Pasta free lasagna

Oh my goodness, this lasagna was so yummy. I had two helpings and then was way too full and wished I would have stopped at one!  There are so many yummy foods we can eat while eating the Trim Healthy Mama way.  Here is how to make the lasagna, with lots of pictures. I will tell what I did under the pictures but then give the complete recipe at the end of the post.

Start with one large zucchini. My sweet neighbor gave us this one.

Slice into long strips. It helps to get them uniform in shape so I used my ultimate slicer. I put it on the bowl because when I just used the cutting board the strip would not have enough room and break in half.

Every time I got to the seeds I would rotate it 1/4 turn and slice some more.

Here are all of my slices ready to go in the oven.

I pressed a clove of garlic into the melted butter. Fresh garlic is sooo yummy!

We brushed the melted butter/garlic onto the strips just for added flavor and then into the oven they went.

This is what they looked like after baking.

I put the three cheeses in the food processor, it is so much easier then stirring it by hand.

And it gets a lot smoother too, which is AWESOME since my family is picky and would not appreciate cottage cheese chunks in their lasagna.

The layering process. I have one layer of strips, meat sauce, and cheeses then I have started the second layer of strips. After all the layering was done, I covered it with foil and put it in the oven.

This is the finished product! Doesn't it look so yummy and cheesy!! I used colby jack shredded cheese on top because I did not have mozzarella, which would probably taste better. However, it tasted just FINE this way.

It didn't stay nice and layered after scooping onto my plate but I am not really into presentation, I am all about TASTE. I did cut down the amount of sauce I used in the recipe below which might make it stay together better, however it tasted extremely yummy in a big glop too!

Here is the complete recipe~

Pasta Free Lasagna

1 lg zucchini

16 oz spaghetti sauce (this is the corrected amount)

  *I make my own sauce, here is a link to that recipe

1 container of ricotta cheese

1 cup of cottage cheese

¼ cup parmesan cheese

1lb ground beef, browned and drained (could probably use 1/2 lb without any problem)

¼ cup butter, melted

1 clove of garlic

1 ½ c Shredded cheese

Preheat oven to 375*. Spray 9x13 with nonstick spray. Slice zucchini lengthwise into thin strips, I used a mandolin type slicer for this. Only slice down to the seeds, not into them. Once you get to the seeds, turn the zucchini ¼ turn and slice again, repeat until you have sliced the entire zucchini. Spread the zucchini on greased cookie sheets. Press garlic into melted butter and brush onto the tops of the zucchini strips. Bake in oven for 10-15 minutes, until just starting to brown.  Mix sauce and beef together and set aside. Put the first three cheeses in the food processor and mix until blended.  Put a very thin layer of sauce in the pan, lay zucchini strips in pan to form a single layer. Next layer half of the meat sauce, top with half of the cheese mixture and repeat. Sprinkle shredded cheese on top. Bake covered with foil for 20 minutes, then uncover and bake another 20 minutes until cheese is melted and bubbly. Let sit for 5-10 minutes before cutting.

This is a Trim Healthy Mama S recipe.

Enjoy!

Rashel