Lasagna! LC, wheat free, 6 veggie, easily vegetarian

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lilawolf
lilawolf Posts: 1,690 Member
Your whole family will love this! 6 different veggies and kids will ask for more! Makes 8-10 MASSIVE servings. Very dense and rich even if you omit the meat to make it vegetarian. It does, however take 2.5 hrs of prep and 3 hrs total. Sedentary people should, IMO, log 1.5 hours of this as "food prep" exercise which drops the dinner by another ~230 cals :)

Ingredients
1 large eggplant
3 zucchini
8oz package frozen chopped spinach
8oz package sliced baby bella mushrooms (white or button ok too)
.25 large onion (.5 of a medium)
1 can spaghetti sauce (I use Hunts garlic and herb since it has the lowest sugar that I could find and tastes good)
1 lb tub of cottage cheese (I used full fat)
2 lb tub of ricotta cheese (I used low fat)
2 tablespoons powdered parmesean cheese
1.5 cups of shredded cheese (I used most of a bag of reduced fat 4 cheese blend)
1 lb hamburger (sub extra mushrooms to make vegetarian)
1/3 cup olive oil
Spices (I use salt, garlic, basil, and red pepper flakes)

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Put large sauce pan of water on to boil (salt optional)
3. Slice eggplant nice and thick (~3/4 inch)
4. Lightly brush both sides of each slice with olive oil and sprinkle with salt (helps reduce moisture)
5. Cook eggplant 15 minutes on EACH side (30 mins total)
6. Slice zucchini lengthwise in 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick slices and put into boiling water. Stir occasionally until they look dark and are "al dente" but are not falling apart
7. Place cooked zucchini in a collander to cool and drain.
8. Mix thawed hamburger, onion, and mushrooms in deep fry pan and cook on med-hi until done
9. While meat mix cooks, warm spinach according to package directions. DRAIN WELL
10. Add 2/3 can of sauce to meat mixure AFTER DRAINING. Add spices to taste. I love red pepper flake to give a bit of warmth
11. Mix cottage cheese, ricotta, parmesean, and spinach in a bowl
12. Reduce oven heat to 350
13. Spread a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of a 3Q glass oven baking dish
14. Layer eggplant slices, then meat mixture, then cheese mixture, then zucchini, then a little more sauce, then most of the bag of cheese on top. This should BARELY fit in the pan, but it won't drip or bubble.
15. Place pan in oven for 30 minutes and survey the disaster that used to be your kitchen.
16. ENJOY

Nutritional information for 8 servings (These are about a pound each! Dinner size! Halve this for "lunch portion")

Calories: 469
Carbs: 25
Fiber: 8
Sugar: 15
Fat: 26
Protein: 37

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