Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Bring a large pot of water to boiling.

Once water is at a boil, add the lasagna noodles, cook until al dente. Your packaging should have instructions for this.

Note: you do not want your noodles fully cooked, they will finish cooking in the oven.

While the noodles are cooking, brown the ground meat and add seasonings.

Combine pasta sauce with the browned meat.

This is where I add in extras for a nutritional boost. I like to add in frozen or freeze dried kale and/or spinach to my meat sauce mixture. Sometimes I also add in shredded zucchini and shredded carrots if I need to get through some produce I have on hand. The great thing about these add-ins is that most of the time they aren’t noticeable in the dish.

Note: if using freeze dried items as add-ins you will need extra moisture in your sauce.

Mix the cheese layer together in a bowl.

Strain cooked lasagna noodles.

In a 9x13 dish put a little bit of meat sauce mixture on the bottom of the dish.

Add a layer of lasagna noodles side by side into the dish. You may need to cut some of the noodles to make them fit.

Spread some of the cheese layer all over the lasagna noodle layer.

Layer pepperonis on top of the cheese layer.

Top the cheese layer with meat sauce.

Repeat steps 10 - 13 until you have reached the top of your baking dish. I can usually repeat one more time with my dish.

Top the lasagna with the remaining shredded mozzarella cheese.

Place your lasagna into the oven to bake for 30-45 minutes and the cheese is golden brown.

Wrap the baking dish with the lasagna in plastic wrap or put a lid on it and place in the fridge as a meal later in the week.

Or place it in the freezer to use as a meal further in the future.