Creamy Spinach Lasagna

I figured I might as well start off with a food-related post. As you'll see I am trying to eat healthier so today's post is a recipe I tried last night from Cooking Light, Creamy Spinach Lasagna. I'll be posting pictures of recipes in the future, currently our camera is MIA but we should have it back soon. Thanks for looking.

Creamy Spinach Lasagna
Cooking Light's Annual Recipes 2007

12 cooked whole wheat lasagna noodles
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 1/4 cups chopped onion (I only used 1 1/4 cups, not a huge onion fan)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (16-ounce) package frozen, chopped spinach, thawed, drained, and squeezed dry
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups 2% reduced fat milk (I used skim)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 (26 oz) jar marinara sauce
Cooking Spray
1 1/2 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

1. Cook pasta according to package directions (I did add some olive oil so the pasta wouldn't stick together)
2. Preheat oven t0 375
3. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, cook 10 minutes or until onion is browned, stirring occasionally. Stir in garlic and spinach. Reduce heat, cover, and cook 3 minutes or until spinach is tender. Set aside.
4. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup, level with a knife. Combine flour, milk, salt, black pepper, and red pepper in a small saucepan, stirring with a whisk. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently. Reduce heat, and simmer 1 minute, stirring frequently. Add 2 cups milk mixture to spinach mixture. Cover remaining milk mixture, and set aside.
5. Spread 1/2 cup marinara sauce in bottom of a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Arrange 3 lasagna noodles over sauce; top with half of spinach mixture. Top with 3 lasagna noodles, 1 cup marinara sauce, and 3/4 cup cheese. Layer 3 lasagna noodles, remaining spinach mixture, and 3 lasagna noodles. Top with remaining marinara sauce. Pour reserved milk mixture over top, and sprinkle with 3/4 cup cheese. Bake at 375 for 50 minutes or until lasagna is browned on top. Yield 8 servings.


Overall I was pretty impressed with this recipe. The spinach mixture had some good spice to it thanks to the ground red pepper. The milk mixture on top was a little bland. I feel sure that was supposed to be a type of bechamel sauce, but it definitely didn't live up to a true bechamel sauce, being low fat that's not too surprising. We definitely enjoyed it though, dear hubby even liked it despite it not containing any meat.