Mimi’s Lasagna

by: Melissa Hanley

Type: Main Dish

Serves: 4-6

I first tried a version of this recipe about 20 years ago. It was originally a Weight Watchers Lasagna that tasted good but needed a lot of tweaking to pass the picky taste-buds of my husband. I think eventually it kind of came full circle and is pretty much where traditional lasagna started. You will notice that I try to cut calories, fat or cholesterol where I can without sacrificing taste.

Let's get started making a mess!

Ingredients

• 1 box of lasagna noodles
• 3 cups of ricotta cheese
• 1.5 cups of parmesan cheese
• 3 cups of shredded Mozzarella cheese
• 3 egg whites or 9 tbsp of box egg whites
• 1 lb of ground pork or turkey
• 1 pkg of turkey pepperoni
• 1 jar of spaghetti sauce
• 1 tsp of salt
• 3 tsp of pepper
• 3 tsp garlic powder
• 3 tsp of dried chopped basil

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray non-stick onto bottom of 9 x 13 baking dish.
• Brown the ground pork or turkey in a skillet with 1 tsp of pepper, 1 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of garlic and 1 tsp of basil. If you use ground turkey you will need to add a touch of olive oil to the skillet because there is not a lot of fat in turkey to help it cook and not stick.  If you use the pork you will need to blot or drop onto a plate covered in a paper towel to get excess grease off. Set aside.

• Next is the cheese mixture. combine 3 cups of ricotta (I used 2 cup Fat free and 1 cup whole milk in the hopes that it would be a little healthier) with 9 tbsp of egg white, 1.5 cups of parmesan, 2 cups of shredded mozzarella, 2 tsp of garlic powder, 2 tsp of dried basil, and 2 tsp of pepper. Mix well with spoon.

• Now we begin layering the ingredients.  Place 1st layer of noodles on bottom of greased baking dish. Next spoon cheese mixture onto noodle layer and spread around,  Pour a generous amount of Spaghetti sauce on top of cheese (about 1 cup) and spread around.  Last comes the browned pork/turkey, place about 1/3rd of meat onto the sauce layer.  Repeat until you have 3 layers.

• Last layer follow the same procedure as in step 4 but top your meat layer with the turkey pepperoni and the remaining cup of shredded mozzarella.

• Cover lightly with tin foil and place in oven covered for 35 minutes.

• After 35 minutes remove foil (contents should be bubbly) and continue cooking for 12-15 more minutes (depending on the level of desired browned edges you like).

For printable recipe click here

Noteworthy:

Vegetarian (not Vegan) Version

If you would like to increase your health factors this can be made without ANY meat.  Up the taste by adding a bit (around 2 tsp) of dried onion into your cheese mixture.  Also add fresh spinach in each layer as well.  

Gluten Free alternative

Substitute regular lasagna noodles for very thin sliced green and yellow zucchini.  Please note that cooking times will vary with this substitution as the layer of zucchini on bottom could burn and stick to dish.