Peggy's Italian spionach Casserole

[buttoni]

This dish, inspired by Linda Sue's Spinach Lasagna, adds some ingredients that give it an interesting twist. I used a very small amount of ricotta cheese rather than cream cheese, as well as adding mushrooms, olives, basil and fennel. I find these flavors to be essential for Italian food.



This casserole came out scrumptilious! I just kept throwing more stuff onto the browned ground beef and the end result got a fantastic reaction from both me and my husband. The leftovers should freeze nicely, too! The key to throwing something like this together easily is having the homemade spaghetti sauce at the ready in your freezer. I try to keep a big batch frozen in smaller portions for just such purposes. My own ground beef spaghetti sauce is what I used for this tonight. Just made a 5 X batch this week, in fact. Because of the ricotta, this recipe is not suitable until you get to the “more dairy” level of the Atkins OWL ladder. My spaghetti sauce has ground meat in it, so if substituting a sauce without meat, you will want to increase the meat called for by another ½ pound or your dish won’t be quite as good, in my opinion. Get a load of the nutritional info for this recipe! A very nutritious meal indeed. It was sooooooo good I’ll be making this one again and again!

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. 90% lean ground beef
2 c. my meaty spaghetti sauce (see below)
12 oz. frozen spinach, thawed, drained and squeezed out all moisture
1 6.5-oz can sliced mushrooms, drained
12 black olives, sliced
½ tsp. fennel seed, crushed
¼ c. Parmesan cheese
2 c. mozzarella cheese, grated
½ c. ricotta cheese
4 black olives sliced for top garnish
4 leaves fresh basil, chopped

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 350º. Brown the meat in a non-stick skillet. Sprinkle evenly into a 8″x12″ greased casserole dish. Crumble the well drained and squeezed evenly over the top of the meat. sprinkle with all the Parmesan cheese. Next spread the mushrooms and olive slices evenly over the mixture. Now spread the spaghetti sauce over all without disturbing the lower layers too much. Sprinkle with the crushed fennel seed and chopped basil leaves. Dot the surface intermittently with the ricotta cheese and sprinkle the mozzarella evenly over the top of the casserole. Garnish the surface with the 4 sliced olives. Cover with foil and bake at 350º for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for about 30 more minutes or until bubbly all over. Allow to cool 5-6 minutes before attempting to dip it up or the servings won’t be so pretty. It’ll still taste good, however. Serve with a nice green salad and your favorite low-carb garlic bread.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 6 servings, each contains:

530 calories
36.6 g fat
12.77 g carbs, 4.03 g fiber, 8.74 g NET CARBS
38.33 g protein
500 mg sodium
400 mg potassium
59% RDA Vitamin A, 25% B6, 110% B12, 18% C, 15% E, 40% calcium, 23% copper, 40% iron, 22% magnesium, 24% manganese, 27% niacin, 60% phosphorous, 39% riboflavin, 47% selenium, 13% thiamin, 64% zinc

Peggy's Spaghetti Sauce

This is the spaghetti sauce I have been cooking for over 40 years. I usually double or triple the recipe and freeze some for convenience. For a change of pace, I sometimes add diced eggplant, or mushrooms, or BOTH! But those additions are not calculated in the nutritional info below. This is acceptable for the Atkins Induction Phase.

INGREDIENTS:

1 ½ lb. lean ground beef
½ c. green pepper chopped
½ c. parsley chopped
1 c. celery chopped
6 garlic cloves minced
6 oz. yellow onion chopped
2 14-oz. cans crushed or diced tomatoes (no added sugars)
1 small (8oz) can tomato paste
½ tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 T. dried crushed oregano
1 bay leaf
1 T. fresh rosemary (or ½ tsp. dried)
1 T. fresh basil leaves, chopped (or ½ tsp. dried)
½ tsp. fennel seed

DIRECTIONS: Brown meat in large stew pot. You may need a little oil if your meat is real lean. Chop all veggies and add to meat and stir well. Now add garlic, seasonings, tomatoes and tomato paste. Simmer covered for 1½-2 hours on lowest heat possible. Will yield about 8-9 cups of sauce, or 8-10 servings, depending on how saucy you like things and how you plan to use the sauce.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Serves 10, each serving has:

295.3 calories
20.75 g fat
13.18 g carbs
4.48 g fiber
18.3 g protein
approx. 116 mg. sodium
8.7 g NET CARBS

[buttoni]

Dang, I'm a louse typist, and a worse proofreader. Of course, that title should read Italian Spinach Casserole.

[tulipsandroses]

My that looks scrumptious!

[Nigel]

That looks really good.

[buttoni]

OMG I can't tell you how good this was. I had to exercise much self control to keep from eating seconds, which I KNEW would push me over on my JUDDD up day calorie limit!!

[islegirl]

Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. It sounds so delish and I am going to get the ingredients and make it next week - for sure!!! I'll get back to you about it. Can't wait.

[buttoni]

I sure hope you like it as much as we did, Islegirl.

[mojave]

This recipe is wonderful. I'l try it soon. Thanks!

Dee

[CreekWatcher]

Originally Posted by buttoni

Dang, I'm a louse typist, and a worse proofreader. Of course, that title should read Italian Spinach Casserole.

What the heck, "spionach" looks sort of Italian (maybe the "-ach" should be a dead give-away that it couldn't be, but I wouldn't know).

At any rate, it looks and sounds like it came out great, unlike the unfortunate experience you reported having with the Hungry Girl recipe (that, in spite of your having had the good sense to sub hamburger for the beef-flavored soy granules, or whatever it was, that the original recipe called for). If I ever get around to making both around the same time, I might try this dish with a dab of your mayanado on the side.

[buttoni]

Oh, I'll bet the Mayonado, or some of it on a green salad as a dressing, would be SUPER alongside this dish, CreekWatcher! That Mayonado is pretty good with everything I've smeared it on. LOL

[mojave]

I made this last night, with a few tweaks and it is fantastic. We had the leftovers tonight and it was even better. Such a complexity of flavors. I made a smaller batch, used TJ's organic grass fed beef and my own sauce recipe. I cooked the spinach and used sliced sautéed crimini mushrooms. Kalmata olives might be nice next time.Thak you, Peggy, this a keeper.So satisfying.

Dee

[buttoni]

Glad you enjoyed it, Dee. I like that spice combination, too.

[mojave]

Yes, the spices are lovely . I didn't have fennel seed, used Penzeys Pizza Seasoning which has fennel, cayenne, basil and oregano as ingredients. I used some fresh basil as well. I had lots of pans going, and the results were so worth it. Husband loved it. Thanks again.

Dee

[LosinitwithGrace]

wow that looks so good.
I will try it very soon!!thank you..

[Jennifer Eloff]

Never been a fan of olives, but I might just eat that! It looks SO good!

[CarolynF]

Looks wonderful..