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a simple real food recipe :: zucchini lasagna :: gluten free with grain free option

If you haven’t figured it out from THIS post and THIS post…we love zucchini around here 😉

Summer is a great time to experiment with zucchini recipes if you have overflow from your garden, or just find them well priced in your farmer markets, and we have been enjoying this zucchini lasagna for a couple years now. I can’t remember where I first saw the idea for zucchini lasagna, but this has been what has evolved from wherever I started a few years back.

Author: Renee - www.theSIMPLEmoms.com

Ingredients

1 lb grassfed ground beef
½ jar of organic spaghetti sauce (Careful on those ingredients!)
1 TB Italian Seasoning
3 lbs zucchini sliced long/thin
1 cup softened whole cream cheese (Either easy homemade or whole organic)
Oz whole cheese of choice or blend of cheeses, shredded (for instance moz, chedder, parm)
1 egg (if egg free use an egg replacer egg)
1 ¼ cup gluten free bread crumbs (I just dry out my GF bread and buzz them in the processor. If you are grain free I’m thinking using a mix of coconut flour and almond flour would work nice!)
1 tsp Italian Seasoning
Sea salt/pepper to taste

Instructions

MAKE THE MEAT SAUCE: Brown the beef in a couple TB of butter or coconut oil along with the 1 TB Italian Seasoning and some sea salt. Add the ½ jar spaghetti sauce and simmer a few minutes.
MAKE THE CHEESE SPREAD: In a medium mixing bowl, use a spoon to mix the cream cheese, about ¾ of the shredded cheese, egg, and 1 tsp Italian Season.
ASSEMBLE THE LASAGNA: Arrange 1 layer of zucchini in the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Sprinkle about half the bread crumbs. Spread ½ the cheese spread. Spread ½ the meat sauce. Layer the rest of the zucchini. Spread the other ½ meat sauce. Spread the other ½ cheese spread. Sprinkle the other half of the bread crumbs. Sprinkle the very top with the last ¼ of the shredded cheese.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour. Check around the 50 minute mark in case our ovens run different.

Kitchen Tips:

The bread crumbs help soak up the moisture of the zucchini – if you are grain free try the coconut flour/almond flour mixture – I really think this will work as I have used this combo as a bread crumb in other recipes.
Make your own cream cheese – TOO easy!
If you are going for completely vegetarian you can skip the beef…I’ll be honest…my hubby would most likely not touch it if it didn’t moo or cluck 😉
Ok seriously…I need one of THESE for easier thin zucchini slicing! BUT even if you don’t have one – my cutting skills with a knife really are pretty terrible and it still turns out great – it doesn’t have to be perfect – I promise!

YOUR TURN!
What are your favorite ways to use zucchini in the summer?

This post was shared at Real Food Forager’s Fat Tuesday and Holistic Squid’s Party Wave Wednesday!

August 14, 2013 By Renee

About Renee

the real food hippie :: renee is married to her superman and mama to her 3 busy bees. she loves soaking up the sun, real butter, and julia child. her passion is helping people take baby steps to raise a real food generation in this world of highly processed food – one with healed guts, functioning minds, and solid health. she also blogs at Raising Generation Nourished. Find more of Renee on twitter pinterest and Google+.