I like to keep a few meals in the freezer for especially busy weeks. These Lasagna Rolls freeze well and are a nice change from regular lasagna. This is also a good recipe for a small family because you can just take out however many rolls that you want at a time.
Here's the recipe:
Noodle Mixture:
8 uncooked lasagna noodles
1 cup cottage cheese
1/2 cup shredded carrot
8-9 oz. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained (I put this in a dish cloth and wring it out)
1 egg
Sauce:
1/2 lb. ground beef
26 oz. jar of pasta sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsps. Italian seasoning
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (set aside for later)
Cook the lasagna noodles. Drain and rinse with cool water. Thoroughly drain the spinach.
Combine the cottage cheese, shredded carrot, spinach, and egg. Spread each noodle with about 1/4 cup of the spinach mixture and then roll up.
At this point you can wrap and freeze the rolls or proceed with the recipe.
To prepare the sauce:
Brown the ground beef and garlic. Stir in the sauce and Italian seasoning. Simmer briefly. Place part of the sauce in a baking dish (9" x 13" for full batch.) Place the rolls on top of the sauce with the ruffled edges to the side (just the opposite of how you would place cinnamon rolls in a pan.) Pour the reserved sauce on top of the rolls.
Cover pan with foil and bake for 30 mins. at 350 degrees or until hot and bubbly. (If cooking from frozen increase baking time to about 45 mins.) Remove foil and sprinkle with the mozzarella cheese. Bake an additional 5 mins. Let stand 5 mins. and serve.
I keep cooked ground beef in the freezer so it makes it easy to put together the sauce and have this in the oven pretty quickly. You could also eliminate the ground beef if you wanted a meatless meal.
Do you have a favorite freezer meal you like to keep on hand?
Becka
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on Feb 23rd, 2009 at 6:01 am
I love this idea, Becka, especially the part about using only as many of the rolls as you’d need at a time. It is often hard for me to cook for one and not have tons left over.
I would pass on the corn as a side dish, however. I’m one of the few people I know who does not like corn!
My family can’t understand me. The only part of your recipe I didn’t follow was the part about putting them in the pan the opposite of how you would put cinnamon rolls….. guess I haven’t made cinnamon rolls enough (or at all!) to know what you’re referring to. Fortunately, I don’t think it will matter. Thanks for the great idea. Good way to get some extra veggies too–I’ve never put carrots and spinach in my lasagna.
on Feb 23rd, 2009 at 7:45 am
Betty, I was afraid I might not be clear enough in that part of the recipe. I wish I could draw a picture to show you. You place cinnamon rolls in the pans with the “swirled” or rolled part facing up. The lasagna rolls are placed with the “swirl” or rolled parts on the side. It probably doesn’t actually matter much as you said. I think the idea is to keep as much of the filling inside the rolls as possible.
on Feb 23rd, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Thanks, Becka. I totally get that now! It must have been too early for me to think clearly this morning! Thanks for the explanation. I hope to try this soon.
on Apr 7th, 2010 at 12:24 pm
Do you think beet greens would work the same as spinach? They taste similar, and since I am allergic to spinach, I am always looking for a substitute. Didn’t know if beet greens could be frozen like this, or if they would change the recipe too much.
on Apr 7th, 2010 at 1:04 pm
Jefinner, I think any greens such as beet greens, swiss chard, etc. would work as long as you would squeeze the water out of them after they are cooked.