Mini Lasagnas

I am a Phatty. That’s right P-H-A-T. It stands for pretty hot and temptin’ (for those of you not with-it in the late 90’s/early 2000’s). Me and four of my girlfriends from high school called ourselves the Fab Phat Five. Really we were the fab FAT five, but we didn’t think it was nice to call each other fat, so we went for Phat. We even had shirts made that said “Fab Phat Five” on the front. Even though it’s been ten years since we were all in school together we’ve still remained close. We’ve been through a lot together, and recently we got together to have a baby shower for one of the phatties. She’s not the only pregnant Phatty, but this was the first shower, so it was kind of a big deal. Not all the Phatties were there, but 4 out of 5 ain’t too bad. (and I got to see the 5th a few days later so it was all good)! There were also some honorary Phatties there that made the night pretty special overall. I made these gems for the shower, and I was really pleased with how they turned out. I was able to assemble them the night before the shower and then heat them up before. I also am looking forward to making them again and freezing the individual lasagnas for lunch for myself. I highly recommend these!

Picture instructions first then regular instructions…

Saute some S and P, a cup of chopped onion and 12 ounces of ground turkey in a skillet on medium-high for about 10 minutes.

Add a 14.5 ounce can of crushed tomatoes, 2 teaspoons dried oregano and 2 cloves of minced garlic. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile in a large bowl, mix 1 and a half cups ricotta cheese, 1 teaspoon dried oregano, 1 teaspoon dried basil, and a pinch of salt and pepper.

Coat a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray and press a small wonton wrapper into each cup.

Divide the ricotta mixture in half and then divide that among the 12 cups. Gently press down the cheese with a spoon.

Spoon in some of the turkey tomato sauce mixture into each cup.

 

Sprinkle some mozzarella cheese on top of the turkey mixture. Then gently press another wonton wrapper on top and repeat by layering the ricotta, turkey and mozzarella.

 

Bake for 10 minutes or until cheese melts. Remove from oven, let cool, remove from tin and enjoy!

Ingredients

• 12 ounces raw ground turkey
• 1/4 teaspoon salt, divided
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms (optional: I opted out!)
• 14.5 ounce can crushed tomatoes, or tomato sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 3 teaspoons dried oregano, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 1/2 cups part skim ricotta cheese
• 24 small square wonton wrappers
• 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Note on ingredients: In case you don’t know this (I did not), the ricotta cheese can be found in the refrigerated section near the sour cream. Also the wonton wrappers: make sure you get small. They are in the refrigerated section of the produce department. Near the tofu and other organic refrigerated items. You’ll have to look hard, but they’re there.

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the turkey, onions, mushrooms, salt, and pepper. Crumble the meat and saute the mixture about 10 minutes or until the turkey is cooked through. Add the garlic and stir constantly for 30 seconds.
2. Add the crushed tomatoes and 2 teaspoons of oregano. Bring the pan to a gentle boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
3. While turkey/sauce is simmering combine the ricotta, pinch of salt and pepper, the remaining teaspoon of oregano and basil in a large bowl. Stir to mix well.
4. Coat a 12-cup muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. Place 1 wonton wrapper into each of the 12 cups, pressing firmly in the bottom of the cup and up the sides.
5. Using half of the ricotta mixture, divide it among the 12 muffin cups. Next, using half of the turkey tomato sauce, spoon it evenly over each of the ricotta filled cups. Sprinkle with 2 teaspoons of mozzarella.
6. Gently press another wonton wrapper on top of the mozzarella layer, and repeat step 5.
7. Bake for 10 minutes, or until the cheese has melted.
8. Let cool and remove from cups.

My Notes…

I’ve never cooked with ground turkey before, but I really liked it. I feel like you could easily use ground beef or whatever meat you’d like. I could only find 19 ounces of the turkey. So I just browned all of it with the other ingredients. This did cause some leftovers, and the turkey to tomato sauce ratio was not great, but I didn’t mind it. Also the instructions do not say to drain before adding the other ingredients. I would. This would prevent the sauce from becoming a bit diluted. Also I didn’t have any dried basil so I just used Italian seasoning. It was just fine.

Also the leftovers heat up great. I also made a nice mostacholi with the leftover turkey sauce. Really liked the flavor of these. They were fun to assemble and I think everyone (especially me) enjoyed them. Also with the wonton wrappers and turkey these little guys come in under 200 calories a piece!! Eat up my friends.