Tag: cottage cheese

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Main Dish

Lighten up and try a new lasagna recipe this week

This lightened up version of homemade lasagna still packs in tons of great flavor, despite using lower-fat ingredients.
This lightened up version of homemade lasagna still packs in tons of great flavor, despite using lower-fat ingredients.

I know that most of the recipes I share with you in this space are “sometimes” foods.

From pasta-laden, full-fat casseroles swimming in cheese to decadent desserts with more sugar than a bag of Pixy Stix, I know the temptation is real.

But we all need some recipes that look and sound a bit sinful but actually aren’t as bad as they seem. That’s where this week’s dish comes in. As soon as I saw a lightened version of lasagna, I knew I needed to try it and hoped it would be as good as it looked.

Good news: it was.

This comes from the blog “You Brew My Tea” by Katie Hale. You can find the original post at https://www.youbrewmytea.com/lightened-homemade-lasagna-dish. I added way more herbs/spices and changed the amounts of some of the other ingredients in my version.

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Lightened Homemade Lasagna

This lightened up version of homemade lasagna still packs in tons of great flavor, despite using lower-fat ingredients.
Course Main Course
Cuisine Italian
Keyword basil, cottage cheese, garlic, green bell pepper, ground turkey, lasagna, light recipe, low-fat, mozzarella, onion powder, oregano, oven-ready lasagna, red bell pepper, red pepper flakes, ricotta cheese, tomato paste, tomato sauce, turkey sausage

Ingredients

  • 1 pound lean ground turkey breast
  • 1 pound Italian turkey sausage
  • 1 red bell pepper diced
  • 1 green bell pepper diced
  • 1 medium yellow onion diced
  • 8 cloves garlic minced
  • 3, 15- ounce cans tomato sauce
  • 6 ounces tomato paste
  • 2 teaspoons dried basil
  • 2 teaspoons dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons onion powder
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/4-1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1 cup fat-free cottage cheese
  • 1 cup fat-free ricotta cheese
  • 2 cups part-skim mozzarella cheese shredded, divided
  • 12 oven-ready lasagna noodles

Instructions

  • Heat a stock pot or Dutch oven with a lid over medium heat. Add the turkey and sausage and saute until it is fully cooked, crumbling the meat as you go.
  • When the meat is almost totally cooked, add in the bell peppers and onions and saute for another five minutes or so.
  • Add the garlic, tomato sauce, tomato paste, basil, oregano, salt, onion powder, black pepper and red pepper flakes. Stir well.
  • Leave the burner on medium and place the lid on the pot. Let the sauce simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  • While the sauce simmers, combine the cottage cheese, ricotta and one cup of the mozzarella into a bowl. Stir to combine.
  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • Spray a deep nine-by-13-inch pan with cooking spray.
  • Remove the sauce from the heat, give it another good stir, and start assembling your lasagna.
  • Place four noodles on the bottom of the casserole dish. (I had to break one of mine to get fill coverage. It doesn’t have to be perfect.) Spread one-third of the sauce over the noodles, and then dollop one-third of the cheese mixture on top of the sauce.
  • Repeat twice more.
  • After the final layer, add the final cup of shredded mozzarella.
  • Bake for 45 minutes. Serve hot with some crusty bread.

We really, really enjoyed this. It wasn’t as decadent as making a full-fat lasagna (especially because I love making Paula Deen’s version), but it was still really good, and just like with regular lasagna, we thought it was even better when we reheated the leftovers the next day. I loved the bell pepper flavor in the sauce.

We also put several pieces in the freezer for quick meals down the road, and those have defrosted and reheated well, too.

I’m still going to keep normal lasagna directions in my recipe box for special occasions, but this one is going to go on a card right next to it. I can never give up my “sometimes” foods, but recipes like this certainly help in between.

