Chicken and Roasted Garlic Lasagna

Over the past few months, I've made several variations on lasagna. I found this recipe here at For the Love of Cooking late last week and immediately knew that this would be the meal I would make with the hubby for date-night. This is one of those recipes that just screams, "Make me!" (I realize that a garlic-hefty meal is a little odd for date night... all that I can say is it's not our first date)

It definately didn't disappoint! I did not make my own marinara sauce mainly because I no longer have large quantities of tomatoes around the house, but I can only imagine that homemade sauce would make this lasagna that much better! Another new thing was roasting garlic - I have heard a lot about roasting garlic for different recipes but have never actually done it myself. I guess I thought it would be a lot harder than it was. In reality, it was not much more than slicing off the tops, wrapping them in foil, and placing them in the oven for awhile. This will go down in the books as an easy to enhance the flavor of a lot of meals - as long as I give myself enough time ahead of time for the garlic to roast :-) Try it out - you'll love it!

(Printable Recipe)

Chicken and Roast Garlic Lasagna - adapted from: For the Love of Cooking

For the roasted garlic:
2 heads of garlic
1/2 tsp. olive oil
dash of salt

For the chicken mixture:
2 c. cooked chicken breast, shredded
2 bulbs roasted garlic
1/2 sweet yellow onion, diced finely
1 red bell pepper, diced finely
1 yellow bell pepper, diced finely
dried basil, to taste (1/2 tsp)
dried oregano, to taste (1/2 tsp)
sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Other ingredients:
1 (32 oz) container fat-free cottage cheese
dried basil, to taste (1/2 tsp)
dried oregano, to taste (1/2 tsp)
ground nutmeg, to taste (1/8-1/4 tsp)
1/2 c. + 3 Tbsp. Parmesan cheese, divided
10-12 whole wheat lasagna noodles, cooker per instructions
Mozzarella cheese, shredded
Roasted Garlic Marinara
 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice the tops off of the heads of garlic so every clove of garlic is exposed. Place on a small square of tinfoil. Drizzle with olive oil and salt to taste. Fold edges of tinfoil together and twist to make a completely sealed bundle. Place in oven and bake for 30-40 minutes depending on the size of the garlic. Let cool before serving. Squeeze to remove roasted cloves.
 
Boil chicken breasts on stove top until cooked through; shred when cool. Place the shredded chicken, roasted garlic, diced onion, diced bell peppers, basil, oregano, sea salt, and ground pepper in a large bowl. Mix well.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Coat a large 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray. In another bowl, mix cottage cheese, 1/2 c. Parmesan cheese, additional basil, oregano, and nutmeg. Combine until mixed throughly. Meanwhile, cook the lasagna noodles per instructions. Drain.


Layer a 9x13 baking dish with just enough marinara sauce to cover the bottom of the pan. Cover the sauce with lasagna noodles. Spread some of the cottage cheese mixture on the noodles, then spoon some of the chicekn mixture on top and sprinkle with some mozzarella. Spoon sauce over the cheese and repeat layering. Finish with a layer of noodles and remaining sauce. Sprinklw with mozzarella cheese, remaining 3 Tbsp. Parmeasan cheese and a sprinkle of basil and oregano. Bake covered in a preheated oven at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before slicing.