Lasagna [Garfield's Favourite Food]

When we were in Penang a few months ago, John saw lasagna on the menu in a cafe he asked what it was. As I was trying to get / attract him to eat wider variety of foods, I replied "It is something like pasta in tomato sauce I cooked at home. It is garfield's favourite food, do you know that?" He has been watching garfield for some times was wondering how does lasagna taste like. Yes, he got very excited when he heard GARFIELD and asked for one. Well, when paying time I regretted, it was so so so expensive! Pretty small serving for RM16.90+, just enough for a 4 year-old boy's appetite.

After we came back from Malaysia, he asked for lasagna a few times. This was the second time I made lasagna within a month. First time was simple version without the white sauce, be frank, it was not very nice. Kicked off my laziness, made a decent one to satisfy my little sumo. Little extra works paid off, whole casserole was gone within a day. The taste was very close to the one from cafe, and the creamy white sauce was really yummy. John the little sumo asked for it the next morning, for breakfast, too bad it was all gone.

This recipe is adapted from Allrecipes.com, here are few changes I made:

1. Omitted sausage, used pork and beef mince mixture marinated with salt, pepper and beef stock powder.
2. Omitted egg (reduce cholesterol), substituted with milk and some flour. Cook till thick paste is formed then stir in all other ingredients.
3. Omitted green olive.
4. Halved the recipe, baked in a 20cm x 20 cm casserole.
5. Added some vegetables (cooked together with meat sauce) such as celery, mushroom and carrot.

Appended below is original recipe by EM357304, copied and pasted from Allrecipes.com for easy reference.

Grandma's best ever sour cream lasagna

Ingredients (9x13 inch pan):

1 (8 ounce) package lasagna noodles 1/2 pound ground pork sausage 1/2 pound ground beef 1 clove garlic, minced 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce 1 tablespoon dried parsley 1/2 teaspoon dried basil 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1 pinch white sugar 1 (16 ounce) container sour cream 3 eggs, lightly beaten 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese 1/2 cup chopped pitted green olives 2 teaspoons salt 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 2 (12 ounce) packages shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2.	Fill a large pot with lightly salted water and bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Stir in the lasagna noodles, and return to a boil. Cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the pasta has cooked through, but is still firm to the bite, about 8 minutes. Drain.
3.	Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and cook and stir the sausage, ground beef, and garlic until the meat is crumbly, evenly browned, and no longer pink. Drain any excess grease. Stir in the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, parsley, basil, oregano, and sugar. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thickened, about 30 minutes.
4.	Stir together the sour cream, eggs, Parmesan cheese, green olives, salt, black pepper, and 1/2 of the mozzarella cheese in a bowl.
5.	To assemble the lasagna, spread a thin layer of the meat sauce evenly over the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking pan. Cover with 1/3 of the lasagna noodles, 1/3 of the remaining meat sauce, 1/3 of the sour cream mixture. Repeat this layering 2 more times. Sprinkle the remaining mozzarella cheese evenly over the lasagna.
6.	Bake in the preheated oven until the sauce is bubbly and the top is golden brown, about 30 minutes.