Meaty Potato Lasagna

Ingredients:

  • 6 slices 30% less fat center-cut bacon cut into ½-inch pieces
  • 8 oz. 93% lean ground beef
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 3 cups bottled marinara sauce, such as Healthy Choice, divided
  • 2 (20 oz.) bags refrigerated home-style sliced potatoes, divided*
  • 1 (15 oz.) container fat-free Ricotta Cheese
  • 1 ½ cups (6 oz.) shredded reduced-fat Mozzarella cheese, divided
  • ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
  • 1 egg

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°.  Coat a 13-inch by a 9-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
Over medium-high heat, heat a large nonstick skillet.  Add bacon and cook until just starting to brown about 5 minutes.  Stir in beef and cook, breaking into smaller pieces with a wooden spoon, until no longer pink, about 4 minutes.    Add onion and garlic and cook until beef starts to brown, about 4 minutes.  Remove from the heat and stir in 1 cup of the marinara sauce.
Spread ½ cup of the marinara sauce over the bottom of the prepared baking pan.  Top with 1/3 of the potatoes, slightly overlapping slices.  In a medium bowl, stir the ricotta cheese, 1 cup of the Mozzarella, ¼ cup of the Parmesan cheese, and egg together.  Spread Ricotta mixture over the potato layer.  Top with another ½ cup of the sauce and the second layer of potatoes.  Top with the bacon/beef mixture.  Arrange a final layer of potatoes.  Top with the remaining 1 cup sauce.  Sprinkle with remaining ½ cup Mozzarella and ¼ cup Parmesan cheese.
Cover with foil.  Bake 1 hour.  Uncover and bake 10 minutes longer or until cheese is lightly browned and potatoes are tender.  Remove from the oven and let stand 10 minutes before serving.
*If you can’t find the refrigerated sliced potatoes in your market, scrub, peel and slice 2 lbs. Washington Russet potatoes.  Place in a large saucepan with cold water to cover.  Heat to boiling, then reduce heat to simmer and simmer about 4 minutes, or until potatoes are just barely tender.  Drain well.

Nutritional Analysis per serving:  329 calories, 27 g protein, 38 g carbohydrates, 9 g fat, 5 g saturated fat (23% of calories from fat), 65 mg cholesterol, 4 g fiber, 719 mg sodium.