This piece first appeared in print on Aug. 3, 2023.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish

Casserole might be better on taste then eating with your ‘rice’

Taco sour cream rice casserole is extremely kid-friendly, with no spiciness, but it also is a nice way to enjoy taco flavors over dinner in an easy, quick casserole form.
Taco sour cream rice casserole is extremely kid-friendly, with no spiciness, but it also is a nice way to enjoy taco flavors over dinner in an easy, quick casserole form.

There’s a popular saying that people eat with their eyes.

Food that looks good tends to taste better, and food that looks like slop tends to, well, taste like slop.

I was worried that the saying was going to come back to bite me with this week’s recipe when I decided to add a Sazon seasoning packet into the rice, sour cream, cottage cheese mixture in the casserole I tried. I looked at the bland, white concoction and decided it needed color—and flavor.

What I didn’t plan on was what would happen when the bright orange seasoning mixed in with the colorless, creamy assortment in my pot. It turned movie-theater-popcorn orange.

Unfortunately, that was the moment Joey decided to pop his head into the kitchen to see how my experiment was turning out.

His face told me I may have been eating an entire casserole by myself if the entire thing ended up looking like some sort of traffic-cone-inspired amalgamation. Luckily, it ended up looking much better once the casserole was done.

The recipe I tried comes from the blog “Plain Chicken.” You can find the original at https://www.plainchicken.com/taco-sour-cream-rice-bake/. I added onion, garlic and Sazon seasoning to my version.

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Taco Sour Cream Rice Casserole

Taco sour cream rice casserole is extremely kid-friendly, with no spiciness, but it also is a nice way to enjoy taco flavors over dinner in an easy, quick casserole form.
Keyword cottage cheese, diced green chiles, diced tomatoes, garlic, ground beef, ground turkey, kid-friendly, Mexican-blend cheese, onion, rice, Rotel, Sazon seasoning, sour cream, taco seasoning, tomato sauce

Ingredients

  • 3 cups cooked rice
  • 1 pound ground beef or turkey
  • 1/4 of a medium onion diced
  • 4 to 6 cloves garlic minced
  • 1/4 cup taco seasoning
  • 2 Sazon seasoning packets
  • 10 ounces diced tomatoes with green chiles
  • 8 ounces tomato sauce
  • 1 cup cottage cheese
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 1/2 cups Mexican blend cheese shredded

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare an eight-by-eight- or nine-by-nine-inch baking dish by spraying it with cooking spray.
  • Cook your rice according to package directions. (It should be three cups after it’s done cooking; don’t start with three cups uncooked rice, or you’ll have way too much!)
  • Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add the ground beef and onions. Crumble the meat as it browns. When it’s done cooking, drain off as much grease as you can. Add in the garlic and saute for about one minute.
  • Add in the taco seasoning, one of the Sazon packets, salt and pepper, the diced tomatoes (do not drain them) and the tomato sauce.
  • Stir to combine, and let the mixture simmer.
  • When the rice is done cooking, add the sour cream, cottage cheese, the other Sazon packet and salt and pepper to the pot and stir to combine.
  • In the prepared baking dish, smooth out the rice mixture into an even layer. Top with the meat mixture, and then sprinkle the shredded cheese on the top.
  • Bake uncovered for 20 to 25 minutes or until the cheese is browned to your liking.
  • Let the casserole sit for at least five minutes before serving. Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

This was pretty darn good, but it definitely lacked the spice Joey and I prefer. I would say this dish, the way I made it this time, was extremely kid friendly. It would be easy, though, to add extra kick by using the hot kind of diced tomatoes with green chiles or use tomatoes with jalapenos, instead. It would be amazing to add a drained can of jalapenos to the rice mixture on the bottom, too.

I was really glad, in the end, that I added the Sazon packets. I think they added some good flavor to the overall dish—even if I almost had to blindfold my husband during dinner.

