21 day fix Lasagna

1.5 lbs of ground turkey, chicken or lean 93% ground beef

1 tablespoon of EVOO

9 whole wheat lasagna noodles

1 yellow onion

2-3 garlic cloves

1 24 oz jar of Marinara sauce (just make sure the ingredeints are all recognizable and the sodium and sugar added is minimal

1 16 oz can of diced tomatoes

I usually add 1 16 oz can of tomato sauce too and a couple spoonfuls of tomato paste, just to up the tomato-ey taste!

Pink Himalayan salt, pepper to taste

½ tbsp. of Oregano

16 oz Cottage cheese (or you can do skim milk ricotta cheese)

1 egg (optional, I add an egg to my cottage cheese to boost the flavor and make it a nice texture, but it’s not really necessary, I have done it without too and it’s totally good!)

6 blue containers (or 2 cups) of grated mozzarella cheese            

1 bag of fresh spinach, frozen would be fine too just drain all the moisture out

Freshly grated parmesan cheese, and little more oregano to sprinkle on top

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, lightly spray a large 13 x 9 baking dish with non stick spray

Start by browning some onions and garlic in some olive oil over low heat. DON’T burn the garlic, I always do that! Once they are nice and carmelized, I add in the meat and brown that. Once it’s cook all the way through, I drain the fat. Meanwhile I boil the whole wheat lasagna noodles, per box directions. Then I drain and lay out on foil so they don’t stick to each other. I add the marinara, tomatoes, tomato sauce and or tomato paste, depending on how thick or thin you like your meat sauce, to the meat and onion mixture. I add salt and pepper to taste, and oregano. I let it simmer for a while, usually 20 minutes or so, stirring occasionally. In a separate bowl I mix together 16 oz of cottage cheese, with 1 egg and a dash of oregano to make it pretty! Then I start layering everything together!

I start with a layer of meat sauce, then I place three noodles, the ones I got were so long they covered the whole length of my baking dish! Then I spread on some of the cottage cheese mixture, lay a layer of spinach, add two containers of the mozzarella, then spread some more meat sauce. And then add another layer of noodles and repeat above! I usually can fit in 3 layers. End with cheese! I sprinkle on a just a tad of parmesan and oregano! I swish around a little water in the bottom of the marinara sauce, Sorry, go fetch it out of the recycle bin if you already tossed it! Then I pour that in the corners of the baking dish. This will keep it all super moist and keep it from drying out! Then I bake covered with foil for 15 minutes, the last 10 minutes I take off the foil. Boom, dinner is done! Add a salad and you are ready to go!

21 day fix containers are just approximate! I did the best I could measuring them out!

This will serve ATLEAST 8, probably 10!

I count each serving as 3/4 blue, 1 yellow, 3/4 purple, 1 red and 1/2 green.  If you aren’t sure how big of a portion to put on your plate, I always fill one and a half green containers (the biggest container of course!) I sometimes find I can’t eat that much, so if you just do one green container, just adjust the container count accordingly!