Mortgage Lifter Hybrid Lasagna

We spent this past weekend in Sharon Springs, NY at the Harvest Festival.  After seeing the Beekman Merchantile store on our big New England trip last year, I knew I wanted to go back.  But before that, I finally picked up a jar of Beekman 1802 Mortgage Lifter Pasta Sauce at Target.

Actually, you'll be able to get a lot more of their products and give 25% back to small farmers,  read more about that here.  I tried to think of the perfect vehicle for which to use this pasta sauce and given how successful my half whole wheat spaghetti/half zucchini noodle spaghetti went over, I wondered if it would translate to lasagna.  I was more than happy to see that it did and this was born...

Here's what you'll need to make yours.

1 jar Beekman 1802 Mortgage Lifter Original Pasta Sauce
2-3 large zucchini
2 1/2 cups low sodium cottage cheese
1 large egg
1 cup frozen spinach, drained of water
1 pound 99% Fat Free Ground Turkey Breast
2 small heads of garlic, roasted
1 large onion, chopped

4 oz whole wheat lasagna noodles, (4-5 noodles)

1/4 cup Trader Joe's Swiss Gruyere shredded cheese
3 tbsp Trader Joe's Parmesan, Asiago and Romano cheese shreds

Preferred salt free spices (oregano, black pepper, italian seasoning, red pepper flakes,etc)

Preheat the oven to 450.  Cut the tops off of two heads of garlic and wrap them in foil.  Bake for 45 minutes to roast the garlic.

The rest of the ingredients are waiting to be made into awesomeness.

In a skillet, brown your ground turkey.  I use a goodly amount of black pepper with mine.

In a bowl, mix the cottage cheese, egg and spinach.  I added some red pepper flakes for a little heat.

Boil your lasagna noodles.  (In the oven or microwave with water covering the noodles.)  Or because of the water in the zucchini, you could choose to leave them dry on the bottom and they should be just fine.

Chop the onion and saute until translucent.

Time to ready the zucchini for their close up.  Wash the outside and cut off the ends,

Because of how much water is in zucchini, you have to grill the slices up or your lasagna will swim away.

I set the mandoline to 3mm to slice and got to slicing my zukes.

I used the grill pan but you could use a regular skillet too.

Time to add the onions to the cottage cheese mixture.

The zucchini will limp up a bit as they grill but have some paper towels ready to rest them on so they'll absorb even more water.

Time to prep the pan.  Add 1/4 cup of sauce to the bottom of the pan. (I also add some cooking spray to the sides so noodles and ingredients don't stick)

Add the whole wheat noodles to the bottom.

Then it's time to layer.  Add half of the cottage cheese mix to the top of the noodles.  Then half of the ground turkey.

Add 1/3 of the jar of sauce and 1/3 of the shredded cheese.

Add the grilled zucchini slices over the top.

Repeat layering process.

When the garlic is done roasting, drop the oven temperature to 350 degrees .

When you get to the last of the zucchini, it'll look nekkid.

Add the last of the sauce, roasted garlic and shredded cheeses.

Bake for 45-50 minutes and then rest for 5 minutes before cutting.

There may be some water on the sides so just use a spoon to remove it before letting it rest.

Because zucchini is so low cal, this recipe gives 6 generous portions.  Pair it with a side salad and you have a delicious, filling dinner.

This also freezes well.  We had it two nights in a row and I froze the other two pieces and we had them a week later.  I just thawed them overnight in the fridge and a few minutes in the microwave and boom...a fancy pants dinner on a night I didn't feel like breaking out the pots and pans!  Because of the whole wheat noodles on the bottom, it gives that mouth feel of regular lasagna which will have those who typically turn their nose up at zucchini substitutions reluctantly giving the thumbs up.

Nutritional Information per serving (6 servings):  Calories 315  Fat 6g  Sat Fat 1g  Cholesterol 86mg  Sodium 290mg  Potassium 320mg  Carbs 29g  Fiber 5g  Sugar 7g  Protein 39g

Vitamin A 46%   Vitamin C 32%   Calcium 17%    Iron 22%

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