"Healthified" Lasagna

Okay, let's face it, lasagna comes packed with calories, fat, and carbs -- proving it fatal for just about any diet. Which makes life pretty difficult if your favorite food is lasagna (that'd be me). So I went about making a healthier version, so you can still enjoy the goodness without breaking your diet or feeling overly guilty. The whole idea is to switch things out for better options. Since you might choose different things depending on your kind of diet, and since you might also be cooking for a picky husband who doesn't want to eat things that are "too healthy", I've decided to list the main components of the lasagna and the different options you can use.

Noodles:
So I happened to have a box of Barilla lasagna noodles in my cupboard. I figure you would use about 12 of these noodles, which would give you 1080 calories, 6 g of fat, and 210 net carbs for the whole lasagna. No matter what kind of diet you're on, this is a huge YIKES! So here is an alternative that I found works great: roasted strips of eggplant and/or zucchini. The eggplant is harder to cut (which makes it harder to serve and eat the lasagna) but I really like the flavor it adds. Zucchini has fewer calories, fat, and carbs. Depending on their size, I'd say you would need about 2.5 of these veggies. (I used 1 eggplant and 1.5 zucchinis, and it was just the right amount.) Preheat the oven to 425, and line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil; spray with olive oil cooking spray. Cut the veggies lengthwise into strips 1/4"-3/8" thick. Lay in single layer, drizzle with olive oil, and season. (I used oregano and garlic powder on the eggplant, and garlic salt and black pepper on the zucchini -- but to be quite honest the flavors just blend in with the rest of the lasagna.) Cook for 25 minutes. It took me two full cookie sheets to prepare all of the veggies. There is low-carb pasta, but I've never tried it, and I think it would still have a lot of calories.

Sauce:
They have low-carb pasta sauce out there, but I've never tried them. Also, they have more calories and fat. If you make your own pasta sauce, it will also have fewer carbs, since it won't have all those terrible sugars. Or if you're lazy like me, you can just cut your losses and use regular old pasta sauce. Another low-carb option is to use alfredo sauce instead -- this lends itself well to a chicken alfredo lasagna (chicken has no carbs and is lower in calories than the beef or sausage you might use with tomato sauce). But alfredo sauce has a lot more calories and fat, so it depends on what kind of diet you're following.

Meat:
If you absolutely need to put meat in it (really, it's totally delicious without it) you can use lean ground beef (or chicken with the alfredo sauce). Sausage is really delicious, but has a lot more calories and fat. (I only used it in the one I made because we're moving in a month and need to use up all the meat in our freezer)

Cheeses:
Mozzarella is a staple. I use 1 lb of low-moisture, part-skim mozzarella which still has quite a bit of calories and fat, but nonfat mozzarella (besides sounding kind of gross) trades in fat for carbs, so it's up to you. The next cheese you need to worry about is ricotta. I have had lasagna that used cottage cheese instead of ricotta, and I thought it was just as good. Cottage cheese has fewer calories, fat, and carbs (silly me, I bought ricotta without checking, so I kinda had to use it this time). Nonfat cottage cheese is a better low-calorie option, but it has more carbs. A good compromise is lowfat cottage cheese -- it has less calories and fat than ricotta, and fewer carbs than nonfat cottage cheese. I put parmesan on top because we really like cheese. I only used 1/4 cup, so it only added 110 calories, 8 g fat, and 1 carb to the entire lasagna. To me, it's worth the few extra calories for that added flavor, but you can leave it out if you want.

Now that you've made your choices, here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
2.5 eggplants and/or zucchini
olive oil
oregano
garlic salt
ground black pepper
1 pound meat (optional)
1 (26 oz) jar pasta sauce
15-16 oz ricotta or cottage cheese
16 oz mozzarella, grated
1/4 cup grated parmesan (optional)


Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425F. Line cookie sheet with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray (I recommend the olive oil one, because it's one of the healthier ones). Cut eggplant/zucchini in long strips 1/4"-3/8" thick. Lay out half of the veggie slices in a single layer on the foil; drizzle olive oil over top and season with oregano, garlic salt, ground black pepper, or any spices you like. Bake for 25 minutes. Repeat for remaining veggie slices.
2. Meanwhile, if using meat, cook completely in skillet. Drain grease.
3. Divide vegetables in 3 equal parts; divide mozzarella into 3 equal parts.
4. Reduce oven temperature to 350F. Assemble lasagna in 9"x13" baking dish: sauce (just enough to cover the bottom of dish), [1 portion of veggie slices, 1/2 of ricotta/cottage cheese, 1/2 of meat (if using), 1/3 or less of remaining sauce (enough to spread across entire lasagna), 1 portion of mozzarella] twice, remaining veggie slices, remaining sauce, remaining mozzarella, parmesan (if using). Bake for 45 minutes.

Nutrition:
These are approximate values, since they will vary between brands. Also, these values are for the entire lasagna, so divide by 8 or 9 to get the amount per serving (I like 8 because it's easier for me to cut accurately).

Lasagna noodles                  1080 cal      6 g fat         210 NC (net carbs)
2.5 eggplants                       275 cal        2.5 g fat      27.5 NC
2.5 zucchinis                        50 cal         0.5 g fat      7.5 NC

1 lb. sausage                       1000 cal      83 g fat       0 NC
1 lb. beef (90%lean)            720 cal       40 g fat        0 NC
1 lb. chicken breast              480 cal       6 g fat         0 NC

26oz tomato sauce               240 cal       15 g fat        66 NC
26oz low carb tomato sauce  420 cal      30 g fat        24 NC
26oz alfredo sauce              1200 cal      108 g fat      36 NC

15oz ricotta cheese              630 cal       42 g fat        28 NC
16oz cottage cheese--4%     480 cal       20 g fat        16 NC
16oz cottage cheese--2%     410 cal       9 g fat          16 NC
16oz cottage cheese--1%     325 cal       5 g fat          12 NC
16oz nonfat cottage cheese  320 cal       0 g fat          24 NC

16oz LMPS mozzarella         1280 cal    96 g fat        12.8 NC
16oz nonfat mozzarella         720 cal      0 g fat          32 NC

1/4cup parmesan                  110 cal      8 g fat          1 NC

Comparisons:
Traditional lasagna (just for comparison) with noodles, sausage, tomato sauce, ricotta, low-moisture part-skim mozzarella (yes there is whole milk mozzarella out there, but nobody buys that for lasagna), and parmesan: 4340 cal/250 g fat/318 NC (1/8th lasagna: 542.5 cal/31 g fat/40 NC)


Fewest calories and lowest fat with zucchini, no meat, tomato sauce, no meat, nonfat cottage cheese, and nonfat mozzarella: 1330 cal/31 g fat/129.5 NC (1/8th lasagna: 166 cal/4 g fat/16 NC)


Fewest net carbs with zucchini, no meat (you could add meat because it wouldn't add carbs, but you'd have to figure out the calories/fat by yourself), low carb tomato sauce, low fat (1%) cottage cheese, and low-moisture part-skim mozzarella: 2075 cal/131.5 g fat/56 NC (1/8th lasagna: 259 cal/16.5 g fat/7 NC)