Healthy Veggie-Rific Lasagna

My Go-To Lasagna Recipe: Tons of veggies, ground turkey…not too rich but still has noodles!

I’ve been making this lasagna for YEARS. I adapted it from a HungryGirl recipe I found back in 2014. Since carbs aren’t the enemy, I’ve added noodles into the once low-carb veggie lasagna. The noodles also help absorb all the liquid that comes from the zucchini. If you choose to omit the noodles, just keep in mind there will be a lot of liquid if you don’t do things before cooking to get rid of the moisture.

This one is ALSO toddler-approved!

Ingredients:

• Noodles:

  • 2 medium zucchini, thinly sliced

  • 1 small eggplant, thinly sliced

  • 6-8 uncooked lasagna noodles

• Ricotta Mixture:

  • 2/3 container of 32oz part-skim ricotta cheese (this is approximate, doesn’t have to be exact)

  • 16oz bag frozen chopped spinach, thawed or mostly thawed

  • 1 egg

  • tbsp italian seasoning, or a combination of basil and oregano

  • 1 tsp garlic powder

• 1 lb ground turkey (I prefer 93% lean ground turkey because 99% is too dry for me, but whatever you’d like. You can also omit or sub with ground beef)

• 1.5 jars pasta sauce (I love Dave’s Gourmet. Choose a sauce that doesn’t have sugar listed in the ingredients)

• Shredded mozzarella & parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Slice zucchini and eggplant into (~1/4 inch thick) strips — I use a mandolin for the zucchini for uniformity. Peel the eggplant before slicing.

3. Line two baking sheets with tinfoil, spray with nonstick spray, lay zucchini and eggplant flat. Bake for 10-15 minutes until soft.

4. While the vegetables are cooking, cook the ground turkey in a pan until no pink. Set aside.

5. Mix the ricotta, spinach, egg, seasonings and optional salt & pepper.

6. Using a 9x12 inch casserole dish, pour sauce onto the bottom until there is a thin layer of sauce (can’t see the bottom of dish).

7. Lay the raw noodles (you may need to break some to get an even layer covering the whole dish).

8. Then add half the zucchini and eggplant strips. You can place them in any random order you’d like.

9. Spread about half of the ricotta mixture on top of the vegetables.

10. Sprinkle the ground turkey on top of the ricotta. (This is the only layer of turkey so you can use all or almost all of it, depending on how much you’d like)

11. Repeat the layering: noodles, vegetables, ricotta.

12. Pour enough sauce to completely coat the top.

13. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese — I would guestimate I use about 1.5-2 cups

14. Sprinkle the shredded parmesan — I would guestimate I use about 1/2 cup

15. Cover with tinfoil and bake 30 minutes.

16. Remove tinfoil and continue baking until top is melted and a little brown — about 15-20 minutes.

17. Enjoy!