Category: lasagne

Red, White and Green Lasagne

Lasagne is a staple for many this time of year. It is easy. You can make it ahead of time and it feeds a crowd. While there are some gluten free noodles out there, I usually substitute vegetables sliced super thin, like zucchini or butternut squash. However, at the Celiac Kids Connection (a support group for kids with celiac disease based out of Children’s Hospital in Boston) Holiday Party, I picked up a free sample of Organic Green Lentil Lasagne from Explore Cuisine. It was delicious and made for a festive tray of lasagne. I believe you can order it from Amazon or local to me here, south of Boston, at Good Health and certain Stop and Shop and Shaws locations.

Green Lentil Lasagne

Ingredients

1-8 ounce box of Green Lentil Lasagne

24 ounces of tomato sauce

1 Tablespoon of balsamic vinegar

10 ounces of tomato puree

6 Tablespoons of butter

6 Tablespoons of gluten-free flour (My favorite is Cup4Cup)

1 teaspoon of salt

1/8 teaspoon of pepper

1 teaspoon oregano

about 1 1/2 cups of milk (add more if bechamel is not the right consistency – should cover the back of a wooden spoon)

1 cup of ricotta cheese, reserve about 1/3 cup for top

8 ounce block of mozzarella, shredded, reserve about 1/2 cup for top

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a bowl, mix tomato sauce, balsamic vinegar and tomato puree, then set aside. In a medium sauce pan, add the butter, flour and spices. Cook for a couple of minutes, add milk and whisk until smooth. Take off the heat and mix in ricotta and mozzarella, saving the amounts mentioned above for the top.

Ladle about 1/3 of the sauce into the bottom of a casserole dish. Layer with the green lentil lasagne noodles (or your vegetable/noodle of choice). Pour cheese sauce over to cover noodles. Repeat at least 2 more times. After top cheese sauce layer, sprinkle mozzarella and add dollops of ricotta.

Cover with foil and cook for 30 minutes. Remove foil and cook for another 15-20 minutes until cheese starts to brown and is bubbly. Resist putting a fork into and taking a bite for at least 15 minutes to let it rest.

My sister-in-law once made a lasagne when we visited for the holidays and added the bechamel. That is where I got the idea. It makes for a decadent and delicious holiday meal. No one will even notice that you are using lentil noodles or vegetables as noodles. They will never believe its gluten free!

What are you making for the holidays?

Using leftovers in different ways…

I’m usually not very good at this, but in the interest of being more economical I’m trying to be better. Last week I did a good job, if I say so myself 🙂

On Monday last week I made a pot roast in the slow cooker and served it with a mashed potato and sweet potato mixture and roasted asparagus. Tuesday we had quesadillas with the pot roast meat and some sauteed peppers. Wednesday I made lasagna (with slow cooker pasta sauce, see previous blog posting for recipe) and added the rest of the pot roast meat and sauteed peppers. The lasagna was great for dinners for Karina for a couple nights.

Happy Easter to those who celebrate it…more blogging coming this week…

Comedian

She’s turning into a real little comedian. Which is great, just not during meal time 🙂

We’re very lucky she is such a good eater, but the other night, for the first time, she refused to eat. I made a lasagna (which the adults all liked) but she just wasn’t interested. She loved the penne and meatballs we gave her last week (Dad cooked for her – frozen Trader Joe’s meatballs, Classico 4 cheese sauce and some whole wheat penne). My friend, Adriane, suggested I give her some fruit to get her interested in the food. I put a little cut watermelon (one her favorites) and she ate that and started to eat some of her dinner, but then gave up again once the watermelon was done. So I gave her some cubed cheddar and rosemary bread which she ate along with some more of the lasagna.

[Recipe for my lasagna – saute a diced onion (medium sized) with some garlic and olive oil, add ground turkey (I start it frozen and cook it with the cover on the pan for a few minutes and then flip the turkey until it all is cooked). Then I added some coriander, oregano, rosemary, salt and pepper. After that I added 3 cans of diced tomatoes and some tomato paste with a little more of all the spices. In a separate saute pan, I cooked some diced yellow and green zucchini with garlic and rosemary. After it was cooked, I tossed it into the sauce with the turkey and let it simmer while I mixed the ricotta with some fresh herbs and an egg. Then unfortunately I realized that I did not have any shredded mozzarella. So I started layering the sauce with no bake noodles, and ricotta. I ended up topping the lasagne with some parmesan and a little smoked gouda and then baked for about 45 min. covered]

Adriane also gave me a good time saving tip for pasta. Buy the Annie’s mac n cheese from Trader Joe’s and you have wheat macaroni in 3 minutes in the microwave! I didn’t use the “cheese” that came with it, just mixed in some cooked squash and parmesan instead. The “cheese” that comes with it is better than most instant mac n cheese, but has a lot of sodium.

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