Sunday Bake with kids – Simple lasagna recipe

My comfort food is Italian cuisine with lots of cheese on it. We try to bake with the kids every weekend. Last Sunday, we baked Chicken Lasagna. I did not want to make it tiresome, so found this super easy recipe that turned out to be quite good.  We wanted to make a healthier version of traditional lasagna so we used wholegrain lasagna sheets and lots of veggies.

Serves 4:

Ingredients:

6-8 lasagna sheets

3 tbsp olive oil

250 grams cheddar and mozzarella cheese

150 grams Pasta sauce (we used Barilla’s here)-

3 gloves of garlic – chopped into pieces.

The mom in me used the veggies liberally to make it healthier

Vegetables used:

Zucchini Onions Red and Yellow bell peppers Carrots Chicken breast (washed + diced)

Recipe:

Step 1: Boil water with some salt and oil. Add the lasagna sheets and boil till they are 70% done.

Step 2: Drain and wash the lasagna sheets with cold water. Separate the sheets carefully and lay it on a clean tray.

Step 3: Sauté’ some olive oil, add garlic

Step 4: Add onions, chicken chunks, zucchini, bell peppers, carrots in that order

Step 5: Once the veggies are half cooked, add pasta sauce to it and cook for some more time.

Step 6: Grease an oven tray / baking dish (1 inch deep)

Step 7: Layer veggie and pasta sauce, then lay lasagna sheets.

Step 8: Put another layer of veggie and pasta sauce, cover cheese, top with the lasagna sheet

Step 9: Keep repeating for 3 to 4 times.

Step 10: The last lasagna sheet to be covered with grated cheese

Step 11: Put two toothpicks on the sides and cover with foil. The toothpicks will keep the foil from sticking with the lasagna

Step 12: Preheat oven at 200 C for ten minutes

Step 13: Bake at 220 C for 20-25 minutes

Step 14: Remove the aluminium foil and cook for 7-8 minutes for the cheese to brown.

Things to remember:

1. Only boil the sheets till its 70% done. Overcooking will make the sheets join together.

2. Wash the drained sheets with cold water immediately and carefully remove the sheets from each other, else they would stick together.

3. I have not used the white sauce in the layering as it makes it too cheesy.