Spinach Lasagna Roll Ups

While I may not be culinarily-creative enough to make my own recipes, I do like to adapt where I can. Especially for freezer options and health reasons. Pinterest has no end to the fabulous recipes just begging to be reworked to my taste. 

For example, this Lasagna Roll Up recipe from Cooking Classy just looks divine, but I've never been a fan of chicken with red sauce. Plus, I like to substitute for meatless when I can, since I can sneak in my greens. So I played with this recipe a little, subbing frozen spinach for chicken, and stretching to make two more meals out of it. Check it out!

Lasagna Roll Ups

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• ¼ cup finely chopped onions (optional)
• 1 can crushed tomatoes (I like Fire-Roasted)
• 1 jar of spaghetti sauce (I like Prego HeartSmart)
• 2 Tbsp minced garlic
• 1 box frozen spinach, squeezed of excess liquid
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

• 1 (15 oz) container Ricotta Cheese
• 1 large egg
• 2 1/4 cups grated Mozzarella Cheese, divided
• 3/4 cup finely grated Parmesan Cheese, divided
• 1/3 cup freshly, finely grated Romano Cheese
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 12 uncooked lasagna noodles

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Start that water boiling! And cook noodles according to directions. I like to cook those things while I do everything else so I'm not waiting for them. They can wait for me, darnit!

Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a non-stick frying pan and sauté onions. I'll be honest: I didn't have an onion, and they're really not my favorite. So I skipped this part. It's ok!

If you sauteed onions, transfer them to a medium-large saucepan. Add crushed tomatoes, minced garlic,  oregano and jar of spaghetti sauce.  Season sauce with salt and pepper and cover with a lid to simmer over low heat.


When lasagna noodles are cooked, drain and immediately line in a single layer on waxed paper or cookie sheets.

In a large bowl, combine Ricotta cheese, egg, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper.  Add in 1 3/4 cups grated Mozzarella Cheese, 1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese and 1/3 cup Romano Cheese, stir mixture until well combined. Add spinach to cheese mixture until combined.

Confession: I had no romano cheese. So I threw in extra mozzarella. I love mozzarella.

Stir sauce and spread in the bottom of your pan. You have options here. If you're making the whole batch, or almost whole, use a 13x9 inch baking dish. I opted for a 9x9 inch baking dish, and two 9 inch round aluminum foil pans for the freezer. It's just the two of us and a baby, and even with leftovers, we wouldn't eat a whole batch. But by freezing the other two pans, that's two more nights coming up that I don't have to cook, but still get a tasty, hearty meal. Heckuva deal.


Spread two heaping spoonfuls of cheese mixture onto each cooked lasagna noodle, then spoon sauce over.  Roll noodles up and arrange seam side down in your dish.  Cover rolled noodles with remaining meat sauce and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and a little more oregano.  For the dish you're baking, tent with foil (don't allow foil to rest on cheese or it will stick you just want to loosely tent to prevent the cheese from browning) and bake for 35 minutes, removing foil for last 5 minutes.

For freezing, cover and freeze flat with nothing resting on top. Once frozen, they can be stacked. On eating day, move the dish to your fridge for 12-24 hours, just to soften. Remove lid and tent with new foil, bake at 375 for an hour or until hot.



Adapted from: Cooking Classy