Day 3: Eggplant & Sausage Lasagna

 

Day 3: Final portion of turkey sausage is in the fridge. This lasagna recipe rocks. This mid week recipe hits all the categories that you are looking for. Budget friendly, healthy, make ahead… so I pull out the sausage and mix in 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped, 1 t. oregano, 2 t. basil, and 1/2 medium onion, diced. Blend, then crumble in sauté pan over medium heat.

Open a 15 oz. can of diced tomatoes, take the other half of the med. onion diced, 2 more gloves of garlic, finely chopped and put it all in a sauce pan. Put on medium heat. Add some basil and salt and pepper, to taste. Let simmer.

I took out a globe eggplant I had and cut it lengthwise, on my v-slicer,  super thin . Let it sit on the cutting board with some salt on the top to release some of the moisture.

Time to pull out the white sauce that I had made the day before (see yesterday’s post for white sauce recipe)and about 2 cups of leftover barley and quinoa that I had from making a veggie and grain salad. (Cooked it in the rice cooker. Recipe to follow in a few days). Toss into sausage mixture and turn down to low. Heat up sauce and grain throughly. Turn off heat.

In a lightly oiled 11 x 7.5 inch casserole put a spoon full of tomato sauce, then lay out eggplant slices as if they were lasagna noodles. Top with some sausage quinoa mixture, then some more tomato sauce. Repeat. Make sure that the top layer is sausage and tomato sauce.

Now I made this up in the morning before my son woke up and then I kept it in the fridge until about an hour before I wanted to eat. Bake at 350F for about an hour. Make a simple salad with a light vinaigrette and you have a great meal that is not hard on your time, budget, or health. This recipe is dairy and gluten free. Don’t get me wrong. I love traditional lasagna, but I have a son that has a boat load of allergies. I have many family and friends that are gluten intolerant.

I want recipes that I can cook for them, but I never want to feel like I am giving up anything. I want my guests to be pleased with the meal, not fixating on the dietary restrictions. It is about pleasure. I do not want to think substitute for the ingredients that my son can’t have, I just want my guests to think, “Wow, that was good. Can I have it again.”

With just a little planning you can eat well and it can be quicker then delivery. Hope these three days showed you a little on how you can do it yourself. Ground turkey doesn’t have to be just for burgers.

Pull up a chair, Elizabeth