Have your lasagna and eat it too

My friend requested that I post this recipe...

My sister Julie was talking the other day about how she made lasagna but couldn't eat more than a couple bites because it was so high in calories. This is a lasgna that you can eat without it ruining your diet. It doesn't taste much different than the good old traditional kind, but it is.

There are a couple reasons it is lower calorie. The most effective change to lower the calories in this dish is using spaghetti squash instead of noodles (trust me it tastes great EVERYONE in my family ate it up). I got the idea to use spaghetti squash from Roni's website, she has a lot of good ideas. I still don't think I would have tried it had Erin, my other sister, not tried it first and told me it was really good. Spaghetti squash has 35 calories per cup, while pasta has 215 per cup- that is a lot of difference in calories, and pasta offers very little actual nutrition.

The next reason it is lower calories is I use very lean ground meat instead of fattier kinds or sausage. It still tastes like I use sausage though, because I put all the sausage seasonings in my meat when I brown it. Then a few calories are cut by using part skim ricotta instead of the full fat kind. You could go fat free too if you wanted, I just was a little afraid to go that far this time- I was going to be feeding it to my family and the new spaghetti squash thing was enough new for one meal. I like the ricotta alone without egg or parsley added so I don't add that (and even keeping the egg out saves some calories). It also saves dishes and time.

It is sort of like making lasagna using spaghetti. My husband said several times how surprised he was at how wonderful it tastes and how you can't even really tell its squash, it tastes like vermicelli-- which he loves. If you don't want to go through the trouble of making the lasagna you could even make meatsauce and eat it over the spaghetti squash noodles. Ok onto the recipe

SPAGHETTI SQUASH LASAGNA

take a whole spaghetti squash and stab holes in it with a knife, then put the entire thing in the microwave for 12 minutes on high. Then set aside until ready to use.

Brown:
1 lb lean ground meat (chicken, turkey, pork or beef or a mix- I used 90% lean beef)

While browing add:
1- Tbl fennel seed (this is one of the biggest factors in giving it a sausage flavor)
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp garlic (just throw some in - I don't measure well)
1/2-1 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper or some pepper flakes(like you put on pizza)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp italian seasoning (or use some basil and oregano)

Add: 3 16-oz cans of tomatoes however you like, crushed, diced, whole(then crush them) some tomato sauce whatever. Also another way to lower the calories here would be to add some cooked pureed veggies, carrots and celery- or shred some carrot in. I had some leftover tomato soup that called for pureed veggies and I threw that in.

Add more to taste:
garlic 1 Tbl or so
salt
sugar
pepper
italian seasoning
then let it simmer for about an hour. Simmering is important so that your meat is tender and you don't bite into something rubbery or hard to chew. It also gets all the flavors of your seasoning to come out into your sauce.

Then its time to layer:
-start with some sauce on the bottom so nothing sticks
-then an even layer of the spaghetti squash
-then ricotta (spread over top, right from the carton)
-mozzerella cheese
- then sauce again
- squash again
-ricotta again
- then do more sauce and end with mozzerella on top

This is all the layers I was able to fit. Bake in a 375 degree oven until warm through- about 30-45 mintues. I put a larger pan under the dish because mine was full and overflowed some.
I just made an 8x8 for our family and I had stuff leftover.

When you serve it, it looks good (and tastes good) to spoon some sauce over the top of each individual serving.