Lasagne - A slightly healthier version

I am currently attempting to eat more healthily than I have done, with a few treats at the weekend. I love my lasagne and have been trying to tweak the recipe to make it more diet friendly. This is the recipe that has worked with Turkey mince and courgettes.

Ingredients - makes 4 portions

1 courgette - sliced thinly lengthways
150g Goats cheese
1 tin good quality tinned tomatoes
400g Turkey mince
Handful of mushrooms
Chicken stock cube dissolved in half a cup of water
2tbsp Tomato purée
1 Garlic clove - crushed and chopped
1 Red onion - finely chopped
1 heaped tsp mixed herbs
1 tsp Hendersons Relish or Worcestershire Sauce

Method

1.   Preheat your oven to 180.
2.   Dry fry onions, garlic and mushrooms in a nonstick pan until soft. Add mince and brown off.
3.   Add stick and purée. Mix well to coat all ingredients with purée.
4.   Add Hendersons relish/ Worcestershire sauce and herbs. Stir well.
5.   Add tomatoes and leave to simmer and reduce for 20 - 30 minutes.
6.   Layer the lasagne by putting mince in first, then sprinkle goats cheese over. Layer the courgette next. Repeat again. Then you should end with a layer of mince and cheese.
7.   Bake in the over for about 25 minutes until the cheese is golden on top and the courgette cooked through.
8.   Serve with a side salad.

Cauliflower Breadsticks

I know... Cauliflower and bread does not sound right together! But bear with me. Recently I've been attempting to eat more healthily and one thing that I do miss is bread. Once a daily affair it's now reduced to being a treat. So I had a look on Pinterest and it seemed a lot of people were substituting cauliflower bread for the beautiful wheat laden stuff! I tweaked a few different recipes and came up with the following that seemed to work best. Whilst it's never going to fully replace bread in my life it certainly stops any cravings and is a great side dish.

Ingredients

1 large cauliflower head
1 egg or 2 egg whites - beaten
Seasoning of choice
3/4 cup of grated cheese (I used low fat mature)

Method

1.   Preheat oven to 160.

2..   Pulse cauliflower in a food processor until it resembles fine breadcrumbs as below:

3.   Microwave for 7 minutes in a bowl covered in pierced clingfilm. Stir halfway.

4.   Allow to cool. You will now need to strain the cauliflower in a linen cloth or teatowel. This is a really important step as cauliflower actually has a high water content. Without this stage you'll just end up with mush!

5.   Add seasoning of choice (I used a dried mixed herb), half of the grated cheese and the beaten eggs or egg whites. I used 6 tbsp. of two chicks egg whites. Each carton contains 15 egg whites. You need 3tbsp for each egg white. It's a really handy standby as you can freeze the carton too. And useful for meringues so you don't have to spend a fortune on eggs!

6.   Mix all ingredients together well and tip into a baking dish lines with parchment. pat down to fill dish to edges. I found it best to use my fingers here as a spoon tended to just move the parchment around! It should look a little like this:

7.   Bake for around 15-20 minutes until golden. It may catch slightly at the edges, but don't worry too much as that part actually ends up being the nicest!

8.   Sprinkle over the remaining cheese and bake for a further 5-10 minutes until cheese has melted.

9.   Remove from the oven and cool. Remove from dish and cut into slices. I got 8 out of this dish.

10.   Enjoy!

So it has been well over a year since I last posted! Work and life has taken over in a good way. But I've recently reached a kind of calm and going to crack on with some more posts! As always food related, but having recently lost a few stone there will be a fair few healthy recipes thrown in! I'm hoping to give a few recommendations for good products and places to eat out too. I shall get cracking this weekend, so check back soon!