Chicken & Spinach Lasagna

I saw a recipe for this lasagna on Annie's Eats a couple weeks back and I knew I had to give it a try. I have never made lasagna before, primarily because I try to avoid it whenever possible due to a stomach flu incident when I was 12 and had eaten 3 large portions of lasagna at my aunt's house. Yeah...so now that you are incredibly appetized, I will share with you this amazing recipe that came out quite well for a cooking newbie. I was intrigued that it included spinach because, for someone who tends to shy away (read: run as fast as possible in the other direction) from a lot of veggies, my husband actually likes spinach. Go figure. So I try to get something healthy into him whenever possible that is also protein-rich to get a little meat on his bones. Contrary to what most people may think, I DO feed him quite frequently - I just cannot help that he has the metabolism of a hummingbird. I always joke that some day I will wake up and there will be some old, pudgy looking man laying next to me ;)

This recipe was wonderful and I will definitely be adding it to my cooking repoitoire, although next time I will heed Annie's advice and make a half batch when making it for the two of us, which will be plenty for dinner and a week of yummy leftovers.

I used a disposable aluminum pan and it made cleanup a breeze (because there wasn't any). I try not to take these conveniences all the time since they can become costly for my wallet and the environment, but since it was a trial run and I knew it would be a busy week I wanted to cheat a bit. I also left out the mushrooms and used low-fat cheese.

Chicken and Spinach Lasagna
(adapted from Annie's Eats and Sweet Savory Southern)

Ingredients

2 chicken breast

salt and pepper

1-2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

½ large onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

(4 oz. mushrooms, sliced) - omitted

1 (24-oz.) jar pasta sauce

8 oz. (low-fat) ricotta cheese

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 tsp. Italian seasoning

9-12 lasagna noodles, uncooked (depending on size of dish)

2 cups spinach, chopped

½ cup shredded (low-fat) mozzarella cheese

Place the chicken breast in a large non-stick skillet and cook until no longer pink. Chop into small pieces.

Add 1-2 tbsp. of olive oil to the skillet and heat over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic to the pan and sauté until onion is tender and fragrant. Add the pasta sauce and the chicken to the skillet. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer about 5 minutes while making the ricotta layer.

In a small bowl, combine the ricotta, egg and Italian seasoning. Stir until well combined.

In a baking dish, spoon a thin layer of the pasta sauce mixture so that it just coats the bottom of the dish. Top with one layer of lasagna noodles so that they cover the sauce completely. Spread one half of the ricotta mixture over the noodles and sprinkle with one cup of chopped spinach. Layer with one third of the pasta sauce mixture. Repeat the layers again with noodles, ricotta mixture with spinach, and pasta sauce. The last layer will be noodles, the remaining pasta sauce and shredded mozzarella.

Cover with foil and bake at 375° for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for 10 minutes more. Let stand 10 minutes before slicing and serving.