Well the holidays are officially over. It was nice to have two 3-day weekends in a row. Now it is time to tackle 2016!
Do you have any New Year’s resolutions? I mentioned this Friday, but I don’t usually do resolutions at the New Year. I make goals throughout the year, but don’t typically start anything at the beginning of each year.
Jodi is challenging us this round of bootcamp to come up with two goals. One is health related in terms of exercise and eating. The other is a health goal as well, but a lifestyle goal. I have some in mind, but I need to sit down tonight or tomorrow and really think about what I would like to accomplish.
One of my blogging goals for 2016 is to start getting two recipes created and posted per week. I definitely enjoy that part the most in terms of blogging, but it is actually pretty time consuming to make a recipe. You have to test the recipe, make the exact recipe (if the test needed tweeking), photograph it, edit the photos, rewrite the recipe from notes, and then create the rest of the blog post. However, with some planning I think I can manage an additional recipe per week.
I would love to get you a recipe on Mondays, workout on Wednesdays, another recipe on Thursdays, and Anything & Everything Friday post on Fridays.
What do you think? Would you like more recipes? Any suggestions? I’d love to hear what you are interested in, whether it is breakfast recipes, snacks, dinners, etc.
Today’s recipe is a dinner recipe. I made these a couple weeks ago and incorporated them as on of my carbs in my meal prep. These are vegetarian, but I took one roll alongside some chicken or some ground turkey. Delicious! You could definitely add meat to the rolls to get protein in them that way.
I’ve mentioned this before but it is debateable whether cheese is clean-eating. I guess I am not “strict clean-eating” because I prefer to keep cheese in my diet. I don’t consume it often, but will occasionally add it to recipes, such as these Kale Lasagna Roll Ups.
One key to keeping cheese “cleaner” is to buy it in the block form and full fat. In this case, I bought fresh mozzarella and then shred it myself. Shredded cheese in the bags have added ingredients to keep it from turning into one large clump. Avoid those “unclean” ingredients and shred it yourself.
My favorite part about these Kale Lasagna Roll Ups is that they are freezer-friendly. I only needed five for my meal prep so I cooked 9 rolls (some for Donny and some for the weekend) and froze the other 3. You’ll complete the steps the same if you are planning to freeze, but once you roll each one you will place them on a cookie sheet instead of a baking dish. Do not cover them with marinara. You will want to freeze the rolls by themselves, then when you are ready to eat them you’ll thaw, cover in marinara and bake.
These are a little more time-consuming than the majority of my recipes, so you could always double the recipe and freeze half the rolls for later. Take them out of the freezer the morning before you want to eat them and boom, they will be ready to throw in the oven at dinner time!
- 12 whole wheat lasagna noodles
- 2 1/2 cup kale, shredded
- 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 cup ricotta
- 1/2 cup 1% cottage cheese
- 1 cup mozzarella, shredded and divided
- 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1 cup marinara, divided
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil. Add lasagna noodles, reduce to a simmer and cook until al dente (about 8 minutes). Remove from water and allow to cool. Pat dry.
- While pasta is cooking, heat olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add kale and saute until wilted, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- In a small mixing bowl combine the ricotta, cottage cheese, 1/2 mozzarella, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Stir until well combined. Add kale and gently incorporate into cheese mixture.
- In a 8x8 glass baking dish, pour 1/2 cup of marinara in the bottom and spread evenly.
- On a clean surface, lay the lasagna noodles so they are flat and not overlapping. Evenly distribute the ricotta mixture among the 12 noodles, stopping with about 1 inch left on one end of each noodle. Roll up firmly but carefully toward the unfilled end. Place each rolls seam side down in the glass dish.
- Top lasagna rolls with remaining marinara and then sprinkle with remaining mozzarella. Cover baking dish with foil.
- Bake covered for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 15 minutes.
- Allow to cool slightly before serving.
- Kale can be replaced with spinach or leafy green of choice.
- Lasagna rolls can be frozen. Place rolls seam side down on a cookie sheet and immediately place in the freezer. Do not add marinara until ready to cook. Thaw rolls before cooking.
These look fantastic. I am going to make them Saturday. Thank you
Awesome! Let me know what you think.