This piece first appeared in print on Oct. 20, 2022.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish Uncategorized

Save lots of time this week with some phony pierogi

Pierogi casserole takes the flavors of the traditional dish, kicks them up a notch with some added flavor, and creates the perfect weeknight meal.
Pierogi casserole takes the flavors of the traditional dish, kicks them up a notch with some added flavor, and creates the perfect weeknight meal.

Awhile back, I stumbled on a Facebook group called “Good Ol’ Mennonite Recipes,” and of course, I had to join to see what kinds of great food people were sharing on there.

I have jealously looked at delicious loaves of bread and mounds of verenike under ham gravy, but I recently stumbled on a post that I absolutely had to try for myself: a pierogi casserole.

I have only made pierogi once. I had to look back at my column archive to see how long it had been, and it was clear back in 2015. I loved them, but they were also lots of work.

If you’re not familiar, pierogi are dumplings that are generally filled with mashed potatoes and cheddar cheese. They’re boiled and then fried in butter and onions to finish them off, and a lot of people love eating them with a side of sausage.

The casserole mimics the dumplings by using lasagna noodles, cheese, potatoes and plenty of onions, but as I started putting it together, I felt like it was missing something. That “something” turned into lots of garlic and some sausage, too, and this ended up being perfect.

The original recipe comes from the “Good Ol’ Mennonite Recipes” Facebook group. It was posted by Marie Leigh. I added garlic, sausage and more seasoning to my version.

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Pierogi Casserole

Pierogi casserole takes the flavors of the traditional dish, kicks them up a notch with some added flavor, and creates the perfect weeknight meal.
Course Main Course
Keyword casserole, cottage cheese, garlic, ground sausage, mashed potatoes, noodles, onion powder, pierogi, sharp cheddar cheese, yellow onion

Ingredients

  • 9 to 15 lasagna noodles
  • 1 small onion diced (I used yellow)
  • 1 pound ground sausage
  • 2 cups regular cottage cheese
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder divided
  • 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese divided
  • 2 cups mashed potatoes
  • 8 cloves garlic minced
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • Prepare a deep 9-by-13-inch baking pan by spraying it with cooking spray. Set it aside.
  • Boil enough lasagna noodles to be able to cover three layers in your pan. (My local store had long, thin lasagna noodles, so I only needed about nine of them to do the trick.)
  • Heat a skillet over medium heat and saute the sausage and onions, breaking apart the sausage as it cooks. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
  • While the sausage cooks, add your cottage cheese, egg and 1/2 teaspoon onion powder to a bowl and mix thoroughly.
  • In another bowl, add the mashed potatoes, garlic, 1/2 teaspoon onion powder, garlic, salt and pepper, along with 1 cup shredded cheese and mix well to combine.
  • Once your sausage is cooked through, drain off any excess fat.
  • To assemble the casserole, start by spooning just a little (maybe a scant 1/4 cup) of your sausage/onion mixture into the bottom of your dish. Place a single layer of noodles on top. Spread about half of your cottage cheese mixture over the noodles, about half of the sausage, and then top with about one third of your mashed potatoes.
  • Add another layer of noodles, spread out the rest of the cottage cheese, the rest of sausage, and another third of mashed potatoes.
  • Finish with a final layer of noodles and the rest of the mashed potatoes on top.
  • Sprinkle the rest of the shredded cheddar on the top, cover the dish with foil, and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another five minutes or until the cheese is melty and slightly browned.
  • Let the casserole cool for about 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

This was a great, filling dinner, and the leftovers were a breeze to reheat, too. I’m sure the original recipe would have been great, but adding the sausage and lots of garlic made it feel like more of a meal with a bit more complexity to the flavor profile.

Plus, it was so, so much easier than making pierogi, which while worth the effort, is definitely difficult to find time to do.

And now I have a new “good ol’” recipe to add to my repertoire, thanks to some neat folks on Facebook. Social media can be a horrible place, but when you’re talking food, sometimes it can be just the opposite.

This piece first appeared in print on Feb. 24, 2022.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

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