Spinach Lasagna (Meatless)

I've been on the hunt for a yummy meatless lasagna and I think I definitely found a winner here! I'm not a huge meat lover, although I'm not sure I could ever be a vegetarian because of my love for extra crispy bacon and my mom's pork chops with raspberry vinegar sauce....yummmm..... Anyway, I usually end up picking most of the meat out of spaghetti and lasagnas, but on the other hand, am also usually dissatisfied by the way most meatless sauces seem incomplete. With a few small changes, this recipe is delicious and satisfying. Both Ben (husband) and Caleb (brother) approved of this amazing meatless dinner and I might never go back to meat lasagna.

Started with this recipe:
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/simple-spinach-lasagna/Detail.aspx

Changed it slightly, adding mushrooms, more onion, slightly less spinach (I added the other half of the package to a batch of spinach dip I was making). Note that you do not cook the noodles before adding them! You can either add water to the sauce and use your traditional lasagna noodles, or leave the water out and use "Oven Ready" noodles. I haven't made it with the water and regular noodles yet - only used Oven Ready and was very happy with the result - my lasagna held together very well.


Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 (10 ounce) packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed
• 1 med onion, chopped
• 1/2 lb mushrooms, chopped (optional, but very very good)
• 3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 3/4 teaspoon dried basil
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 (32 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
• 2 cups low-fat cottage cheese
• 3 cups shredded mozzarella, divided
• 1/2 cup grated or shredded parmesan cheese, divided in half
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley (or ~1T dried)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2c water
• 1 pkg lasagna noodles, uncooked (or omit the water and use the Oven-Ready kind)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Set aside 1/4c parmesan and 1 cup mozzarella for the topping.

3. In a large pot over medium heat saute spinach, onion, mushrooms, oregano, basil and garlic
 in the olive oil. Pour in spaghetti sauce and water (add water only if you're using regular noodles); simmer 20 minutes or until your other stuff is ready.

4. In a large bowl mix cottage cheese, remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese, parsley, salt, pepper and egg.

5. Place a small amount of sauce in the bottom of a lasagna pan. Place 4 uncooked noodles on top of sauce and top with layer of sauce. Add 4 more noodles and layer with 1/2 sauce and 1/2 cheese mixture, noodles and repeat until all is layered, finishing with sauce.

6. Cover with foil and bake in a preheated oven for 55 minutes. Remove foil, add reserved mozzarella and parmesan cheese, and bake another 15 minutes. Let sit 10 minutes before serving.

Lentil soup!

The lentil soup I made for dinner in the slow cooker was a smashing success. It was healthy, hearty, and very satisfying. My husband (Ben) loved it! I will be making it again. I started with this recipe:

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Recipes/story?id=7039586

Lentil Soup

By Mary Sperling of Newberg, Ore.

Ingredients:

• 3 carrots, chopped
• 3 ribs of celery, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, pressed
• 8 cups water or vegetable broth
• 2 cups lentils, rinsed
• 1 tsp. dried thyme

Directions Put all of these ingredients in the slow cooker. Set it on low if you are leaving it all day, high if you are starting it around lunchtime.

About 10 minutes before you are ready to serve the soup, add:

• 1 ½ tsp. balsamic vinegar
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. ground pepper
• 1 bunch of kale, washed and chopped

Variations:
You can add potatoes if you want more bulk. Add cubed potatoes at the beginning of cooking if you do.

Tomatoes are also good in this dish. Add one 14 ½ ounce can of diced tomatoes at the beginning of cooking if you like. 


************************** 
My notes & additions: 
**************************

• Decrease water to 6 cups 
• I did add 1 can of stewed tomatoes
• Added 1/2lb chopped mushrooms
• Added extra ~2 cups of carrots + celery
• (The additional vegetables make up for the reduced water). 
• I did 6 cubes of beef boullion to 6 cups of water, but do less if you want low salt. 
• To win extra points with Ben, I added about 2/3lb of chopped up turkey kielbasa sausage - lowfat, but gives a richer taste. I'll probably make it meatless next time.
• I didn't add kale because there was none at the store. =(=( Kale is one of my favorites - highly recommend trying if you haven't before.
• The balsamic vinegar sounds weird - but I promise, it's really good!

Leave a comment if you try this!
-Alyssa

Finally, a blog worth writing!!

I've been experimenting with my slow cooker this year! It's great for a full time student with a hungry husband. So I have a few recipes to post that I've made in the last two weeks - let's start with one of my all time favorites.

Tried and True: Slow Cooker Beef Stew


Tips: I like my vegetables chunky so I suggest coarse chopping. This makes a lot of stew (could easily feed a family of 6 - and the leftovers are amaazzzzing), so you'll either need a big stew pot if you're making it stovetop, or a slow cooker with at least a 3qt capacity and can easily scale down. This recipe is very flexible, so it is likely to taste great even if you're a little imprecise.


1 lb stew meat, cubed in small pieces
1 T oil (to brown meat)
2 cups cubed red potatoes
4 celery ribs, sliced
1 onion, chopped
4 carrots, peeled and chopped
6 mushrooms, chopped/sliced
4-6 cups beef broth (depends on how thick you want it and how big your pot is)
1/4c flour dissolved in some cold broth/water

Seasoning:
1-2 T worchestershire, to taste
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp each, basil & oregano
1 tsp pepper (or to taste)
1/4-1/2 tsp cayenne pepper to taste (optional)

Brown the meat (and garlic if you like) in the oil. Dump all ingredients in the slow cooker and cook on low if you're starting in the morning or on high if you start it around lunchtime (4-5 hours). You can also make this on the stove - in which case brown the meat, sautee the onions, then simmer everything for 45min to 1 hour until everything is tender. =) Enjoy! Leave a comment here if you try this recipe or come up with a yummy variation!

Coming soon - hamburger barley soup and my own recipe for wild rice meatloaf! Currently in the crockpot - lentil and vegetable stew! If it tastes as good as it smells, I'll post the recipe soon!

-Alyssa