Food of the week...

As I might have mentioned before, CR and I tend to have odd schedules so there is definitely not a traditional, sit down together type meal in the evenings. Most weekends, I make one big pot of something and we eat that for the week, mixing in other things for variety. Last week it was vegetable soup that you might remember from a previous post. The funny thing about the soup was as I was letting it simmer I decided to go take a quick shower. I forgot to turn the eye down from "high" to "simmer" so by the time I got done it had reduced a bit. Not like a balsamic reduction or anything and there was no scraping food remnants off the bottom of the pot but the volume had definitely gone down.

As CR is eating the soup last night, he was going on about how great it was and how much thicker it was than usual. "Whatever you did this time, you need to do to it every time". LOL. From now on, taking a shower while the soup is on high and risking burning down the house will be part of the recipe.

Soup was soooooo last week. The big pot of something for this week is Beef Spinach Lasagna. My favorite boot camp instructor and all around training superstah, Herb Cables sent me this one. High marks. CR does not eat much spinach and he loved this dish! It has some unusual ingredients like nutmeg and red pepper flakes that give it a great flavor. If you are interested in Fitness Competitions or Bodybuilding, check out Herb's site here. He is quite the expert!



Beef and Spinach Lasagna

Makes 8 Servings


• 1 pound Extra Lean Ground Beef (I am thinking you could sub in turkey or a veg like carrots and squash here)

• 2 cup Fat Free Ricotta Cheese (I actually used cottage cheese)

• 2 big handfuls of Spinach

• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• 1 teaspoon crushed red-pepper flake

• 1 box of Whole Wheat Lasagna Noodles (cooked)

• 3 cups of Tomato Sauce (your choice of sauce)

• 1 teaspoon Basil

• 1 1/3 cup Low-Fat Mozzarella

• Salt and Pepper



Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Coat baking dish with no-stick spray.

2. Microwave spinach for about a minute until they soften

3. In a medium bowl, combine the ricotta, spinach, black pepper, salt, basil and nutmeg. Mix well.

4. Place a large no-stick skillet over medium heat until hot.

Crumble the beef into the skillet. Cook, for 5 minutes, or until the meat is no longer pink. Add the pepper flakes

5. Layer the bottom of the prepared baking dish with 3 of the lasagna noodles (must be cooked). Top with 1 cup of the tomato sauce and 1/3 of the beef. Spread the ricotta mixture over the beef and sprinkle with 1/3 cup of the mozzarella.

6. Top with a layer of noodles. Repeat the operation 2 times. Cover the last layer of noodles with 1/3 of mozzarella

7. Cover with foil and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until bubbling and heated through.



Nutritional Facts (Per Serving)

• Calories: 290

• Protein: 27g

• Carbohydrates: 32g

• Fat: 6g