Garfield the cat must be in cat heaven. July 29 is a day set aside to celebrate his favorite food. We're certain he's not the only one, as the average American consumes twenty pounds of pasta a year, with lasagna being one of those dishes. July 29, 2016 is a national day to celebrate the multi-layered combination of meat, pasta, cheese, and sauce, also known as lasagna.
Traditional recipe
The traditional lasagna recipe normally requires a lot of ingredients as well as a lot of preparation time. Allrecipes offers a classic recipe for lasagna that boasts half the time and effort to prepare. We're all about making life easier, so we really liked this one. You can view the ingredients and directions for this highly rated recipe here.
Alternatives
For those of you who are counting your calories or who are on restricted diets due to health conditions, there are many modified lasagna recipes that will enable you to participate in the celebration also.
Jillianmichaels.com has a low fat low calorie lasagna recipe that will allow you to indulge without paying the cholesterol or calorie costs. It packs a lot of flavor, but only contains 243 calories per serving.
Diabetics are encouraged to limit saturated fats and starchy foods in their diet. However, Diabetic Gourmet Magazine has a tweaked traditional lasagna dish recipe that the diabetic population can enjoy without guilt or harm. While some classic ingredients were left out or substituted, the flavor remains. In a five-star review it garnered a four-star rating. Click here to read the recipe.
Minced meat is one of the main ingredients in traditional lasagna (ground beef and Italian sausage). However, vegetarians you don't have to be left out in the cold either. For non-meat eaters there are various vegetarian lasagna options available. Allrecipes offers a five-step Hearty Vegetable Lasagna recipe. Apparently, removing the meat didn't eliminate the taste, as it received an overall 4.7 out of a possible 5-star rating, by its 580 reviewers. This recipe can be found here.
Classic lasagna dishes consist of a lot of ingredients, which can add up in cost at the grocery store. If expense is an issue, don't let that stop you, myrecipes.com has the solution to that. This site has a lasagna recipe that only requires five ingredients to make. These ingredients are: lean ground beef, tomato-basil pasta sauce, lasagna noodles, ricotta cheese, and shredded mozzarella cheese. Fifty reviewers gave it five stars, so it is possible to spend less to make lasagna without worrying about subtracting the taste. Go here to get the recipe for this 5-star, 5 ingredient recipe.
Whether you choose a classic lasagna, low calorie/low fat, vegetarian, or five ingredient lasagna recipe, or if you prefer to go to your favorite Italian restaurant to indulge, go ahead and have a serving or two. It's National Lasagna Day after all.
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