Meatloaf Lasagna Roll Ups: A New Take on Leftovers

Yes, you read that correctly.... Meatloaf Lasagna Roll Ups. I was really hungry the other night for something tasty, and all I really had kicking around for dinner was random bits of leftovers. So I decided to get creative, and the result was a delicious and easy dinner!

I had some lasagna noodles, but not enough to make a whole lasagna, and not enough of anything else to make a whole one either for that matter! So I decided to try making some "Lasagna Rolls Ups." I had some leftover pasta sauce in the fridge and a little bit of cottage cheese, so I was set for that much. But then I was stumped about what meat to put in since I didn't have any ground meat at home. Then I remembered I had some of my Turkey Zucchini Meatloaf left, and decided to get creative!

Essentially I took two slices of meatloaf and crumbled them up, and then mixed it in with the pasta sauce to form a meat sauce for the lasagna roll ups. Since the meatloaf already had zucchini and onions as well as some seasonings, I didn't need to add anything else to the sauce.

I boiled the lasagna noodles, spread some cottage cheese, meat sauce, and a little grated cheese on each one, rolled them up and placed them in a baking dish, topped them with more sauce and cheese and then baked them till bubbly! They were super flavourful and were a great way to use up some of the smaller bits of stuff I had kicking around the house. Here's an "official" recipe guideline. I only had enough bits of stuff to make 6 rolls up, and I've guessed at how much cottage cheese and pasta sauce I had left. I've tried to over estimate so you're likely to have extra rather than run out. You can also easily increase the amount of all items to make a larger batch!

Meatloaf Lasagna Roll Ups:

Ingredients:

- 6 cooked lasagna noodles
- 2 slices of meatloaf
- 1 1/2 cups of sauce
- 3/4 cup cottage cheese
- grated cheese

Directions:

1. Pre-heat over to 400 degrees.
2. Break meatloaf up into small pieces and combine with pasta sauce. Heat mixture in small saucepan.
3. Spread pre-cooked lasagna noodles out on flat surface. Spread a spoonful of cottage cheese across each noodle, followed by a spoonful of sauce and a sprinkling of grated cheese. Don't add to much stuff or it will all fall out when you try to roll them!

 4. Gently roll up each noodle and place in baking dish with the seam facing down.

 

5. Add more sauce to the top of the noodles and sprinkle with more cheese.

 



6. Cover baking dish with tin-foil and bake for 40 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes, or until cheese is browned and bubbly. Enjoy!

Your Turn!

How do you eat your leftover meatloaf?

Hearty Lasagna

One of my favourite foods to make from scratch is lasagna! It takes a bit of time, but then I can add in meat AND veggies rather than settle for store bought which normally includes one or the other. I haven't quite figured out why they think the two can't live harmoniously together.... but anyway. Lasagna is also a great food to make for lots of leftovers! We usually make our lasagna in a 9X13 pan, and it will make 6-8 portions, depending on how hungry we are the night it was made.

I always start by making my own meat and veggie tomato sauce, which is really the heart of the lasagna. The longer you can let it simmer the better! Also, it freezes really, really well.

One of the best ways to freeze lasagna that I've discovered is to let it cool completely and then wrap each piece individually in saran wrap. It keeps out any freezer burn better than Tupperware, and takes up way less space in your freezer too!

Hearty Lasagna

Ingredients:

- 1 can diced tomatoes
- 2 cans preferred spaghetti sauce
- 1 lb ground meat, we use turkey
- 1 green pepper, diced
- 1/2 large onion, diced
- 1/2 zucchini, diced
- handful carrot matchsticks
- 3 or 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 box of no cook lasagna noodles
- 1 500g container of cottage cheese
- 1 bag shredded mozzarella (or any other shredded cheese mix)

Directions:

- Brown ground meat in a skillet and drain off excess fat
- Add diced tomatoes, spaghetti sauce and browned ground meat to large saucepan. Mix together well. Add in veggies and crushed garlic cloves.
- Let sauce mixture simmer for at least an hour, preferably more.

To Assemble lasagna:
- place thin layer of sauce on bottom of 9X13 pan, add three lasagna noodles on top,

 

- add layer of sauce, spread half of cottage cheese container, and place more noodles,

 

- cover noodles with more sauce, spread the second half of the cottage cheese, add more noodles,
- add final layer of sauce to generously cover noodles and sprinkle grated cheese over the top liberally.

-Cover lasagna with tin-foil and bake in pre-heated oven at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Remove tinfoil and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Let sit for 5-10 minutes before serving.

 

Although this lasagna already has veggies in it, it serves well with a side caesar salad to amp up the veggie quota of your meal, and to make it more likely that you'll get 8 servings out of it instead of just six.

Enjoy!!