Italian Meat Stack

This quick lunch or dinner is sure to please any cook and the entire family.  It’s easy and goes nicely with a green salad.  It’s what’s for dinner tonight at our house.  This recipe is Induction friendly!  A piece of garlic bread made with any of my basic bread recipes would be delicious with this.  This recipe is for one individual serving, so increase if you need to make more servings.  This is the kind of dish that encourages me to always keep a couple jars of low-carb spaghetti sauce in the house for, as you use so little at a time here.  Hardly worth cooking up a special batch of sauce from scratch just for a small amount.  I use what I need, keep the remaining in its jar in the freezer and just defrost a bit int he microwave when a dab is needed.

VARIATION:  Substitute a slice of butter-seared eggplant for the spinach.  Or Substitute lamb for the beef, feta cheese for the mozzarella and chopped parsley for the fennel for a Greek version. 

INGREDIENTS:

5 oz. raw ground meat (will likely cook down to 4 oz.)

<Pinch each oregano, crushed fennel seed, onion powder, garlic powder

1/3 c. cooked, seasoned fresh or frozen spinach

¼ c. low-carb spaghetti sauce (I use Belo Vita)

1 oz. grated mozzarella (or 1 slice)

1½ tsp. grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS: Place the spinach in water to cover, season and cook just until tender.  While it is cooking, shape meat into nice round patty and place in skillet.  Sprinkle with 1/2 spices and brown on one side on medium-high heat.  Turn meat and sprinkle with remaining spices.   When fully done, place meat patty on serving plate.  Top with 1/3 c. cooked spinach, well-drained and spread out evenly.  Next top with sauce.  Then sprinkle on the Parmesan and finally the mozzarella.  Microwave covered at about 70-80% power for just 1-2 minutes to melt cheeses, as meat is fully done already.  Serve with salad and slice of low-carb garlic bread.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 1 serving which contains:

511 calories, 33.4 g  fat, 5.2 g  carbs, 1.6 g  fiber, 45.9 g  protein, 1054 mg sodium