Lasagna, anyone?

I love lasagna. Who doesn't, with it's gooey yumminess? Lasagna combines some of my favorite foods into one . . . cheese, meat, pasta, and more cheese. My mother-in-law makes the best lasagna hands down, even beating out any Italian restaurant you can name. I have tried to duplicate hers, but even with a photocopied recipe in hand I just can't get it to taste as good.

At any rate, in my latest attempt at healthy cooking, I found a recipe for vegetarian lasagna and made it the other night.

Now, I am about the furthest you can be from vegetarian. Sometimes nothing hits the spot better than a juicy bacon cheeseburger with a big side of fries. But I decided to give this recipe a try, with a few changes . . . see below!

Laurel's Vegetarian Lasagna

1 pound lasagna noodles

4-5 cups pasta sauce

2 small or 1 large zucchini, grated

1/2 bag frozen spinach (8 ounces)

1 pound cottage cheese

1 pound mozzarella cheese, grated

Grated parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Cook lasagna noodles according to directions on box.

Mix zucchini and pasta sauce together.

Lightly coat bottom of 9" x 13" pan with layer of pasta sauce.

Place drained lasagna noodles in pan to make a single layer. Cut noodles as necessary to fit.

Next layer in 1/3 cottage cheese, followed by 1/3 spinach, 1/3 mozzarella cheese, then 1/3 sauce.

Repeat noodles, cottage cheese, spinach, mozzarella cheese, and sauce x2.

Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Bake for 1 hour, covered with tinfoil for first 30 minutes. Do not let tinfoil touch tomato sauce.

Eat with large amounts of garlic bread.

Eat leftovers for the next three nights!

This recipe definitely still doesn't beat my mother-in-law's, but it is pretty amazing. Neither John nor I miss the meat, probably because there is a ridiculous amount of cheese that tastes divine. Of course, Sophia isn't a big fan, but if it doesn't involve peanut butter or cream cheese she doesn't ever care for it, so her opinion doesn't count.