Healthy Polenta Lasagna

I stole this recipe (thanks Furla!) and modified it slightly to "health it up" a little.

What I used:

Trader Joe's premade polenta (found in a tube in the grain aisle)
8oz of Fresh Mozzarella
1/2 to 1 cup of ricotta cheese made with 2% milk
Chiffonade 6 basil leaves
And 1/2 jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce (RAO'S Tomato Basil)


I first started by cutting my polenta into slices that were about 1/4" thick. I ended up with about 24 of them from the roll I purchased at Trader Joe's.


I then started to layer a baking dish with the polenta discs. I put about 8 of them on each layer (for three layers total).

Once the first layer was down, I topped them with ricotta, about 1/2 inch thick of a layer, which uses just about 1/2 cup. I then sprinkled about 1/3 of the basil on top of the ricotta followed by a nice layer of sauce. Then I continued with the polenta, another 8 pieces followed by half of my fresh mozzarella, followed by more basil and more sauce. The final layer was more polenta, more fresh mozzarella and more basil.
First Layer:

Second Layer:



Into the oven it went for about 40 minutes at 325. I popped it under the broiler to brown the cheese just for 1 minute at the end.

It was delicious and both of the kids loved it.

You might want to try using more ricotta or including both cheeses on all three layers, but in an effort to keep calories and nutritional composition of this meal proportionate, I cut back.

Here is what you will get, in terms of nutrition. This meal as prepared consists of 4nice size servings.

350 Calories
15 grams of fat
4.5 grams of saturated fat
36 grams of carbs
26 grams of protein


I should also state that I did purchase ricotta made with 2% milk. You can buy a fat free version of this product, however, because I am trying to eat natural foods, the fat free version isn't for me. Most cheeses these days can be purchased made with 2% milk. These cheeses are naturally lower in fat and, in my opinion, taste much better than the processed fat free cheeses available.

And finally, I have to give a big shout out to RAO'S SPAGHETTI SAUCE! They sent me a big wagon filled with their products because Ellie SHOULD have been the winner in their "psghetti face" contest. If you are reading this and voted for Ellie, thank you! Seriously though, you need to try their sauce. It really helped make this dish naturally superb!