Easy Healthy Lasagna
It’s time to cozy up with the BEST Easy Healthy Lasagna recipe for dinner tonight. All of the goodness of classic lasagna, but lightened up and packed with protein for a skinny version of the traditional recipe! This lasagna recipe is made with layers of noodles, meaty marinara sauce and a flavorful cottage cheese mixture, all baked to golden brown perfection. A satisfying main course option that even my picky kiddos love!
You can never go wrong with a tasty Italian dinner made healthier! Some of my favorite renditions include healthy sloppy joes, healthy baked chicken parmesan and this healthy lasagna loaded with plenty of delicious flavor.
If you want major comfort food, you’ve got to add this family-friendly dish to your menu. Easy Healthy Lasagna is the quintessential winter meal that must happen in your life. We love it served with this simple, yet tasty Italian salad and garlic bread. Let me show you how simple this one is to whip up!
How Do You Make Easy Healthy Lasagna?
This lasagna is simple, basic and would best be described by the term, traditional. Just the way my kiddos like it! I changed up the way that I layer it up since I opted to use whole-wheat NO BOIL lasagna noodles (aka.. best idea ever). If the noodles don’t get enough moisture, they don’t cook completely. Crunchy lasagna? No thanks!
I know that layering a lasagna isn’t exactly rocket science, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve blown it. Please tell me I’m not the only one. Here’s a little help from me to you. You’re welcome.
Lasagna Layering Guide:
- Meat sauce (less meat, more sauce)
- Noodle layer
- Cottage cheese (use half)
- Meat sauce (more meat, less sauce)
- Noodle layer
- Cottage cheese (use it all)
- Meat sauce (use it all)
- Mozzarella
Lasagna doesn’t fall under the category of “classic health food,” but with a few simple swaps and some careful grocery shopping, you can eliminate all things funky while still using some store-bought shortcuts! You can use any variation of the ingredients listed below. I tried to keep the lasagna as light and full of protein as possible and my husband and kids still raved about this dish.
Healthy Lasagna Ingredients
Lean ground turkey – I used 93% lean ground turkey. You could even try the Italian seasoned ground turkey, but my store was out when I went to pick up items for this recipe. Even with out the Italian seasoned meat, my lasagna came out super flavorful. Try to get organic, free-range raised in the USA on 100% organic, all vegetarian, non-GMO diet with no antibiotics if possible.
Marinara – You could definitely make your own, but there are some really great store-bought options out there. Look for a variety that is made from all real food ingredients (no weird words) and doesn’t list sugar as an ingredient. My favorites are either Rao’s or Organico Bello – both are available at Target, Kroger and Amazon.
Cottage Cheese – This is where the unexpected superfood, cottage cheese, makes this Easy Healthy Lasagna so creamy and full of added nutrients and protein for a perfectly balanced meal. I usually use the fat free variety, but full fat or light work just fine. And you don’t have to love cottage cheese to love this lasagna.
Mozzarella – If possible, try to avoid the mozzarella that comes pre-packed and shredded. It contains an ingredient called cellulose (anti-clumping) and you just don’t need it. At my grocery I purchase the mozzarella from the deli and ask them to shred it for me (yep.. I’m lazy like that). Also, if possible, I like to try to use a light cheese variety.
Lasagna Noodles – You guys.. no boil is where it’s at! So much easier than pre-cooking. I use whole wheat oven ready noodles and I’ve never had a complaint.
Lasagna Tips + Tricks
Prep: The meat sauce and cottage cheese mixture can be made up to 3 days ahead of time if stored in the refrigerator.
Make Ahead: Assemble lasagna and cover it with plastic wrap. Do not bake. It will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days. When you are ready to serve, remove it from the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature. You can then bake it according to recipe directions.
Freezer: Assemble lasagna. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on top of the lasagna. Cover lasagna pan tightly with clear wrap. Store in the freezer for up to 1-2 months. Many times when I make this for dinner, I make two – one to enjoy right away and one to freeze for later.
Other Family-Friendly Healthy Dinner Recipes
Sweet Potato Black Bean Casserole
And be sure to give my other Easy Lasagna recipe a try!
I’d love to know if you make this (or any) recipe! Tag @kimscravings on Instagram and be sure to subscribe to our mailing list to receive more healthy delicious recipes straight to your inbox.
Watch how easy this delicious healthy lasagna is to cook up!
Easy Healthy Lasagna
Ingredients
- 1 pound Italian seasoned ground turkey or regular ground turkey, chicken, or lean beef, (I used the 93% lean ground turkey)
- 16 ounces (2 cups) marinara sauce
- 1-1/2 cups fat-free cottage cheese (can use full fat or fat free)
- 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 6 oven-ready lasagna noodles (can use gluten free)
- 4 ounces (1 heaping cup) light mozzarella, shredded (can use full fat or fat free)
- Finely chopped fresh parsley, optional for garnish
Instructions
- In a large skillet cook ground turkey. Once cooked, stir in marinara sauce, set aside.
