Pizza Potato Lasagna

Gluten-free, vegetarian, tasty, filling, and healthy!  Awesome!

This big-batch lunch recipe will fill you up, keep you healthy, and keep your budget on track.  There’s nothing like a hint of pizza along with the home-feeling of potatoes, all put together in delicious cheesy lasagna-style layers.

Make this for some easy suppers, or for your lunches at work, or to feed a handful of company!

This takes awhile to make but it’s not hard to make.

Here’s what you need to make Pizza Potato Lasagna:

• About 6-8 big potatoes, washed
• 1/2 a white onion
• 1 green pepper
• 1 jalapeno
• 2 Roma tomatoes
• 1 good chunk of mozzarella cheese
• 1 good chunk of cheddar cheese
• 1 big jar of your favorite tomato pizza sauce
• 2 cloves of garlic
• some cooking spray

  Here’s how to make it:

1.  Boil the potatoes until they are soft, which will probably take 25-30 minutes.  If the potatoes are really big, cut them in half before you boil them.  Try to make them all similar sizes before you boil them so they cook in the same amount of time.

Boiling potatoes

2.  Once they’re boiled and soft, drain them in the sink and them spread them out on a baking sheet to dry and cool.

Cooling on a baking sheet

3.  Once they’re cooled enough that you can handle them, cut the potatoes into coins, about 1/3 a centimeter thick.  Put your slices on a separate cooking sheet or large plate.

Slicing up the potatoes

Piling the sliced potatoes on a cooking sheet

4.  Chop up the white onion into dices.  You can dice small or large, whichever you like best.

Diced white onion

5.  Dice up the green peppers, again as small or large as you want.

Diced green pepper

6.  Finely slice up the jalapeno and put it all on a plate.

Diced jalapeno

7.  Slice up the tomatoes into any size or shape that you like.  I like thinly-sliced halves.

Tomato slices

8.  Grate up your chunks of cheese.

Grated mozzarella

Grated cheddar

9.  Pour the pizza sauce into a big bowl.

Pizza sauce in a bowl

10.  Mince or use a garlic press to get some minced garlic and add it to the sauce.

Garlic added

11.  Stir it up!

Stirred up

12.  Spray a 9×13 pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Sprayed pan

13.  Put a layer of potatoes on the bottom of the pan.  Do your best to fill it in, using the different-sized potato pieces.

A layer of potatoes

14.  Spoon about 1/3 of the sauce on top of the potatoes and then use the back of a spoon to even it out into a layer.

Globs of pizza sauce on top

Using a spoon to smooth it over

15.  Add a layer of delicious veggies on top.

Adding tomatoes

Adding green pepper

Adding onion

Adding jalapeno!

16.  Add a layer of yummy cheese.

Layer of yummy cheese

17.  Repeat these steps again, starting with the potatoes.

Another potato layer

Pizza sauce, smoothed over

Veggies

Cheese

17.  Put it into a 375 degree oven for 20 minutes.

Going into the oven!

18.  Keep it in the oven until the cheese is nice and gooey and browning… or however you like it!  Let it sit for about five minutes before you dig in.

Perfect!

It’s fabulous!  Enjoy!

Here’s how much it costs to make (6 good servings):

• Potatoes:  $4.00
• Onion:  $0.50
• Green pepper:  $1.00
• Jalapeno:  $0.15
• Tomatoes:  $0.60
• Mozzarella cheese:  $1.50
• Cheddar cheese: $1.50
• Pizza sauce:  $1.50
• Garlic:  $0.15
• Cooking spray:  $0.03

Total cost to make:  $10.93

Total cost per serving:  $1.82

Awesome!

Cheesy!

Here are some other tasty casseroles to try out:

• Cheesy Creamy Tuna Casserole
• Mellow Chicken Casserole

Crock Pot Lasagna

This Delightful Crock Pot Lasagna will cheer up your taste buds and fill your tummy!  A bit of work on Sunday will give you happiness at work all week.  This recipe is a bit like a lasagna but it’s got a mind of its own!

 Once you’ve got this in the crock pot it’s easy, but there is quite a bit of prep work to do first.

Here’s what you need to make Delightful Crock Pot Lasagna:

• 1 package of ground beef (about one pound)
• 1 package of sausages (about six links)
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 6 lasagna noodles
• 2 jars of tomato sauce (any flavor you like!)
• about 10 button mushrooms
• 1/2 a white onion
• 1 green pepper
• 2 Roma tomatoes
• 1 or 2 jalapenoes
• 1/2 a bunch of oregano
• 1 small container of ricotta cheese
• 1 small container of cottage cheese
• 1 chunk of mozzarella cheese
• A small chunk of cheddar cheese

Here’s how you make it:

1.  Cook the ground beef in a pan on the stove until it’s brown and fully cooked.  Once it’s fully cooked, turn the heat down to very low but keep it on the stove.

