Healthy Lasagna
You can put almost anything in lasagna. Feel free to substitute the meat for zucchini, spinach, eggplant and or mushrooms. Keeping your mind creative by adding your favorite ingredients usually results in pleasing your palate. Allowing the flavors to infuse makes lasagna taste even better the next day.
Ingredients
- 1 Pound Sweet Italian sausage
- 1 Pound Grass fed ground beef
- 2 Large Onions finely chopped
- 6 Cloves Garlic minced
- 3 Tbs Olive oil
- 4 Pounds Tomatoes chopped
- 6 Ounces Tomato paste
- 13 Ounces Tomato sauce (2 cans)
- 1/2 Cup Water
- 3 Tbs Fresh basil
- 3 Tbs Fresh oregano
- 1 Tbs Fresh marjoram
- To taste Salt & pepper
- 3 Tbs Fresh parsley chopped
- 1 1/2 Boxes Lasagna noodles uncooked
- 8 Ounces Low fat cottage cheese
- 8 Ounces Ricotta cheese
- 1 Cup mozzarella cheese grated
Instructions
- Gather your ingredients together.
- Preheat the oven to 375 F. In a mixing bowl add the ricotta, cottage cheese and 1/2 the parsley, mix well to fully combine.
- In a large skillet, heat 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil on a medium high heat, add half the garlic, 1/2 the onion and cook until soft, about 5 minutes.
- Add the sausage and ground beef, use a wooden spoon to break up the meat as it cooks and fully combine. Cook until well browned.
- Remove from heat and place in a mixing bowl and set aside.
- Using the same skillet, heat up the remaining olive oil and add the remainder of the chopped onions and garlic then sauté for 5 minutes.
- Add the chopped tomatoes, tomato paste and water.
- Add 1/2 the parsley and the remaining seasonings to the sauce and simmer on low, covered for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
- Pour the 2 cans of tomato sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
- Arrange one layer of pasta sheets on top of the sauce, covering the bottom of the pan as best as you can. The pasta does not need to be cooked but it does need to be submerged into the sauce to ensure it cooks evenly.
- Pour 1/2 of the meat mixture over the pasta.
- Arrange another layer of pasta over the meat.
- Spoon half of the ricotta mixture over the pasta and repeat with the pasta, meat, pasta and cheese layers.
- Pour the cooked tomato sauce over the lasagna using a wooden spoon to make sure it fully covers any gaps on the sides making sure that all the pasta is covered.
- Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
- Cover with tinfoil and seal the sides.
- Bake for 1 hour.
- If you like a brown and crunchy top, take the foil off and cook for an additional 10 minutes under a low broil.