Diabetic Recipe: Vegetarian Lasagna

This is one recipe I have never tried. BUT...one of these days when I don't have to cook for my husband and daughter, and my son and I can eat this all up by ourselves, I'm going to do it. It looks delicious, and very do-able.

 Vegetarian Lasagna

Yield: 6 servings

Serving size: 4 1/2 by 4-inch piece

Ingredients:

• 6 lasagna noodles
• 2 quarts water
• 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil (olive oil or canola oil)
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 1/2 cups (about 4 medium) 1/8-inch bias-cut carrots
• 2 tsp. minced garlic
• 1 3/4 cups spaghetti sauce (about 1 15 oz. jar)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp. basil
• 1/2 tsp. oregano
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups low-fat cottage cheese
• 4 Tbsp. Parmesan cheese
• 1 10-oz. pkg. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1 cup quartered and sliced zucchini
• 1/4 cup sliced black olives (optional)
• 1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water about 12 minutes. Drain, rinse, and cover with cool water.
2. Heat vegetable oil in saucepan. Add onion, carrots, garlic, and mushrooms. Saute until carrots are tender, about 10 minutes.
3. Add spaghetti sauce, water and spices. Bring to a simmer.
4. Beat eggs and blend in cottage cheese, Parmesan cheese, and vegetables.
5. Spread a thin layer of sauce over the bottom of a 9 X 13-inch baking pan. Cover with a layer of noodles. Cover with half of the sauce. Repeat.
6. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.
7. Remove the foil. Arrange olive slices over the top and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Bake uncovered about 15 minutes, or until center is bubbly.
8. Let this stand about 10-15 minutes to set layers. Cut into 6 pieces.

This recipe is one of the 200 recipes in the book Magic Menus for People with Diabetes.

Here's how this works:

1. On page 99 is the dietary breakdown for each menu on dinners that includes one or two items from the list of recipes.
2. Each dinner in the section has about 550 calories.
3. Each dinner includes: 2-3 starch servings,

                                            1-3 meat or meat substitute servings

                                            1-3 vegetable servings

                                            1 fruit serving

                                            1-2 fat servings

    4.  Total Fat: 20 grams

    5.  Total carbohydrates: 45 grams

    6.  Proteins:  33 grams

    7.  Some menus have 1 skim milk serving instead of 1 meat, 1 starch, or 1 fruit serving.

Here is the menu suggested for the Vegetarian Lasagna:

•  1 serving Vegetarian Lasagna
• 1 3-inch slice French bread with
• 1 tsp. margarine
• Tossed salad with
• 2 Tbsp reduced-calorie dressing
• 1 small nectarine (substitute another fruit if you desire)

An excerpt from the Introduction:

"Most cookbooks give you lots of recipes and only a few suggestions for combining them into a day's meals. When you find a recipe you like, you still must choose other foods to round out the meal. People with diabetes have the added challenge of counting the carbohydrates in the meal so they'll know what effect it will have on their blood glucose level. A simple but unexciting solution is to eat the same things day after day. A better solution is found in this book and the other books in this series. The menus are counted and balanced for you. Just cook and eat."

"There are complete menus for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. One day's menu selections--breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack--provides approximately 1,500 calories. Directions are given for adjusting the menus to other calorie levels (including 1200 calories by using a chart to take an item out of the menus). Each day's menus will provide about 45-50 percent of your calories from carbs, 20 percent from protein, and about 30 percent from fat. They follow the 1994 American Diabetes Association Nutritional Recommendations for people with diabetes..." 

Little by little I'm going through this cookbook and trying different recipes out with my family. My greatest challenge is my husband who hates vegetables for the most part, and prefers a basic diet of stuff I can't eat! We are truly Jack Sprat and his wife.

Just the other day my son and I both enjoyed the crab cakes recipe I shared with you recently. They were excellent! No need to sacrifice taste with this recipe. Hubby won't eat them, but my daughter would. I just can't wait until I try to offer them Florentine Pizza. Oh, dear!

Other recipes I've shared so far:

Crab Cakes

7-Layer Salad

Porcupine Meatballs

Source:  Magic Menus for People with Diabetes

American Diabetes Association: 1996

Enjoy!