More Ricotta

So last night I wanted to try to use up my ricotta....still no success, so check back tomorrow for a new and exciting ricotta recipe.
I was racking my brain of what I could do with that ricotta. My hubby is a picky eater, so it makes it a little harder. I wanted to try to incorporate it into some type of egg dish, but he says he doesn't like eggs. I could only come up with lasagna. Well, by this time it was almost 6 pm and he is on a lower carb diet, so I had to make it healthy and quick. So here goes....

Lower carb quick and dirty "lasagna" (more like a pasta bake)

2-3 oz of Dreamfields low carb pasta per person (so if you have 4 people, make 8-12 oz) cooked according to package directions and drained (I used spaghetti, but any shape would be tasty)
1 pound of ground beef (any ground meat you prefer would work)
3/4 cup of ricotta cheese
1 egg
Dash of oregano
1 can pasta sauce (we use the Hunts that is not seasoned....if you use one that is already seasoned, you don't need the following)
Garlic powder to taste
Salt to taste
1 Cup Mozzerella cheese
Parmesean cheese
You will also need a baking dish (I prefer to use smaller ones to get better portion control, so I used 2 laof pans- 1 per person and we only ate half each)

1. Preheat oven to 400 F

2. Cook the ground meat until almost completely cooked through. Add in sauce and season to taste (we use the garlic powder and salt)

3. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix together ricotta, egg, oregano, salt and pepper and garlic powder to taste.

4. Put a small amount of sauce into bottom of baking dish (to prevent sticking)

5. Put the pasta into the baking dish and put cover with a layer of ricotta cheese.

6. Pour meat sauce over ricotta to cover

7. Put mozzerella on top with a sprinkle of ricotta cheese

8. Bake at 400 F until bubbly-about 15 minutes

It was so tasty...I am not a big fan of lasagna because sometimes there is too much cheese, so here you can put as much as you want. Making into 2 pans is nice too because if someone else likes more cheese, you can make one with less and one with more.

Tonight I plan to use the rest of the ricotta. I found a recipe on Foodnetwork.com that looks interesting. Stay tuned!