Pinterest Fail Equals Creative Success...Zucchini Lasagna

Focusing on eating a cleaner diet has been a priority for me. Roughly 21 days ago I began the 21 Day Fix through Beachbody in an attempt to clean up my diet, gain control of my portions, and get back into exercising. This meal plan has led me to look for clean recipes for dinner.

While meal planning yesterday (as this is the thing to do when trying to eat a cleaner menu) I found a recipe for zucchini ravioli. (Found here http://lasvegasphotographercindylarkin.blogspot.com/2013/10/spinach-zucchini-ravioli.html) Gluten free and clean eating...I thought it would be a different dinner item to try, but when I saw the four strips of zucchini thinly sliced and neatly wrapped around the meat mixture inside I knew it may be a bit challenging...I was correct.

I made the ground turkey, onion, spinach, and garlic mixture, but added quinoa and mozzarella cheese (hoping my 3 year old would eat it (fail!)) to it. Everything was coming together smoothly and then the wrapping began. First, I followed the method from the recipe and that didn't hold together. Then I decided to try to basket weave it together. That failed as well. Maybe my zucchini wasn't long enough?

In a last ditch attempt to save my dinner from flopping completely, I decided to lay zucchini across the bottom of the 9x11 casserole dish I was using. Then I put the meat mixture on top of the zucchini. I topped the meat mixture with another layer of zucchini and finished the dish off by topping the zucchini with marina sauce. I covered it with aluminum foil and backed it at 350 for 45 minutes (taking the foil off for the last 12 minutes).

I'm always fearful of how my new creations will taste, but this one was a crowd pleaser (other than my 3 year old!) and will definitely be returning to dinner again soon!

Slicing the zucchini. Unfortunately, the zucchini would not fit into the safety hold, which put my fingers at risk of being sliced off

Ground turkey, 2 cups spinach chopped, 1/2 red onion, 2 garlic cloves, salt, pepper and olive oil reading for cooking.

Everything cooked with quinoa (I cooked 1 cup of quinoa and added half) and mozzarella cheese (about 1.5 cups shredded) added.

Finished product (sorry I missed the assembly  pictures...I was a bit frazzled by the failure of my ravioli creation.)



***Portion control with the 21 Day Fix was a challenge on this dinner. For one, it was very tasty, but not overwhelming filling due to the zucchini layers, which led me to eat a wee bit more than I should have. The dinner does have quinoa (yellow container), mozzarella cheese (blue container), ground turkey (red container), spinach, onion, and zucchini (green container) in it.***