Weight Watchers Wednesday | ProPoint friendly recipe...Cheat's Lasagne

Welcome to another Weight Watchers Wednesday! A few weeks ago, I mentioned that one of our favourite family meals was "Cheat's Lasagne", which was featured in the May issue of the WW magazine. It is seriously delicious, and seriously easy to cook...a go to meal for the Warren family when we're short on time, or when we're seeking comfort food. A reader recently requested a copy of the recipe, and I'm not one to disappointed, so here 'tis...

Cheat's Lasagne | Serves 4
7 ProPoints per serve

You will need:

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 brown onion, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 carrots, diced
• 1 zucchini, diced
• 2 stalks celery, trimmed, diced
• 1 tbs chopped fresh thyme leaves
• 300g extra-lean beef mince
• 400g can diced tomatoes
• 1 1/4 (310ml) water
• 5 dried lasagne sheets, broken into pieces
• 1/3 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil leaves
• 2/3 cup (70g) light pizza cheese
• Fresh basil leaves, to serve

Here's how:

1. Heat the oil in a large deep ovenproof frying pan over high heat. Cook the onion, garlic, carrot, zucchini, celery and thyme, stirring for 10 minutes or until browned.
2. Add the mince and cook, stirring to break up any lumps, for 2 minutes or until mince has browned.
3. Stir in the tomato and water. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and bring to the boil.
4. Push the pasta pieces into the beef mixture, making sure they are covered.
5. Reduce the heat and cook covered for 10 minutes, Cook, uncovered, for another 5 minutes or until the pasta is tender and the sauce has thickened.
6. Preheat the grill on high. Top with chopped basil and cheese.
7. Place under the grill for 2-3 minutes or until the cheese is melted and golden.
8. Serve with basil leaves.

Serve with a 0 ProPoints value salad made from rocket, tomato and basil. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar to serve.

SWAP IT! Already have pasta in the pantry? Make this dish with 80g of any other shape of pasta if you don't have any lasagne sheets on hand.

Our kids aren't fans of zucchini at all, so we grate the zucchini into the lasagne instead. We also add extra vegetables that we have in the fridge...beans, broccoli, cauliflower...whatever is handy. It bulks out the lasagne even more, for no extra points. Also, if you don't have access to fresh herbs, dried herbs will work just fine. Alternatively, this might be a good time to plant a small herb garden. We're currently growing basil and coriander, which we use all the time in our cooking. Fresh herbs do taste fantastic, and they don't need to take up a lot of space. A small pot on the windowsill will suffice.

To prove that you CAN eat pasta dishes, and still lose weight...check out our results this week! Seeing it graphically, really helps to reaffirm how well you're doing...

Andrew and I are nearly neck and neck with our weightloss totals (not that it's a competition). Between us, we've lost just under 15kg! This week, I also earned my 5% star! That's 5% of my body weight...gone.

Andrew and I are so thrilled with our progress so far, and honestly, we don't feel like we're missing out on anything...and that's the point to the Weight Watchers program.

ps. There's still time to enter the Weight Watcher's "Family Favourites" cookbook giveaway! Click here for details on how to enter. Entries close midnight, Tuesday, 18 June 2013.