It can be difficult to make healthy foods for a whole family day in and day out. With so much choice these days, what might seem like a healthy meal can actually be laden with sugars, salts, fat and unwelcome additives. Even a salad can go from being a healthy dish to being worse than a hamburger with the wrong type of salad dressing. What we really want with healthy foods are lots of whole grains, natural foodstuffs and the type of ingredients that won’t make you pile on the pounds.

On the other hand, that doesn’t mean it has to be bland or uninspiring. Here’s a recipe for a beef lasagna- pasta is very high in carbs, but this recipe contains a smaller amount of pasta and more protein, making it both delicious and healthier at the same time.

9 sheets of lasagna
2 carrots
1 onion
1 garlic clove
5 ounces of mushrooms
1 can of tomato puree
1 ounce of sugar
3.5 ounces of skimmed cheese
10.5 ounces of minced beef

For bechamel sauce:
1/2 carton milk
1 ounce of butter
1 ounce of flour
Nutmeg
Salt and pepper

Start off by peeling and cutting the vegetables and garlic, add in the mushrooms, tomato, and the sugar, which we need to remove the acidic taste the tomato gives. Blend it all, while browning off the minced meat over a medium flame, and cooking the sheets of lasagna as the packet will indicate.

To make the bechamel (white sauce), start with the milk in a small saucepan, then combine the other ingredients and carefully bring it to the boil, whisking as you go until the sauce thickens into a smooth paste. Simmer for 5 minutes on a very low heat, don’t overcook the sauce.

Grab an oven dish and butter the base lightly, placing 3 sheets of lasagna on top, then put the meat over the sheets and then cover the meat with your sauce. Put 3 sheets of lasagna on top and then repeat with the meat, sauce and the final 3 sheets. Grate on a little cheese for taste.

The sauce is optional if you want to lower the fat and calorie count even further, plus you can switch out the beef for other lean meats like turkey. Instead of whole milk for the sauce you could use skimmed milk- try what works for you!