Clean Eating Butternut Squash Lasagna

In honor of Mother’s Day, I thought I’d give you a recipe for something a little more decadent and filling, yet still clean and healthy. It’s even low in fat and calories!

The first time I tried this recipe, I made it WAY more complicated that it needed to be. I ended up with a big pan of an indescribable, squash-like mess. It wasn’t pretty. I’ll spare you the gory details.

So this time around, I decided to keep it simple. I mean, isn’t that part of eating clean anyway? And wouldn’t you know it, I ended up with a really tasty lasagna.

Here’s the recipe I devised:

Clean Eating Butternut Squash Lasagna
(Makes 15 servings)

Ingredients
1 box whole wheat or brown rice lasagna noodles (10 oz.)
1 medium-sized butternut squash (large if you want leftover squash)
1 container low-fat ricotta cheese (15 oz.)
2 tbsp. dried sage
1 tbsp. agave
1/4 cup low-fat or non fat milk
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Step 1 – Cut your squash in half, and clean out the seeds. Place open-face down in a casserole dish that has 1/2 inch of water in it. Bake until the squash is easily pierced with a fork or knife. Squash should be good and “mooshy”.

Allow to cool. Then scoop the squash out of the skin and into a large mixing bowl or blender. If there is some water in there, that’s okay. It’ll just make it smoother when you blend it. Blend with agave until smooth and creamy. Set aside.

Note: My casserole dish was 10 X 15 inches.

Step 2 – Cook your noodles according to package directions.

Step 3 – In a large mixing bowl, combine your ricotta, milk, sage, garlic powder and onion powder. Blend with a whisk or hand-blender.

Step 4 – Spread a thin layer of squash on the bottom of a casserole dish (you can use the same one you baked the squash in). This is a great way to keep the food from burning on the bottom without using a bunch of oil or butter.

Step 5 – Add a layer of noodles, then ricotta, then noodles and then squash and finally another layer of noodles (as shown below).

Step 6 – Sprinkle the top with parmesan cheese.

Step 7 – Bake for about 20 minutes.

Eat and Enjoy!

Munchkin Helpers:

If you have little ones, here’s how they can help (With close supervision, of course).

Let little ones mix the ricotta blend. If they are a bit older and can handle it, allow them to help with the layering.

RELATED READING:

• Clean Eating Vegetarian Lasagna
• Clean Eating Garlic Broccolini Pasta
  

Nutritional Content
1 serving = 1/15 of entire recipe

Calories: 153
Total Fat: 4 gm
Saturated Fats: 2 gm
Trans Fats: 0 gm
Cholesterol: 12 gm
Sodium: 96 mg
Carbohydrates: 23 gm
Dietary fiber: 1 gm
Sugars: 3 gm
Protein: 7 gm
Estimated Glycemic Load: 14

Nutritional Information estimated at Nutritiondata.com. Data may not be accurate.

Caution: Any time a child is in the kitchen, they will require close supervision. Munchkin Helpers suggestions should be applied with common sense to your own child, taking their own capabilities into account. Do not assume that because it says here that your child can do something, that they can, in fact do it. Please use common sense when in the kitchen with your child(ren).

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