Product Review: Hodgson Mill Whole Wheat Lasagna Noodles (with Recipe)

My husband's birthday was on Tuesday, and his request for a birthday dinner was for lasagna. We had spied the whole wheat lasagna noodles in the grocery store a few weeks ago, and this was a good excuse to try them out. :)

Found in the pasta aisle of Publix.

Unfortunately, because this is a different type of pasta, you end up paying a little more for it. At Publix, the Hodgson Mill whole wheat lasagna noodles are about $2.50 a box, with 8 oz in one box. The noodles are also slightly smaller than regular pasta noodles, so I went ahead & bought two boxes. I ended up using all of one box and only two noodles out of the second box. (Still have enough left over to make a smaller lasagna later!)

One of the things I like about these noodles is that it comes with a "quick" recipe on the side of the box, that allows you to place the noodles in the dish without cooking them first, and provided that the noodles are completely covered in sauce, they will cook as the dish bakes. It only adds about 15 minutes to your baking time, but the time and trouble saved in cooking the noodles first was worth it, in my opinion.

I basically took the concept behind the recipe on the box, but added my own touch to it. First, I lined the bottom of the dish (glass Pyrex) with sauce.

I used Bertolli's Marinara sauce, which has a great red wine flavor.

Lay down some noodles on the bottom of the pan, and cover these in a little bit of sauce, too. I went ahead & just mixed the whole jar of sauce in with my cooked meat, after coating the bottom of the dish. I used ground turkey, but any ground meat can be used.

Now it is time to start adding in the tasty layers. I put down a layer of the meat mixture, followed by the dairy stuff: sour cream, ricotta cheese, cottage cheese, and a six-cheese blend of shredded cheese.

My assembly line.

Once your sauce, meat and cheese has been added, place some more noodles on top. I ended up using three layers of noodles (bottom, middle, and top) to make this lasagna. When I got to the top, I added some extra sauce (opened another jar of the marinara) to be sure the top noodles were covered enough to cook.

Into the oven it goes - it was pretty heavy!

Bake the lasagna for about 45 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees. You may need to use a little more or less time, depending on your oven, but basically you'll want to bake the lasagna until the cheese on top is starting to brown.

Let it stand for about 15 minutes after removing.

And there you have it! A relatively quick, easy-to-make lasagna ready for a birthday dinner. :)

I recommend serving something green with it....

After refrigerating overnight, the lasagna became "solid" enough that it was easier to cut & remove slices from the dish; I ended up freezing about half of the lasagna for later use.

All in all, I really enjoyed the lasagna, the noodles were great - I couldn't tell any difference between these noodles and "normal" lasagna noodles, other than perhaps I felt fuller more quickly. Despite their being about twice the price of noodles made with enriched flour, I felt that the value of having lasagna again (!!) was well worth it, especially since I was able to make a lot all at once & freeze portions so the lasagna will last a good while.

I would like to note that I am not claiming this is a very "healthy" lasagna, however, I would like to point out that there are certain options that can make it a better choice. First of all, make sure your ingredients are good. Of course, the noodles being whole grain makes that part a no-brainer. The simpler the ingredients, the better; I actually spent a good bit of time comparing sour cream, ricotta cheese, and cottage cheese to be sure that I found the healthiest option on the shelf. Notice that the tubs don't make mention of being "light" or "fat-free" - I chose the original options rather than the low-fat or light options because of the additives in them. When you compare the nutrition facts on the label - particularly saturated fat and cholesterol - the lighter versions might be slightly lower but the number of additives in the ingredients list (and the types of additives, in some cases) tend to make me lean toward the "whole" version of the product. Similarly, don't feel pressured to choose store brand options for the sake of thriftiness; sometimes store brands have additives listed that you may want to avoid, like carrageenan, which was found in Publix's sour cream but not in the Daisy brand. Sometimes it's worth the extra calories or the extra fifty cents in order to avoid certain ingredients. :)