Lasagna

Ingredients:

500 g ground beef (ideally 12% fat-ish - 20% is too greasy and too lean not good either)
400 g white button mushrooms
2 large onions
6 cloves of garlic
2 small cans (170g each) of tomato paste
2 regular cans (400g each) of chopped tomatoes, regular, or with basil, oregano, whatever variant
2 regular cans (400g each) of kidney beans, red beans, chilli beans, whatever - want the ones with sauce/liquid
2 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp garlic salt
2 tbsp thyme
3 tbsp oregano
3 tbsp basil
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp (or to taste) ground chilli
1 tbsp pepper
400 g/1 large box lasagna sheets
cooking oil

Topping:

1 carton (400 ml) of Mornay sauce (I use store bought, but this will also work just fine)
200 g of shredded mozzarella
40 g of grated parmesan
1/2 tbsp garlic salt
1/2 tbsp oregano
1/2 tbsp basil
1/2 tbsp marjoran

Dice onions. Chop mushrooms to preferred size (good with mushrooms sliced - for kids often need more finely chopped). Mince the garlic.

Get a large pot (big enough to hold all the ingredients) - heat up the pot on medium-high heat, add enough oil to cover bottom comfortably, and fry the onions, mushrooms and garlic for 5-7 min or until onions have colored quite a bit and the mushrooms likewise - stirring frequently. Add the ground beef, mix with onions/mushrooms and keep frying until beef is not red any more.

While onions etc. are frying, combine tomatoes, tomato paste, beans (with all the liquid from the cans) in a big bowl with all the spices. If worried about spice level, hold off on half the chilli to add later if required.

When beef is no longer red, add the tomatoes & spices to the main pot. Wait for it to start simmering, then turn down the heat till it just bubbles. Leave on the stove to simmer for 30 minutes, stirring every 4-5 minutes to make sure nothing burns on the bottom. Towards the end of the simmer, sample the sauce and add salt / chilli to desired taste.

Preheat over to 180C 

In a largish (6 lasagna sheets\ space) , rectangular oven-safe baking dish, lay out a layer of lasagna sheets on the bottom. Add 3 heaping ladlefuls 😁 of sauce and spread evenly across the lasagna sheets. Add a thin stripe of Mornay sauce on top of the meat/tomato sauce, and likewise spread evenly. Repeat adding layers, until there's about 0.5cm of space left until top of the dish - finishing with a layer of meat/mornay on top, not lasagna sheets :)

For the topping, mix the spices in a small bowl. Mix the mozzarella & parmesan in a bowl (or the mozzarella bag). Spread the cheese evenly over the top of the lasagna. Sprinkle with the spices on top - don't need to use all, just make sure you can just see the spices all over over the cheese.

Cover top wil aluminium foil and put in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest for 10 min before serving. Enjoy!