According to Dr. Davis (a preventative cardiologist), in his book Wheat Belly, he states:
"In my personal experience with thousands of patients with heart disease, nearly 90% express the small LDL pattern to at least a moderate, if not severe, degree." He goes on to explain that the big deal isn't really about "high" cholesterol that causes atherosclerotic plaque accumulation and eventually heart attack and stroke. It's all about the particles... the SMALL LDL's to be exact. He goes into a lot of detail and honestly, you should get the book! I've already highlighted the heck out of mine!
So do you get a cholesterol test yearly? I did because my MD had me on a cholesterol med.
According to Dr. Davis that blood test is actually based on an equation and will NOT measure SMALL LDL particles. "The only way for your doctor to truly know where you stand is to actually measure LDL particles in some way, such as LDL particle number (by a lab method called Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, NMR, lipoprotein analysis) or apoprotein B particles.
So enough of all that! How can you enjoy Lasagna????? That is really what it boils down to isn't it? What can you eat that tastes good. Here is my first shot at ever making lasagna. Wouldn't you know it would be a non-traditional kind!
I replaced regular lasagna noodles with fresh from the package firm tofu. I did press out the liquid first because it seemed like the thing to do. I then sliced the block with a cheese slicer. Ok.. you have to be careful here because the tofu seemed to have wanted to crumble or crack on me. Somewhere there may already exist tofu lasagna noodles, but I had to make due with what I had. I will find them, oh yes... I will find them!
You will need a 13"x9" baking dish
Preheat oven 350 degrees F
Cook 45 minutes covered with foil, then uncovered for 15 minutes longer or until cheese is brown.
Ricotta/Spinach filling:
2 cups (15oz) ricotta cheese
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups chopped fresh spinach or 10 oz. frozen and squeezed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon italian seasoning or dried oregano
Other ingredients:
19 0z. block of firm tofu
4 cups (32 oz.) marinara sauce, divided
2 cups (8 oz.) shredded Mozzarella cheese, divided
8 slices deli style Provolone cheese
1 cup (4 oz.) Shredded Parmesan cheese
*Optional ingredients:
Meat, mushrooms or anything you think might be good. (have fun with it!)
I didn't have the required size of baking dish so I used a couple smaller glass ones. they also come with handy lids for storage in the fridge. Also, my bag of frozen spinach was a tad bigger then the 10 oz. that is called for. That is why my filling is so green!
So here is what you do:
Combine Ricotta cheese, eggs, spinach, salt, pepper, nutmeg and italian seasoning in small bowl and set aside.
Cook your optional ingredients to use as a layer in the lasagna.
Assemble the lasagna. Here is what I did:
I put sauce on the bottom of the pan,
then layered the tofu slices on top, and then added the ricotta mixture.
I added a layer of mozzarella and then another layer of the tofu slices
I topped the tofu slices with more sauce, mozzarella and then slices of provolone cheese
I added Parmesan cheese and then popped it in the oven
This was my second dish to use up the "extra" ingredients since I didn't use a 13x9 dish.
Final Critique:
I thought it was good and so did my hubby. Next time I plan on using less spinach (or more Ricotta) and then a bit of ground turkey or chicken sausage... something like that! I may go for a thicker spaghetti sauce too just to see how that turns out instead of a thinner sauce I used. I love my sauces!
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