Zucchini Meat Lasagna



1 lb hamburger (use any meat you like)
1 can/jar spaghetti sauce (I used Hunts garlic & Herb sauce)
2 zucchini
1 container cottage cheese (2 cups)
1/4 c Parmesan grated
1/2 c Parmesan shaved
1-2 Tbsp Italian seasonings
4 oz mozzarella, shredded
Salt

1- thinly cut the zucchini in strips. We used a vegetable peeler. Put aside in a colander tossed with some salt. (This is an important step. We didn't do this for long and our lasagna was hugely soupy. Still good, but I poured off the liquid to make it better when eating leftovers.) let them drain for 15 mins to an hour. Gets the water out of them. Rinse before using.
2- brown hamburger and drain. You could add red onion to the hamburger while cooking but we had none so I left that step out. It would only enhance the flavor if you did though.
3- add half the can/jar of sauce to the hamburger in the pan.
4- in a bowl, mix the cottage cheese and parmesans. If you only have one type of parm, use that. Some recipes call for an egg or two and this is what you would add them to. We didn't have any, so I left it out of the recipe. Add the Italian seasoning.

Time to layer!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
5- Pour almost the rest of the sauce into the bottle of a cake pan. I reserved just a bit to spread on the top at the end. Several tablespoons only.
6- layer in this order: 1/4 zucchini strips laid out, 1/3 hamburger/sauce mixture, 1/3 cottage cheese mixture, 1/4 of mozzarella sprinkled on. Repeat until you're left with 1/4 zucchini and 1/4 mozzarella. Mozzarella would normally come next in your order but we put the zucchini next to save the mozzarella for the top. Put the last zucchini layer, the rest of the sauce you saved, then the last of the mozzarella.
7- if you have any Parmesan left, sprinkle some on the top.
8- bake for 30-45 mins, watching for lots of bubbling and light browning top.
9- let sit for 10-15 mins for juices to thicken, we weren't really able to wait that long. So so good!


8 large servings - 316 calories, 8.5 carbs, 2.4 fiber per serving