Butternut Squash & Feta Lasagne

I had this plan last weekend to make a big lasagne, as I had extra lean mince in the freezer to use up. So I went to Lidl to get ingredients, whereby I remembered that I had forgotten to get said mince out of the freezer. So... vegetarian lasagne it is!

I found various recipes online (there's even an old one on this blog!) and sort of combined them all to create some kind of SUPER LASAGNE. It was pretty hard to mess up, to be honest, because all the ingredients are really tasty by themselves, so together they are AWESOME. This was so tasty, and because butternut squash is the basis and it's crazy filling, it was ridiculously low in points. Unbelievably, if you did all the things I've listed below to reduce points, you could get it down to 5PP a portion. It's a bit impossible, really.

Serves 4 to 6, depending on how hungry you are. It's pretty filling though!

Butternut Squash & Feta Lasagne

8 x Dry Lasagne sheets - 15pp

125g Lidl Light Mozzarella - 5pp

200g Feta Cheese - 15pp

1 x can Campbell's Mushroom Soup - 4pp

15g Parmesan Cheese - 2pp

1 x Butternut squash

200g Spinach

2 x Leeks

1 x Pepper

4 x Portobello Mushrooms

4 x Garlic Cloves

Rosemary

=41PP / 7PP per portion

To reduce points - Use less lasagne, or less cheese. You wouldn't miss 2 of the lasagne sheets (having 6 rather than 8), half the feta, or the parmesan. But it's nicer with them all, obviously.



1 - Peel and chop up the butternut squash.
2 - This is harder than it sounds! If you can get a pre-cut butternut squash, do. Chopping butternut squash is the worst. It's easier to cut if it's cooked first, which is what I did, but it was also kind of a bugger to peel that way. In short, butternut squash is difficult. But so tasty!
3 - Put the chopped butternut squash in a roasting tin and spray liberally with FryLight. Sprinkle with dried rosemary, salt and pepper and chuck some crushed garlic on, too. Roast in a 200c oven for about 25mins.
4 - Whilst the butternut squash is cooking, prepare everything else.
5 - Wash your leeks, mushrooms and pepper and chop them up into nice chunky chunks. Dry-fry in a frying pan or wok with the rest of the crushed garlic cloves until softened - 10 mins or so should do it.
6 - Remove the vegetables from the pan and put in your spinach. Cook with the lid on for about 5 minutes until it wilts.
7 - When your squash is done, you're ready to assemble. Make sure to leave the oven on as you'll need it to cook the lasagne! You can assemble your lasagne any way you want, but this is how I did it:
8 - Put about half of it into the bottom of your lasagne dish and over that, put about half of the leek/mushroom/pepper mixture.
9 - Lay 3 or 4 lasagne sheets over that and then put all the spinach over them, making sure they are evenly spread and more or less cover the surface of the lasagne sheets.
10 - Over the spinach spoon the remainder of the vegetable mix, then the remainder of the squash.

11 - Chop up your feta and sprinkle the lot over the top of your squash.
12 - Cover with 3 or 4 lasagne sheets.
13 - Over them spoon the can of mushroom soup and make sure the lasagne sheets are all covered.
NB: You can use any white sauce here. Mushroom soup is really easy and low fat, and I love the flavour. If you use something different just account for it in your points.
14 - Tear up your mozzarella and sprinkle over the lasagne sheets, then sprinkle the parmesan over that.
15 - Pop your pan in the oven - heavy, ain't it - and cook for 20-30 mins at 200c.
16 - Get it out, serve it quickly, eat it all up. I've eaten it four days running this week and I'm not even remotely sick of it because it's AWESOME.
17 - NB: This freezes really well.


EDIT: I made this again for the second time and I changed a few things:
1 - Used 6 lasagne sheets instead of 8. This cut it to 6PP a portion and it was just as filling. And I didn't have to compromise on cheese! Also it made it easier to cut into 6 as I had dividers!
2 - I found a great tip online to cut butternut squash easily. Pop it on a microwavable plate, pierce it a few times all over and microwave for 3 minutes. It will be much easier to peel and cut after this - genius! It meant I could chop it all up before roasting it.
3 - I roasted the squash in the lasagne pan rather than an oven tray. Saves washing up!
4 - I added a little water to the bottom of the lasagne pan after adding the first layer of veg. Just enough to give a thin covering - half a glass, maybe quarter of a glass? This was just to ensure it wasn't dry and it really wasn't.
5 - I shared it! I gave a portion to Sha and she (and her other half) loved it. Hooray!

If you want to make this or any of my recipes and have any questions, the quickest way to get a response is to tweet me @essbeevee :)  

Gym For The Win?

Hi there everyone,

First off, apologies for my silence recently; I've been in the shed, practicing my fighting.

I kid, of course - I've actually been eating Pic 'n' Mix and playing video games, because apparently I'm 12 years old. I don't even have a shed - although I have started going to Boxercise.

