Looking for a 21 Day Fix Lasagna? This lazy, one skillet zucchini lasagna is easy, amazingly delicious, low carb, and 21 day fix approved!
Confession #97 – I’ve been sucked into the idea of zucchini lasagna and, even worse, zucchini lasagna roll ups, several times, thanks to Pinterest. Don’t get me wrong – all the recipes I have tried have been amazing – but holy time consuming. Even the recipes that call for thin slices of zucchini all layered in a pan. I mean, I have a three year old.
I knew there had to be a better way.
Well, hello there.
This beauty is my answer. Meet my lazy, one-skillet, 21 Day Fix approved Zucchini Lasagna.
This dish skips the salting, rolling, pre-grilling, and the need for a fancy veggie cutter to make thinly sliced zucchini…all of the laborious stuff. And yet, it’s insanely delicious. As in, my husband declared it to be in the top five dinners of all time. Say what??
Oh – and it’s super quick. Like weeknight fast. It can be made in one skillet, as long as your pan is oven safe; if not, you’ll dirty two dishes and use a baking pan. No biggie.
If you need a pan, I love using cast iron for dishes like this. Mine is part of the Pioneer Woman set, but this one gets awesome reviews on Amazon. It’s a great, inexpensive addition to your cooking arsenal. Plus they look so pretty and can go from oven to table when you need them to!
With all the garden fresh zucchini around, now is the best time to give this a try! And, if you do, let me know what you think!
One Skillet Lazy Zucchini Lasagna
Ingredients
- Olive oil cooking spray I used my EVO
- 1 lb lean organic Italian poultry sausage removed from casing
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 4 cups zucchini (about 2 zucchini) sliced into thin half moons
- 2 cups spinach chopped
- 1 cup homemade tomato sauce or no sugar added jar sauce
- 1 1/4 cup ricotta cheese
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese plus more for topping
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- Fresh ground pepper
- 1 tablespoon fresh basil
Instructions
- Spray an oven safe pan with olive oil spray and cook turkey sausage through.
- Add garlic to pan and saute for a minute, then add a zucchini and spinach. Spray with additional olive oil spray and cook until zucchini is crisp tender. Add in basil and stir. Remove from heat.
- Flatten veggies and meat down a bit with your spatula, and then cover mixture with tomato sauce.
- Mix one egg, and T of Parmesan cheese into ricotta and sprinkle with fresh ground pepper. Layer ricotta mixture on top sauce.
- Finally, top with mozzarella cheese.
- Place in your broiler on low for 5-10 minutes or until cheese gets nice and toasty brown. Keep an eye on it, as it happens fast!
- Remove from oven and let sit for a few minutes. Just before serving, make a small cut into the lasagna and very carefully drain out the excess water from the pan. While this step is optional, because zucchini releases so much water, I think it's worth it! Just use those oven mitts and be careful!!
- Top with extra Parmesan cheese and sauce, if desired.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
For more Zucchini recipes, check out this awesome list of over 30 delicious recipes!
Mary says
How much basil? ❤️
Nancylynn says
About 1 Tablespoon, but if you like more feel free to add more! I just updated with the amount, thanks for asking!
Melissa says
I made this with ground beef and added Italian seasoning. It was sooooo good! My whole family enjoyed it and my 10 year old daughter said it was the best thing I ever made 🥰.
I love all of your recipes! Thank you for creating delicious and healthy meal options! I love you meal plans too!
Nancylynn says
That is the BEST, Melissa!!! Thank you for making my day!!
Alex says
Can you make this recipe in the oven? LMK! 🙂
Nancylynn says
Sure! You’d still need to brown the sausage on the stove, so I just prefer to use an oven safe pan for the whole meal, to save some dishes. If you don’t have an oven safe pan you can always transfer meat and veggies to a baking dish to finish it in the oven!
