Re-done Lasagna

 I love lasagna!  I love the gooey cheese, the meaty tomato sauce and the soft noodles.  I love it!  Admit it, you do too.  However, I don't love the MAJOR caloric intake.  Oh my, some recipes will cost you a days calories in one serving.  Not good.  So, I changed that.

 

 This is the lasagna we had for dinner tonight.  It has some very significant changes from a traditional recipe.  First I used half the noodles, then I added carrots, and celery to the meat, and last, I used a miniscule amount of cheese.  Guess what?  No one but my husband noticed.  The kids scarfed it down and so did I.  It was delicious!  My honey couldn't get past the carrots in the lasagna.  I normally shred carrots into my hamburger while it is cooking, but I only had a package of pre-cut carrots.  They were Julienne cut so they were clearly visible.  My bad.  It's a texture thing.  However, this is a diet and diabetic friendly version of lasagna that only took about 30 minutes to throw together.  

Rochelle's Easy Healthy Lasagna

9 egg or whole wheat lasagna noodles

1 pound of ground beef

1/2 c. shredded carrots

1/4 c. sliced celery

1/4 c. diced onion

1 jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce, or 2 cups homemade sauce

1 16oz container of cottage cheese (low fat is fine)

1/4 c parmesan cheese

1 c. Italian cheese blend (low fat mozzarella, Parmesan and asiago are what I used)

1 tsp. of basil or parsely

1 egg

Cook the noodles to al dente. While they are cooking fry the beef and drain.  After you drain the meat, add the carrots, onion and celery and cook a bit longer, until the celery is bright green. Once your meat/veggie mix is finished cooking add the spaghetti sauce.  In another bowl stir the cottage cheese, the 1/4 c. parmesan cheese, the egg and the parsley or basil together.

In a 9x13 pan place about 2 tbl of sauce on the bottom of pan and spread around.  Lay 3 noodles down and add 1/2 of cottage cheese mixture.  Next layer 1/3 of the tomato mixture.  Add 3 more noodles, the rest of the cottage cheese and another 1/3 of the tomato mixture.  Layer on 3 more noodles and then the last of the sauce.  Now add the Italian cheese blend. Spray some foil with cooking spray and cover the lasagna.  Bake for 1 hour at 375.  You can remove the foil the last 10 min. of cooking if you want, but I didn't and still got a nice browning of the cheese.  

Don't tell your family its healthy.  ;)