Monday Night Lasagna

I tried out this recipe for lasagna last night and it was great. It was straight out of the South Beach Diet cookbook.

The tomato sauce takes an hour to cook so if you are going to make this, make sure you start about 2 hours before you are going to serve your meal.

South Beach Tomato Sauce

1/4 cup extra virgin oil

1/2 onion, finely chopped

1 can (28 oz) peeled italian tomatoes

2 cloves of garlic, minced

4 leaves fresh basil, chopped

2 tbsp chopped parsley leaves

1/2 tsp sugar substitute ( I used Splenda)

pinch of ground red pepper

1/4 cup canned ripe olives, chopped

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes, or until soft. Add the tomatoes w/ juice, garlic, basil, parsley, sugar substitute and pepper. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 1 hour. Add the olives and simmer for 3 minutes longer.

Makes about 2 cups.

Nutrition per 1/4 cup: 100 calories, 7 g fat, 1 g sat fat, 1 g protein, 5 g carbs, 1g dietary fiber, 0 mg cholesterol, 220 mg sodium.

Whole Wheat Veggie Lasagna

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1 zucchini, sliced ( I used two, didn't find that one was enough)

2 cups (16 oz) reduced fat ricotta cheese

1 egg

1 tbsp dried basil

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

2 cups South Beach Tomato Sauce

9 whole wheat lasagna noodles, cooked

1 package (10 oz) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed

1/4 cup (1 oz) grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup (1 oz) shredded reduced fat mozzerella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 13 x 9 inch baking dish with cooking spray.

Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the zucchini and cook for 5 minutes, or until crisp tender. Remove from the heat and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the ricotta, egg, basil, salt and pepper. Set aside 1/2 cup of the spaghetti sauce.

Place 3 lasagna noodles in the prepared baking dish. Evenly sppon half of the spaghetti sauce over the noodles. Top with half of the ricotta mixture, half of the spinach, half of the zucchini and half of the Parmesan. Repeat layering with 3 more noodles and remaining ingredients. End with the remaining 3 noodles. Spoon the remaining sace over the top and sprinkle with the mozzarella.

Cover with the foil and bake for 25 minutes. Uncover and bake for 20 minutes longer or until hot and bubbly. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Makes 12 servings.

Nutrition per serving: 217 calories, 7 g fat, 4 g sat fat, 12 g protein, 29 g carbs, 4 g dietary fiber, 44 mg cholesterol and 36 mg sodium.

I found this to be a fantastic meal even for my husband who is a MEAT LOVER. He loved this and brought some with him to work this morning. The sauce has a really great taste and would probably be good by itself over pasta.