Lately we have been trying to make better eating choices and this meant eliminating some traditional dishes. We haven’t had cheese in a very long time and wanted to have it for a special dish. After some lengthy research and discussions with friends, we realized how zucchini can be used as a substitution for pasta! This was one of the food items that I have eliminated from my eating lifestyle so I thought why not try a Zucchini Lasagna!

I took my traditional Lasagna recipe and changed it a bit to accommodate the Zucchini and another veggie too! 😉

Zucchini Lasagna

INGREDIENTS

• Ground Chicken (or Ground Turkey or Ground Beef)
• 1 Onion
• Half of a tomato
• Olive Oil
• 5 Zucchinis
• Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
• Tomato Sauce
• Salt
• Black Pepper
• Garlic Powder
• Paprika
• 4 Tablespoons of red wine

DIRECTIONS

• Marinate your meat (which ever one you prefer to do. We love the ground turkey as it is much lighter) prior to cooking. I usually do this the night before to have the meat soak in the juices for more flavor.
  • Wash meat well.
  • Place meat in a bowl and add the following ingredients; salt, black pepper, garlic powder, paprika, 4 teaspoons of red wine (the wine added is what sets this recipe apart from many). Measurements for the ingredients are based on what you normally use in your meat marinating.
  • Leave the meat covered and in the fridge for the next day cooking.
• The following day you can start cutting up your onions and tomato.
• Once the onions and tomato are cut, place them in a pan with some olive oil. On low heat cook the onion and tomato until the onions are a golden color. Then add your meat.
• With ground meat you will need to keep breaking it apart and stirring it to ensure it gets cooked. Once the meat is cooked remove it from the pan with a slotted spoon to ensure that the olive oil is drained.
• Place the ground meat in a bowl and mix some tomato sauce.
• Next step is prepping the zucchini, chesses and veggies.
  • Wash the zucchini very well.
  • Cut both ends of the zucchini.
  • Slice the zucchini in thin slices and put them aside (I use the KSP Quick Prep Mandoline Slicer and Grater from Kitchen Stuff Plus).
  • Shred the mozzarella cheese and place it a bowl.
  • Cut up bell peppers into square cubs as an extra ingredient to the lasagna.

• Then the layering begins. Start with some tomato sauce and spread to cover the bottom of the lasagna tray. Layer with zucchini slices, tomato sauce, ground meat, bell peppers and mozzarella cheese. Continue layering until all ingredients are used, reserve 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese for the top of the lasagna. *Tip: Use cheese on the first layer and the layer before the very top.

• Bake in preheated oven for approx. 45 minutes (or until the cheese is melted to your liking). Remove from oven, and let stand 10 to 15 minutes before serving. *Zucchini is a very moist vegetable and there may be a lot of juices after cooking it. Some recipes recommend to add more meat to soak up the juices but we didn’t as we loved it this way.

And there you have it, Zucchini lasagna! Give it a try and let me know what you think of it!

Until next time…Happy Parenting!

– Momma Braga