National Family Meals Month–Whole-Grain Lasagna Cups

September is National Family Meals month. Your West Lakes Hy-Vee Dietitians encourage you to eat one more family meal together each week. Below shows a step-by-step method in creating a healthy, tasty and fun recipe. The whole family can be involved in making these Whole-Grain Lasagna Cups!

Gather the following ingredients:

Reduced-fat mozzarella cheese, whole-grain lasagna noodles, dried parsley, dried basil, lean ground turkey, low-fat cottage cheese, pasta sauce or marinara sauce.

Traditional lasagna ingredient	Ingredient to swap	Health benefits of swap
White flour lasagna noodles	Whole-grain lasagna noodles	Increase in fiber
Whole milk shredded cheese	2% reduced-fat shredded cheese	Decrease in calories and saturated fat grams
Ground beef	Ground turkey	Decrease in calories and saturated fat grams
Part-skim ricotta cheese	Low-fat 1% cottage cheese	Decrease in calories, saturated fat grams, increase in protein
Traditional pasta sauce	Prego Light Smart pasta sauce	Decrease in calories and grams of added sugar

Cook entire box of lasagna noodles according to package directions. Drain noodles. Spread noodles out on a paper towel to dry and cool.   

While noodles are cooling, brown ground turkey in a skillet with ½ tablespoon basil and ½ tablespoon parsley. Drain turkey.

 Stir in 2 cups pasta sauce. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes. Set aside.

Place a cooled lasagna noodle on a cutting board. Find a household item that is similar in size to the bottom of a muffin cup, such as a wine glass. Cut the cooled lasagna noodles into circles. You’ll use about 3 whole lasagna noodles for this step. Discard scraps.

 Coat a standard 12-cup muffin tin with olive oil non-stick cooking spray. Place one cut-out lasagna noodle circle in the bottom of each muffin cup.

Place cooled lasagna noodles on cutting board. Using a knife or the edge of a spatula, cut the noodle in half lengthwise. You’ll use 6 lasagna noodles for this step.  

Wrap each noodle half around the inside of a muffin cup to form the sides of the lasagna cups.

Spoon about 2 tablespoons of turkey mixture into each noodle cup.

In a small bowl, combine 1 cup low-fat cottage cheese, ½ cup reduced-fat mozzarella cheese and ½ tablespoon ground black pepper.

Place cottage cheese mixture on top of turkey mixture.

Top cottage cheese layer with another layer of turkey mixture, followed by shredded mozzarella cheese.

 Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

Serve with additional pasta sauce. 

It’s important to make your family meals balanced to ensure everyone is receiving proper nutrition from each food group. Use MyPlate as a guide to help visualize what a healthy plate looks like. These whole-grain lasagna cups primarily represent the grains and protein food groups. The pasta sauce is also a non-starchy vegetable source and the cottage cheese is a calcium-rich dairy source. To balance this plate furthermore, pair with a leafy green strawberry salad along with an 8 oz. glass of skim milk, and you’ve got a complete meal!

Take the Hy-Vee Family Meals challenge today! Simply post a photo to your social media of your family enjoying a meal together and use the hashtag #hyveefamilymeals. Hy-Vee will donate $1 per post to Meals for the Heartland, up to $100,000. Sharing or retweeting the posts below will also count toward the $1 donation. 

 https://www.facebook.com/HyVee/photos/a.95639907796.97759.84150862796/10153766361267797/?type=1&theater

https://twitter.com/HyVee/status/775724595294986241

-Dietitian Natalie