Vegetable Lasagna (Vegetarian)

This one is a family favorite that we had not made in a long time, but recently we resurrected it for a dinner party and fell in love with it again.  This version is meatless and much lighter on the cheese than regular versions.  You can use soy based cheese or other subs if you like.

The selling point on this lasagna is that it's extremely quick to make and requires very little prep.  We use one sauté pan on the stove and one lasagna pan.   No boiling noodles and burning your hands during the hot noodle transfer, and you can use any favorite noodle instead of the no-boil ones.

There are two versions of this lasagna, one we make for friends and one for our family.  The family one doubles the amount of the vegetables that are inside the lasagna.  Either version is delicious, and you won't miss the pounds of cheese usually in a lasagna this good.  




Ingredients:

Onion, 1 large, chopped
Garlic, 4 cloves, chopped
Mushrooms, 8 ounces, chopped
Zucchini, 1 large or 2 small, chopped
Basil, 4-5 leaves chopped
1 tsp olive oil

1 cup almond milk
2 heaping tablespoons of flour
1 tsp olive oil or cashew cream
Tomato based pasta sauce (your favorite)

Tofu, 1 pound organic
Spinach, 1 handful
Cheese, 1/4 - 1/2 cup shredded parmesan

Lasagna noodles, white or whole wheat or gluten free (regular, not no-bake, is fine)
Eggplant sliced long and thin

Some of the vegetables above reserved for the top of the lasagna (a few mushrooms, basil, 1/4 zucchini, and a whole tomato)
1/2 cup shredded cheese



Directions:

Saute the chopped vegetables in a teaspoon of olive oil or water until the onions are translucent.  Season with garlic powder, pepper, etc. and remove from the pan.

Using the same pan, heat the olive oil and stir in flour,  then add the almond milk slowly, whisking to prevent lumps.   When mixture is combined, add the pasta sauce (use jarred or your own favorite recipe).   (If using cashew cream, blend the cream with a little of the pasta sauce and add to heated milk/flour mixture).

In a bowl or food processor, mix the tofu, spinach, and shredded parmesan.   Season well with garlic and a pinch of basil, oregano, etc.    (The parmesan is optional, but using even a little of it will make the tofu taste like ricotta cheese after it's cooked).

In a 9x13 dish, spread a tablespoon or two of the tomato sauce in the bottom.
Line with a layer of uncooked lasagna noodles and uncooked eggplant noodles (slices)*.
Spread a layer of half of the tofu mixture, some sauce, and half of the cooked vegetables.
**Repeat layers of noodles, tofu, sauce, vegetables, and a last layer of noodles.
Top with the remaining sauce.

Add a thin layer of raw, very finely sliced zucchini, mushrooms, black olives, and tomatoes.
Sprinkle top with a thin layer of parmesan, feta, and/or mozzarella cheese.
Pour 1/2 cup water around the edges of the lasagna and let it drain to the bottom (the extra water helps the noodles soften without pre-boiling).
Cover with foil or parchment paper and bake at 350 for 30 minutes, remove cover and bake another 15 minutes.

Let sit 10 minutes and serve.

* note:  you can eliminate the pasta if desired and just use the eggplant as the noodle layer

** note:  we usually only have two layers of noodles in our lasagna because our pan is a bit larger.  We end up with noodles leftover in the package and make lasagna rollups out of them or just save the leftovers to put together one day.

Our favorite appetizers for this dish are stuffed mushrooms, bruschette, and a caprese salad.

Our favorite side dishes for this lasagna are a simple green salad and steamed green vegetables (asparagus, sno peas, broccoli).

Sushi Salad

A member at the Dr. Fuhrman website passed along this great lunch idea; as usual, we stole and ran with it.   Two of our family members love sushi, but it's expensive to buy and time consuming to make.   This salad is an easier way, maybe, to get the same taste at home.  

It's a very versatile dish, and the time involved in making it can range from just a few minutes to a half hour or more, depending on your ingredients.  If you use just a few, raw, chopped ingredients, then it's a quick throw together meal.  Or, if you want more depth, using cooked and raw ingredients, tofu, and so on, then it can take a bit longer.   My solution is to take the extra time to make it, but to make enough to last a few days.   Then, I'll wait a couple of weeks before making it again so as not to burn them out on it. 

