Zucchini Lasagne Soup

Prep Time: 30 mins

Cook Time: 45 mins

Ingredients:

• Sauce:
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 large green pepper
• 1 large onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 large can tomato sauce (this is optional, We exclude because of natural sugar content)
• 1 large can diced tomatoes
• 1 Tbsp parsley
• 2 Tbsp Italian seasoning
• 1 Tbsp salt (or to taste but bacon will salt it up too)
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 1/2 package bacon (optional, but makes it super yummy!)
•  
• Cheese Mixture: (also optional, but super yummy!)
• 1/2 large container cottage cheese
• 2 cups grated cheeses
• 1 cup Parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper to taste
• stir
• 3 or 4 cups more grated cheese for topping
• zucchini- enough to make 4 layers of slices.
•  

Directions:

1. Put bacon in separate pan to fry
2. while this is cooking, put chopped onion and green pepper in another large pan to fry in little butter till tender, when done, add ground beef, crushed garlic, parsley, Italian seasoning, and salt and pepper (to taste), when done, add cooked bacon.
3. turn on oven to 375 to heat
4. stir in rest of sauce ingredients and heat till boiling.
5. layer in greased 9x13 pan:
6. one layer sliced zucchini
7. 1/3 of sauce
8. one layer sliced zucchini
9. 1/3 of sauce
10. all of cheese mixture
11. one layer sliced zucchini
12. Rest of sauce
13. generous layer of grated cheese- preferably mozzarella :)
14. bake at 375 for 45 mins
15. let sit 5 minutes before serving

Tips: I call this soup, because you need bowls! the Zucchini makes it very soupy and delicious! But you cant skip the layers of cheese and just make it a soup, or you will loose alot of flavor!
~ I make a similar vegetarian side dish called Zucchini Bake.<--Click here for recipe.
~ To reheat for leftovers, pour in some of your homemade soup stock and cover and reheat in over- keeps it from drying out and is delicious! Find soup stock recipe here.