Cooking the ground beef

2.  Cut up your sausage links (I find it’s much easier to cut them if they’re frozen).  Then put them in a pan on the stove and cook them until they’re fully cooked.  Once it’s cooked, take it off the stove.  Pour the sausage pieces into a bowl and set them aside for later.

Slicing up some tasty sausage

Cooking that sausage up!

A bowl of cooked sausages

3.  Break up the lasagna noodles into smaller pieces and then cook the pasta according to the directions on the package, then drain it and set it aside.

Broken up lasagna noodles

4.  Pour some tomato sauce in with the beef and then stir it around.  This will keep the meat from being dry and it will bump up the taste!  Once it’s all mixed in and tasty-looking, pour it in to a bowl and set aside for later.

Adding some sauce

A bowl of tasty beef!

5.  Wash the mushrooms and slice them.  I like mine to be in big chunks for this recipe.  Put the mushroom slices on a plate.

Cutting mushrooms!

Delicious mushie chunks

6.  Dice up the white onion and then put it on the plate beside the mushrooms.

Mushies and onions

7.  Dice up the green pepper and put it on the plate with the other veggies.

Green peppers in with the other veggies

8.  Slice up the tomatoes and add them to the plate with the other veggies.

Colorful veggies!

9.  Finely dice up the jalapenos and put them in a little bowl on their own.

Yum!

10.  Chop up some fresh oregano and put it in a little bowl on its own.

Fresh oregano!

11.  use a garlic press or hand-mince your garlic and put it in a bowl.

Pressing some garlic!

All the veggies and fresh fixin’s

12.  Stir up the ricotta cheese in the container it came in, so it’s easier to spread around later.

Stirring up the ricotta cheese

13.  Grate up the mozzarella cheese and put it in a bowl.

Mozzarella!

14.  Now it’s time to put it all in the crock pot!  First, ALWAYS spray the inside of your crock pot with non-stick spray.  It makes it a million times easier to clean later.  Now follow the pictures below to assemble your Crock Pot Delight:

Pour a little tomato sauce in the bottom of the crock pot

Add a layer of cooked lasagna noodles

Add some more tomato sauce, then sprinkle on some of the oregano, garlic, jalapenos, and tomatoes

Add about half of the delicious ground beef

Sprinkle with about half of your chopped veggies

Add some more tomato sauce

Spoon on a layer of cottage cheese and then smooth it all out

Add another layer of lasagna noodles

Put on a good layer of tomato sauce

Sprinkle on the rest of the oregano and garlic

Add the rest of the beef

Sprinkle on some onions

Put the sausage in

Put on some tomato sauce dollops

Spread on the ricotta cheese

Top with anything else you haven’t used yet from your crazy colorful plate of veggies

Cover with half of your remaining tomato sauce

Top with the mozzarella

Add one more layer of noodles

Spread on the last of your tomato sauce

15.  Your crock pot is probably completely full by now!  Turn it on a low setting for 8 hours.  After a few hours, you’ll enjoy the delicious scent.

Crock Pot Delight in Progress

16.  Once the time’s up, open the lid of the crock pot and sprinkle the top with some grated cheddar cheese.  Watch as it melts deliciously.  Then scoop your lasagna out and you’re ready to go!

Sprinkling some cheddar on top

I like to eat a bowl for dinner, then portion the rest into my reusable lunch containers for the rest of the week.  It’s awesome!

Here’s what it costs to make (you get about 7 servings at least!): 

• Ground beef:  $6.00
• Sausages:  $4.00
• Garlic:  $0.20
• Lasagna noodles:  $0.75
• Tomato sauce:  $3.50
• Mushrooms:  $0.75
• Onion:  $0.35
• Green pepper:  $1.00
• Roma tomatoes:  $1.00
• Jalapenos:  $0.20
• Oregano:  $0.50
• Ricotta cheese:  $3.00
• Cottage cheese:  $2.00
• Mozzarella cheese:  $2.00
• Cheddar cheese:  $1.00

Total cost to make:  $26.25

Total cost per serving:  $3.75

Wow!  A low price for something so TASTY and FILLING and NUTRITIOUS!  It’s got veggies and meat and dairy.  You can’t go wrong!

You’ll never find a great lasagna in a restaurant for that price!

YUMMY!!!!

Here are some other variations of lasagna to try:

• Potato & Pizza Lasagna
• Lasagna Rippers

Lasagna Rippers

Making a regular lasagna can be a pretty brutal affair.  You have to make all these layers of stuff, and keep track of what layer you’re on, and you have to be really patient.  I don’t have time for all that!  Save time and effort with these Lasagna Rippers.  They’re a lot easier to make and they look amazing!   And they come in the most perfect serving size ever.

