Chicken Veggie Lasagna Recipe
My Healthy Lasagna Recipe
Thrown Together in a Jiffy!
Chicken Veggie Lasagna is my healthy lasagna recipe, filled with low fat ingredients, along with lots of healthy vegetables!
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Do you like lasagna as much as I do? Mmm... hearty goodness, Italian-style! But let's face it... traditional lasagna isn't necessarily the healthiest meal around, no matter how great it tastes. In fact, my mom, never known for her tact, said to me yesterday afternoon when she heard I was making lasagna... "Wow... I'm surprised you're making that... it's not very healthy!"
You see, I've been transforming my body over the past 9 months, actively working on chipping away at my weight, never an easy thing for someone who loves good food as much as me! 
But, anyway, my response to Mom was that THIS lasagna recipe was going to be healthy... and low fat. It was also thrown together, since I made it by using up foods I had on hand, without a set recipe. I'd had some ground chicken in the freezer for a while, along with some eggplant, so I thought why not combine them for a new take on lasagna? I'm not really a fan of traditional veggie lasagna, as I marginally like eggplant and abhor cooked spinach.
But combining tons of veggies for healthiness with a low fat meat seemed perfect... And it was! Enjoy...
Chicken Veggie Lasagna
Ingredients:
1 pound ground chicken breast
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
Handful of mushrooms, rough chopped
1/2 eggplant, quartered & sliced
Generous handful of shredded carrots
1/4 cup white wine (optional)
1 pint low fat ricotta cheese
1 egg, beaten
1/8 to 1/4 cup skim milk
6 or 7 whole wheat lasagna noodles
Olive oil
Dried Italian seasonings
1 can or jar of prepared pasta sauce
Salt/pepper to taste
Couple handfuls of Parmesan cheese
1/2 package shredded mozzarella cheese
Directions:
Get the water boiling in your pasta pot for the lasagna noodles. Cook enough for 3 layers in the size pan you're using. I used a 2-quart square casserole, so 7 noodles were plenty for me. In a large frying pan, heat a small amount of olive oil and then add the onions. Sprinkle with kosher salt to sweat them and cook for a minute or two. Then add the garlic and all the veggies except the carrots.
Season the veggies with salt, pepper and your Italian seasonings of choice. I used dried oregano and marjoram, along with some chopped fresh basil leaves. When veggies are almost done, add the carrots, cooking and stirring for another minute or two.
Next, pour the wine (or broth, if you prefer)into the pan and stir up the browned bits. Simmer and reduce by half. Then, remove from heat and add to the pasta sauce in a bowl. Stir together, along with a handful of Parmesan cheese.
When the noodles are done, drain them and rinse with cold water. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, mix the ricotta with the milk, beaten egg and a handful of Parmesan. I also like to add some Italian seasonings, but that's optional.
Now, you're ready to start assembling the lasagna casserole! First, spoon a thin layer of pasta sauce mix on the bottom of your casserole. Follow that with a layer of noodles. Top the noodles with ricotta cheese. You can sprinkle some fresh basil on that, if you like. Then repeat the layers two more times, until the casserole is full. Top with the mozzarella and a sprinkle of Parmesan. Bake for about an hour at 375°.
This sounds like a lot of work, and it is a lot of steps, but none of them are hard. If you make it up ahead of time, then you can just pop it into the oven an hour before you want to eat. I served it with some garlic bread. You might also serve it with a green salad for a little more vegetable healthiness.
Variations
- Ground turkey would work for the meat too... or turkey italian sausage
- Add more veggies for a totally veggie version
- Make an alfredo cream sauce instead of a red sauce, though that won't be as healthy
- Make it Mexican by substituting cumin, coriander and chili powder for the Italian seasonings and a Mexican cheese for the Italian cheeses, plus use tortillas in place of lasagna noodles
- If you don't have lasagna noodles on hand, substitute any other kind of pasta, but layer it like lasagna
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