Meat & Mornay Lasagna

I need to start updating this more often...

It'd be great if groceries were cheaper...and if I could just quit my job and cook all of the time.

I'm really aiming to make cupcakes tomorrow night, we'll see if that happens. For now, I combined a few basic lasagna recipes to make tonight's dinner. I made a classic meat sauce lasagna with a pretty awesome Mornay sauce.

Mornay sauce is just your basic Bechamel sauce (butter, flour, milk), with some shredded Gruyere cheese melted in. Yeah, it's pretty awesome.

Meat & Mornay Lasagna
from me

1 pkg. ready to bake lasagna noodles
1 lb. ground beef
2 jars marinara sauce
1 lb. ground sweet Italian sausage
16 oz. ricotta cheese
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. dried basil
2.5 tbsp. butter
3 tbsp. flour
2 cups warm milk
salt and pepper
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of garlic powder
5 oz. shredded Gruyere cheese
4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease a glass baking dish.
2. Brown the beef and sausage in a skillet. Drain the fat. Add in a little over 1 jar of marinara sauce to the meat in the skillet. Heat until sauce is warmed.
3. In a bowl, combine the ricotta, egg, oregano and basil.
4. To make the Bechamel, melt the butter in a medium sauce pan over med-high heat. Whisk in the flour. Keep whisking so no lumps form. Heat until the mixture turns a nice golden yellow, do not let it brown. Slowly whisk in the warm milk and keep whisking so no lumps form. Heat until it comes to a slight boil for 2 minutes. Reduce heat and stir in salt, pepper, nutmeg and garlic powder. Stir in the shredded Gruyere.
5. Spread 3/4 cup of leftover marinara sauce on the bottom of the greased baking dish. Place lasagna noodles over the sauce. Do not let them touch the sides or overlap, the ready to bake noodles will expand when cooking.
6. Spread half of the ricotta mixture over the noodles. Spread a few spoonfuls of the meat sauce mixture over the ricotta. Sprinkle about a cup and a half of mozzarella cheese over the meat. Spoon half of the Mornay sauce over the mozzarella.
7. Repeat with another layer of each items.
8. Top with one last layer of noodles, meat sauce mixture and remaining mozzarella cheese.
9. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 15-20 minutes.