 oz) container ricotta cheese
2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 C store-bought pesto
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 C shredded mozzarella, divided
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 C finely chopped onion
2 (24 oz) jars tomato sauce
If you plan to freeze the unbaked lasagna for cooking at a later date, line your baking dish with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Assemble, cover, and freeze the lasagna in the dish overnight, then remove it from the dish, wrap it completely and tightly in heavy-duty foil, and freeze for up to 3 months. Unwrap the lasagna and return it to the dish to bake.
Preheat oven to 375. Stir together cottage cheese, ricotta, eggs, pesto, salt, and 1 C shredded mozzarella.
Cook ground beef and onion in a large skillet over medium-high heat until meat is browned. Drain if necessary, and stir in tomato sauce.
Lightly grease a 13×9 inch baking dish. Layer 1 C beef mixture, 3 noodles, and 2 1/2 C cottage cheese mixture. Top with 3 noodles, 2 C beef mixture, and 3 more noodles. Top with remaining cheese mixture, 3 noodles, and remaining beef mixture. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese.
Bake, covered, for 45 minutes, then uncover and bake another 20 minutes or until cheese starts to brown.
To bake a frozen lasagna, unwrap from foil, place in the baking dish, and thaw in refrigerator for at least 24 hours. Let stand at room temperature for an hour, then bake as directed.
xoxo,
