Turkey and Spinach Lasagna

I have a confession to make.  I've never made a lasagna before.  I've certainly helped my mother make lasagnas before but I've never made one on my own.  This is probably for several reasons.  While I love lasagna, it is not at the top of my list of pasta dishes that I crave.  Plus, I've lived on my own for so many years and even living with my boyfriend now, a lasagna is just way too much food.  But I'm learning to be better about freezing meals, especially since I've started using a slow cooker this past year.  So I decided to make a healthy turkey and spinach lasagna dish for dinner on Friday night.  Plus, my friend KK was coming over for dinner and I needed to make something soft for dinner since she had just gotten her wisdom teeth out earlier in the week and was still recovering.

After putting in a few unavoidable hours in the office, I headed over to Whole Foods to pick up some ingredients.  I had so many fresh and packaged ingredients that I had to split them into two photos!

To start, I did a little prep work with my fresh ingredients.  I chopped up one yellow onion, minced five cloves of garlic, a few handfuls of basil and a small handful of flat Italian parsley.

I heated up a sauce pan on the stovetop and added a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil on medium high heat.  When the pan was hot, I added the chopped onions and cooked them until they were translucent.  I then added the garlic and cooked them for a few minutes before I added about one pound of ground turkey.  I cooked the turkey for about eight minutes - not quite browning it but just cooking it through.

I then added a large can of peeled and crushed tomatoes and gave it a good mix.  When the ingredients were all wet with the tomato puree, I added a can of tomato paste to help thicken up the sauce.  I seasoned the sauce with salt, fresh cracked black pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, and dry oregano.  I lowered the heat and put a lid on the pan and let the sauce simmer.  When the sauce was nearly done, I stirred in the chopped basil and parsley to the sauce and again let it simmer some more.

While the sauce was simmering, I got to work on the other ingredients for my lasagna.  I bought a huge pound box of washed and trimmed spinach.  Although the spinach was pre-washed, I gave them a quick rinse to add some moisture to the leaves and let them air dry..  I put a wok on medium heat and added the spinach in batches of about a quarter pound each.  The water helped the spinach wilt beautifully and I was in love with the vibrant green color of the spinach. 

When the spinach was done cooking, I put them in strainer to help get out some of the excess water.

My final ingredient to the lasagna was probably the easiest.  I took a container of low-fat ricotta cheese and added some leftover grated Parmesan cheese (I'd guess it was a little under a half a cup), one white egg, and fresh cracked black pepper.  I mixed the ingredients together but didn't want to overwork the cheese.

Then came the fun part - putting together the lasagna.  While B was absent in the kitchen during the cooking, he wanted to participate in the actual construction of the lasagna.  First, B gave a 9 x 13 baking dish a nice coating of cooking spray.  On the bottom layer, I added about a third of my turkey red sauce and spread it out for a nice thin layer on the bottom of the dish.  Next, I added the lasagna noodles. Since this was my first attempt at lasagna, I decided to cheat and use the no-bake noodles.  After the noodles, B spread out a thin layer of the ricotta cheese mixture.  This was a bit difficult as the cheese was thick but I reminded him that it didn't need to be perfect!  I added a healthy layer of shredded mozzarella cheese along with a layer of the wilted spinach.  This was the first layer and we repeated this step two more times.  We topped the lasagna with a layer of lasagna noodles, sauce and then a healthy spread of mozzarella cheese along with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese (although this was of the leftover pre-packaged variety since I used all of our fresh grated cheese earlier with the ricotta mixture). 

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Since KK wasn't coming over for dinner for a few hours, we put the lasagna in the fridge.  Meanwhile, I got to work on a simple salad to accompany our lasagna.  I planned on using half a package of Olivia's Organics 50/50 Blend, which is half baby spinach and half spring mix.  I washed a package of beautiful cherry tomatoes in a variety of colors - red, organge, yellow and even purple.  They were too gorgeous for me to pass up.

About an hour before dinner, I put it in the oven at 350 degrees for an hour. About forty-five minutes into cooking, I realized forgot to cover the lasagna with foil while it was baking. But this ended up being a great mistake because it resulted in a nice crispy top layer. For the last fifteen minutes, the lasagna baked with an aluminum foil that had a nice coat of cooking spray on the side facing the lasagna

When it was actually dinner time, I put the greens and the tomatoes together with half a package of Olivia's Croutons in the Parmesan Pepper seasoning.  B made a dressing for the salad on the side that consisted of white champagne balsamic vinegar, olive oil, garlic powder, oregano and rosemary. 

The dinner was simple, hearty and tasty.  We all had second helpings of both the lasagna and the salad, although about half of the lasagna ended up in the freezer for a lazy day where we don't feel like cooking.  The entire meal was fantastic with a bottle (or two...or three) of red wine. 

We ended the night with a tasty dessert that KK made that consisted of spice cake, shredded carrots, crushed pineapples and nuts - topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  The cake was so moist and I loved it because it wasn't too sweet.  The best part is that she made this in her slow cooker and I've already bugged her to send me the recipe!

This was my first attempt at cooking a lasagna and I think it was a success.  But with a freezer full of lasagna, I think it will be awhile before I attempt to make it again!  What's your favorite recipe to make lasagna?