It’s winter, naturally you’re craving warm, comfort foods. Lasagna tops my list! Worried about the hours it’ll take to burn off the 850 calories and 47g of fat in the average American lasagna serving? Instead, make the cheat food healthier + lower in fat + calories. Our Guilt Free Lasagna has more protein, 85% less fat + 75% fewer calories per serving! Try it tonight!
- Replace fatty ground beef with bison or turkey, which is way lower in fat content.
- Replace traditional glutinous semolina flour based pasta with lower GI brown rice pasta.
- Replace half pasta layers with roasted eggplant further reduces carbs + calories + boosts vitamins + minerals, including fiber, iron, zinc, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, to name a few!
- Forgo rich, fattening béchamel sauce +/or mozzarella. Opt instead for a creamy low fat lactose free ricotta and naturally lower in lactose sheep milk feta combination.
INGREDIENTS
Please choose organic ingredients for YOUR health!
2 large eggplants
coconut oil spray
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp ground black pepper
2 eggs, 3 eggwhites
1 quart Lactaid milk (to make lactose free ricotta)
4 oz sheep milk feta, crumbled
Low Sodium Marinara Sauce
8 gluten free lasagna sheets
1.5 lb ground bison or turkey
8 oz fresh baby spinach leaves
DIRECTIONS
Eggplant. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 cookie sheets with foil, then spray gently with coconut oil. Use veggie peeler to remove several large strips of peel along outside of each eggplant. Next slice the eggplant as thinly as possible (1/8 inch is perfect!) Place slices on cookie sheet, sprinkle with sea salt and ground black pepper. Roast in oven for 15- 20 minutes or until eggplant is tender. Place all eggplant on one cookie sheet. Cover with paper towels then second cookie sheet on top. Flip (so towels are on the bottom). Place several heavy pots or books on top in order to press out some of the excess water.
Cheese Mixture. Pour Lactaid into large pot on stove over medium heat. Slowly raise temperature to 170 degrees, stirring occasionally with large spoon. Turn off heat. Pour 1/2 cup lemon juice into milk, stir once. Allow to sit for 15 minutes. Line large bowl with 2 layers cheesecloth. Have helper hold cloth in place while you pour contents into bowl. Cloth will catch the milk solids that will be your ricotta. Discard the whey that siphoned through. Bring ends of cloth together + secure with kitchen twine tie twine to handle of large wooden spoon and suspend ricotta ball over large pitcher or bowl. Refrigerate and drain 2 hours.
In a bowl beat eggs + egg whites with a fork, then mix in ricotta.
Meat Sauce. Heat skillet to medium-high heat. Spritz of olive or coconut oil. Raise heat to medium-high + add ground bison or turkey. Sauté till meat browns lightly. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add the Marinara Sauce + cook down for 10 minutes.
Assembly. Spray 13×9” glass pan. Layer bottom with 4 gluten free lasagna sheets, layer of meat sauce, cheese mixture, half of eggplant, half the spinach leaves, meat sauce, cheese mixture. Repeat all 7 layers. See Lasagna Layer diagram. This should make a lot more sense to the 97% of us who are visual learners! Fnally sprinkle top with crumbled feta.
Bake. Cover with aluminum foil and bake on center rack of oven for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 15-20 minutes until top starts to get a little golden brown.
Calories | Carbs | Fat | Protein | Sugar | Cholesterol | |
Our Guilt Free Lasagna | 221 | 21 | 7 | 20 | 8 | 46 |
Olive Garden’s Lasagna Classico | 850 | 39 | 47 | 18 | 23 | 81 |