Day 27

Every issue of Cook's Country magazine has a section called "recipe make-over" where they challenge themselves and re-make a traditional recipe and make it lower in fat and calories without compromising taste or looks. One month in particular caught my attention: meaty lasagna. I am a big fan of a good meaty lasagna bolognese, but I can't make it all the time because it is a guilty pleasure for me. So I read the article and recipe thoroughly to see what they did to make it good. And I used a lot of their ideas and can I tell you I think this is the best lasagna I've made yet! They only put the bechamel sauce on top because I guess since it's not made of beef, when the bolognese sauce was alternated it didn't have enough of a meaty taste to it. I thought I would miss the creamy layers, but it actually was just fine. So I suggest giving this recipe a try. It's basically the same as my lasagne bolognese recipe but instead of ground beef I used ground chicken and 1 lb of white button mushrooms chopped really fine in a food processor. I added both of those after the onions, garlic, and carrots were soft and cooked through. And in all the layers I used the bolognese except for on top I did the bechamel and cheese on top. You can add cheese in the bolognese layers if you want, but you don't have to. I used Pecorino Romano cheese because it has a strong, salty flavor so I wouldn't need to use as much to have a good cheese flavor. Overall, I think this is a good alternative to the traditional lasagna bolognese without tasting like an alternative "light" meal. Blake said he couldn't tell the difference, really. And by the way, I know there are a ton of mushrooms in it, but it doesn't taste mushroom-ey at all, for those of you who hate mushrooms. It just adds to the meaty texture without altering the taste. So tonight's dinner was definitely a success!