Lasagna Bites
Need the perfect appetizer for your Big Game party? These lasagna bites are swoon-worthy and lighter (gasp!) than you might imagine. 
I remember the first time I learned about fried macaroni and cheese balls. At first, I was shocked, “What! Fry Macaroni and Cheese? Are they crazy?” Then I bit into one.
“Oh my gosh” omnomnom..“I take it all back” omnomnom.. (try to finish as quickly as possible so I could grab another one.) “MORE!”
Crispy on the outside with a creamy, delicious, melty center..whoa!
“How genius!”, I thought. Take one of the most delicious foods on Earth and make it an easy-to-eat appetizer. Now here’s the problem.
And I know, you don’t want to hear this. Neither do I, honestly.
Those fried Mac and Cheese bites are loaded with calories. That crispy ball formation only happens with the help of a deep fryer. While delicious, it was too much for me to justify ordering regularly.
But the appetizer still intrigued me. What else would be delicious in appetizer bite form that I may be able to make a little healthier at home? Then, it hit me. Lasagna!
And oh my goodness, it is amazing. Not many foods make me swoon. This one did. I am so excited to be submitting this recipe into the Shamrock Farms Football Face-Off contest!
Here’s the good news: since this version doesn’t involve a deep fryer, each bite has only 100 calories. Three bites are more than enough to make a meal.
My daughter, who usually shies away from any new food not made exclusively of cheese, requested these bites for dinner one night and asked for more. I secretly laughed to myself because look at this picture.
I put spinach in the lasagna and she didn’t even know!
I cut the calories in this dish a few ways. First, they are baked instead of fried. I also used crunchy panko in place of the normal breadcrumbs to mimic that crunchy fried texture which cutting the need for extra oil. I also replaced the ricotta usually found in lasagna with Shamrock Farms cottage cheese.
I made the creamy tomato dip by saving a little of the lasagna tomato sauce and combining it with a half-cup of Shamrock Farms sour cream.
These lasagna bites make the perfect addition to any Big Game party or as a meal on its own. Dip them in the creamy tomato dip or eat them alone. 
Maybe even put these lasagna bites in a snack stadium. You know you want to.
- Lasagna Bites
- 24 oz marinara sauce
- 8 oz can tomato sauce
- 1 14.5 oz can <g class=”gr_ gr_156 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_disable_anim_appear undefined Grammar multiReplace” id=”156″ data-gr-id=”156″>diced</g> fire roasted tomatoes
- 1 cup Shamrock cottage cheese
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella
- 1 cups shredded parmesan
- 4 large eggs, divided
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1/4 tsp oregano
- 6 uncooked lasagna noodles
- 2 cups raw spinach
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 TBS water
- 3-4 cups panko breadcrumbs
- cooking spray
- Creamy Tomato Dip
- 1 cup reserved sauce
- 1/2 cup Shamrock sour cream
- 1 cup fire-roasted <g class=”gr_ gr_154 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_disable_anim_appear undefined Punctuation only-del replaceWithoutSep” id=”154″ data-gr-id=”154″>tomatoes,</g> diced
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Combine marinara, tomato sauce and can of fire roasted tomatoes in a saucepan. Simmer for 10 minutes. Reserve one cup of resulting sauce in the refrigerator.
- In a large bowl, stir together cottage cheese, mozzarella, parmesan, 2 eggs, salt, pepper and oregano.
- In an 11 X 7 in. baking dish, start to assemble the lasagna. Pour 1 cup of sauce on bottom of <g class=”gr_ gr_146 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_disable_anim_appear undefined Grammar only-ins doubleReplace replaceWithoutSep” id=”146″ data-gr-id=”146″>dish</g>.
- Place 2 lasagna noodles on top, side by side.
- Spoon half of cottage cheese mixture on top of noodles.
- Place 1 cup of spinach on top of cottage cheese mixture.
- Pour over 1 cup of sauce.
- Place 2 more noodles on top.
- Spread on remaining cottage cheese mixture.
- Top with the 2 remaining noodles.
- Spoon remaining sauce on top and gently press down on lasagna.
- Cover dish loosely with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes.
- Remove foil and bake until sauce browns and noodles are tender when tested with a fork; about 10-15 minutes.
- Let cool on the stovetop. Then refrigerate overnight.
- The next morning, remove lasagna from <g class=”gr_ gr_151 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_disable_anim_appear undefined Grammar only-ins doubleReplace replaceWithoutSep” id=”151″ data-gr-id=”151″>refrigerator</g> and cut into 32 equal pieces (8 columns and 4 rows).
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Remove bites with a spatula and place on sheet. Freeze for 3-4 hours.<br>
- After freezing, its time to bread them! Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
- Prepare a baking sheet by spraying it liberally with cooking spray.<br>
- Set up your dredging station with three bowls. Fill one bowl with the flour, one bowl with panko and in the final bowl combine 2 eggs with 2 TBS Water.
- Dip a frozen lasagna bite completely in the egg mixture. Then coat the bite in flour. Next, dip it back in the egg mixture. Finally, coat it in Panko. Place on prepared baking sheet. Repeat for remaining pieces of frozen lasagna.
- When the sheet is full, spray the tops of lasagna bites with cooking spray and pop in the oven for about 15 minutes for a swoon-worthy appetizer.
- In a small bowl combine refrigerated sauce, sour cream, salt and garlic powder. Stir in fire-roasted tomatoes. Top with more tomatoes and chopped parsley if desired.
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