No Noodles Ground Turkey Lasagna

Ok, this dish was the one I was most excited, yet most nervous to make. I've never even made regular lasagna, let alone paleo style! For vegans and vegetarians, simply omit the meat.

Keep in mind, my mom makes the best lasagna ever. Although our versions differ, there's still a lot riding into this dish. Gotta make my momma proud!

For "noodles," we used sliced eggplant.  If you can, find free range ground turkey. For cheese, we used our raw cheeze
recipe, and the veggies used were organic. And our not so secret ingredient is honey! Yes, honey. And only because the marinara sauce we used was too tangy for our taste. If you like tangy, omit the honey.  The marinara sauce we tried and loved is Walnut Creek. No salt added, gluten-free, and organic.

Non-stick pans are great because we didn't use oil to sauté the veggies or cook the ground turkey sauce. We only used olive oil to grease the casserole, which was only about 1/4 teaspoon.

After all the chopping, sautéing, layering, and baking, we finally did it. Whoa!

No Noodles Ground Turkey Lasagna

1 lb ground turkey
2 1/2 cups marinara sauce2 eggplants
2 small zucchini
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 cup chopped sweet onion
1 cup baby spinach
2 cups raw cheeze, divided
Sea salt and pepper to taste
Honey (optional)
"Parmesan cheese" - mix equal parts almond meal/flour and nutritional yeast

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut stems off of eggplants and leave skin on. Cut into 1/4 inch thick slices. Don't worry, I'm still mastering the art of slicing and some of the pieces were thick and uneven. In a non-stick griddle, heat each side to about a minute to remove moisture. Set aside.

In large non-stick saucepan, cook the ground turkey and season with sea salt and pepper.  When cooked, drain the meat. Stir in the marinara sauce and season according to taste. This is where we put honey to lessen the tangy. Set aside.

In the same saucepan, sauté the garlic and onions for a few minutes and then add the zucchini, bell pepper, and mushrooms. Set aside.

Grease a 9x13 casserole

Layer 1: half of eggplant slices
Layer 2: 1 cup raw cheeze
Layer 3: half of turkey marinara
Layer 4: half of sautéed veggies
Layer 5: baby spinach
Layer 6: eggplant slices
Layer 7: 1 cup raw cheeze
Layer 8: sautéed veggies
Layer 9: turkey marinara
Layer 10: drizzle as much "Parmesan cheese" as you like

Bake in the oven for 35 minutes. And you'll be as surprised as we were when we devoured this lasagna! By far, our most flavorful and colorful dish yet...wow!

Cheezeburger

Now that we have “cheese” in place, the possibilities seem endless!  But one night, we were craving cheeseburgers.  Off we went to our favorite grocery store, Sprouts Farmers Market.  We even replaced the regular grocery chain with a healthy grocery store.  Each time we’re at Sprouts, we feel like a kid in a candy store or an ant on top of a mound of sugar!
Cheezeburger (serves 4)

4 gluten-free hamburger buns - we recommend Udi’s brand

1 lb grass fed ground beef
1 tomato, sliced

1 organic lettuce
1/2 onion, sliced

Salt and pepper to taste 
Raw cheeze – spread as much as you like on the bun

Season the ground beef with salt and pepper and form 4 patties.  Heat your griddle or pan to medium high and cook each side 3-4 minutes or until juices run clear. We like to toast the buns; so after the patties are finished, we placed it on the griddle for a minute to take in some of the flavor. Assemble that cheeseburger and you're good to go!

Raw Cheeze

Our mission is to substitute stuff we love.  And my weakness is cheese…cheddar, American, Jack, mozzarella, brie, etc. You name it, I’ll eat it!  But for health reasons, we decided to rid ourselves of cheese. I may have shed a tear that day.

So off to Google we went!  We discovered that vegans use raw cashews to make “cheese.” We looked at many different recipes, and even tried it at our favorite farmer’s market so we know what to expect when it comes to taste and texture.  Wow!  It was delicious and motivated us to dive in and make it.  It’s almost the best thing since sliced bread.

Raw Cheeze 

1 cup raw cashews (soak for at least 2 hours)

½ cup filtered water
1-2 cloves minced garlic
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
Pure sea salt and pepper to taste
Juice of half a lemon

Drain the cashews.  Place all ingredients in a food processor and process for at least 2 minutes, depending on your desired texture.  Our poor mini food processor isn’t the strongest as it kept violently shaking and needed more time.

 
Have fun exploring the ingredients to your taste – enjoy!