I said before that we camp with the same people every weekend from April-October – our camping family. We plan a meal for us all to share every Saturday. This past weekend was Lasagna.

This happens to be a camping favorite for us all even though I swear it turns out different every time. Not different tasting, but it has a different mouth feel every time. Trying to maintain the temperature in a campfire is clearly difficult for me!

I make the lasagna and the rest bring the sides (usually Olive Garden salad and breadsticks, veggie trays, crackers and dip, etc.). We have a varying number of people that join in on our shared meal, not to mention leftovers, so it was always hard to tell how many this recipe served. But, this weekend we had ZERO leftovers and fed 14 people. We had one serving of salad left, that was it!

I know that lots of people have their own lasagna recipe and quite honestly, my homemade sauce is pretty stellar, but my family prefers it this way. Use whatever sauce you or your family likes. I will post the recipe here with instruction on how to do it over the campfire and also how to do it in the oven.

So here it is, the first recipe in my cookbook, Camping Lasagna.

Camping Lasagna

Ingredients

2 lbs ground beef

2 boxes uncooked lasagna noodles

67 oz jar of red sauce (your choice) – I use the Prego Meat Sauce

2 C water

two 24 oz containers of cottage cheese

16 oz bag of shredded mozzarella

4 eggs

2 TBS Italian Seasoning Blend

16 in Dutch Oven

Parchment Paper

Start by browning your ground beef. Drain and set back in the pan. Pour your red sauce over the ground beef and add the 2 cups of water. Mix well. Set to the side.

Pour the cottage cheese containers into a large bowl along with the 4 eggs. Add the Italian Seasoning Blend and mix well. Set aside.

Line your Dutch oven with parchment paper. I like to cover the entire inside and up the sides. Then throw a cup or two of your red sauce mixture along the bottom. This will ensure the noodles have liquid on both sides to cook (also why we add the 2 cups of water).

Next, begin a layer of DRY lasagna noodles. I cover the entire bottom of the pan. You will have to break some pieces to fill in the gaps. Cover with another 1-2 cups of sauce. Then layer your cottage cheese mixture. Followed by a light layer of mozzarella cheese. Repeat the layers. Noodles, sauce, cottage cheese mixture, and mozzarella cheese. You should have at least 3 layers of the lasagna. I like to add one final layer of noodles covered by the remaining sauce and a heavier layer of mozzarella cheese.

Campfire Cooking – Get your charcoal lit and let it burn until gray. Make a hole in the middle of the briquettes place Dutch oven in the center. Place about 12-15 briquettes on the lid and spread the rest around so the vessel has even heating all around. Let cook for 45-60 minutes checking periodically.

If you are cooking this in your oven, then layer the ingredients into TWO 13×9 pans. You won’t need to line them with parchment paper but you will need to still put some sauce on the bottom layer. Cook for about 60 min at 350 degrees, checking periodically.

OH, and….. two updates!

I am working on the development of my spice blends that will be available for purchase on my website. Still working on a name, but leaning towards Kitchen Witch Blends….I’m up for suggestions!

AND….I figured out how to edit our podcasts! This has been a struggle for me because I don’t want to spend money on editing software. I have successfully downloaded some audio and understand how to edit. I will be working on it!

If you try the lasagna, please let me know how it goes in the comments!