So our teen girls' small group rotates around to different homes each week, and the wonderful parents (bless their hearts) always prepare snacks for us after Bible study. It has gotten a little out of hand, to the point where some parents are going all out and preparing actual meals for the ravenous girls to eat after studying the Bible (hey, it's a hard workout). And this is at like 9-10pm -- a second dinner! Anyway, one of the moms always makes this delicious lasagna for us, and I rave about it every time. I wondered for a long time whether she made it from scratch or if it was a frozen Stouffer's lasagna that was slyly placed into a pyrex dish. :) I finally asked her for the recipe, and it turns out that she does make it, semi-from-scratch -- her "secret" is using 2 jars of this specific Ragu sauce and no ricotta/egg mixture (since Chinese people hate cheese).

The snob in me thought, well that's not homemade! I slave over my lasagnas for hours to make even the sauce from scratch, painstakingly layering the ricotta/egg, spinach, mushrooms, meat, etc. Mine should taste way better! But alas, it doesn't. (Sub-par lasagna pictured above.) I have to admit that in the end, it's all about the taste. Who cares if mine took 4 hours to make and hers took 30 minutes? Prep time doesn't necessarily translate to quality. She wins, hands down. Sigh. I suppose I will make her cheater version next time.