- Meanwhile, in a medium mixing bowl, combine cottage cheese, Parmesan cheese and Italian seasoning.
- Preheat oven to 350ºF and in an 8 x 8 to 8 x 11" baking dish that has been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, layer 1/3 meat sauce (more sauce than meat), 2-3 noodles, and 1/2 cottage cheese mixture.
- Repeat layering process with meat sauce, noodles and then cottage cheese mixture.
- One more layer of meat sauce and then top with mozzarella.
- Cover with tin foil. Bake for 20 minutes at 350ºF. Remove tin foil and bake for another 10 minutes.
- Let rest for 10 minutes before serving. Enjoy a large serving! Makes 6 HUGE servings!
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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Use good quality sauce for best results. Hubby liked the cottage cheese instead of ricotta
i used lean beef and sugar free marinara and wow. just delicious. thank you for posting this!!
Wow, this was absolutely amazing! I made this tonight for my mom and myself and followed the recipe exactly except I used gluten free lentil lasagna sheets since I cannot have gluten. This is definitely going on the regular rotation! Thank you.
So glad that it turned out great! Thanks so much for your feedback!
Hi Kim,
Obviously you are adventurous when creating recipes as am I so I want to share this with you. I have made many Lasagna dishes in the conventional manner and once I tried using regular Lasagna noodles without wetting them except for the sauce, I never went back to boiling them or even wetting them and I never had to search out “No boil” noodles!
Just thought I’d share this with you and Thanks for sharing your successes with us!
how much is 1 serving?
the flavor was there but mine turned out really watery and completely fell apart when trying to take it out of the dish 🙁
Did you let it rest for at least 10 minutes after coming out of the oven, before serving? This could also have something to do with the consistency of the spaghetti sauce used.
What is a serving size? Is it 1 cup, 1.5c. etc? Trying to put this in a food tracking app and need to know. Thanks! THIS IS DELICIOUS!
You can put 1 cup, but I always just divide it into 6 equal squares. So glad you enjoyed!!
This was so delicious and easy to make. I served it at a family dinner and no one could guess about the cottage cheese. I was skeptical since I’m not a huge cottage cheese fan but it was amazing!! Will make again!!
So happy you enjoyed and thanks so much for your comment!
I usually never leave reviews but I couldn’t help but leave 5 stars. This tastes like normal lasagna but helps me stay on track with my protein goals. I would also like to emphasize to anyone skeptical of the cottage cheese – you cannot taste it at all! I t tastes just like a normal ricotta and parm mixture. Cannot recommend enough.
Thanks so much for your comment and feedback! So happy that you enjoy this recipe!
This was so good and so easy! New favorite lasagna recipe!
One of the best lasagna recipes I’ve had! Thank you for sharing.
Oh that makes me so happy to hear! So glad you enjoyed!
I’m doing something wrong Kim! Although it’s delicious, it always tends to turn out a little to0 “runny”. My husband is a saint, so he never complains, but I get a little frustrated.
Sorry you’re having trouble. I would try a different marinara sauce. You can even add in 3 to 6 ounces of tomato paste to thicken it up. I would also be sure that you’re letting the lasagna rest at least 10 minutes (up to 30 minutes is even better) after removing it from the oven.
What size pan do you use in your video? Thanks very much!
I use a 9×13-inch pan. Enjoy!
I made this vegetarian with Impossible ground and it was a big hit with the whole family! I also made 1-1/2 times the recipe in a 9 x 13 pan and baked for 30 minutes with foil and almost 20 without.
That’s awesome! Thanks so much for taking time to leave feedback!
I love this recipe and have made it about 4 times now! The first time I followed everything exactly and felt it was a little skimpy. Now I use 24 oz sauce, 16oz cottage cheese and about 8 noodles. Everything else I keep the same. My kids love it!
Sounds awesome! So happy to hear that your family enjoys it as much as mine does!
I never write reviews but this dish is too good not to$ I’m pregnant and I’ve made this 2-3x a week since I discovered it. My husband is addicted to it too. I dice up carrots and onion in the meat sauce to add some extra nutrition!
I love it!! And such a great idea sneaking in veggies!! Thanks for taking the time to comment!
made this for my picky toddler, he loved it!!
That makes me so happy to hear!
This was SO good! Never would have known it was healthy just by tasting it and it was super easy too! Will be a regular dinner from now on!
This looks amazing! I’m having a hard time finding no boil noodles near me. How would you adjust the cooking time/temp for regular boiled lasagna noodles?
Thank you! Simply cook noodles as instructed and then follow the recipe as written. The cook time for the lasagna should be the same. Enjoy!
This was easy, quick and delicious- just how I like my week night suppers! Would make again!
So happy you enjoyed and thanks so much for taking time to comment!
