Low Carb Lasagna: A Delicious Recipe For Guilt-Free Pleasure
Indulge in the cheesy goodness of lasagna without breaking your carb diet! This delicious low carb lasagna recipe will satisfy your cravings and is sure to become a family favorite.
Lasagna is one of those meals that has never really ranked high on my radar, but a certain someone in our home loves it. What do we do when we have a loved one who we want to make smile? Well, we create their favorite meal of course, just these days it may look a bit different than in the past.
So then I thought I am sure there are thousands of people out there who may be searching for an alternative to their favorite lasagna meal too. Do you see how things get created around here? They are created out of love for friends and family alike.
Since we have been following a low glycemic index lifestyle, I thought about how I could create a tasty recipe, but keep in line with consuming low carbs. If you are watching calories, this dish may not be the one for you since there are two kinds of cheese in this lasagna recipe.
Being gluten free, I have gotten rather creative over the years with making dinner so this new lifestyle change has not been exactly the most difficult thing I have ever done. I tend to already think outside the box, sometimes I am told my ideas are a far stretch, but I am thinking some of you will find this dinner option something more in line with mainstream Italian cuisine, or I hope so anyway.
What you will need:
- 1 pound ground turkey (0 GI)
- 1 medium onion, diced (10 GI)
- 3 t ground cumin (5 GI)
- 2 t minced garlic (0 GI)
- 1 t dried oregano (5 GI)
- 1 can diced tomatoes (28 oz) (less than 15 GI)
- 4 oz cream cheese (0 GI)
- 1 c shredded cheese (0 GI)
- 1 medium zucchini (grated long ways, see photo) (15 GI)
- Salt & pepper to taste
Can you believe I shredded my nail once, talk about an ouchy. As you can see they are not perfect slices, when I get too close to the blade, I turn whatever I am slicing or shredding and find other ways to shred it to prevent any more mishaps in the kitchen. Lord knows we do not need anymore of those.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees
- Place ground turkey in skillet with diced onion, add salt and pepper to your liking
- Add diced tomatoes, minced garlic, and spices
- Cook together until ground turkey is no longer pink and onion has softened
- Add shredded cheese
- Spoon turkey mixture into bottom of casserole dish (I used a round pie plate), add one layer of sliced zucchini
- Continue to add layers of ground turkey mixture and zucchini until you run out
- Add cubed cream cheese to the top
- Cook in oven at 375 degrees for 45 minutes
- Serve
When I started assembling our lasagna, I began with the meat and tomato mixture as my first layer. Then I placed the zucchini next, then began alternating between the two until I did not have any more left. I was a bit worried it may not be cooked through since I did not cook or steam the zucchini in any way. This was not the case. The zucchini was cooked through and we were able to cut through it easily with a fork.
TIP: I will tell you that the next time I make this recipe, I will peel the zucchini before I slice it and put into our lasagna.
Notice I did not use a ready made spaghetti sauce. When you begin digging like I have been, you see all of the added sugars in ready made foods. I wonder why they believe added sugars need to be in our foods since subtracting those items did not affect the taste of this dish?
Personally, I think using regular diced tomatoes was just fine for this low carb lasagna recipe. Now, if you look at the can, you will see there is still sugar in the diced tomatoes, but it was less than the spaghetti sauce I looked at so I considered that a win.
I will say my husband was pleasantly surprised when he walked in the back door tonight and found he was having lasagna for dinner. At the time, he had no idea I was using zucchini as my noodles and what was in store for him.
I have tried the Adkins plan before, and while I thought it was easy, consuming very little carbs is difficult to maintain over the long term. When I found I could have oats with a low glycemic food plan, I thought hey, this isn't so bad. While the two lifestyles share many of the same ideas, I feel like the glycemic index scale is easier to maintain and stick with. It is truly a lifestyle change, but when so many folks seem to be coming down with illnesses these days, it makes you wonder. Is it the food we eat? We can bank that for another day.
In case you were wondering if my lasagna low carb, no noodle dinner was well received, I will let you be the judge of that. See below.
As you can see, there was not much leftover for tomorrow night. My husband said he thought it had a good flavor, and I am not sure if you noticed, but I did not add my most loved spice.... garlic powder! I feel like it may have slipped my mind since it really is my favorite, but I did not want to change the recipe and tell you I had it in our low carb lasagna when in fact, I did not.
Next time, it is going in. I did not miss it per se, but I love it and I think it belongs in lasagna, don't you? As I mentioned above, I will be peeling the zucchini too. There were some pieces that were basically all green skin, and I did not care for that.
If you give this recipe a try, let us know what you think.
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