Jenna Winnegge says
Hi. I’m a huge fan of your website. Nearly everything I make lately comes from you and it is all amazing. Truly my favorite site out there. I made this tonight and it was so delicious and easy. I hope you never stop doing what you are doing because you’re amazing and have a true talent. Thanks so much for everything!
Nancylynn says
This made my whole night, Jenna! Thank you so much for taking the time to write – so very happy the recipes are helping!
Casey says
I just made this recipe last night. I did everything exactly except I used just regular Jimmy Dean’s Sausage (my husband doesn’t like Italian sausage). It turned out great. My son even said he likes it better than our regular lasagna (with noodles). I will definitely be making this one from now on. Too bad there weren’t any leftovers.
Nancylynn says
Amazing! No leftovers is a bummer!
Joann Perry says
I made this tonight, it was delicious! What I did was sweated the zucchini after I cut it and then sautéed it and added the spinach to that. I used an 8X8 dish and put a couple lasagna noodles at the bottom just to absorb the juices but didn’t eat the noodle part. I couldn’t find any turkey Italian Sausage locally so I found a recipe to make my own spices and I used ground turkey mixed with the spices and browned that with come chopped onion in it as well. Same layers and cheese on top! By saving my carb serving I was able to have some homemade garlic toast in the broiler! It was perfect! Thank you so much!
Nancylynn says
What a good tip about the noodles!
And you can totally use this recipe to make your own turkey sausage every time! https://confessionsofafitfoodie.com/how-to-make-homemade-italian-sausage-with-ground-chicken-or-turkey/
Jennifer says
What is nutrition info? Can’t seem to find it. This came out so delish-but seems so indulgent because of chicken sausage and all the cheese. Thanks. Definitely a keeper.
Nancylynn says
Check out myfitnesspal.com for the calorie breeakdown!
Sarah says
Looks delish. Can you use frozen (defrosted) spinach (in place of what I assume is fresh) in the recipe?
Nancylynn says
Yes!
Sarah says
This was fantastic! Just finished up the leftovers for lunch. I don’t like cooked vegetables most of the time, and am typically highly skeptical of “healthy” substitutions, but this was sooooooo good! I just finished up the leftovers for lunch, and will probably be making this again next week!
Nancylynn says
I am SO happy to hear this, Sarah! Thank you for taking the time to post and review this recipe!
Laura says
Everytime I have one of your recipes for the first time I think to myself, “impossible, I can’t love Nancylynn more…that would be creepy” and yet here I am…hahaha your recipes are always the BEST! Thank you!!
Nancylynn says
Girl, I love you.
Liz Gotschall says
I really want to make this but I don’t have a skillet! Any other options?! I love your site most of my dinners come from you…so thank you!!!
Nancylynn says
Yay, Liz! I am so happy to hear that! If you use a regular saute pan to brown the meat and cook the veggies, you can transfer it to a baking dish and you will be all set! Happy Holidays to you!
Jennifer says
What do you think about the Instant Pot for this recipe? Saute sausage with garlic then add ingredients and cook on manual for 8 minutes?
Nancylynn says
I think I need to try it ASAP!!!!!
Jennifer says
I made this in the Instant Pot. I used yellow Squash instead of the zucchini. Browned the sausage with garlic on sauté then added the rest of the ingredients and cooked on manual for 9 minutes. The Squash was tender crisp and not mushy. There was liquid that I tried to drain off and my son came along and stirred it up so the cheese mixed in, which was just fine. Maybe not the best presentation, but we don’t care. The dish had a lot of cheese so next time I will only add half a cup. This recipe is delicious! Thank you thank you!
Nancylynn says
YES!!!! This is SO super exciting!! Thanks, Jennifer!!
Momof3 says
Sorry, I don’t see where it says how many purple containers this one is? I did my weekly plan and made this, and didn’t realize until today that I hadn’t counted it as a purple.
Heather B says
Hi – I’m sure she’ll pipe in, but I know I’ve read something by Autumn maybe explaining tomato sauce. If it has no sugar or is under a certain amount, I don’t think it has to be counted as a purple.
