Lasagna Soup

It's the beginning of the month which means it's Secret Recipe Club time.  Before I reveal my recipe I have a confession - I didn't make anything this month, my husband did, but I did not.  The day before the reveal and as always I had marked a bunch of different recipes, but hadn't made anything.  To make things more challenging I had to work, so I brought in some backup.

I was a little worried about bringing in Mike as a replacement.  He is an excellent cook, but he has trouble following a recipe, so even though I gave him a recipe for Lasagna Soup there was a great possibility I could have come home and found something completely different.  In the spirit of SRC he did follow the recipe, but made a few changes and we now have two delicious recipes to turn to when a craving for lasagna soup strikes.

As a thank you to Mike for helping out I have a favor to ask of you.  Mike loves knowing what other people eat and he started a Facebook page called "so what did you eat".  He just started it and would love to build it up so if you could "like" the page and share what you eat Mike, and I, would really appreciate it.  It doesn't matter if you had a gourmet meal or a bag of chips and a soda, just snap a picture and share away.

As I said this month's SRC dish was lasagna soup from Cravings of a Lunatic.  There are so many great recipes to choose from, I was initially going to make the Turtle Popcorn, but with all the Halloween candy around I couldn't add another sweet to the house.  Even though it didn't make an appearance this month I am sure it will around Christmas time.

Here is Kim's recipe.  This is a delicious, quick and easy dish.  Perfect for cold days when you need some warm comfort food.  Enjoy!

Lasagna Soup

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced (I didn’t have fresh so I used minced garlic)
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 box (32 oz) of beef broth, or mix 4 cups boiling water with 1 to 2 tablespoons of better than bouillon beef base (I used the better than bouillon)
• 1 (28 fl oz) can of whole peeled tomatoes (san Marzano), pulsed in blender
• 1 (1 lb 8 oz) jar of pasta sauce ( I used Ragu Sauteed Onion & Garlic)
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 cups broken lasagna noodles
• 1 (5 oz) package of grated parmesan cheese
• 2 cups mozzarella (the new pizza mozzarella is the bomb)

Instructions

1. Brown your ground beef, onion, and pepper in a large dutch oven. It should be broken into fine particles and cooked till juices run clear.
2. In the last minute or two add the garlic.
3. Now add your brown sugar, tomatoes, sauce, oregano, basil and salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes.
4. Add the noodles and simmer until they are tender. Stir in parmesan.
5. Turn on your broiler.
6. Transfer soup into ovenproof soup bowls. Place in oven and broil for 3 to 5 minutes.