Low-Cal Lasagna

Thanksgiving is over, and I know you’re tired of turkey and ham by now, so let’s go ahead and make some LASAGNA! Now, if you are ever in a room with a gun to your head and someone says, “WHAT IS JULIANNE’S FAVORITE FOOD?” and you don’t respond with “SPAGHETTI WITH LASAGNA BEING A CLOSE SECOND” do you even know me? *insert suspicious emoji here*

Moral of the story is that I love Italian food. I eat spaghetti at least once per week, and lasagna once per month, it is a little more expensive since there are more ingredients to it. also it’s important to note that since this is a low-calories recipe, you definitely need some kind of side dish with this. I would recommend a salad, but I hate making salads so you will have to google a different recipe for a salad sorry! I just double up on my lasagna portions so that I can have more yummy goodness. It’s really the pasta sauce that does it for me, I could bathe in pasta sauce, if I didn’t think that that would melt off all of my skin.

Now onto the recipe:

My mom hates making lasagna because she says it takes too long, but I look at cooking as an opportunity to watch my favorite show while my husband plays a video game. Also waiting for it to be done in the oven is a great opportunity to pick up around the house so that when the food is done all I have to do is sit down and I’m done for the evening (says the girl with no kids, mom’s don’t come at me).

Here are the majority of the ingredients you will use:

Italian sweet sausage (only half of the pack)
1 bag of 2% mozzarella cheese
Half of a container (about 4oz) of ricotta cheese
1 small container of cottage cheese (about 4oz)
2 tsp of minced garlic
1 medium green bell pepper
1 medium onion
1 egg
1 bottle of pasta sauce (My favorite is the Aldi meat flavor)
1/3 of a bag of frozen spinach
1 tsp Dried Oregano
1 tsp Dried Parsley
1 tsp Dried basil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat your oven 400 degrees fahrenheit
First you are going to use half of the package of italian sausage and brown in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
While your meat is browning, use this time to finely chop your onion, chopped spinach and green pepper. When done throw in with the browning sausage. Add in your mixed garlic and let all cook until meat is done and peppers and onions are cooked.

During the meat browning this is a good time to mix together your ricotta, cottage cheese and egg with all of your spices (basil, parsely, and oregano)

Add your pasta sauce to the meat, onion, and bell peppers and spinach mix all together and you are ready to start layering.
Start with a thin layer of sauce, layer noodles, then ricotta spread on the noodles cover with sauce add a sprinkle of cheese repeat until you fill up your dish or run of out supplies.

Once done cover with aluminum foil (pro tip: spray your foil with pam so that the cheese will not stick to it) and place in the oven for at least 25 minutes, remove foil and keep in oven for another 5 minutes to let the cheese brown!