I started the day with some lovely crumpets with marmite YUM. Then whilst that was going down I did a 'mock-up' of a cake I am doing at the beginning of February. My friends little boy is turning three and he has an obsession with the film 'Cars'. So I am making him a Lightening McQueen Car cake. Today I just wanted to try out the shape I wanted to do, headlights, fender, windscreen etc but on a very small scale. This weekend or next week I will do another mock up but of 'true size'........i'm looking forward to it!
Here is said mock up. VERY rough draft, just quickly tried out the dimensions etc. Will be a lot neater on final draft don't worry!! ;)
Then two workouts were completed and I also finished my little sisters Bday cake........I say little sister but she's now reached the grand old age of 23!!!! All grown up! So I made her a lovely victoria sponge (as this is one of her faves) and decorated it with buttercream roses. This was my first attempt at this and i'm kinda pleased with the results. It needs tweaking, so looks like i'll have to make more cakes.......oh drat!! ;)
Today I made a low fat version of one of my favourite dishes; Lasagna.....I can't really call it low fat as its still quite high in fat BUT lower calorie and considerably healthier than the original recipes!!! I quite liked it, there were a few things I might tweak though: Firstly the white sauce was nice but slightly tart (due to the quark), personally I quite like that but if you're looking for something creamier then I would perhaps substitute the quark for Ricotta OR do half and half. Secondly I am on a thrifty week this week so I used Beef and Pork Mince already combined. However if I had slightly more dosh I would have bought extra lean beef mince and added weight watchers or reduced fat sausages instead and the calorie count would be even less!
But in essence I enjoyed this lasagna, I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything and as a true lasagna addict it hit the spot, plus its less than 400 calories per portion! Bonus! Almost low enough to add a few slices of garlic bread!! ;)
Ok so here goes!
Ingredients
One onion diced
2 garlic cloves crushed
1 stick of celery diced finely
1 carrot grated finely
1/2 apple grated
450g pack of Pork and Beef mince OR 500g Extra lean beef mince
1tbsp Tomato Puree
2tsps worcestershire sauce
1 beef stock cube
1 tin of tomatoes
2tsps mixed herbs
Wholemeal lasagne sheets
White sauce ingredients:
1 x cottage cheese tub (250g)
1 x tub of Quark (250g-300gish)
1tsp mixed herbs
1tbsp semi skimmed milk
1 egg lightly beaten
Seasoning, lots of pepper!
2tbsps of parmesan
Method
- Sweat off the onions and celery in frylight or a tbsp of lower fat butter, when soft add the garlic and cook out for 2 minutes. Add the carrot and apple and cook for a few minutes until soft.
- Add mince and brown
- Add tomato puree and cook for 2 minutes, then sprinkle over the stock cube, worcester sauce and herbs and mix
- Finally add the tin of tomatoes and simmer gently for 15 minutes
- Whilst the meat mixture is simmering preheat oven to 180degrees
- Mix all the white sauce ingredients together
- Layer the meat mixture with the white sauce and lasagne sheets. I used 9 sheets in total 3 levels of 3. Top the dish with the remaining white sauce and sprinkle on some more parmesan
- Bake in the oven until the lasagne sheets are soft and the top is bubbling nicely and starting to turn a slight golden colour. This can take anything from 25-40 minutes depending on your oven.
- Then serve it how you like, I always like mine with a nice crisp salad with a lovely vinaigrette dressing (I love the way the vinaigrette mixes in with the lasagne, I think it tastes lush! Weird but true! ;)
NB. Almost forgot! This serves 6!! :)
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