Weight-in Wednesday- Lasgana

Hey y’all… so I’m a day late with my weight-in Wednesday, I hope you’ll forgive me! Last night we had the great honor of watching our oldest niece be baptized. Although she was baptized as an infant, her church offers adult baptism and she chose to be baptized, to live her life in Christ. Pretty much awesome in my book (and His!)

That meant no post yesterday. You understand!

So here it is today! Lasagna. The way I made this recipe counted up to 7 points per serving (10 servings in a pan) and it’s SO worth it! I used my mom’s traditional recipe and amped it up with a bunch of veggies. This makes it go further, fill you faster and gives you alot of extra healthiness! 🙂 And did I mention yummy?!?

 

You can add or take away any thing you want, or substitute as well. Next time I make this I think I’ll try ground turkey (just don’t tell my husband!) You can also take out the noodles completely and just used the eggplant. To top off the greatness of the recipe, it freezes wonderfully. I often make at least two pans, one for dinner and one for the freezer. Also great for a gift to a new mom, someone recovering from surgery, or just a good friend!

Here we go! Ingredients (that I used):
1 pound lean ground beef                          1 medium onion

3 cans diced tomatoes with juice               1 small can tomato paste

about 4 tablespoons Italian seasoning or 2 packets of dry spaghetti sauce mix

2 cans (about 2-3 cups) V8 or spicy vegetable juice

Sliced eggplant, zucchini, bell pepper & carrots (I used my food processor to slice my veggies- so slick!)

small container of low fat cottage cheese    2 cups mozzarella cheese

Lasagna noodles (I usually use about half a box) any kind will work.

The Steps

1. Chop up onion and brown it with meat in a LARGE skillet/pan. Add some garlic and chopped pepper if you’d like!

2. Add canned tomato, paste, seasoning and juice to the pan. Mix it all together and let it simmer while you finish the rest of the prep (about 10-15 min).

Side note: if during this step your kid chooses to run away from you and tried to escape down the road and you end up with your meat or sauce being a little well done on the bottom, it will still turn out ok… so I’ve heard…

3. Slice up your other veggies. Get creative here. Throw in whatever you have!! I do like to keep my vegetables separated for layering, but if you would prefer to chop them all up and mix them together, by all means!

4. In a lightly greased 9×12 pan (minimum size, use larger/deeper if you’d like, but make sure to add extra cooking time!) start with a layer of sauce, followed by a layer of noodles, then a layer of cottage cheese & mozzarella cheese, then your veggies, then more sauce. Keep repeating until your pan is filled. End with a layer of sauce. Hint: Take out a little more then a cup of sauce in the beginning to make sure you have enough at the end to top it off with!

5. Cover your lasagna with tinfoil and place on a large cookie sheet. Bake for 1 hour at 350. You may need to cook it longer depending on the amount of vegetables you use and the size of your pan. Also, if it was frozen, thaw first or it will take about 2 hours to bake (speaking from experience!)

6. Take the tinfoil off, top the lasagna with a handful of mozzarella cheese and let it sit for at least 10 min. You’ll want the sauce to thicken up, otherwise you get lasagna soup!

7. ENJOY! Leftovers of this one are the best.

Let me know how you tweak this recipe for you and yours.

Happy Harvesting,

Leah