Friday Foodie

Les' brother, Lance, flew out from Indiana this week. The two of them have been riding bikes everywhere and Lance is enjoying a break from the horrid Indiana weather. Knowing that they needed carbs, I decided to make lasagna. Not a new dish by any means, BUT, I found a website called A Year of CrockPotting. The author cooked a meal in her crock pot everyday in 2008! So I thought I would give her lasagna recipe a try. Especially appealing to me was NOT having to cook the lasagna noodles! The author did admit to gaining 8 pounds over the course of last year, so I'll be analyzing her recipes that appeal to me and making healthy adjustments. You can view her original recipe by going to her website, then search her labels for Italian. Here's my version:

Crock Pot Lasagna



1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
1/2 c. shredded carrots
4 small mushrooms, chopped
15 oz. low fat Ricotta cheese
1 28 oz. jar of pasta sauce
1 1/2 c. low fat Mozzarella cheese
6 pieces whole wheat lasagna
1/2 pound ground beef or ground turkey (I used frozen turkey meatballs that I had on hand)

Brown meat, add seasonings of choice, add jar of sauce. Keep jar, do not rinse.

Begin layering ingredients in crock pot as follows (my ingredients made 3 layers):

Meat sauce
Lasagna (break to fit, I found that turning them at an angle worked best, 2 pieces per layer)
Ricotta cheese
Vegetables
Mozzarella cheese (1/2 cup per layer)

Add 1/2 c. water to pasta sauce jar, shake well, then pour on top of lasagna. Cook on high 4 hours (or low 8 hours.) After about an hour, I started smelling some yumminess! Check the dish occasionally to make sure all lasagna noodles are covered so they don't get hard.

This took about 20 minutes to prepare, including chopping the veggies. The meatballs I used were already cooked, I thawed them slightly and cut them up in small pieces (like ground turkey or ground beef).

This made 10 servings, but with hungry cyclists here, it was the right thing to make! Nutritional facts: 244 calories, 5 g fiber, 9 g fat - 5 WW points per serving.

Scale 1-5? 5. I have absolutely no complaints about this meal. I was concerned that it would be a mess to get out of the crock pot, but it came out in beautiful pieces, no falling apart at all! The picture is just before I turned my crock pot on - I didn't get an "after" picture because 2 very hungry cyclists came in the door, smelled the food, and dug right in! (I made this on Wednesday and there is one serving left as of Friday morning. I love it when food gets devoured!)

On another food related note, the LA Times had an interesting article on Wednesday called 'Joy of Cooking' or 'Joy of Obesity.' A study found that calories per serving in the latest edition of "Joy of Cooking" are 63% higher than the original book published in 1931! I found this especially interesting because the recipes I have tried have generally produced much more food than the 4 or 6 servings listed.

The study found that some of the added calories in the dishes came from a substitution of ingredients -- extra meat instead of vegetables, for example. Back in the day, meat was expensive, so less of it was used. The editor of the latest edition didn't seem to be too concerned. "We give Americans credit," she said, "for knowing that eating a brownie is not as good as eating a plate of whole grains and vegetables."

By the looks of many Americans, she gave us way too much credit! Especially if you grew up in the "Clean Your Plate" generation, you know that getting that brownie means eating everything on your plate first!