spinach lasagna with vegetable tempeh sauce

Pasta with red sauce is my love language.

I'm not kidding. 

We don't have pasta too often in our house, but when we do, I savor every scrumptious last bite and make sure not to leave any sauce behind by using my toasty garlic bread to get every last bit, like any good Italian would do. Right?

When my husband and I were first married I scoured cooking magazines and printed recipes off the Internet and began to hoard an unrealistic amount of recipes around the house in a little bit of a  disorganized state. In fact, I still do. 

Somehow one recipe for spinach lasagna from one of the cooking light magazine my mother in law lent me (they returned to her with 30% less pages in them) made it's way to my counter top where I gave it a whirl, and then made it again and again. Then it kinda got buried underneath all the other recipes floating around the house and I forgot around it, until last week.  

Last week I got the idea for a vegetable sauce from this blog that my church does. She used tempeh as an alternative to meat and it was so good. I immediately thought this would be perfect for lasagna!

I just love how many vegetables are in this meal! Oh, my new favorite food combo is green bell peppers and red sauce. Something magical happens when the two come together! 

The filling for the lasagna is really simple. Wilted Spinach, part-skim ricotta, garlic, salt & pepper. 

Do you see this? All that spinach (almost two whole bags) wilted down to about the size of a baseball.

You can made your sauce with any red sauce that you like and really and veggies. I used Prego's traditional sauce, red and green bell peppers, onion and zucchini. 

Tempeh not pictured. I used the organic three grain tempeh from Trader Joe's

I browned the tempeh and sauteed the vegetables before adding them to the sauce.

Then the fun part comes, layering the red sauce, noodles, filling and repeating two more times.  

Then a layer of fresh mozzarella cheese on top!

Spinach Lasagna with Vegetable Tempeh Sauce

Ingredients

For the filling
2 - 6 ounce bags of spinach - wilted & squeezed dry
11/2 cups part skim ricotta
1 garlic clove, mined OR 1 T minced garlic
course salt & ground pepper

For the sauce
2 1/2 cups jarred tomato sauce
1 package of Tempeh
1 small zucchini halved and sliced
1/2 red bell pepper - diced
1/2 green bell pepper - diced
one small onion - diced
olive oil

6 no boil lasagna noodles
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Make filling by mixing together wilted spinach, ricotta, garlic, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Set aside. Brown tempeh with olive oil. Add vegetables and cook for a few minutes. Then add vegetable and tempeh mixture to the red sauce. Cook on low for a few more minutes until heated through.

To assemble the lasagna, start by adding a thin layer of the sauce to the bottom of an 9 x 9 pan. Then add a layer of noodles, followed by a layer of the filling. Repeat two more times ending with another layer of red sauce at the end and a layer of the mozzarella cheese. Cook for 35-40 minutes or until the cheese begins to bubble and brown.

kale chips

It was a quarter past 8 this morning as I stood in front of the self-check-out register at Fred Meyers, quickly scanning and weighing my items in order to get to work by 8:30.

The self-checkout master at Freddy’s came around the corner (we’re friends now since I go there all-the-time) and I asked him if he knew the code for the bunch of Kale I just pulled from my basket.

Of course he did - he knows all the specials codes!

From the next register over, another self checker also on her way to work from my assessment, shoots over in my direction “Do you made kale chips with your kale?’’

Did she seriously just read my mind?

Of course I was making kale chips with my kale, what better way is there? Really?

I love popcorn, and so does my friend Bethany. But recently, Bethany decided to go Paleo. She’s healthy. Me… ehh… I try. But, unfortunately for Bethany, popcorn on the Paleo diet is a big no no, so tonight she is coming over to my house and I’m going to make her Kale chips, because to me it’s kinda like popcorn, only green, and better!

Okay, off to make my kale chips. You should too; all that crunchy, salty, hit of oil in your mouth goodness!

You will feel like you’re doing something wrong, but of course, you’re not.

 

Kale Chips

Ingredients:
One bunch of Kale – wash and torn into bite sized pieces
Drizzle of olive oil
Dash of seasoned salt

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Place kale pieces on baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and season with seasoned salt. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the chips start to turn brown. Watch that they don’t burn. Serve warm.

food: chopped winter salad with butternut squash, apple, and feta

I made this last amazing butternut squash salad for dinner last night. I'm so excited that it was a hit and look forward to it becoming a regular guest in our household!

Butternut squash is, as I'm sure I've said before and will undoubtedly say again, one of my favorite things ever. So, when I say this recipe for a quick and easy salad in last months issue of Real Simple, I knew it wouldn't be long before I tried it out!

There is so much going on in this dish you just have to try it for yourself! First of all there is the feta / kalamata olive combo which in and of itself is one of my personal favs. All that salty goodness adds so much flavor to this dish. Then there is the tart apple to balance out the feta cheese and chickpeas. Radicchio, which I personally never had before, was great and added a ton of fun color to the dish. And then, the star of the show, in my opinion, the roasted butternut squash! Oh, and I can't forget the dill dressing which was the easiest thing I have ever made! The dill was a perfect herb for this dish!

Chopped Winter Salad with Butternut Squash, Apple and Feta (from Real Simple)

Ingredients

• 1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into pieces
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
• 1 small head radicchio leaves town
• 1 15.5 ounce can chickpeas, rinsed
• 4 ounces Feta cheese
• 1 tart apple (I used Granny Smith)
• 1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives, halved

Directions

1. Heat oven to 450° F. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss the squash with 1 tablespoon of the oil, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Roast, tossing once, until tender, 25 to 30 minutes; let cool slightly.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the vinegar, dill, the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil, and ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper. Add the squash, radicchio, chickpeas, Feta, apple, and olives and toss to combine.