Serves 8

Below is a recipe for chicken and artichoke lasagna from WholeFoodsMarkets.com. This was definitely a delicious and filling recipe and I would make it again. It does use three different types of cheeses and for a very healthy recipe you should probably stick to a vegan lasagna recipe. Traditional lasagna recipes use beef and many of the vegetarian recipes use eggplant but still have three types of cheese.  I ended up using extra tomato sauce and cheese and noodles. I doubled the recipe and have one extra dish in the freezer. I have to remember to remove the plastic and cover the baking dish with foil before cooking. I forgot to do that twice before and the plastic melts on the food and ruins it.  The picture to the lower right was never frozen and I put it in the oven at 350°F for about 70 minutes as I wanted the cheese completely melted. At the grocery store all of the rotisserie chickens were around two pounds so I ended up buying two eight pound roaster chickens and cooking those and using them for the recipe. Also ended up using the food processor for chopping the chicken and artichoke hearts and grating the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

Ingredients:

• 1 rotisserie chicken
• 1 (14-ounce) can artichoke hearts in water, drained and chopped
• 1 (15-ounce) container (2 cups) ricotta cheese
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 (28-ounce) jar tomato sauce
• 8 ounces no-boil lasagna noodles (half a box)
• 1 (12-ounce) bag shredded mozzarella
• 1/2 cup shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Method:

Remove wings and drumsticks from chicken and set aside for another use, such as lunch. Discard skin; pull meat from breast and thighs and chop it. Combine in a bowl with chopped artichokes. In another bowl, stir together ricotta, egg and salt.

In a 9 x 13-inch baking dish, pour a thin layer of tomato sauce and top with a layer of noodles. Cover with half the ricotta and sprinkle with some mozzarella. Top with another layer of noodles, a thin layer of sauce and the chicken-artichoke mixture.  Layer noodles, more sauce and remaining ricotta on top, and sprinkle with cheese. Put a final layer of noodles on top, spread with remaining sauce, and sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan. Cover with plastic wrap, seal tightly with foil, and freeze up to 2 months.

To bake, remove foil, discard plastic and re-cover with foil. Bake at 400°F until bubbling, 60 to 75 minutes. Remove foil, raise heat to 450°F and bake until browned, about 10 minutes more. Let cool 10 to 15 minutes before slicing and serving.

Nutritional Info:

Per Serving: 430 calories (140 from fat), 16g total fat, 9g saturated fat, 150mg cholesterol, 1420mg sodium, 36g carbohydrate (4g dietary fiber, 6g sugar), 36g protein

Source:

Whole Foods Market http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/print/recipe/freeze-ahead-chicken-and-artichoke-lasagna?css=recipe_no_image (accessed Saturday, January 21, 2015)

Websites on ingredient boxes:

• barilla.com
• wildharvestorganic.com
• hunts.com
• essentialeveryday.com
• deifratelli.com

Freeze-Ahead Chicken and Artichoke Lasagna Word document