South Beach Pasta-less Lasagna.

Let me just tell ya, no carbs = no fun.

Fo real.

My typical day used to look like this:

Breakfast: egg white & ham on a slice of bread
Snack: Apple
Lunch: Pasta Lean Cuisine & 2 slices bread
Snack: Popcorn
Dinner: Salad, Meat, Veggie (usually corn) and Bread

Here's how that stacks up now:

Breakfast: egg white & ham on a slice of bread
Snack: Apple
Lunch: Pasta Lean Cuisine & 2 slices bread
Snack: Popcorn
Dinner: Salad, Meat, Veggie (usually corn) and Bread

Yeah. It's not very much fun. The good news is that Cody and I have both lost 3.5 lbs in 3 days. Which is enough motivation for me! I've had the hardest time coming up with inspiring dinners. There's only so many times you can eat salad/veggie/chicken,steak,porkchops before it gets a little boring. I have also had a huge craving for lasagna. {most likely because I can't have it right now}

Yesterday at lunch I was hit with a dose of inspiration and came up with this recipe last night. Now, we are a little deprived around these parts so our taste buds might be a little biased, but I thought this was a great meal and will definitely keep it in our rotations!

Start by cooking a pound of ground turkey with chopped up onions:


Once the meat is justalmost finished cooking, add some mushrooms and let them saute till soft.


Grab some frozen bell peppers ($2.54 for a bag at Walmart, best thing ever!) and microwave till soft.


Start by placing a thin layer of meat & mushrooms in a casserole dish. {I used single serve Fiesta ones. Fiesta makes every meal better!}


Then add the bell peppers:


Then a layer of ricotta cheese: {less for your husband if you're not sure if he'll like it!}


Topped with pasta sauce:


Then a little more meat, sauce, and finally topped with cheese:


If you have plenty of time, pop into the oven at 350 until warm. If you are on time crunch like we usually are, microwave for 2 minute, serve, then spend the next 12 minutes blowing on each bite to cool it down. Thoroughly enjoy eating something different besides grilled {fill in the blank}

Serve with roasted asparagus.


{I sprinkled with olive oil, garlic and lots of pepper. Roasted at 425 for 10 minutes. Not totally sure we're asparagus people or that I made them correctly, but it was nice to have a different veggie on our menu!}

Hope you enjoy!

p.s. - I can't guarantee that spaghetti sauce is allowed on the South Beach Diet. You can have 10 cherry tomatoes, which I figured was couldn't be that much worse than Spaghetti sauce. Plus I made the sauce, so I know it's relatively healthy.

p.p.s - did you see glimpses of my new counter tops and back splash in my picture? {swoon.} they are so gorgeous. we should finish them up this weekend so I can blog about them soon!