Healthy Lasagna? Yup!

Who says you can't make a healthy lasagna??  This post is by request from my wonderful Grandmother who always boosts my ego by telling me what a great cook I am and specifically asked for me to post my lasagna recipe after I made it for my daughter's 1st birthday party.  So...when I told her that it was a healthy version and then told her it was ground turkey she seemed shocked because it was that good. :)  So anyways, as requested here is a healthy lasagna recipe Gram!  I actually made this again on Sunday and we had it for dinner Sunday and Monday (Nate and I both work Mondays so it's always a leftover day), Nate had it for lunch on Tuesday and there is still some left!

Ingredients:
















9x13 Pan
~1 pound of ground turkey (I have used 2 pounds to make it even heartier)
~whole grain lasagna (I make 14 noodles but only use 12...at least 1 or 2 noodles break on me)
~2 cups mozzarella cheese (part skim)
~Ricotta cheese (part skim)
~Flavored pasta sauce (I always use tomato, garlic and onion flavored...you can also use plain and flavor it or make your own)

Seasonings for turkey: I use adobo, garlic powder, Italian seasoning and minced onion (I seriously use these seasonings for all meat! The combo is delish!)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Boil lasagna and drain
3.  Cook ground turkey and season with your choice of seasonings - my seasonings of choice are listed above.  I honestly do not have measurements for seasonings as I just shake to my liking. Haha!
4.  Start layering!
 - Start with a very thin layer of sauce on the bottom of the 9x13 pan.
 - Place 3 lasagna noodles side by side on top of the sauce.
 - Add another thin layer of sauce on top of the noodles to coat.
 - Spread 1/3 of the ground turkey on top.
 - Add 6 large dollops of ricotta cheese.
 - Sprinkle a few handfuls of mozzarella cheese on top.

The layer should look like this:

Once you get to this point, pour some sauce to cover the top, add 3 more lasagna noodles, press down and repeat the steps all the way through twice.  After you get through two more layers you will top with 3 lasagna noodles, a final layer of sauce and top it with mozzarella cheese to cover the whole top.

 

Then place some toothpicks in and cover with foil (use the toothpicks so that the foil doesn't stick to the top layer of cheese).  Pop in the oven for about 1 hour - 1.5 hours until the center is hot.  Remove from the oven, let cool for a few and dig in! :)

 

 

 

It is seriously delicious and the steps seem WAY more complicated then they really are!  You can even add things like spinach or other veggies into the layers too!  For those of you who are super busy like me...make 2 at the same time and put one in the oven and one in the freezer.  Defrost on a morning you know you will be having a busy day and pop in the oven before dinner time! So convenient!!

 

I wish I could tell you how many calories is in a serving but I am unsure.  What I do know is that choosing whole grain lasagna, part skim cheeses and ground turkey are healthier substitutions than a regular lasagna! Serve with salad as a side!  Let me know if you try it! :) Happy cooking!

~Erin Leigh

Do you have any healthy recipes to share? I could use some new ones!