Vegetarian Spinach Lasagna

Dinner time roles around as it so often does and I was unsure of what to fix. I'd been thinking about this spinach lasagna I'd found online but didn't know if it would work out, taste good, be time consuming, etc. But we had all the ingredients, plus a few more, so I figured I'd go for it. (Warning: I did not take pictures because when I'm in the kitchen cooking I do just that, not act like food paparazzi for my blog. Plus, I wasn't sure if it would be a note worthy meal. But as it stands, here I am writing about it so you'll just have to imagine what it looks like.)

Recipe:

8-10 lasagna noodles

1 TBP olive oil

1 tsp garlic (approx. one garlic clove)

1/2 onion, diced

1/4 red onion, diced

1 can diced tomatoes (with juice)

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp basil

salt and pepper

5 oz. spinach

1 cup carrots

1 cup celery

1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

1 cup cottage cheese

2/3 cup parmesan cheese

2/3 cup pecorino-romano cheese

1 bottle spaghetti sauce

1. Cook lasagna according to package directions. Pre-heat oven to 350.

2. In a large skillet, saute garlic and onions in olive oil. Add diced tomatoes after about 5 minutes. Add seasoning (oregano, basil, salt and pepper). Stir.

3. In a food processor, finely chop spinach, carrots and celery. Add to garlic, onion, tomato mixture in skillet.

4. Remove skillet from heat. Mix in mozzarella and cottage cheeses.

5. Heat up the spaghetti sauce.

6. Spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray and layer the lasagna:

spaghetti sauce (coat the bottom of the pan)

spinach mixture

sprinkle parmesan and pecorino-romano (cheese mixture)

lasagna noodles

spinach mixture

cheese mixture

noodles

sauce

cheese mixture to top

(Make it your own, layer it however you want)

7. Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes.

When I was making this dish, I sort of followed two different veggie lasagna dishes and blended them so I eye-balled a lot of these ingredients. Note on the cheese mixture: I shook the container of cheese until the lasagna looked well enough coated with cheese. Also, I only cooked enough noodles for two layers but had enough spinach mixture for probably three layers. I'm sure other vegetables and cheese could be substituted or added (zucchini, mushrooms, eggplant, ricotta... be creative, make it your own)

So like I said, I wasn't sure how it would turn out but we were both genuinely surprised and had two helpings. I also found some Texas toast in the freezer and quickly de-thawed it, buttered and added garlic salt to it for quick garlic bread. (Oven, broil on high about 3 minutes, until it turns crisp and toasty) A fine meal and relatively quick. Only took about 45 minutes, once I knew what I was doing and not bumbling about the kitchen. I was quite pleased with my melded cooking creation and I will be making it again.

Picture! As promised. This version only had spinach, zucchini, yellow squash and orange zucchini no celery or carrots. It still tasted great.