Nancylynn says
Yup! No sugar in this sauce! 🙂
Heather says
I absolutely love this recipe! It was my go to for meal prep while my husband was deployed. My 16 year old at the time wanted to try it and he loved it so much he kept requesting! I haven’t made this in a long time so today I went and bought everything. Same son is now home from college for summer break. He saw the ingredients and said “oh are you making that zucchini lasagna!?” I said “yes and bought enough for double batch so I will share!”
Nancylynn says
This made me teary! I absolutely love everything about this, thank you for sharing!!
Heather B says
Here’s the FB video of Autumn. Haven’t watched recently. https://www.facebook.com/autumncalabresefitness/videos/1662374950659709/
Janine says
Omg!!!!! Omg!!!! This was delicious!!!!! I just started the 21 day fix this week and I have made your crockpot tortilla soup (huge hit with the family!), the cauliflower casserole (family was all about that too….at first my little one complained it was too spicey but when I refused to let her eat anything else she ate it and had 3 helpings!), and the lemon chicken! (Liked as well!) I did use organic Italian chicken sausage from Trader Joe’s and my own homemade sauce! I am a foodie and live to eat! I will be using lots of your recipes from now on. With this diet I am really trying to focus on just eating healthier and now worry about what the scale says! (Even though I should!) my husband has even notice a change in me this week that I am a lot more happier! My kids have been great with eating what I make them. I am not a short order cook so they really have no choice. So thank you for sharing your recipes online! It had made it a lot easier for me to stick with this diet! Looking forward to my leftovers tomorrow!
Nancylynn says
Janine!! Thank you SO much!! Comments like this mean the world to me – you have NO idea!! That’s exactly why I wanted to start this blog – I truly believe healthy eating can be simple and delicious…and family friendly, too. Love to hear it is, in fact, helping! And good for you for setting such a great example for your kids!! LOVE!!
Abby starstrom says
This is a silly question but what is a half moon!? Cut in half lengthwise and then slice?
Nancylynn says
Yup!!! ❤️❤️❤️
Rebekah Ruth says
okay lady…you continue to amaze me. So I found your site last summer and loved the recipes we tried (and I commented and instagrammed and all that 🙂 but this recipe, I just didn’t get around to and then life got crazy. I even bought the cast iron skillet back in September specifically to try this recipe!! Well…finally just made it and WOW. I loved it. My husband loved it. And even my kids loved it. My husband went on your site and picked three recipes to make this week, did the shopping…everything. And this was the first one we made and I’m just so impressed. I’ve never tried a recipe of yours that I didn’t like. You make everything simple and accessible. I’m so grateful for you! Thank you for all you do. Keep it up!! And I love my instapot (although I have a different brand). I use it constantly for rice but now I’m going to have to try that saute feature and make your balsamic chicken. Which I’m positive I’ll love as well. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU 🙂 And Happy New Year!
Nancylynn says
Rebekah…this honestly made my day. Really. I was up with my son for most of the night…feeling tired and down today, and then I see THIS. I can’t thank you enough for turning my day around!!! Means the WORLD!! All my best to you and your family and HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Your friend, Nl :).
Heather B says
Beautiful cast iron!
Nancylynn says
Thank you!! I want more cast iron!!
Joanna says
I’m your newest, biggest fan! My cousin told me about your site and it instilled confidence that I could manage the 21 day fix, because I could use your DELICIOUS recipes and not worry about eating baked chicken all day every day. Thanks!! I’m finishing up week one and I have already made 4 of your recipes. 🙂 This afternoon I’m making the sausage/cauliflower casserole.
Nancylynn says
This put a huge smile on my face – thank you SO much for taking the time to write. That’s exactly what I want to do – make eating clean delicious, realistic and sustainable! I’m so happy it is helping. Best of luck to you and thank you again for making my day!