Low Carb
Eggplant Lasagna
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 40 mins
Total time: 55 mins
Serves: 12
Ingredients
- 1 medium eggplant
- 1 pound ground meat (I used 93/7 turkey)
- 1 jar spaghetti sauce
- 1 3/4 cups (15 ounces) low fat ricotta cheese
- 1 egg, slightly beaten
- 1 teaspoon garlic salt
- 1/2 teaspoon basil leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon oregano leaves
- 1 cup shredded low fat cheese
- Pepper, to taste
- Parmesan, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Add meat, pepper and garlic salt in large pan and brown meat; drain.
- Stir in spaghetti sauce.
- Simmer for 10 minutes.
- In the meantime, combine ricotta, egg, basil and oregano in a medium bowl and mix well.
- Slice eggplant, lengthwise, into 1/4 to 1/2 inches slices.
- In a 13X9 glass pan, spread 3/4 cup meat sauce along bottom.
- Lay 3 to 4 slices of eggplant over sauce.
- Spread 3/4 cup ricotta mixture over eggplant.
- Spread 3/4 cup cup meat sauce over ricotta.
- Sprinkle 1/3 cup shredded cheese over meat sauce.
- Repeat last 4 steps, two times. [i]*Note: You can use less layers, but I have found that too much ricotta in one layer can end up making the entire lasagna very dry.[/i]
- Cover with foil.
- Bake 30 minutes; remove foil.
- Cook an additional 10 minutes, or until lasagna is bubbling.
- Top with desired amount of parmesan.
- Enjoy!
Nutritional data
Serving size: 1 slice
Calories: 168
Fat: 8 grams
Carbohydrates: 8.5 grams
Protein: 16 grams
Nutritional data is approximate.
I've been on a lower carb kick lately (mainly because I know that for me, lower carb equals lower weight). So imagine my reaction when the answer to "what do you want for dinner" was lasagna. Ugh! I started searching my mind for anything that could work as a replacement for lasagna noodles. Remembering that one of my mom's favorite choices when eating Italian is Eggplant Parmesan, I decided eggplant would probably be a good option. I headed to the store to pick up the ingredients. Since I hadn't planned ahead for this one I bought pre-made sauce (big mistake). Let me say here that when you are making any Italian meal, don't skimp on the quality of the sauce. I bought an organic sauce that looked good, but it ended up tasting like spaghetti-o sauce (yuck)! Luckily I was able to make it better using lots of basil, oregano, garlic and anything else I could think of. Learn from my mistake and make your own or grab your go-to spaghetti sauce for this recipe. So how did it turn out? I loved it. As I was eating it I thought "you can't even tell a difference." But, as most of you who eat healthy know, when you are used to healthier foods sometimes things that taste good to you don't pass the muster of the kids and hubs. Oh! Let me add that I actually made 2/3 of the dish with noodles and the other 1/3 with eggplant (so my hubs and kids would have something I knew they liked). I asked my hubs to take a bite and let me know what he thought. He asked what I used, grimaced and reluctantly took a bite. Afterwards he looked at me and said "it tastes like lasagna." Success in my book! The next time the family asks for lasagna, I will make the entire dish with eggplant. Each serving only has 8 grams of carbs but racks in 16 grams of protein! If you use the 99/1 turkey or lean beef, the fat content will knock down to 6 grams/serving, but 8 grams of fat for a meal is not bad at all. I hope you all enjoy it!
