Day: January 22, 2014

Caramelized Onions, Mushrooms, Kale & Ground Turkey Lasagna

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Well, well, well. I have quite the recipe for you today! I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m not a big fan of Italian food. It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s just that there are so many other things I’d rather eat instead of a big ol’ bowl of pasta. It’s just not something that fills me up and keeps me satisfied.

But, last weekend I got a craving for lasagna. My dad had given me a big container of his homemade sauce and I had been keeping it in the freezer for a time when I knew I’d use it all up. Lasagna was the perfect dish to do that!

Although this lasagna has real noodles instead of vegetable noodles (and, ps, my Zucchini and Summer Squash Lasagna post is probably one of the most popular posts I’ve done. It amazes me to see how many people have repinned it on Pinterest. Seriously. It’s crazy!), I think it’s still relatively healthy since I used whole wheat noodles, part skim ricotta and kale. That makes it healthy, right? 😉

Caramelized Onions, Mushrooms, Kale & Ground Turkey Lasagna

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Ingredients

  • 1/2 – 3/4 lb of lean ground turkey. You can use beef if you’d prefer, or leave the meat out entirely if you want to make it vegetarian!
  • 1 small onion
  • 2 cups of chopped mushrooms
  • 2 big handfuls of kale, rinsed chopped
  • 1/2-3/4 of a container of part skim ricotta (or whatever type you want)
  • 2-4 cups of sauce
  • whole wheat lasagna noodles (I think I used 6 in mine)
  • 1/4-1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
  • seasonings to taste (I used sea salt, pepper, Mrs. Dash, Pampered Chef & oregano)

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Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 350*. Brown the ground turkey. I added seasonings as well. I also got to use my new meat utensil that I got from my Pampered Chef party… loved it! If your lasagna noodles need to be cooked before you bake the lasagna, do that now as well.

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2. While the meat is cooking, chop your veggies. When the meat has finished cooking, remove it from the pan and add in your onions. I “caramelized” my onions by adding about a tablespoon of honey and a tablespoon of brown sugar, BUT, Elle, who blogs over at Nutritionella recently posted an amazing looking breakfast skillet recipe in which she caramelized onions and if you want REAL caramelized onions, follow her instructions 😉 Once the onions are mostly caramelized, add in the mushrooms. Lastly, add in the kale when the mushrooms have softened.

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3. When the kale is finished cooking, you’re ready to start assembling the lasagna!

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4. I baked mine at 350* for about 30 minutes. Once it looked bubbly, I broiled it for about 5 minutes to get that pretty browned top.

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This was the perfect meal for a Sunday night and as I’ve re-heated it a number of other nights this week, I can say that it only gets better! Casseroles are my favorite “Sunday Night Meal” to make because they are so easy to heat up when I get home from the gym and am starving AND they continuously taste good throughout the week. Some leftovers don’t re-heat well, but casseroles, soups, etc. re-heat so well.

I hope you enjoy this- let me know if you try it!

Questions for you: What’s your favorite type of lasagna? Do you make your own sauce? Kale- yay or nay?

Wednesday Workout: Across the Floor Workout

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Last week, I taught a SHRED workout that required a lot of movement. Well, duh, you’re probably saying. Don’t all workouts require movement? Yes, I guess they do. But in Thursday’s class, the movement was moving from one side of the room to the other. I used to do these types of workouts at the Allston BSC since the group ex space was on a basket ball court and therefore there was so much room and it worked out great, but I hadn’t done one in a long time so I figured it was time to bring it back! The Central Square studio isn’t as big, but if you go there and back twice, it’s basically the same thing 😉

It’s funny, because as I was making up my workout, I realized a lot of the exercises/moves I wanted to do were “animal” moves: crab walk, alligator crawl, inch-worm push-ups, bunny hops… you get the idea. My friend Athena and I had a convo a while ago about all the different animal moves she could do in her class (Train Like an Animal is the workout she came up with) and while I didn’t do all of the same moves, I did include a lot of them because they work perfect for across the floor workouts.

Across the Floor Workout

So, what you do in this workout is you start with the weighted lunge and lift going across the room and back, then do you do the cardio. Then you do that set once again before moving on to the inch worms. Here are some notes/comments on the moves and how they were performed:

  • Walking Lunge & Lift– add weights for a more advanced version!
  • Inch Worm Push-Up– do 2 push-ups at the end instead of just 1 like shown in the video.
  • Squat & Bicep Curl- If you’re starting on the left side of the room, you’ll step your right foot out, squat, step your left foot over to meet the right. Then do a bicep curl. So it’s step, squat, step, curl. Moving from the left side of the room to the right, and then back
  • Alligator Crawl- If your on a wood floor, put your feet on a towel or Gliders (if you have them) and get into a plank position. From there, walk your hands forward so that you are pulling your legs behind you. This is KILLER for your upper body/lats/shoulders. Wowzers we were all dying.
  • Bunny hops- these are just little jump squats that you do in a forward direction. Want to make it harder? Hold a weight overhead.
  • Plank w/weight push- Get into a plank position with a weight between your hands on the floor. Use one hand to push the weight forward and then walk in that plank position to the weight. Repeat. On the way back, you’re going to walk backwards in the plank position and this time you’ll push the weight under your body towards your feet. Try to keep your butt down during this- it has a tendency to want to lift up 😉
  • Frogger Burpees– instead of turning around to jump back to your spot, keep moving in one direction until you get to the other side of the room.

Phew! I think that’s it! If I didn’t explain something clearly, don’t hesitate to ask me for a better explanation. I should’ve taken a video of myself doing these, but it’s hard since I don’t have a lot of room in my apartment.

This workout left me really sore- I hope it does the same for you!

Questions for you: What’s your favorite workout format? Stations? Across the floor? Circular circuits? Any of these moves new to you?