Skillet Lasagna

This may come as a surprise to many of you, but the truth is I am a.... picky eater.. there I said it. Picky. Picky. Eater. This means that my diet consists of foods that many 5-year-old children would love. Hot dogs, chicken nuggets, french fries, waffles, corn dogs, peanut butter sandwiches, cheese pizza, more fries, any kind of sweets, mac and cheese and more chicken. My parents did all they could to change me, but it was a tough task. When I was younger, you could not pay me enough money or threaten me enough to stick a bite of something that did not look like a french fry into my mouth. Stubborn. So stubborn. Fortunately, I have ventured out to try more "adult" foods and I have added several items to my menu, some even being veggies... crazy, I know! Not only am I starting to like more foods, but I am also more willing to even try a bite of something even if I can guess I won't like it.

All this being said, I knew that after Casey and I were married I was going to have to find a variety of things to cook. He loves having something different to eat every night, where I was completely content in heating up a couple hot dogs and eating Baked Barbecue Lays 4 out of 5 work nights a week (yes you guessed it the other night was chicken).

Because I dearly love my husband, I got on board and started doing my best to cook often. I had about 6 recipes up my sleeve as our "Go To" meals during the week, but did not have any desire to find a bunch of new recipes that would take forever to cook. Well, you can only go so long on the same 6 recipes in one year so I decided to switch it up a little bit (with the persuasion of my sweet hubby) and add something new to my list . Now, when I am looking up recipes I typically go to Pinterest. duh. People have such wonderful new ideas for meals and I am more than willing to partake in those ideas. Unfortunately most of the meals I find seem difficult for a person who has never cooked anything but ground beef and chicken in her life. So while looking up recipes one day I decided on one that looked fairly easy called Skillet Lasagna. The advertisement for this pin was that, "You'll have it on the table in less that 30 min". So of course I'm thinking, "Yes! That's perfect!", until I started reading the recipe. I'm reading it out loud to my partner teacher saying, "saute onions, get can of tomato juice, canned tomatoes, minced garlic, chicken broth", and she said, "why don't you just go buy marinara sauce". What? You can do that? Life. Changed. This little want-to-be cook had no idea that you could just buy all of those ingredients already made together in a jar that was labeled Marinara Sauce. It sounds silly and dumb, but I feel that puts it into perspective of how much I do not know about cooking. 

I go into all of this detail about my amazing cooking skills to encourage all of those other reluctant cookers out there. Even if you are picky like me and don't enjoy cooking, you can still be successful! Find the right meals and the right people to help you sneak in the short-cuts and you can be just as good as the rest of those wonderful cooking women. I'm excited to post more easy and delicious recipes for all of you out there wanting to try new things without having to become a gourmet chef. 

Skillet Lasagna

Ingredients: 
1 bag       5 cheese Ravioli (any kind - I got mine from the freezer section)
1-2 c       Marinara (Pasta) Sauce with onion, garlic and tomato
8 oz         Mozzarella cheese (I used cubed not shredded, but I would like to try shredded next time)
1/2 c        Parmesan cheese
1 lb          Extra Lean Ground Beef

Directions:
1. Cook the ground beef on stove until brown, drain and place back into pan.
2. Boil the Ravioli as package instructs.
3. Place the Ravioli into the pan with the ground beef and mix. Keep stove on about medium heat during this process.
4. Add the Marinara sauce to the pan with the Ground Beef/Ravioli and mix until well heated.
5. Add the Mozzarella cheese. Stir until melted.
6. Take off of stove and place in a serving dish. Add Parmesan cheese while still hot so it can melt on top.
7. EAT YOUR DELICIOUS CREATION


 My husband and I almost ate the whole thing in one sitting- we couldn't stop! Hope you all enjoy this wonderful recipe. Let me know what you think!