Healthy, Lactose Friendly Lasagna

I have been craving homemade lasagna for about a week now. However, when you’re lactose intolerant, you have no option but to make it at home. Seriously! I also like to avoid using soy based products to make my meals lactose friendly. Instead, I’ve found some almond milk cheese at Whole Foods that tastes no different than real cheese.  

My test subjects (Ned, brother, and brother’s girlfriend) signed up to try my latest creation, and here's what I made: 

Ingredients

• 8 ounce package mushrooms (heads thinly sliced)
• 1.25 lean ground turkey (fat: 93/7)
• 1/2 cup minced yellow onion
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes (no sodium)
• 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste (no sodium)
• 2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce (no sodium)
• ½ cup water
• 2 teaspoons dried basil leaves
• 2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon marjoram
• 2 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground pepper
• 16 ounces Lactaid Low Fat Cottage Cheese
• ½ cup chopped fresh spinach
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 8 oven-ready lasagna noodles (those that don’t require pre-cooking)
• 1 ½ cups shredded Almond Milk Mozzerella Cheese (bought at Whole Foods)
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese***

***Please note: YES, I used Parmesan cheese, BUT it’s *aged* cheese, which means lactose is very low. For me, it doesn’t have any effects, and I’m *VERY* sensitive to lactose.

 

Directions

1. Heat a large skillet over medium heat; cook and stir mushrooms, ground turkey, onion, and garlic until well browned, about 20 minutes.
2. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Season with basil, oregano, marjoram, pepper, and salt.
3. Simmer, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
5. Chop spinach. Chop parsley. Mix with cottage cheese.
6. Spread 1 cups turkey sauce in bottom of 9x13 baking dish. Arrange 4 noodles over sauce (3 lengthwise and ¾ of one at the bottom). Spread half the cottage cheese spread over noodles. Top with a third of the mozzarella. Spoon 1 1/2 cups turkey sauce over mozzarella, and sprinkle with 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese. Repeat layers and top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Cover with aluminum foil; make sure foil does not touch cheese to prevent sticking.
7. Bake in preheated oven until sauce is hot and cheese is melted, about 25 minutes more. Remove foil and bake until cheese is golden brown, about 25 minutes. Cool 15 minutes before serving. 

Lasagna ready to go into the oven...

Results

Wow! This was delicious. A little boil over, so not *as* pretty in presentation as I would have liked. However, each of us had 2 pieces. I served it with Caesar salad and some garlic bread. Dessert was brownies. Yum, Yum, YUM!

Lasagna right out of the oven...

 Lasagna right out of the oven (top view)...

And a piece of lasagna served for dinner.

Retrospective

I always like to analyze what I would have done differently with a recipe.

1. I would have used about 2 ounces less of sauce.
2. I would have use a little less cheese on the top. There was a thicker top crust than I would liked.

Helpful Tips to Other Cooks

1. Slice mushrooms with an egg slicer. My Mama taught me this trick. They're evenly sliced and cook well.
2. Add mushrooms for extra protein and subsistence when you don’t want to use as much meat. One of the eaters is not a mushroom fan, and he didn’t pick one of the mushrooms out – he barely noticed they were there. The original recipe called for having ¾ lb ground turkey and 1 lb Italian turkey sausage. I thought it was just too much. Mushrooms did the trick.
3. When you’re using oven-ready noodles, they expand as they cook. This means your sauce has to be a bit more watery. You also have to have room for the noodles to expand. Because I had too much sauce, it bubbled over. 
4. I chopped the spinach in a small Cuisinart.

 I hope you enjoy this recipe - we certainly did!!!

What are your tips for yummy, lactose friendly lasagna?

PHEW

PHEW – it has been a while since my last post!!! A little under 4 months actually. Blog posting falls to the waste side when you are in a wedding, traveling (where else to but to Poland of course), working a lot, planning trips (Mexico!!! ITALY!!!), and then, packing to move. Lots has happened, but hopefully, now I can keep blogging on the exciting things happening in my life this year. And heaven knows, there’s plenty!!!

One of the biggest happenings is, of course, the move. The boyfriend (let’s call him Ned from now on, shall we? And yes, there is a logical way I got to that :-) ) and I decided that I should move into his house about 2.5 months ago. Yep – huge decision given the multiple factors of our lives (work, families, etc). However, after discussion (read: analyzing) and planning, I moved in officially just under 2 weeks ago (unofficially, I was really living there for 6 weeks since Charlie moved in April). 

The move was and is a huge transition. For one, I moved from a ~750 sq. ft., one bedroom, one bath apartment to a ~3000 sq. ft house with many more rooms and bathrooms. Yikes! Then, the planning (read: worrying and analyzing) where the heck will all my stuff go? And of course, with all my Pinterest-ing (read: DIY projects that I’m dying to do), I have ideas galore. Let me tell you though, how scary it is to realize how much stuff you have packed into a little apartment in *6* years. “WHOA – you lived in one apartment for 6 years!?” Yep! It never ever pays off to continually move, and I loved that place! If I had been given a chance, I would have bought it. 

Ok – back to my stuff. Yes – it’s truly amazing how much stuff I have. And, for the most part it fits, but there’s definitely organizing, cleaning and fixing that has to be done. It’s fun, but at times overwhelming. At least Ned is pretty much as laid back as a guy can be (read: I can do almost anything I want). Of course, there was some IKEA shopping and assembling too. I’ll post some pictures soon – I love how our bedroom looks now! We’ll have to attack each room slowly – one step at a time. If I can average one box a day, Ned reminds me frequently (read: I lack patience sometimes when staring at a room of boxes), then we can have the house organized by Italy. 

I think one of my favorite parts of the move is the kitchen. I finally have a gas stove, areas I can prep, and just a place to explore recipes. I have others I can cook for too, which always make it more entertaining. I’m hunting recipes and trying new things. 

Anyways, now with the move over, I’ll have to post more often – especially on recipes! 

And, for some cuteness, just to share how comfortable Charlie is in her new home these days… 

Charlie Helping Mommy Organize