Guest Post: Beth’s Healthier Lasagna – Carrots 'N' Cake

Friday, February 6, 2009 at 03:01 PM

Guest Post: Beth’s Healthier Lasagna

Beth is hosting Martinis and Paninis tonight, so I thought this afternoon would be the perfect time for her guest post!

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Hello Blog-World. I am a good friend of Tina’s and also an avid reader. This is my first post! I love reading about all of the recipes so I thought I would share my “Healthier” version of Lasagna. This dish is usually a guilty pleasure, so by making a few changes to the recipe, you don’t feel quite so bad about going for seconds! I made this recently for a dinner party we hosted.

Here is a list of ingredients:

• Italian style Ground Turkey (1 package about 1.3 lbs)
• Italian style Turkey Sausage (1 package about 1.3 lbs) (Ground Beef/Sausage swapped out for the Lean Turkey)
• 1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 medium onion
• Mushrooms or peppers (whatever extra veggies you want to add)
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 1 medium can of tomato paste
• 1 Large jar of tomato sauce (32 oz)
• ½ cup of good red wine
• Garlic Powder
• Salt & Pepper
• 1 package Whole Wheat Lasagna Noodles (instead of white noodles)
• 1 Large container of 2% part-skim ricotta cheese (32 oz)
• 2 eggs
• Parsley flakes (2 tablespoons or so)
• 3/4 cup of shredded parmesan cheese
• 2+ bags of 2% low-fat shredded mozzarella (8 oz each)
• 1 extra large deep dish (9 x 13)

Directions:

• Sauté both ground turkey and turkey sausages in pan until cooked. Drain excess fat if necessary.

• In separate pan sauté onion and mushrooms (or additional veggies) in EVOO. Add in chopped cloves of garlic near end.
  

• Transfer both turkey and veggies into larger pot. Add in more garlic powder (optional) and salt & pepper to taste. Add in large jar of tomato sauce and tomato paste and bring up to heat. Add in ½ cup of good red wine (optional) and bring to a simmer. Keep on low heat until ready to prepare layers.
• Boil 6+ quarts of water in another large pot and add in a sprinkle of salt. Cook whole wheat noodles about 12 minutes (or as package directs). Drain and set aside for layering.
• Mix large tub of ricotta, 2 eggs, and parsley in a mixing bowl. Stir in parmesan cheese. Measurements are estimates, so add more parm/parsley to your liking.

• Have 2+ bags of mozzarella on hand and package open. If you have a large cook top you can do all of these steps simultaneously.
• Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Layering:

• Spread small amount of sauce on bottom of dish. Add in layer of noodles (probably 3-4 noodles)
• Spread ricotta mixture over noodles to completely cover them.
• Add good amount of sauce to completely cover the ricotta layer.
• Cover with ½ bag of mozzarella sprinkled on top.
• Begin next layer with noodles and repeat 3 more times.

I have a pretty large dish, so I was able to fit in 4 full layers. If you don’t have a deep dish, you might only be able to fit in 3 layers. I still had some ingredients left over, so I was actually able to make a “mini loaf” dish of 3 layers but I had run out of the mozzarella. This dish could also very easily be made without the meat. You could add in any other veggies you wanted, eggplant, portabellas etc.

• Bake in oven at 350 for about 45 minutes or until cooked through and cheese is melted on top. Let it sit for about 10 minutes once you take it out of the oven. Then slice it up and enjoy!

I served the lasagna with a simple caser salad and crusty bread at our dinner party. Unfortunately I was so caught up entertaining I forgot to take a picture of the finished product. But everyone said it was delicious!

I also made these 2 quick appetizers for before dinner:

• Cherry tomato, mozzarella ball, and basil leaf on a toothpick drizzled with EVOO and Salt & Pepper
• Prosciutto wrapped asparagus (wrap and bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees, serve room temperature).

Hope you enjoy!

Posted by: Tina 16 comments

Posted in: Uncategorized, guest blogger, recipe