Italian Fiesta.

Amongst that glorious Sunday afternoon of shopping and blogging, I made a extremely creative non-dairy, veggie Lasagna (not vegan due to the whey in the soy cheese I used) for later this week and Pesto for dinner last night! We will begin with the Lasagna. The original recipe comes from Conveniently Vegan by Debra Wasserman. Debra uses re-fried beans in place of ricotta. The beans also provide an amazing amount of protein. She also uses cooked spinach and rolls the noodles into pinwheels, places them into the pan and covers them with sauce. I altered her recipe by keeping the traditional style of layering the noodles and used Zucchini instead of Spinach. I also threw in some Soy Mozzarella to add some ooey-gooey deliciousness, although Soy cheese often has a hard time melting... I also flavored my beans with garlic and "italian seasoning," because I find the original recipe to be a little too "earthy" tasting.

My ingredients 

• 2 small-medium zucchini
• 1/2 box of Lasagna noodles (8 oz, most boxes are 16 oz)
• 15 oz can of unflavored vegetarian re-fried beans
  
• 26 oz jar of pasta sauce ( I used the Jewel Garden Vegetable brand/flavor-already has carrots,onions zucchini in it)
• 1 large clove of garlic, crushed
  
• 1-2 "shake"s of dried Italian seasoning
• 1 bag of veggie Mozzarella or 1 chunk grated
• 9"x 11" glass pan
  

1. Wash and slice Zucchini length-wise into thin strips
2. Boil Zucchini for 2-5 minutes to cook and get a lot of the moisture out (we don't want runny lasagna)
3. Place cooked Zucchini on paper-towels to collect moisture
4. Cook Noodles as directed and make sure to add a little olive oil to the water so they don't stick and fall apart.
5. While Noodles are cooking, saute the garlic, add the beans and "italian seasoning," mix well. The warm beans are also easier to work with because they are soft.

Everything is now prepared. I skipped the pre-heat oven step, because I am freezing this for a later date. I would cook at about 375 degrees for about 45 minutes, until everything is hot and melty.

1.  Pour a thin layer of sauce on the bottom on the pan
2.  Tightly place noodles across pan
   
3.  With a rubber spatula, spread a layer of beans on each noodle
4.   Place a layer of Zucchini on top of each bean layer
5.  Another layer of sauce
6.  A little cheese
7. Noodles and continue process how ever you please
8. Top with sauce and more cheese

Cover and freeze or bake and eat! We will be eating it sometime soon. Makes about 9 large servings (3-4 meals! for 2!)

*The pesto I made was great.. just a classic pesto recipe, with Walnuts instead of Pine-nuts. I tossed in roasted potatoes and asparagus at the end with the pasta. (pesto with potatoes= sooo good!)
When making the Lasagna I cooked the whole box of noodles and didn't know what to do with the rest. I cut the noodles up and used them with the pesto. Looked funny, but tasted delish!


Mat made breakfast- Scrambled Eggs, Fakin' Bacon, and Hashbrowns. Time to eat!