My lasagna recipe is one that my family requests. I usually save it for the weekends when I have time to make it, leaving leftovers for the week.

With the new year everyone seems to be talking about eating healthy and exercising. While it is a new year, we like to focus on eating healthy and working out throughout the year in our house. You may be wondering why I am talking about making lasagna (noodles and cheese) when discussing eating healthy, let me explain.

More than 7 years ago my husband and I were newly engaged and I was tired of the scale going up and up. While we visited a gym regularly, we were not being cautious about what we were eating. Cheese plate with ranch anyone? We decided to eliminate processed foods and limit the dairy in our house. It was time for us to hit the reset button and it was not January.

In less than a year, we both feeling great. I lost more than 30lbs and have kept it off over the years, even after two pregnancies [disclaimer I did have a thyroid issue that got that under control AND I am still working on losing the extra baby weight from #2 who is 6 weeks old].

We attribute losing the weight and keeping it off to working out and eating healthy daily. It was a lifestyle change vs. a diet. Over the years I have taken our favorite recipes and figured out how to make them “skinny.” We allow ourselves “cheat” days where we eat our favorite takeout which often includes pizza. But we try to save those meals for the weekends.

Weekly meal planning also helps. Here is the template I use. It not only saves us money at the grocery store and helps organize our grocery list, but it keeps us from stopping for fast food. We eat a lot of fresh fruits and veggies, lean meats, and limit our red meat intake to only a few times a month [if that]. My husband is not a fan of the limited red meat, but he has grown to accept it.

Here is my tried and true lasagna recipe. Trust me, even the pickiest eaters won’t know the difference. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 box whole wheat lasagna noodles *See below if you want to use you can use the butternut squash as a substitute
• 1.5 lb ground turkey, I use the 93% lean from Costco
• 1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce
• 1 jar of low calorie alfredo sauce
• 1 package of frozen spinach
• 2 egg whites
• 32 oz of low-fat cottage cheese
• 2.25 oz of canned, drained, sliced olives
• 7 sweet mini peppers
• 4 cups reduced-fat shredded mozzarella
• 1 cup shredded parmesan
• Dried basil
• Garlic powder
• Pepper

Instructions

1. Brown ground turkey, season with garlic powder and pepper, and drain.
2. While ground turkey is cooking, unthaw and drain spinach.
3. Chop sweet mini peppers and set aside.
4. Once ground turkey is cooked, add to a large bowl and mix in the pasta and alfredo sauces. Season to taste with basil, garlic powder and pepper.
5. In a separate bowl mix together egg whites, cottage cheese, spinach, 1 cup mozzarella and the chopped/drained olives.
6. Spread a thin layer of sauce in a 9 x 13 baking dish.
7. Place noodles *see below if you want to use butternut squash as a substitute.
8. Spread 1/3 of the cheese mixture on the noodles.
9. Top with 1/3 of the sauce mixture.
10. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese.
11. Repeat two more times with noodles, cheese and sauce mixtures.
12. After you finish the third layer of sauce mixture cover the top of the lasagna with mozzarella and parmesan cheeses.
13. Add the chopped sweet mini peppers and add a little more cheese.
14. Cover with foil and bake 30-40 minutes at 375°F until bubbly.
15. Remove foil the last few minutes of baking to let cheese get golden brown.
16. Let lasagna stand for 5-10 minutes before cutting and serving.
17. Enjoy!

If you want to use butternut squash instead of noodles here is what you need: 1 large, peeled butternut squash (3 lbs). Slice butternut into 1/8″ thick rounds. We use a mandolin to cut the butternut squash. You can use a sharp knife but it is not as easy to get the thin rounds.