Chicken Cordon Bleu Lasagna

We LOVE our chicken cordon bleu in this house. We like it traditional style, Dan's "throw it together style" (the best!), casserole style, and now lasagna style. Yesterday, I was searching for recipes to use in my classroom, and this was on the board I was searching on Pinterest. Who would ever have kids make this is beyond me, but I knew it was something I could do in my own kitchen. So, I made it.

Today was yet another crazy day at work. It always is when the holidays are a week away. The ever-present anxiety and excitement from the kids, the taunting "you're not done your Christmas shopping" voices in my head. It was nice to come home and have Dan home all afternoon and night as well. Even though Dan was beat, he still did a couple of jobs around the house. You see, our house was built in 1958, and we still have the windows from 1958. The single-paned, "we're gonna let all the heat out of your house", original windows. Last month, Dan heat sealed our windows and the one right behind me, where I sit here on our couch, opened up. It's not too fun to randomly feel an ice cold breeze on the back of my neck, but it's also not too fun (or at all fun) to pay for oil, so I'll take the not so aesthetically pleasing plastic heat-sealed windows over going broke.

But let's get back to this lasagna, because that is why you're all reading this after all. I've never met a lasagna I didn't like. Red sauce, white sauce, meat veggie, whatever's in it, it's all good. Now, with the fabulous oven ready noodles, lasagna making is even easier. Well, except that once those noodles touch anything the instantly start to curl, so don't open the package until you are ready to assemble the lasagna. What's not to love about this lasagna? It's chicken cordon bleu, which is awesome, but then you add pasta, and heavenly cheesy goodness to it. I will admit, when I saw that this recipe had cottage cheese in it, I wasn't too gung-ho about it. I was just going to go with all ricotta, but I figured I might as well try it. I think the cottage cheese added a nice little tang to the cheese, which was good because with the other cheeses and the ham, the salt needed a little something to balance it out. If you're going to make a lasagna for the holidays, go with this one. It's a bit unique, but still a traditional favorite, which is sure to please almost everyone at any gathering. If they don't like lasagna or chicken cordon bleu...well, stop inviting them to your gatherings.

Chicken Cordon Bleu Lasagna
from Life in the Lofthouse

1 package oven ready lasagna noodles (I used half)
2 cups diced, cooked chicken
2 cups diced, cooked ham
1 jar garlic Alfredo sauce (plus 1/2 cup for spreading in the dish, so 2 jars)
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 eggs
1 (15 oz) container ricotta cheese
1 cup cottage cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp dried parsley
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour the 1/2 cup Alfredo sauce onto the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish and spread around.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the chicken, ham, jar of Alfredo and garlic powder. In another large bowl, mix together the eggs, ricotta, cottage cheese, Parmesan cheese and parsley.
3. Lay 3 lasagna noodles in the pan. Top with half of the cheese mixture, spread to cover noodles, and then top with half of the chicken mixture. Repeat with another layer of noodles, cheese mix and chicken. Sprinkle mozzarella and Swiss on top.
4. Cover and bake for 1 hour.