Anyway. I've been working on something super-secret with my pals at MoneySupermarket.com over the last few weeks, and today I want to present to you my secret project - click the great big banner below and read all about it!

Exciting, huh?

If you couldn't be bothered clicking on the picture of the nice lady doing the side raises above, then I'll explain what we're doing below:

Basically, we're offering bloggers the opportunity to try out their local gym for a whole month for free, in order to see whether or not they'd be interested in keeping it up after the thirty days are over - and to write about their experiences!

I feel pretty strongly about this - as some of you may know, I spend more time at the gym than I do at home now, but less than a year ago I didn't see the point in spending £30 or more every month - so far as I was concerned, I could do all my keep fit on my bike - but if I were to have a change in circumstance my gym membership would be the last thing to go, even after things like sweets.

And I LOVE sweets.

If you want to get involved, then click the image above or simply email competitions@moneysupermarket.com - it's dead easy, and the window to sign up lasts all the way through May.

Feel free to share this with any other blogger pals you might have - from experience the gym is a lot more fun if you have someone you know to keep you motivated and to call you names if you try and give up - just ask my friend Owain. The first 200 people are guaranteed to get their month's membership paid for - so don't delay!

Monthly Summary: April

You might have noticed a distinct lack of Sunday Summaries lately. To be honest, we're all busy people and sometimes we find it hard to update every week, particularly if we're out and about on a Sunday.  So we've decided to switch to monthly, not weekly updates. We'll still be posting regularly on here of course, and if you ever want to know specifically how we are doing, just give us a shout on Twitter!

We've got lots of stuff coming up in May which we hope you'll like, but if there's anything you'd like to see more or, give us a shout in the comments. We're also always looking for bloggers to guest post their personal stories about diet, exercise and health and whatnot, so get in touch!

Sarah V - April has been a great month for me. I've lost over a stone and a half now and hit my 10% target at Weight Watchers. In the last week or two, I've suddenly noticed the change in my body - clothes are fitting better and I can really see how much smaller my waist and my pot belly have become. I feel a lot better in myself, and am so much more active - I find myself planning ways to incorporate extra walking into my routine which I would never have done a few months ago. In May, I want to get to two stone. I'm 5.5lbs off it at the moment which sounds fairly obtainable, so I'm going to step up the exercise so that I can get there by the time June starts. I still have more I want to lose, but I do really feel like I'm getting there which is a fantastic feeling.

Gem -I really struggled to get back on track once I started full time work and switched to online only Weight Watchers. I found a class that fitted in with my work schedule but I hated it and really didn't want to go back but I didn't give up. I found a local class on a Saturday morning with a brand new leader and all new members. It feels like we are all starting the plan together and everyone is super supportive there. I had my first weigh in back this week and I lost 3lbs. I'm so happy and feel like I can finally work towards my -100lbs goal. I'm currently 5 stone 4lbs down from my start weight and I'm aiming to be -6 stone by the end of June. I have a trip to Amsterdam and London in the way but it's a realistic goal.

Rosie - I've missed a few Sunday Summaries not only because I've been busy but also because I've been conscious of not having anything to share.  In December last year I shared that I'd hit my 10 week pledge target and managed to beat it by getting down to 127 lbs.  Now, five months later, I am.... 129 lbs.  I'm not worried about having put a couple of pounds on but I have felt that having not lost any weight for a few months means I don't really have anything to contribute to Where Are My Knees.  I hope that that's wrong however, because although I've plateaued and struggled to go beyond the weight loss I saw at the end of last year, I've also maintained.  And for the first time in a long, long time, I have moments where I look in the mirror and feel happy with my weight.  I hope that what I can bring to Where Are My Knees from now on is reflections on how to maintain weight after a loss, healthy eating tips (because I have completely changed my eating habits) and more on exercise, particularly running.  I've got back into running again over the last couple of weeks and it's an amazing feeling - being able to run 10ks at the weekends makes me really happy and feels like such an achievement.  This month I'm going to Greece in the second week and my goal to feel happy and confident in a bikini.  That would be a phenomenal gain for me.

Sarah - I have given up at this moment in time :(  I just cannot focus on weight loss with all the house stress going on around me.  I had no idea it would be so stressful and all consuming.  I don't even want to tell you the kind of crap I have been eating my body weight in.  Rather embarrassing that I haven't managed to get to the point where I can control my food intake regardless of what is going on around me.  Since my last update I have managed to gain 7lbs.  Yep you read that right, a whole half stone.  Knowing how hard this was to lose and how easily I have gained it really annoys me and come two weeks when I finally move into my new home I am going to kick it's ass and get back on track.  I will be going back on The Harcombe Diet as the clean eating/low carbing plan really suited me and I found it relatively easy to stick to.  I did dabble with the 5:2 plan earlier this week but after one day on 500 calories know it's not the plan for me.  There is no way I can cope with feeling so weak and dizzy and ending up with a massive headache twice a week, just isn't worth it.

How's April been for you?