Healthy Beef Lasagna with Spinach

• servings: 12 servings
• active time: 35 minutes
• total time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Ingredients

12 whole-wheat or gluten-free brown rice lasagna noodles (8-oz)

½ pound lean ground beef, preferably grass fed

4 ounces finely chopped mushrooms

1 ½ teaspoon dry Italian Seasoning blend

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes

1 teaspoon salt

1 5-ounce package fresh baby spinach

½ cup chopped fresh basil, plus more for garnish if desired

1 large egg

1 16-ounce container part-skim ricotta cheese

½ teaspoon ground pepper

8 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese, preferably part skim (2 cups)

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese

Directions

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

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna, stirring occasionally until soft and pliable but not yet al dente, about 5 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water.

Meanwhile, coat a large non-stick skillet with cooking spray. Add beef, mushrooms and Italian Seasoning and set over medium-high heat. Cook, breaking up beef with a wooden spoon until no-longer pink and the liquid is evaporated, 7 to 8 minutes. Add garlic and cook, stirring 30 seconds. Add tomatoes and salt and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer, while adding baby spinach by handfuls, stirring to wilt until the whole amount is completely wilted into the beef mixture, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in basil.

Beat egg in a medium bowl. Add ricotta and pepper and stir until completely combined.

Spread ½ cup tomato mixture in the bottom of the prepared baking dish. (Tip: Remove any large chunks of beef and add them back to the skillet of sauce.) Layer three lasagna noodles vertically into the baking dish; cut one more noodle as necessary and place horizontally to fill in the space at the end of the other three. Top with 1 ½ cups tomato mixture. Dot with half of the ricotta mixture. Sprinkle with ¾ cup mozzarella. Top with 3 ½ more noodles, 1 ½ cups tomato mixture. Dot with the remaining half of the ricotta mixture and top with ¾ cup mozzarella. Top with the remaining noodles. Spread the remaining tomato mixture (about 1 cup) evenly over the top. Cover with aluminum foil.

Bake until the lasagna is steaming hot all the way through, 40 to 50 minutes. Remove foil, sprinkle with the remaining ½ cup mozzarella and Parmesan. Bake until the mozzarella on top is just melted but not browned, about 10 minutes.

Let lasagna cool 10 to 15 minutes before sprinkling with additional basil and slicing it into 12 servings.

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1/12 lasagna
• Calories: 259
• Total Fat: 10 g
• Saturated Fat: 5 g
• Sodium: 369 mg
• Total Carbohydrate: 24 g
• Dietary Fiber: 4 g
• Total Sugars: 5 g
• Protein: 18 g