Sunday, January 30, 2011

Lasagna Pinwheels

Do you ever end up with left over lasagna noodles and you can't figure out what to do with them?  If so, you might want to try the "Lasagna Pinwheels" (page 220).  I had seven lasagna noodles hanging around, and even though the recipe calls for 12, I figured I could use the extra filling for something else later.  Speaking of the filling, this was an easy and tasty ricotta-style blend of tofu, white beans, and spinach.  I've made ricotta type fillings using tofu in the past, but never with beans as part of the mix. The final result was a heartier (and lower fat) version of a plain tofu ricotta, with a more substantial texture as well.  I really liked it, and can imagine using this wherever I would use ricotta. The pinwheels consisted of the cooked noodles individually spread with the filling, rolled up, placed on a layer of marinara sauce of your choice, then topped with more marinara sauce, and baked for a while.  I took the picture before adding the top layer of marinara sauce to show what the pinwheels look like.  (My pinwheels came out a bit larger than planned as I was  very generous with the filling.)  Happily, there are no changes necessary to make this McDougall Plan friendly, as long as you use oil free marinara (which I did) and whole wheat lasagna noodles (which I did not).

4 comments:

  1. YUM! this looks delish! I really wanna make this tonight, but unfortunately i have already made a dinner plan :( I am going to make them tomorrow though! I am really craving some nice hearty lasagna right now!!!

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  2. Great, Erika, and thanks! Be sure and let us know what you think after you make them. :)

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  3. I made this last night for my omni son & daughter-in-law (along with my veg dh, and 2 dd's). It was quite nice -- no left-overs :(. I added some jarred roasted garlic to the filling, which upped the flavor profile quite nicely. Next time, I think I'll add the spinach at the end of the processing - maybe it won't pulverize as much and turn the filling quite so green. Also needs about 2x more sauce. Quite a nice dinner. Thanks for writing about it - I wasn't sure if I wanted to make this, but now I'm glad I did. Keep up the good work. :) Makes that book seem much more approachable now.

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  4. Hi GP! Thanks so much for your comments, I appreciate your kind words! Haha-it is sad when there are no leftovers when you really like something. :)

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