Hey everyone :) I hope you all are doing well! We've been trying to eat healthier in the Kelly household, and when I heard you could substitute Zucchini slices for noodles in Lasagna (my favorite food), I had to try it! It went really well and was a hit with both the boys and my husband, so I wanted to share the recipe with everyone!
Ingredients needed:
2 Zucchini's
1 pounds 97% lean ground beef (or any other lean ground meat you enjoy)
1 pound of low fat cottage cheese
1 pound of low fat mozzarella cheese
1 large can of crushed tomatoes with basil
1 small can of tomato paste
2 garlic cloves
8 oz of fresh sliced mushrooms
1/2 an onion
1 egg
fresh shredded Parmesan
Italian seasonings, pepper, sea salt, basil, and red pepper flakes
Olive Oil
Turn your oven to 350 and the first thing I do is make the sauce, so I heat up a saucepan on high heat. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil with 2 minced garlic cloves and the half cup minced onion. Saute that and add the ground beef after the onion and garlic has cooked through (about 3-4 minutes). Once the ground beef is browned there really isn't anything to drain, so reduce the heat and add in the large can of crush tomatoes with basil and the small can of tomato paste. I also add in the sliced mushrooms at this point and begin to season the sauce. I use about 2 tablespoons of italian seasoning, 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt (a little goes a long way), a couple turns on the pepper grinder, 1 teaspoon of crushed red peppers (it adds a slight kick), and another 1/2 teaspoon of basil.
I would definitely taste the sauce at this point and see if there anything you feel is missing! Everyone seems to have their own sauce recipe, so you can definitely go off of that! After it tastes great, I put the pan to simmer and cover to help cook the mushrooms. Then I take an egg and mix that with the pound of cottage cheese and set that off to the side.
Take the Zuchinni and rinse it off well. Then cut off the ends on both of them and begin to slice them into long thin slices and just set them off to the side. You can toss pieces that have a lot of the skin on them or they go great as the bottom slices. After that, grab your lasagna dish and spray it a little olive oil (I use a Misto for this, and if you haven't seen it before, it's great!).
The first thing I do is spoon a decent amount of sauce on the bottom of the dish you are using. After that you can arrange the Zucchini slices as if they were lasagna noodles on top of the sauce. The first thing I put on top of that is some of the meat sauce followed by some cottage cheese and then some mozzarella. I don't measure those for amounts, I do it light enough so that I can create another couple of layers.
After it has been layered, you can sprinkle with a little Parmesan or wait until it is almost done. Cover it with tinfoil and place it in the oven for 45-50 minutes. Check on it then and if it looks like the cheese is melted and it is overall heated through, take the tin foil off for the last 10-15 minutes and bake uncovered.
When it is done and the cheese is slightly browned at the top, remove it from the oven and let it settle for 15-30 minutes (so it doesn't go everywhere). I'll admit that by the time it is done it is often hard to let it sit for those 15-30 minutes as the smell has permeated the house at this point lol. :)
I hope you enjoy it! It's definitely a low carb friendly dish that is enjoyed by all in my family. My boys that are five and nine could tell it was Zucchini instead of pasta, but they said it didn't feel like anything was missing with the different textures and all.
