Friday, April 6

Wine Country Lasagne...Fitnessmom Way

Normally lasagna is full of meat and cheese.  Well, in this house that is not the case.  Personally I hate eating lasagna with meat and and too much cheese is not appealing to me.  So I usually make veggie lasagna, which of course goes over real well with the hubby and kids.  Most of the time I do big chunks of veggies that you get in almost every bite, but the kids tend to fork it apart and dissect it.  Then it came to me.  Yes, I had figured it out!  I was going to create the Winecountry Lasagna "Fitnessmom way".

Prep time is about 1/2 hour
Ingredients:
Cauliflower (did you think I wouldn't)?
Broccoli
Zuchs
Yellow Squash
Yellow onion
Mushrooms
Raw Garlic
Red Wine (hence the Winecountry name)
EVOO
Sea Salt (if you are wanting to add)
Pepper
Garlic Powder
Salt Free All Purpose Seasoning
Ricotta Cheese
Mozzarella Cheese
Of course lasagna noodles



As you know, if you have been following me....I don't measure, so this is all done by your own personal preference. 




Cut the cauliflower and place in a baking dish and drizzle with EVOO and sprinkle with garlic powder (garlic salt will add too much sodium to the recipe).  Bake the cauliflower for 30 min at 350 degrees.  While this is baking, take the broccoli, zuchs, yellow squash, onion and raw garlic, cut up and saute in EVOO and sprinkle with salt free all purpose seasoning and pepper.  Now here is where the red wine comes in, (I just use some from an open bottle on the counter) pour some into the saute pan with the veggies (again at your own preference) take a glass out of the wine cupboard and pour one for yourself. 

Let the veggies cook up until somewhat soft, then remove from pan and pour into a bowl, set aside.  Cut up the mushrooms and saute them in the same pan with the leftover flavors, adding a tad more EVOO if needed.  Remove cauliflower from oven and add to the veggie bowl, (again, set aside).  This is a great time to start boiling your noodles.  Drink your glass of wine.  Once the veggies have somewhat cooled, place them in your food processor.  I had quite a few so I had to do this about 3 separate times.  Remember to add a bit of water so as to blend well.  Add the blended veggies to the saute pan with the mushrooms until you have blended all of them. 


I am not an "Italian" gal, so no homemade sauces coming from me (not yet anyway) so the jar will have to do.  Add your tomato sauce to your blended veggies in the pan and fold together and heat.  At this point the noodles are done and rinsed, start layering them in your baking dish.  Then spoon in the veggie mixture combined with the sauce.  Spoon on ricotta cheese, then grate some mozz.  Repeat this layering process two more times (depending how much you make and how high you want to go). 


Place in pre-heated oven and bake at 350 degrees for about 1/2 hour.  The fun part is taking the left over noodles and spooning up the extra sauce from the pan with them, the kids and I love to do that.  

Success! Lasagna Fitnessmom way, with a twist of winecountry.  The kids ate it up and my hubby had two helpings.  Doing the veggies blended like this really made more of a "meaty" type of meal without the meat.  By the way, this dish make great leftovers.....:)






 

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