My Veggie Lovin' Child


We have the strangest battle going on in our house right now. I have to fight with Macie to eat her meat - not her veggies, her meat. The child hates meat. I had no idea that a kid could demand to be a vegetarian so young, I thought that was more of a teen rebellion thing. I guess it just goes to show you that kids are growing up too quick these days - pulling teenage stunts at 22 months old. Geez. Don't get me wrong, I love that she eats all her vegetables (for the most part), I just worry she isn't getting any protein so one meal a day - usually dinner - we wage battle of the meat. Tonight I caught myself telling her that she couldn't have any more roasted beets and turnips until she took a bite of her chicken. Yeah, I realized how dumb it sounded as it was coming out of my mouth.
 

Because of the battle with Macie and because I have some friends that recently had a baby (that happen to like vegetables) and because I like to spice up our life with extra vegetables, I was excited to find this recipe for Skinny Veggie Lasagna from Pinch of Yum. Due to the friends already mentioned, I decided to double the recipe so that I could make an extra one and bring it to them. Lasagna seems like the perfect "HEY you had a baby!" meal, don't you think??

This was a great recipe to sort of mess around with so of course, I did. I doubled the amount of veggies that were supposed to go into the lasagna and part of that was due to my vegetables. I wanted to add some substance and the farm stand had some eggplants, so in they went. I also added some squash they had as well as some broccoli. Yeah, I sort of added whatever I thought would be good. I was planning to add some mushrooms (yum) but my friends hate them and I didn't want them to hate me. Ha. I need to tell you - this lasagna was so good. It came out of the oven and I was a little skeptical because to me it looked a tad dry -- I was wrong. The lasagna was completely delicious. It had great flavor and substance and I didn't miss meat at all. Macie loved it. She devoured her plate. Allen joined the clean plate club as well. SUCCESS!! You need to make it. 

Skinny Veggie Lasagna - printable version

adapted from Pinch of Yum


Ingredients
6 cups chopped veggies of your choice
½ chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 cup low fat ricotta cheese
1 egg
2 cups fresh spinach, chopped
2 cups tomato sauce (give or take - I used more)
12 uncooked oven-ready lasagna noodles
2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon oregano
salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Chop the veggies. Saute the onion and garlic in the oil over medium high heat. Add veggies, season with salt and pepper and saute until tender. Set aside.
Whisk egg into ricotta cheese, basil and oregano and stir in fresh spinach.
Pour a little sauce in the bottom of a greased 9×13 pan. Top with four lasagna noodles,  then  half of ricotta mixture, the half the veggies, and some sauce, sprinkle just a touch of mozzarella. Repeat; top entire pan with noodles, remaining sauce, and mozzarella cheese.
Cover and bake for 40 minutes at 375 degrees. Remove foil and bake for 10 minutes more or until cheese is bubbly. 

** I used eggplant, summer squash, carrots and broccoli. I peeled and cubed the eggplant, half-moon sliced the squash and rough chopped the broccoli. Try whatever veggies you want though! **