Possible ingredients - choose your favorites:

• Cooked brown rice or sushi rice (I used short grain brown rice, but any rice, black rice, wild rice, or even out of the box ideas like red quinoa or even a combination of all the above will work.  Or, noodles, but then we're off into other territory. 
• Nori - seaweed sheets.   Or, you can add kelp.   I baked the nori with a spray of olive oil (or an oil rub down with a paper towel) and seasonings until it was crispy, then sliced it into thin ribbons.   However, an easy sub is just to tear the nori into strips and toss it in as is. 
• Sesame seeds - toss this unhulled sesame seeds into the salad either raw or toasted in a pan on medium for just a few minutes. 
• Tofu - an optional ingredient that we used for a protein boost.   You can season, then boil, bake, or pan "fry" this and toss the cubes into the salad. 
• Raw vegetables - avocado slices, cucumber slices
• Cooked or raw vegetables - carrot shreds, mushrooms (cooked!), cabbage, green onions, spinach, edamame, and so on.  (The spinach, I just wilted in a warm pan very briefly but raw is fine, also).

Dressings:

We converted a few favorite dips into dressings - very simple ones.   Soy sauce and wasabi are their most used dips.   One dressing uses soy sauce, wasabi, ginger, honey, tahini, and a splash of rice vinegar.   Another uses soy, wasabi, and water.  A third is wasabi, rice vinegar, tahini, soy, pepper and garlic   If the dressings are too thick, they can be watered down to spread more easily.

Cherry Crumble

I didn't think we could replicate cherry pie but this is pretty close.  The crust would work with any type of pie or dessert...and we will be trying them all!

Recipe 

Crust:

1 cup walnuts 

3-4 medjool dates 

* blend in food processor until crumbly. 

Pie filling :

1 cup no sugar added Frozen cherry mix*

Lemon, just a squeeze 

1 tsp vanilla 

Drain the frozen berries, defrost, and mix all ingredients.  Top with crumble mixture.  Warm in microwave or bake in oven just until warm.  

* we use a sweet cherry, tart cherry, and currant blend. It's sweet enough on its own but if yours isn't, you can blend a date with some of the berries and mix in. 

The finished product.  We'll try apple next, for sure.  

Clean Out the Fridge Soup

Each week, we end up with bits of vegetables here and there unused and leftover from the last shopping trip.   In preparation for the next grocery shop, I usually pull these out and turn them into a confetti salad or soup.   It's an easy way to be thrifty and healthy at the same time. 

This week's version used the following ingredients - portions of ingredients were determined by how much we had on hand, so your recipe will likely be very different:

• Onion, 1 medium
• Garlic, 3 roasted cloves
• Bell Peppers, 4 small
• Mushrooms, about 8
• 1 pound carrots
• 1/2 pound red cabbage
• Broccoli florets, about a cup
• Broccoli slaw, about a cup
• Greens
• Red lentils
• Nutritional yeast
• Seasonings (pepper, paprika, garlic powder, cayenne) to taste

First, I chopped the onions, bell peppers, mushrooms and water sauteed.  While this was cooking, I put the carrots, cabbage, and broccoli into the food processor and pulsed into small pieces.  Then, I added these to the pan and cooked about 10 minutes.

 

 

Lastly, I added the roasted garlic (leftover from hummus making), the red lentils, and water and cooked about 20-30 minutes. 

 

 

 

When the lentils were finished, I seasoned it with nutritional yeast and seasonings and served. 

 

It's a very thick soup without a broth because the lentils thicken so much, but you could easily add a broth or water to it to thin it. 



The last of the pepper harvest that I picked after the freeze killed the plants:

Healthier Cheese Dip

An old family favorite treat was the simple cheese dip made with a package of Velvetta and 2 cans of Rotel tomatoes with green chiles.  Recently, my husband came home from the camp with leftovers of this dip, and I had an idea to try to make this one a little bit healthier to see if it would pass muster with our extended family for the next time we go to the camp.  I didn't expect the result to be so close to the original taste, but you could hardly tell by taste alone that it was different.  Color, on the other hand, was definitely different, and there was a very slight texture difference.  I made a very small batch, so I have increased the ingredients proportionally below for a full batch.   You'll note that the post title is HealthIER, not HealthY, cheese dip. 

Interestingly, the dip made with just the tofu and vegetables had a very good flavor before adding the cheese.   It will definitely be something I experiment with to get a healthier spread or dip when I have the time to do so.   Adding something like nutritional yeast and other flavorings and then the tomatoes and spicy peppers would most likely create a close approximation of the cheese dip. 


Ingredients:

2 large onion
2 large bell pepper
16 oz mushrooms
5 cloves garlic
16 oz tofu
8 oz velvetta
1 can Rotel  (or 1 can diced tomatoes or fresh equivalent plus 1 large chopped jalapeno)


Saute onion, bell pepper, mushrooms, garlic until onions are translucent.  

Remove from heat and add to blender with raw tofu and blend until smooth (add a very small amount of water if needed to blend).

 

 Return to pan, season with pepper, paprika, garlic powder, and heat on medium low for about 5 minutes.

 

 

Add to microwave safe pan with cheese and Rotel (or tomatoes/jalapenos) and microwave until melted.  Stir together and serve.