recommendation: pasta-less lasagna

In this household, we are carb-friendly. Love them. So when my hubby said these words "lets try to eat less carbs", I was like, uhhhhh, whaaat?!? Whyyyy? How?

And then a day later, this recipe serendipitously popped up in my Pinterest feed: No Noodles About It – The Best Low Carb Lasagna!. So there it was.

To make a good lasagna, you have to put a little time and love into it. Since I don't like to waste resources on Pinterest recipes since they are so hit or miss, I decided to take a major shortcut and make a few changes. So here is my revised recipe. For the original directions, see the recipe from the blog Dashing Dish.

For the Noodles:
5 large Zucchini, cut lengthwise into 1/8 inch strips (I used a cheese slicer) Put zucchini slices in colander and sprinkle with salt so that the vegetable can sweat out the water. Dab down the slices with a paper towel.

For the Meat Sauce:
This is where I cheated! I used a 32 oz jar of Mids Sausage Sauce (and a tiny bit of leftover meatless because I like my pasta with lots of sauce). The original recipe calls for you to make your own meat sauce.

For the Cheese Layer:
1 15oz container light ricotta cheese
1/2 cup Shredded parmesan cheese
1 cup Shredded mozzarella cheese
6-8 leaves of basil, minced

Instructions: 1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray, arranging dried out zucchini. Bake slices for 5 minutes, then remove from oven, flip, sprinkle with pepper, and bake 5 more minutes. I left the salt out of this step b/c I had salted the zucchini earlier to sweat out the water. Remove from oven and set slices aside. (Note: I baked 3 cookie sheets of zucchini for this, which made about 3 layers of lasagna). Lower oven to 375 degrees.

2. Insert directions for making your own sauce....or... Open Jar of Sauce.

3. Mix the ricotta, parmesan and minced basil.

4. Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with cooking spray and spread some of the meat sauce in the bottom of the pan. Then put a layer of zucchini slices, followed by a layer of the cheese mixture. If this doesn't spread easily, just sprinkle it. Repeat layers until dish is full... sauce, zucchini, cheese. repeat.

5. Sprinkle mozzarella on top, cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour.

6. Remove foil, bake for another 5-10 minutes until the cheese is browned. Remove from oven and let it rest for about 10 minutes before slicing. It may be tricky to slice, use a sharp knife and just jiggle it through. You can use a spatula... but the lasagna doesn't really serve in 'pieces'... its quite saucy, but its delicious. Worth trying!

Enjoy, and don't feel too guilty, its low-carb! :)

{Original Pin - No Noodles About It ~The Best Low Carb Lasagna Ever!}

Source: dashingdish.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Recommendation: spaghetti squash recipe

i was hesitant to post this b/c i had another recent post on butternut squash and i don’t want to seem like a squash freak but my supportive cube-mate told me i must! Since i got the recipe from her friend Candice’s blog that i’m newly obsessed with, i kinda owe her, so here we go.

squash as spaghetti!

i was checking out the Stiletto Chef Blog b/c Candice was recently featured on Good Morning America and my cube-mate brought in her beautiful cookbook – Pretty Delicious: Lean and Lovely Recipes for a Healthy, Happy New You, which I’m dying to get. The blog is so pretty and I love that she has video clips of how to do the recipes!

After watching the spaghetti squash one, I was dying to try: the recipe. The question was, how to make it into a complete meal so that my 6’5 husband would be full and satisfied too? Solution turned out to be easy. I used our most favorite spaghetti sauce (Mids) and went this wonderful Italian store Panozzo's nearby us that we frequent often that has amazing meatballs. Squash cooked, ladled with sauce, parm, and fresh basil, and plop one meatball in and you have a heck of a meal!

Leftovers were super delish too! My responsibly green friend gave me a few of her

discarded tupperwares from WF that have dividers b/c I’ve been looking for a Tupperware version of them. It worked great for the small portions of leftovers I had for lunch at work the next day, and it was completely filling!

p.s. I’m also dying to try this Pad Thai recipe. Can someone please make it??