Santa Fe Lasagna (Oamc)

Adapted from Company's Coming Make Ahead meals by J. Pare. You can also add green, red, or jalapeño peppers to the meat sauce if desired. You can also make this in 2 8x8 baking pans.

• Ready In: 1 hr 20 mins
• Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

• 12  lasagna noodles, cooked

• Meat Sauce

• 1 1⁄4 lbs ground beef
• 1  onion, diced
• 1  stalk celery, diced
• 1 (14 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 2 (7 1/2ounce) cans tomato sauce
• 1 (4 ounce) can diced green chilies, with juice
• 2  tablespoons  taco seasoning (I use Bulk Taco Seasoning Mix)
• 1  teaspoon cumin

• Cottage Cheese Sauce

• 2  cups cream-style cottage cheese
• 2  eggs
• 1⁄2 cup cheddar cheese, grated
• 1⁄2 cup monterey jack cheese, grated

• Topping

• 1  cup cheddar cheese
• 1  cup monterey jack cheese

Directions

1. For meat sauce: Scramble fry ground beef, onions, and celery until lightly brown. Stir in remaining ingredients and simmer while making cheese sauce.
2. For Cheese sauce: combine ingredients and mix well.
3. To assemble: put a small amount of meat sauce in a 9X13 inch baking pan. Top with 4 lasagna noodles. Add 1/3 of remaining meat sauce. Top with 1/2 of cheese sauce, 4 additional noodles, then repeat layers, ending with the meat sauce.
4. Sprinkle cheddar and Monterey jack cheese over lasagna.
5. Bake , uncovered, for 60 minutes at 350 degrees. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.
6. To freeze: Bake, cool, wrap well, and label. freeze up to 2 months.
7. To serve, defrost overnight and then bake until warmed through, or bake from frozen for 1 hour and a half.