Zucchini Lasagna

I adapted this recipe from one I found in Clean Eating magazine. It's still clean, but I like my way better! This is an odd recipe that uses zucchini strips instead of noodles.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease about a 9-inch square pan. As you can see, my pan is very full, so I would recommend putting it onto a cookie sheet before baking. You could also just use a larger pan which is probably a little bit smarter. But I like a challenge. Your ingredient list is as follows:

• 1 yellow onion
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1lb lean ground meat
• 1 jar (about 16 oz) low-sodium, low-fat tomato sauce
• 3 zucchini squash
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbsp whole wheat flour
• 1 large container of fat-free/low-fat cottage cheese
• 1/2 cup fat-free/low-fat grated mozzarella cheese
  

Chop the onion and mince the garlic. Saute this in a pan with your choice lean meat (I used turkey). Cook until the onion is softened and the meat is almost completely cooked through. Add in the tomato sauce. I used a marinara sauce and thought it was a little boring, so I added some Italian herbs, a little salt & some black pepper. But you can do whatever you want. I usually go by my mother's mantra: "If some is good, more is better!" Let the mixture simmer for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, wash the zucchini squash and cut them into 1/4 inch strips. This part is important. If you cut them too wide, then they won't get cooked all the way and they will taste a little raw. And I don't like raw veggies that much. Once you've cut the zucchini, grab a bowl. Stir together the egg, whole wheat flour, the fat-free/low-fat cottage cheese and about a 1/4 cup of fat-free, low-fat mozzarella cheese in the bowl.

By this time, the meat mixture should be about done. Put a layer of zucchini on the bottom, follow it with about 1/2 the meat sauce and 1/2 the cheese in the bowl. Repeat the steps until you make your final layer of zucchini on top.

Bake for 30 minutes, then add the other 1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese on top and bake for another 10 minutes. After taking it out of the oven, let is sit for about 10 more minutes to set.

Enjoy that cheesy, meaty, messy goodness on your plate! Yum!

This might be kind of interesting to use eggplant instead of the zucchini. Or instead of the meat, use more veggies as filler. There's many, many possibilities!