Lasagna Roll Ups

Here's another great recipe for leftovers. I like making dishes in big batches, so I don't have to cook every night if I don't want to, and so that the husband has some healthy lunches for work.

This one I got from Caloriecount.com, but have adapted to add meat for more protein, and expand for more servings.

Ingredients:

12 lasagna noodles

12 oz fat free ricotta cheese (The recipe called for 14, but I actually used closer to 12 oz, mostly because I used the ricotta in another dish a week or two ago.)

three cups spinach (I used fresh spinach and tore the leaves by hand.)

4 oz reduced fat mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1 medium egg

14 oz pasta sauce (The recipe called for a full bottle of pasta sauce, but I only ended up using about half that amount. You can add if you like, but I don't like too much sauce on mine.)

1 pound lean ground beef (You can of course skip this for an even healthier version. I'll include the nutrition information for both at the bottom.)

Directions:

1. Cook lasagna noodles according to the package directions. (Basically boil for about 10-12 minutes.)

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

3. While water is boiling and oven is heating, in a large skillet, brown the ground beef, draining off any excess oil when done.

4. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan, spinach, egg, and cooked ground beef.

5. When noodles are done cooking, rinse them with cold water and spread out on a clean towel. You don't want them to stick to each other, and it's much easier to work with cooled noodles.

6. In a glass baking dish or two, pour about 1/2 cup of pasta sauce on the bottom of each, and spread it out so it covers the dish.

7. Spread the cheese and beef mixture on each cooked pasta noodle, like so.

8. Roll the cheesy noodles up into rolls.

9. Set in to the dish, seam side down (This will prevent them from unrolling while they cook.) and top with the rest of the pasta sauce (or with however much you want).

10. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 35 minutes. The cheese will be nice and gooey and melted by then.

11. Enjoy!

Again, these make great lunches and are delicious single serve lasagna treats.

Nutrition Facts: with/without beef

makes 12 servings

Calories: 255/150

Total Fat: 11.6/4.7g

Saturated Fat: 5.1/2.5g

Cholesterol: 64/30mg

Sodium: 237/201mg

Total Carbs: 17.7/17.7g

Dietary Fiber: 1.1/1.1g

Sugars: 1.9/1.9g

Protein: 19.3/9.3g

Vitamin A: 21%

Vitamin C: 4/5%

Calcium: 18/17%

Iron: 13/7%