Ingredients
(makes 12)- 12 oz raw ground turkey
- ¼ tsp salt, divided
- ¼ tsp pepper
-1 cup chopped onion
- ½ cup chopped mushrooms
- 14.5 oz can crushed tomatoes, or tomato sauce
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tsp dried oregano, divided
- ½ tsp dried basil
- 1 ½ cups part skim ricotta cheese
- 24 small square wonton wrappers (the kind near the tofu in the refrigerated section of the produce dept)
- 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Preheat oven to 375˚F and heat large skillet over medium heat. Add turkey, onions, mushrooms, salt, and pepper. Crumble the meat as you add in pan.
Saute mixture for around 10 minutes, or until the turkey is cooked thoroughly.
Add the garlic and stir constantly for 30 seconds. Add the crushed tomatoes and 2 tsp of oregano. Bring the pan to a gentle boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the ricotta, a pinch of salt and pepper, the remaining teaspoon of oregano, and the basil. Stir to mix well. Set aside. Coat a 12-cup muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. Place 1 wonton wrapper into each of the 12 cups, pressing firmly in the bottom of the cup and up the sides.
Using half of the ricotta mixture, divide it among the 12 muffin cups.
Next, using half of the turkey tomato sauce, spoon it evenly over each of the ricotta filled cups. Sprinkle with 2 tsp of mozzarella.
Gently press another wonton wrapper on top of the mozzarella layer.
Repeat the process by distributing the remaining ricotta, then the remaining tomato sauce, and finally the rest of the shredded mozzarella.
Bake for 10 minutes, or until the cheese has melted. Let the cups cool, remove them from the pan, and serve!
I couldn't really choose just one photo for this dish... The cute cupcake form of the lasagna just had to be appreciated.
Nutritional Information: Calories: 181.2 | Total Fat: 7.9g | Cholesterol: 41.9mg | Sodium: 389.5mg | Total Carb: 13.6g | Fiber: 1 g | Sugars: 1.6g | Protein 14.1g
This recipe calls for minced garlic, which didn't pose as a problem for me. Throughout the past few meals I have cooked, three of the recipes called me minced garlic. As you can guess, I have become more and more comfortable chopping up small garlic cloves into even smaller garlic bits. This comes to show that practice might not make perfect, but it sure helps you get a lot better at whatever you're practicing!
A few suggestions for this dish would be...
1) Use tomato sauce instead of the diced tomatoes I used - The diced tomatoes took up a lot of space and didn't compliment its surrounding flavors as well as I had hoped it would. Tomato sauce would give it a more "lasagna" taste while making it more appealing in appearance.
2) More turkey (or hamburger) - When biting into these petite lasagna bites, I didn't taste as much meat as I would've liked. Most of the taste and texture came from the excessive amounts of cheese, which brings me to the next point.....
3) Use less Ricotta cheese - My parents and I both agreed that there was too much of it. Even though the ricotta didn't have a pungent or foul taste, it felt as if half of the lasagna was just ricotta cheese (which wasn't that pleasing, especially for a girl who doesn't have a taste for cheese.
4) More salt and pepper - The dish was made up of cheese, a small amount of turkey, diced tomatoes that tasted a bit sour, and the crunch of the crispy won-ton rolls that encased the cheese, meat, and vegetables. More seasoning would've added a bit more flavor, thus, making the taste of the final dish more exciting and tasteful.
5) Same amount of Mozzarella cheese - I know I had just ranted about my dislike for cheese, but even though I may not like cheese, the mozzarella topping on this lasagna seemed perfect. The mozzarella cheese was a boost for the taste, along with the appearance of the final dish.
I must admit to the overall boring taste of the lasagna. I'm not saying that I didn't like it. It's just that the taste of the lasagna didn't meet my exceedingly high expectations. Going from the pictures from the website, I was expecting a party in my mouth. The dish I ended up with was more like "a night out at the movies"- somewhat entertaining, but still immeasurable to a day out at the beach or a party of some sort. Sorry if "a night out at the movies" was a mediocre example. I meant to say that the taste of the dish was nothing more than all right.
After making this dish with the help from my mom, she came up to me and said,
"You know what? We're a good team". She hugged me and continued to help me clean up the rest of the kitchen.
Those words lingered in my head for the next few minutes until the excitement of trying my new lasagna bites overshadowed any other thought that had been in my head at the moment. What I realized is that food brings people together. Food sustains life, but yet is so much more than something we need to nourish our bodies. While cooking with my mom, we have to work together in order to accomplish the same goal. While I lined the muffin pan with the egg roll wrappers, she whipped together the ricotta cheese mixture. Cooking is similar to any counseling exercise. In a typical counseling activity, you and your partner would have to work together to overcome whatever challenge you are faced with. In cooking, you and your fellow chef have to work together to whip up a really good meal. Even if the finishing result might not be the most delicious food you've ever tasted, what really matters it the friendship and relationship you build in the process. Like many say, what's waiting beyond the mountains isn't important, it's the climb that is.
Recipe from http://www.canyoustayfordinner.com/recipes/.
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