Vegetable Lasagna

After returning from our quick trip to DC this week, we were back in the routine of weekend dinners downtown during hubby's work.  We have a good rotation of restaurants down there, but after our traveling, the thought of eating out again was not appealing.  So I decided to make lasagna and brought the whole tray downtown to eat.

This is a recipe from Cooking Light, October 2007 issue, that I have made twice before: on 11/15/2009 and on 5/18/2010. Each time I've used slightly different combinations of vegetables, based on what I have. The key to this recipe working is cooking the vegetables before adding them to the lasagna, to cook off the extra water and not flood your lasagna during baking.

The other note that I made this time, is that for each layer, slightly less than 1 cup of tomato sauce can be used. This prevents it from getting too soupy at the end.

We liked how the lasagna turned out, and were glad to have several days of leftovers. The last time I made this, I remember my hubby saying it was like "liquid pizza." Apparently that was good. :)

Lasagna at work

Vegetable Lasagna
1 cup red bell pepper (chopped)
1 cup green bell pepper (chopped)
1 cup chopped onion (I didn't have onion, so used a shallot and some green onions)
2 med-large zucchini, thinly sliced
1 yellow squash, thinly sliced   (total of 5 cups of zucchini + yellow squash)
16-oz mushrooms, sliced
3 garlic cloves
2 cups part-skim, shredded mozzarella cheese (divided)
1.5 cups low-fat ricotta cheese
1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese (divided)
1 large egg
5 cups Marinara sauce
12 lasagna noodles, boiled

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Heat ~ 1 tbsp oil in a large wok over medium-high heat.  Saute the peppers, onion, garlic, zucchini & squash, and mushrooms for 10 minutes, until they are crisp-tender and the mushroom liquid has boiled out.
3. Combine 1.5 cups mozzarella, ricotta, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, and egg. Stir well.
4. Assemble Lasagna:
1. Spray a 13x9-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Spread 1 cup marinara sauce over the bottom.  
2. Lay 3 noodles over sauce
3. Spoon 1 cup marinara over the noodles
4. Top evenly with 1/3 of the cheese mixture, then 1/3 of vegetables.
5. Repeat layers twice, ending with the noodles
6. Sprinkle evenly with 1/2 - 1 cup of mozzarella and 1/4 cup Parmesan
5. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes.
6. Remove foil and bake 10 minutes, until cheese melts.

Cooking the veggies