Taco Lasagna

My mom, my husband and I have agreed that one of my best recipes was the spaghetti squash lasagna.

The taste is so good and it only gets better the next day!  

Don't you love it when leftovers taste even better and you have one night you don't have to cook?!

So I decided to use this recipe and change it up a bit and give it a Mexican flavor.  

I increased the amount of  spaghetti squash using the whole entire spaghetti squash this time instead of only half.

I also used an entire pound of frozen spinach, two cups of the fat free ricotta, 2 cups mozzarella, 1/2 cup of reduced fat Mexican blend on the very top in addition to the mozzarella.  I omitted the tomato paste, grated Parmesan cheese and Italian spices(keeping the garlic of course).  I added zucchini in as well as changing the servings from 6 to 8.  Keep in mind with more veggies it's twice as thick.  This pan was so heavy!!!!  

Ingredients

1 large spaghetti squash

1 lb lean ground turkey

1 whole diced red bell pepper

1 medium zucchini cut into small chunks 

1 jalapeno finely diced

1 yellow onion diced

2 cloves of garlic minced

8 oz baby portabella mushrooms sliced

2 (15 oz) cans diced tomatoes

Taco spice to taste (I probably used two packets worth or so but I like it spicy) 

2 cup part skim ricotta

1/2 cup reduced fat Mexican blend

1 lb frozen spinach

2/3 cup liquid egg whites

2 cup part skim mozzarella cheese

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  Cut the spaghetti squash in half, seed this and place on a foil lined, olive oil sprayed baking sheet.  Cook for one hour or until done.

Saute one diced yellow onion with chicken broth until well done, around 12-15 minutes.

Add 1 lb of lean ground turkey and cook until browned.  Then add the red bell pepper, garlic and jalapeno and cook for five more minutes.  

Next add two 15 oz cans of diced tomatoes, 8 oz of sliced baby portabella mushrooms, the zucchini, and taco spice.

Simmer for at least 20 minutes until it reduces down and much of the liquid is evaporated. 

While that is simmering, thaw 1 lb of frozen spinach and then wring out as much of the liquid as you can with your hands. 

To the spinach add 1 cup of the mozzarella, 2/3 cup of liquid egg whites and 2 cups of fat free ricotta. Mix well.  

Pull the squash out of the oven and when it's cool enough to handle fork out the squash(I probably had at least five cups) and mix it in with the spinach mix.  

Layer this in the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan sprayed with olive oil. 

Now add all the meat mixture over the top of this. I would place the casserole dish over a foil lined cookie sheet to catch anything that drips over. 

And finally 1 cup of part skim mozzarella and the 1/2 cup reduced fat Mexican blend cheese.

Bake this in the oven at 425 degrees for 25 minutes or until the cheese is slightly browned.  

Again, this version is 8 servings at 5 pts a piece.  

I liked this just as well as the Italian version.  Given the increased amount of veggies I put in this time the portions didn't really get small even though it serves 8 instead of 6.  

It was also super yummy left over.

Happy Cooking!