Noor Salem Advice Column: Lasagna Replacement

From: Anonymous

I really love lasagna but I know it’s not too good for me. Can you help me find a replacement?

Good news my friend, you don’t have to stop eating lasagna or any of your favorite foods. I don’t believe short term diets are healthy, both mind and body wise. Cabbage soup diet means you eat cabbage soup for a month lose a few pounds, get excited, and eventually return to your old habits- and weight! Every diet that restricts certain food groups completely, restricts calories to an abnormal and unhealthy low, and simply makes you hungry and unhappy will never give you real results. You want real results? Make eating healthy a lifestyle. That means finding alternatives in ingredients that won’t make a huge difference in flavor.

Regarding your lasagna, filled with lots of cheese, meat, sauce, sodium and simple carbohydrates, again, some good news. Replace your noodles with a 100% whole wheat (unless you have celiac disease) for extra fiber and satiety. Try swapping your meat for spinach or broccoli, if you can’t all of it then at least half. Or simply buy Organic grass fed certified meat and I promise you it’ll taste great, if not better. Try buying your cheese certified organic as well, due to the hormones and antibiotics that do pass through. Still do go light on the cheese, and toss in ricotta for lower saturated fat contents. When it comes to jarred sauce, well many have added sugar, if not high fructose corn syrup, and way too much sodium. The best thing to do is make your own! Simply chop fresh tomatoes and heat it with tomato paste, sea salt, and fresh ground spices for extra flavoring. You won’t need the extra salt, and you definitely won’t need to throw in any sugar.

Noor’s Healthy & Delicious Lasagna Recipe:

1 box 100% whole wheat lasagna noodles cooked
2 cups cooked chopped spinach
1 small red onion minced
2 cups certified organic ricotta cheese
½ cup certified organic mozzarella cheese
1/3 cup certified organic parmesan cheese (or any grated cheese of your choice)
1 lb organic certified ground extra lean beef *optional
4 ripe tomatoes
1 clove fresh garlic minced
At your desire: Sea salt, fresh rosemary, black pepper, turmeric, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder.
½ cup fresh parsley chopped

Directions:

1.    Preheat your oven to 350.
2.    Cook your lasagna noodles as needed and put aside.
3.    Steam your spinach (without salt) and put aside as well.
4.    Mix the ricotta cheese, spinach, some sea salt, and mozzarella cheese in a bowl.
5.    Cook the beef until brown with spices you desire and put aside.
6.    Chop the tomatoes and simmer on high heat with the tomato paste, spices, and fresh parsley.
7.    Mix a bit of the tomato sauce with the beef.
8.    Layer your noodles in the Pyrex evenly. Top with some sauce and then the entire meat mixture.
9.    Layer more noodles and top with sauce again and the entire cheese/spinach mixture.
10.    Top with more noodles and sauce.
11.    Sprinkle with mozzarella and parmesan cheese again. Cover in foil.
12.    Bake in the oven for 45 minutes, removing the foil and allowing another ten minutes.

For more healthy recipes and replacements visit my blog at: http://blackbeanbrownies.wordpress.com/

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