Skinny Zucchini Lasagna

OK back to the healthy meals! I discovered this recipe when I was doing a keto diet some years ago. It has become not only my favorite keto meal but one of my favorite meals overall. It is low carb and low calorie because not only does it replace pasta with zucchini noodles but also ricotta with cottage cheese. You can also use ground turkey instead of ground chicken.

It takes a while at the front end because you have to prep and grill the zucchini slices. I went ahead and invested in a mandoline for easy and even slicing. Also, I typically use my gas grill instead of a grill pan or panini press. There are a lot of slices so I found the outdoor grill afforded me more space so I could grill them all at once. As for the sauce, I am still working on that balance. I guess you could just use regular pasta sauce and be done with it; but, if you make your own it can tend to be runny so I try to thicken it up with tomato paste and some flour. But as you can see in the final photo it's still pretty messy!

I have used both chicken and turkey and with both I pre-season with salt and pepper. Instead of oregano I use a special blend of Italian seasonings and throw in a good bit of my fresh basil I have on hand every summer. And I totally cheese it up and use 2 cups! Also, I remove the foil and broil it for a few minutes to brown the top a little.

The pics below show an 8x8 casserole dish which is really too small for the recipe - I had some ingredients left over. But my oven went out yesterday and my toaster oven has much less room inside! But that's another benefit to this recipe. You can make it as small or as large as necessary. I hope you will try this healthy gem of a meal!