Meal Monday: Lasagna Cups #recipe

I wanted to grill out Saturday night, but the thought of standing in 8 inches of snow to grill didn't appeal to me.


The husband wanted lasagna and I remembered seeing a recipe on Pinterest for Lasagna Cups, so I thought I'd give those a whirl.  If you go to the link, you'll get a recipe for the sauce, cheese filling and everything, but I went the easy route and just made them like we would've made regular lasagna.  You can use whatever your family likes.

I used the following:
1 package Barilla lasagna noodles - cooked about 2 minutes less than the recipe called for. Keep 12 of them whole and then cut the remaining ones into fourths.

For the sauce:
2 jars Ragu chunky tomato, garlic and onion sauce
About 3/4 lb cooked up ground beef that was in the freezer
(plus I left out some plain sauce for 2 of the cups for the girl who doesn't like meat in her sauce)

Cheese filling:
1/2 of an 8oz package shredded mozzarella
1 container lowfat ricotta cheese
About 1/2 cup parmesean cheese
1 egg
Some Italian seasoning

Directions:
1. Line jumbo sized muffin cups with parchment paper. They will not want to stay in there, but once you start assembling the cups it gets a little better.  But not much. Just saying.
2. Put one cooked noodle in the cup, overlapping the edge a little bit.  Warning - between trying to get the papers in the cups and this step, I was ready to dump the whole lot. It was a PITA.
3. Put a spoonful of sauce in the bottom, then a noodle slice, then cheese mixture, then more sauce, then a noodle slice, then cheese mixture, more sauce, noodle slice, sauce, and the remaining mozzarella cheese.


4.  Bake at 350* for about 25-30 minutes or until they are hot and bubbly.  They can sit for a few minutes while you make garlic bread and a salad.
5.  Remove from the muffin tin by pulling up on the paper.  You can then slide a cup onto your plate and it will stay together.
The verdict?  Kind of a Pinterest flop.  These were tasty but didn't get as hot and bubbly as baking a pan of lasagna. Also, we decided the outer noodle was not edible because it got really crispy in the oven, so basically we just ate the insides.  Kind of a waste if you ask me, but I guess I saved a few calories by not eating the main noodle.  Overall, I didn't think this was really worth all the prep, but it was something different.  I think it would be good if you have people in the family who like different lasagna fillings, too.  Maybe make some with red sauce, some white, with and without meat, etc.  You get the idea.

Have you ever attempted a recipe from Pinterest that didn't work as you'd planned?

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