Delicious VeGGIE (or Ground Turkey) Lasagne

Last Sunday, I wanted to have my parents over for dinner and to watch a movie with us. Through chatting, I found out that they had started a specific eating plan. After telling me a bit about it, I decided that I wanted to make something new and flavorful for our family that fit within the boundaries of my parents nutrition plan! By the way, can I just pause here and say how cute it is, and how much I love the fact that my parents are still trying new things for their health at age 82!?

Anyway, after googling a bit, I found a few base recipes and then created my own after I’d read a few of the instructions.

I doubled my recipe and made two 9 1/2 x 11 pans. One vegetarian and one with ground turkey. Exact same recipe but for the turkey.

The only drawback (if you can call it that) of this hearty meal is the time it takes to do the shopping and chopping. Beyond those two things, it’s very easy to prepare, but I’ll be honest; there are a lot of vegetables to chop. But also, if you’re like me and make a big green salad to complement your dinners each night, you might already have little leftover chopped veggies in baggies in your fridge that you can toss in.

I LOVE a good meal where my family eats A TON of multi-colored veggies, and this meal is amazing because they don’t even realize all the veggies they’re eating because they’re so distracted by the delicious flavors!! MOM FOR THE WIN!!

Anyway, have fun chopping - maybe pop in your earbuds and listen to a good podcast (perhaps the most recent Maxwell Leadership Podcast!) while you follow these easy directions! :)

TRACI MORROW’S VEGETABLE LASAGNE

Recipe yields one 9 1/2 x 11” inch lasagna, enough for 9-12 slices.

Ingredients

Veggies and spinach

  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

  • 3 large carrots, chopped (about 1 cup) (I used multi-colored carrots and didn’t really measure in cups, I just eyeballed it cuz I wanted it to be chock full of veggies)

  • 1 red bell pepper, chopped

  • 1 medium zucchini, chopped

  • 1 medium yellow onion, chopped

  • I added extra veggies I had already chopped from a salad but small portions: green beans, green onions, orange bell pepper, asparagus)

  • 1/4 teaspoon salt (I used celery salt and ground pepper)

  • 5 to 8 ounces baby spinach

  • I sauteed mushrooms in olive oil to add as a layer later separately

  • OPTIONAL: I fried ground turkey in garlic salt to add as a layer separately

  • Red pepper flakes

Tomato sauce (I used BERTOLLI brand “Traditional Marinara” 24 oz jar from Safeway)

 

Remaining ingredients

·      2 cups (16 ounces) low-fat cottage cheese, divided

·      ¼ teaspoon salt, to taste

·      Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

·      9 no-boil lasagna noodles*

·      8 ounces (2 cups) freshly grated low-moisture, part-skim mozzarella cheese

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

  2. To prepare the veggies: In a large skillet over medium heat, warm the olive oil. Once shimmering, add the carrots, bell pepper, zucchini, yellow onion, and salt. Cook, stirring every couple of minutes, until the veggies are golden on the edges, about 8 to 12 minutes.

  3. Add a few large handfuls of spinach. Cook, stirring frequently, until the spinach has wilted. Repeat with remaining spinach and cook until all of the spinach has wilted, about 3 minutes. Add red pepper flakes. Remove the skillet from the heat and set aside.

  4. Stir in cottage choose to combine with veggies. Now it’s lasagna assembly time!

  5. Spray non stick olive oil on bottom of pan.

  6. Spread ½ cup tomato sauce evenly over the bottom of a 9 1/2” by 11” baking dish. Layer 3 lasagna noodles on top (snap off their ends to fit, and/or overlap their edges as necessary). Spread half of the cottage cheese mixture evenly over the noodles. **This is where I added a layer of mushroom and then a layer of ground turkey. Only one layer of the turkey went here. Top with 3/4 cup tomato sauce, then sprinkle ½ cup shredded cheese on top.

  7. Top with 3 more noodles, followed by the remaining cottage cheese mixture (we’re skipping the tomato sauce in this layer.) One more thin layer of mushroom. Sprinkle ½ cup shredded cheese on top.

  8. Top with 3 more noodles, then spread 3/4 cup tomato sauce over the top (you may have a little sauce leftover) to evenly cover the noodles. Sprinkle evenly with 1 cup shredded cheese.

  9. Wrap a sheet of parchment paper or *I used loose foil around the top of the lasagna (don’t let it come into contact with the cheese). Bake, covered, for 18 minutes (*I did 23 minutes in altitude) then remove the cover, rotate the pan by 180° and continue cooking for about 10 to 12 more minutes, (*I did 20 minutes in altitude) until the top is turning spotty brown.

  10. Remove from oven and let the lasagna cool for 15 to 20 minutes, so it has time to set and cool down to a reasonable temperature.

    *OPTIONAL: Sprinkle basil over the top, then slice and serve with a leafy green salad and fresh seasonal fruit.

Let me know in the comments below what veggies you tried if you varied from my recipe and how your kids (or parents) enjoyed it!

ENJOY!

TRACI :)

Notes

*Lasagna noodle recommendations: I used Organics brand lasagna noodles from Safeway, but you can make this gluten free by using gluten free lasagne noodles

Change it up: Feel free to play around with the vegetables here. You’ll want to use about 3-5 cups chopped veggies total (excluding the onion). Mushrooms or butternut squash might be nice!

Traci MorrowComment