How to Make an Easy Lasagna Recipe That Is High in Protein

School starts back soon, which means our calendar is about to become a series of activities and small emergencies with dinner wedged in the middle. This protein-packed easy lasagna recipe is how I get out ahead of all of it.  

[This post is sponsored by Real California Milk. All opinions, and all of the cheese, are my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that keep This Mess is Ours running.] 

One batch of this easy lasagna recipe fills an 18x13 sheet pan and can feed up to 8-10 people, or it divides between two 13x9 dishes so you can bake one tonight and freeze the other for a weekday when you need a hot, protein-packed meal and have zero minutes to cook. Thirty minutes of hands-on time buys you both pans. Every square carries serious protein, and not one gram of it comes from a powder, an isolate, or a weird protein-boosted noodle. 

Where the Protein in This Lasagna Comes From 

The protein comes from five ingredients that are essential to this recipe. Three of them are Real California Milk products, and they do the heaviest lifting. 

Cottage cheese does the most work. A full 15- to 16-ounce container blends effortlessly into the filling, standing exactly where a traditional lasagna would put ricotta. 

Mozzarella is next. Four cups of it, close to a pound, split between the middle layer and the top. 

Parmesan adds a full cup, blended into the filling with an option to scatter more over the top for extra cheesiness and browning. 

Two eggs set the filling and quietly add even more protein. 

A pound of meat, half lean ground beef and half hot Italian sausage, puts it over the top. 

Add it up and one square lands you a whopping dose of protein that will keep you full and deliver a good portion of your day’s protein needs. 

The Lasagna I Grew up on was Made with Cottage Cheese 

Here is the part I find funny. Every lasagna that came out of my mother's oven growing up had cottage cheese in it, and not one bit of it was about protein. Nobody at our table was counting grams of anything. Cottage cheese was what our grocery store stocked and what already lived in our refrigerator, so cottage cheese is what went between the noodles. I spent years after that learning to build lasagna the traditional way, with ricotta, from Italian cooks’ recipes who had been doing it for generations. Not one of those pans ever tasted better than my mom’s; they were just different. 

Fifteen years into developing recipes for a living, and a few years into a pretty intense CrossFit and Pilates habit, has me paying real attention to what my body needs to feel strong and have lots of energy. So, when challenged by Real California Dairy to create a protein-packed recipe with dairy, I came back and made some tweaks to her lasagna recipe I grew up with. Turns out that decision she was making to incorporate cottage cheese into the mix was light years ahead of the rest of us. In a standard half-cup serving, cottage cheese has about 14 grams of protein, while ricotta cheese has about 8 to 10 grams of protein. It’s a boost that doesn’t skimp on flavor or texture either. 

Why Cottage Cheese Belongs in this Easy Lasagna Recipe 

As I mentioned above,  half a cup of cottage cheese carries more protein than the same amount of ricotta, with under half the calories. You get the protein without the pan getting heavy, plus a low, milky tang that keeps all of this richness from tasting one note. 

Now, if you just pictured curds suspended in your lasagna, take a breath. If texture is a thing, you can pulse the ingredients for the cottage cheese filling in a food processor. Run it until the curds vanish and the mixture looks like a loose, herb-flecked spread, then stir in two lightly beaten eggs. What comes out is silky and savory. My people have eaten this a dozen times. Not one of them has complained about texture or curds, and I skip the processing step altogether for fewer dishes.  

A Five-Ingredient Marinara that Tastes Like it Simmered All Day 

The sauce is my favorite part, and it is barely a recipe. All you need are a few cans of fire-roasted tomatoes with garlic, 4 tablespoons of Real California butter, a yellow onion halved and pressed cut side down into the tomatoes, beef bouillon or concentrate, and a quarter cup of raw cashews.  

Raw cashews are the move for thickening this pasta sauce. After they soften from the cooking process, they blend completely smooth, adding real body for the sauce, so the sauce clings to the meat and noodles instead of sliding off. Butter rounds off the acidity. Pull the onion halves before you blend, or chop them into the meat, which is what I do because I am not throwing away a jammy, tomato butter-poached onion.  

Look for the Real California Milk Seal 

Cottage cheese, butter, and mozzarella carry both the flavor and a good portion of the protein in this recipe, which makes them the items in my cart I am most particular about.  

The packages carry the Real California Milk seal right on the front, which tells you the milk inside came from California family dairy farms, more than 1,100 of them. California produces more mozzarella than any other state, so there is a good chance the bag you already reach for qualifies. Check the butter and cottage cheese while you are in that aisle also, then find the seal on the package with the Real California Milk logo. 

Make One Pan for Now and One for Later 

No 18x13 pan or need for that many portions at one meal? Divide everything between two 13x9 sheet pans or baking dishes. Bake one tonight and wrap the other tightly in the freezer, where it will keep up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then bake as instructed in the recipe card below. 

Future you will never once be annoyed to know one of these waiting on you in the freezer. 

Storing and Reheating Leftover Lasagna 

Wrap and refrigerate any leftovers for up to 4 days. If freezing leftovers, wrap them in individual portions if you can. One square thaws in a fraction of the time a slab does, and it reheats into the best high-protein lunch in my refrigerator. 

Small, pre-baked portions do fine in the microwave, or in a covered skillet where the bottom edge crisps. 

How to Serve this Easy Lasagna 

A delicious green salad is all this needs. Maybe garlic bread if you are feeding kids or teenagers. Cold, straight from the fridge at 11 pm, which is a serving suggestion I will passionately defend. 

Tell me in the comments how you would serve this, or when you would eat it. Post-workout dinner, Sunday for a crowd, Tuesday in a hurry. I want to hear it.  

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