These Lasagna Rippers are a great meal – you can make them for your own dinner, for your lunches, or for when you have company over!  You could also take them to a family gathering if you get tasked with bringing a dinner item – bring one Ripper for each guest – just make sure that you will be able to have 10 minutes of oven time to warm them up before you serve them.

 Lasagna Rippers look absolutey fantastic, but they don’t require expert-level cooking skills.  You need to be able to cook ground beef, cut veggies, roll lasagna noodles, and to use the oven.

  Here’s what you need to make them: 

• Lasagna noodles (one noodle for each Ripper you want to make)
•  package of ground beef (you won’t use a lot for this recipe, but cook the whole package and freeze what you don’t use so you can use it for something later in the week!)
• 2 cups of grated cheese (cheddar or mozzarella or a mix of both)
• 1/2 a cup of finely diced green peppers
• 1/2 an jalapeno

   Here’s how to make them: 

1.  Bring a big pot of water to a boil and then gently drop in the lasagna noodles one at a time.  Cook them as directed on the package, then drain them and lay them out on a plate to dry.

Gently adding lasagna noodles to boiling water

Draining the noodles after they’re cooked

Laying the noodles flat on a plate to dry

2.  While the lasagna noodles are cooking, cook your ground beef in a pan on the stove.  Add any seasonings you like.  I add pepper and chili flakes because I like my meat spicy!

Tasty ground beef getting cooked!

3.  Once your ground beef is cooked, put it in a bowl and then stir in some of the tomato sauce so the ground beef is a little saucy.

Ground beef in a bowl

Saucy ground beef in a bowl

4.   Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

5.  Get a baking dish.  If you have a deeper baking dish, use it.  You’re going to be putting foil on top of the Rippers when you bake them, so having space between the Rippers and the foil is a good idea so the cheese doesn’t stick to the foil.

6.  Put a thin layer of tomato sauce on the bottom of the baking pan.

A thin layer of tomato sauce on the bottom of the baking dish

7.  Take a cooked lasagna noodle and lay it flat on a clean surface.

Lasagna noodle

8.  Spread a thin layer of tomato sauce all along the noodle.

A thin layer of sauce on the noodle

9.  Sprinkle a thin layer of the saucy ground beef along the noodle.  You don’t want to make this layer too thick or your Ripper won’t roll up nicely.

Layer of saucy ground beef

10.  Take your finely diced jalepenos and green peppers and have them ready so you can easily grab a small handful at a time.  Then  sprinkle a fine layer of veggies on top of your first lasagna noodle.  Again, not too much – it won’t roll well if it’s got too much stuff in it.

A small plate of finely diced green peppers

A small plate of finely diced jalepeno

Thin veggie layer on the noodle

11.  Sprinkle a thin layer of cheese on top.

Sprinkled layer of cheese

12.  Now comes the tricky part – starting at one end, roll up the lasagna noodle.  Try to make it as tight as you can, but not so tight that you’re squeezing all the ingredients out of it.  Some ingredients will likely fall out as you roll, but do your best to keep everything inside.  Keep rolling until you’re at the other end.

Tip:  Rolling these is not really as hard as it looks, so long as your noodles are soft.  Just do it all in one motion – start rolling, go nice and slowly, and don’t stop until you’ve rolled it.  Then right away carry on to step 13 without letting go of the roll-up.  This will ensure it doesn’t unravel on you!

Start to roll at one end

Keep on rolling

All rolled up!

13.  Pick up the rolled-up Ripper and place it into the baking dish.  Make sure that the loose end of the Ripper is right on the bottom so that it doesn’t unroll as it cooks.

Ripper all rolled up in the pan

14.  Take any ingredients that fell out while you were rolling and sprinkle them on top of the Ripper in the pan.  After all, those tasty insides need to be eaten too!

Looking good!

15.  Once you’ve rolled all your Rippers and they’re in the baking pan, pour more tomato sauce on top of them.  You want to try to cover the lasagna noodles so they don’t get all burnt and crispy while they’re baking in the oven.

16.  Sprinkle cheese on top of your saucy Rippers.

All saucy and cheesy and ready to be baked

17.  Cover the pan with aluminum foil.  Then bake in the oven for 25 minutes.

Covered with foil, ready to bake!

18.  When the timer goes off, take the Rippers out of the oven and take off the foil.  Then put them back in the oven for about 10 minutes, without the foil on top, so the cheese gets all nice and browned.

After taking the foil off – the cheese is not browned

After 10 more minutes in the oven, the cheese has browned up and looks great!

Once the cheese is all browned, you’re done!  Let the Rippers rest for about 5 minutes before you serve them, just so that the cheese and the sauce have time to settle.  Then top with a couple of slices of cherry tomatoes for an extra-cool look.

