Italian Sausage and Vegetable Lasagna

Need something awesome for dinner this weekend? Try this:

Mr. NoConcreteInputEver actually said a firm, resolute, "LASAGNA" today when I asked him what he wanted to eat! I thought, 'alright, I can work with that.' And so I did...

1 box lasagna noodles (I used Ronzoni Healthy Harvest. In fact, this recipe is an adaptation of their's for lasagna. {except mine's better!!})
1# ground spicy Italian sausage
1 red pepper
2 small zucchini squash
1/2 carton mushrooms
approx. 1# mozzarella
1 1/2 15 oz containers of low-fat ricotta
1 egg, beaten
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
salt and pepper to taste
1 jar spaghetti sauce (I used Classico Traditional Sweet Basil)
Olive oil
Parmesan cheese

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Parboil the noodles according to the box's recipe.

While the noodles are boiling, dice the red pepper and zucchini, and rough chop the mushrooms (I actually just used my hands to break them into the pan-I forgot to cut them earlier, but it was totally fine). Shred the cheese, then eat some, because shredded cheese is better than cheese in any other shape. C'mon, tell me I'm wrong...




When the noodles are done, strain them and run some cold water over them to stop the cooking process, then lay them out on waxed or parchment paper in a single layer.

Using your fingers, crumble the sausage into a pan and brown on medium high, then remove to a bowl (and wash your hands!!). Try not to eat too many tasty little sausage nuggets, you have to save them for the dish! ....but you probably need to try a couple, just to make sure they're good...
Turn your burner down to medium, and in the same pan as you cooked the sausage, sauté the chopped veggies until softened. Unless you have enough grease left in the pan from the meat (I didn't have hardly any), you may need to add a bit of olive oil (maybe a tablespoon). Remove the pan from the burner, but you can let the veggies stay in the hot pan and continue cooking a little bit.



Preheat your oven to 375° F.

Mix together the ricotta, egg, nutmeg, sugar, red pepper, salt and pepper until well blended and taste is uniform throughout.



Put half the jar of sauce (about 1 1/3 cup) in the bottom of the pan and spread evenly. Then make a layer of noodles.


On top of the noodles spread a large dollop of the ricotta mixture, then top with some sausage, veggies and shredded mozzarella. The amount of noodles in your first layer compared to how many you have left will dictate how many layers you'll end up with, so portion out the meat, veggies and cheese accordingly. (I put about half my entire amount of mozzarella on the very top however, because I like it like that.)

Continue layering noodles, ricotta, veg/meat/mozz until you're out of noodles. The recipe I adapted this from called for 2 containers of ricotta and I ended up throwing some away so hopefully you won't have too much left over, but once you're out of noodles don't put any more on top. Not like your oven will blow up if you do, but I'm just not sure how your top layer will bake so I don't guarantee deliciousness. When you're done layering, put the rest of the sauce on top and spread evenly so all the noodles are covered. If you have exposed noodles they'll get really hard when they bake. Put the remaining mozzarella on top, again spreading evenly, then sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top (however much you like).

Cover with foil, or if you get to this point and discover that you don't have foil (this is what happened to me, if you can't tell) another pan will work just fine, as long as what's underneath has some room to breathe. Don't squish anything. Bake covered for 30-35 minutes, then uncovered for another 15.

I bought one of those bake-at-home loaves to go with this, and it was amazing. You know, the kind that they bake partway at the store and then you finish it in your oven? You can find them in the freezer aisle, or in the bakery department. I've been really pleasantly surprised by these...there's nothing like fresh, hot, crusty, soft bread straight out of your oven. We cut off slices and put butter and McCormick's Garlic Bread Sprinkle (or as Mitch calls it, "crack") on top....try not to eat the entire loaf at once. Believe me, it's tempting.


Here's the good, the bad and the ugly (yet tasty!) about eating this:
The Healthy Harvest noodles have 30 grams of whole grain per 2 oz serving, plus 7 grams of fiber and 8 grams of protein. That's pretty darn good for a noodle. They're also fairly low in fat, with only 1.5 grams per serving (no trans or saturated fats).
I'll go ahead and glaze over the sausage....because really, it's here for its virtues of spiciness, tastiness and texture, not anything super beneficial. In fact, I spoke with the sausage earlier, and it solemnly swears that it is up to no good. But we need friends like that, right? ....aaaand now that we're friends with ground meats.....moving right along... (You could totally do this recipe without the sausage, if you want to go healthy! Maybe throw in some eggplant, other peppers, shredded carrots, yellow squash...?)
Red peppers can redeem us though! According to livestrong.com, one medium red pepper has 253% of your daily recommended value of vitamin C! That's three times what you'd get from an orange! They also have about 75% of your daily vitamin A, which your eyes need to see in low light and in color, as well as 15% of your vitamin B-6 (energy!). There's also a ton of antioxidants (cancer-fighters!) aside from vitamins A and C, including 1.5 mg of beta-carotene. That's 11 times what you'd get from a green pepper! Other random good stuff includes vitamin K, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, potassium, manganese, fiber and folate. Whew!
As for zucchini, according to nutritiondata.self.com, they are both highly nutritious, and highly filling. So if you're trying to eat right, zucchini is where it's at. On top of four grams each of protein and fiber (in a whole zucchini) and all the good minerals that red peppers have, zucchinis are also packing phosphorus (DNA and cell health), copper (supports enzymatic, chemical and metabolic reactions within the body), magnesium (bone and heart health), and vitamin B-2 (a.k.a. riboflavin).
Mushrooms are really not my favorite, but they're amazingly good for you, and Mitch loves them, so I try to suffer through them when I can. They provide support for the immune system, anti-inflammatory benefits (excess inflammation in the body has been linked to type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers), and antioxidants like selenium, zinc and manganese. They also have a great fullness to nutrition ratio and practically every vitamin and mineral.
Mozzarella and ricotta, being cheeses, are also up to very little good, but mozzarella is naturally lower in fat than most, and using part-skim or low-fat ricotta will help to reduce the calorie-count in this dish. And what's lasagna without cheese? What's life without cheese, for that matter??
The pasta sauce I used, Classico's Traditional Sweet Basil, is a little higher in sugar than some other sauces you could find. I think the sweet flavor is a great contrast to the spiciness of the sausage, but you could definitely pare down the sugar content here. This sauce has nine grams of sugar in half a cup, where as the same brand's Tomato and Basil sauce only has five grams per serving. It's also a little higher in sodium than other comparable sauces. As I'm sure you know, salt and sugar are the big stars when it comes to enhancing flavor, so they're definitely the two things to check nutrition labels for when you're picking out a sauce. As you can see, I wasn't exactly behaving myself with this one...

Overall, here's my theory about eating, and about being healthy in general: 
It's a well-known fact that most things that taste amazing are not amazing for you. It is certainly possible to make entirely nutritious meals all the time and there's nothing that says that those foods can't be just as satisfying and taste good, but sometimes you just need some cake. Or cheese. Or spicy Italian sausage covered in sweet tomato sauce. I feel that it is totally permissible to allow yourself those things (within reason!), as long as you're doing the work to keep your body happy...that means exercise, people! Something is always better than nothing, and I have no high horse from which to preach, but the more you run, walk, do yoga, kickbox, bike, swim, do cartwheels (whatever works!), the more pie you can eat....and I'm all for eating more pie! (and semi-nutritious lasagna :) )

Have a great weekend, thanks for reading!!