Creamy Not-sagna

I have to give Rachael Ray the credit for the whole "not-sagna" thing. I recently found a new show she has on Cooking Channel called Week in a Day. The premise is that she makes a week's worth of food one day and then has it all on hand to use throughout the week. She'll use the roasted chicken from Monday again in a dish on Thursday night. Obviously, this isn't a novel concept, but I really enjoy watching her so somehow it seems new and fresh. This dish was inspired by one she had made on an episode, but I definitely changed it up to match the ingredients I had and to suit our tastes. Mario really enjoyed this and took for lunch for a few days. I, of course, made enough to feed a small village, but it was so cheap and really delicious on day 2, 3, and 4! Enjoy!

Creamy Not-sagna
Source: Me and Rachael Ray, kinda
Yields: 6 servings


Ingredients:

1 lb lasagna noodles broken

28 oz can crushed tomatoes

3 oz cream cheese

1 sm or ½ medium onion diced

3 cloves garlic minced

Salt and pepper

1 T Italian seasoning (or ½ T each dried basil and oregano)

1 tsp dried parsely

1 T olive oil

½ lb ground beef or turkey (I used beef, but I wish I would've used turkey)

1-1 ½  cups mozzarella depending on how cheesy you want it

Freshly grated parmigiana cheese 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400. Cook broken lasagna noodles according to package directions. Heat olive oil in a skillet with high sides. Add ground beef (or turkey), onion, and garlic; season with salt and pepper. Cook beef until no longer pink. Add can of crushed tomatoes to beef, season with Italian seasoning. Simmer on stove top for 5 minutes. Add the cream cheese and adjust seasonings to taste. Drain pasta and return it to the pasta pot. Pour the meat sauce over the cooked pasta and toss to coat. Transfer to a 9x13 baking dish. Top with shredded cheese and bake until bubbly and lightly browned. Garnish with freshly grated parmigiana cheese. I would have liked to have added a couple of diced carrots and a green bell pepper in with the onion and beef, but I knew that wouldn’t have gone over well with Mario!