A tasty Lasagna Ripper, garnished with a couple of cherry tomato slices

Tasty Lasagna Ripper side view

These tasty Rippers are a great dinner meal!  I find that one is enough for me, but you may have bigger eaters in your company that would eat two.  These are great in your lunches too, so feel free to make a few extra to bring to work in the next few days!

  Here’s what it costs to make them (for 4 Rippers): 

• Lasagna noodles :  $0.50
• Ground beef:  $1.50
• Tomato sauce:  $1.00
• Cheese:  $1.50
• Veggies:  $0.50

Total cost to make:   $5.00

Five dollars for four Tasty Lasagna Rippers?  Holy smokes, that’s cheap!!!  That’s only $1.25 each!

So feel free to make lots of these.  Bring them to a family party.  Bring them in your lunches.  They’re amazing!!!

  Help yourself to these other terrific meal ideas:

• Tasty Tuna Tucks
• Groovy Pizza Griller

Pizza Lasagna Jumble

This enormous batch of delicious Pizza Lasagna Lunch will feed you all week at work!

This meal combines the noodles from lasagna and the sauce from pizza – along with cheese, veggies, pepperoni, and any other tasty morsels you love on your pizza.  Enjoy!

You can also take this large batch to a potluck, or you could host a party and have this as the main course!

It’s a little time-consuming to make but it’s not overly difficult.  Give it a try!

  Here’s what you need to make it: 

• 1 package of lasagna noodles
• 1 package of ground beef (about one pound)
• Your favorite pizza veggies
• 2 bottles of pizza sauce (about 3 cups in total, more if you have it)
• Grated cheese (mozzarella or cheddar, about two cups)
• Pepperoni (as much as you like)

  Here’s how to make it:

1.  Put on a big pot of boiling water to cook the lasagna noodles.  While you’re waiting for the water to boil, break up the uncooked lasagna noodles into bite-sized pieces.  Once the water is boiling, cook the noodles until they’re nice and soft.   Then drain it and let it cool down.

Lasagna noodles, all broken up into bite-sized pieces

Lasagna noodles getting cooked

2.  While the noodles are cooking, cook your ground beef in a pan.  Add any salt or pepper that you like to make your ground beef nice and tasty!

I like to add some crushed chili peppers to my ground beef to make it nice and spicy!

3.  Once your ground beef is all cooked, add the bottled pizza sauce.  I like to have my pasta really saucy, so I add two bottles of pizza sauce.  Once you’ve added the sauce, stir it all around and keep it on low heat so the sauce warms up.

Beef and sauce

4.  Once your lasagna noodles are drained, put them back in the big pot that you cooked them in.  Then add the ground beef/sauce mixture and stir it all up.

Lasagna noodles, ground beef, and pizza sauce all stirred up!

5.  Chop all of your veggies.  It’s up to you which veggies you want to put into your Pizza Lasagna Lunches.  Use the veggies that you like to have on your pizza!

Some ideas for great veggies to add are:

• green peppers
• red or white onions
• green or black olives
• sliced mushrooms
• tomatoes

Cut the veggies into delicious little pieces, the same size that you would see them on a pizza.

6.  Add the veggies into the big pot with the noodles, beef, and sauce.

Healthy and tasty!

7.  Stir it all up!

Stirred up and lookin’ good!

8.  Add the pepperoni and stir it up again.

Pepperoni!

9.  Add the cheese and stir it up again!

Cheese!

10.  Stir and stir until everything is all nice and mixed up.  It’s half lasagna, it’s half pizza.  It’s delicious!

What could be better?

11.  Gather up 5 reusable containers and divide the mixture into the containers.  Now you’ve got lunches for the whole week!!

Pizza Lasagna Lunches, all ready to go!

Tip:  I keep 3 containers in the fridge for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and I put Thursday and Fridays’ lunches in the freezer.  I don’t want them sitting in the fridge all week with that ground beef in them.  Cooked ground beef should be used within 3 days of being cooked.  On Wednesday night, I pull Thursday and Fridays’ containers out of the freezer and put them in the fridge so they’re defrosted in time for lunch!

Here’s what it costs to make: 

• Lasagna noodles:  $1.50
• 1Ground beef:  $5.00
• Veggies:  $3.00
• Pizza sauce:  $2.50
• Cheese:  $3.00
• Pepperoni:  $4.50

   Total cost to make:  $19.50

Total cost for lunch each day (5 days’ worth of deliciousness):  $3.90

This meal is healthy (lots of meat and veggies), filling, and very tasty!

It’s also a great meal to make if you have company coming over.  This will easily feed 4 or 5 people!

Need some other irresistible meals?  Try one of these:

• Smokin’ Scrambled Eggs
• Tasty Tuna Tucks