Can I say it? WOW! Just, WOW!!! And my hubby did not realize it wasn’t red meat! He was also unaware of the low fat or healthier noodle found on line. I’ll get him healthy yet!
A million thanks to you!
Janet
Love hearing this!! What an awesome comment. Thanks, Janet!
This recipe was delicious. I substituted half the cottage cheese for a low fat ricotta and added a little spinach and it was perfect and SO easy to make!
So happy to hear you enjoyed and thanks so much for your feedback!
This recipe is bomb.com!! I could fit a HUGE serving in my macros and my husband already called dibs on the leftovers for his lunch tomorrow. Thanks for a great recipe!
Yay! So glad to hear that you and husband enjoyed. I actually bought the stuff to make it this week too! 🙂
I am very interested in trying this out but I have a question.. I do not like cottage cheese (mainly the consistency of the chunks). Can you taste this when its cooked?? Usually I would just use regular cheese, but idk.. this sounds soo good and everyone seems to love it!!
Once baked, the cottage cheese becomes more creamy and cheesy, not like what you would think of as normal cottage cheese.
It looks amaxing on picture, but I have one question. Where is the seasoning/ spices?
No onions, no garlic, thyme, nada!! Just meat, sauce and noodles🤔
There is Italian seasoning and, of course, the seasoning in the marinara sauce. You can definitely add more to taste, if you’d like.
Yum! Such a great recipe. We make this a couple times a month and the whole family really enjoys it!
This was perfection! Did not miss a thing. You would have no clue healthy swaps were made. I swapped the whole wheat pasta for green lentil. Will definitely make this one again. The whole family loved it!
That’s wonderful! So glad you enjoyed and thanks so much for leaving feedback!
This looks incredible!!! But I have a question on the serving size it says 6 servings but it looks like your cutting it into more how big is a serving?
Thank you! Yes, the nutritional info is for 6 very large servings.
Made this lasagna last night and boy was it delicious! Love that it’s healthier, but still so tasty! Thanks for this easy lasagna recipe!
This was a huge hit at our house! I also subbed whole wheat pasta for the Banza Chickpea lasagna pasta and it tasted great!
So glad you guys loved it!! Seriously one of my fav dinners too! <3
This was amazing! We have been making this monthly for awhile. I use rice lasagna noodles. They do not taste any different from regular noodles. They are just softer and take about 5 minutes to cook. Boil them in hot water with a little butter comes out great. Have you ever tried them? Anyway, thanks for the great recipe!
Will definitely have to give those a try! Thanks for the suggestion!
We finally had a day under 100 degrees so I decided to cook last night. Since I’ve been on a journey to lose weight I was searching for lower calorie versions of classic family food and my son had been craving Italian. I stumbled upon this recipe. It was SO simple and easy! My son even questioned that it was low fat! I couldn’t find whole wheat oven ready noodles, though. Do you mind sharing the brand name of the noodles you use? Thanks for posting nutrition info and sharing this recipe. I’ll definitely be looking forward to more!
Yay! That is so awesome to hear! This is one of my go-to recipes that we make all of the time. My whole wheat oven ready noodles are flat and the brand is Delallo. I think I found them at Target. No worries if you can’t find whole wheat, though, I think the nutritional info is pretty close.
How many servings does this make? Thanks!
6 large servings
I love lasagna and this recipe totally hit the spot. I love that it’s low in fat and calories, but definitely doesn’t taste healthier. So good! Thanks for sharing 🙂
My kids really loved it! A new favorite in my house!
I love the flavor that adding cottage cheese adds to this lasagna. This was such a hit with my family, thanks!
Thank you so much for this recipe. Made it, hoping my girls would eat it (3 and 7) and they both gobbled it up!! So delicious!! Will definitely be checking out your other recipes!
Thanks for sharing this recipe!! My whole family absolutely loved it! And I love that it’s lower calorie. Will definitely be making this again and again!
It’s a must for sure! Hope you enjoy!
This recipe really was easy and so tasty too! The only thing I did different was to add spinach and mushrooms. I served it with garlic bread and your Italian salad. Might be one of my all-time favorite dinners!
Tristin, I’m not the best cook. But I’m wondering if you can explain how you incorporated spinach and mushrooms!! I love that idea.
I have never liked lasagna…..that is until NOW! This was absolutely delicious. I made it and gave to a few friends….they loved it too. It has so much delicious flavor. Amazing how great it is. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. And you would never know it has turkey in it.
Lasagna is the perfect comfort food. Love how easy this is to put together.
I agree … no boil lasagna is where it’s at!! I loved your lasagna. I don’t usually make it as often because it’s not the healthiest. I will definitely be making this lightened up version again and again.
Absolutely delicious! This will become a part of the family rotation.
Wonderful recipe!! It was so so so good! The whole family enjoyed.
I’ve had never thought to use cottage cheese as an alternative. I’m not much of a cottage cheese fan, but this turned out so flavorful! It’s a new favorite recipe for sure!