Monday, September 17, 2012

A Few Good Men(us)

Hi Friends and Family! It has been forever since I have posted. I have since graduated from grad school with my Master's in Social Work and our family has relocated to Jacksonville, Florida. Now that we are on a more predictable schedule, I have been experimenting with our eating habits and have found that what works best for us is purchasing fresh fruits and veggies the beginning of the week and some type of poultry. In addition, we stock up on rice, quinoa, etc. for sides. We mix and match what we have and end up using up most of the food without much waste! Here is one of my favorite meals from the past week:
Guilt Free Lasagna (from the blog, Hautepnk) 1 yellow onion, chopped 7-8 garlic cloves Portobello mushrooms 1.5 pounds extra lean turkey 1.5 cans clean tomato sauce (I used Amy's basil) Dried herbs (such as oregano, thyme, basil) 1.5 bags baby spinach (you can also use a box of frozen, thawed of course) 4 cups non-fat cottage cheese 6 small zucchini (yellow or green) Fresh lasagna noodles (I got the green, wheat kind from Native Sun or Whole Foods) 1. Peel and chop onion and garlic, saute in good quality olive oil 2. Chop mushrooms while the above simmers on low 3. When veggies are tender, add turkey until browned 4. Add sauce, mushrooms and herbs and simmer on very low 5. Steam or thaw your spinach and drain, mix with the cottage cheese (drained as well) in a medium bowl, add a little salt 6. Slice zucchini lengthwise or in large slices to act as noodles 7. Make light layer of sauce on bottom of pan 8. Layer of zucchini 9. Cottage cheese, spinach mixture, fresh lasagna layer, meat layer, zucchini layer, cheese layer, zucchini layer, meat layer Cover with foil and bake for 45 mins. at 400 degrees F, then uncover for an additional 15 to darken the top a bit. This is a very versatile recipe and can be spiced up, cheese can be added, other veggies, meats, etc. Just a basic healthy lasagna recipe but certainly a good one. I made this one evening and we ate off of it for the entire rest of the week for lunches, etc. Enjoy!!