- Use coupons and/or only buy the ingredients when they are on sale
- Make your own ricotta
- Make your own mozzarella (I've heard this isn't hard but haven't tried it yet)
- Grow your own vegetables
- Make your own pasta (another thing I haven't tried yet, but I bet lasagna noodles would be the easiest pasta to make
Vegetable Lasagna
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup diced onion
2 tsp dried basil
1 tsp garlic powder
4 cups vegetable mixture: fresh or frozen broccoli, shredded carrots, frozen & thawed spinach
1 package lasagna noodles (I like the kind that doesn't have to be boiled, since it's easier to work with)
4 cups mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 375. Mix together ricotta, cream cheese, onion, basil, and garlic powder. Stir in vegetables. Spread 3/4 cup of the vegetable mixture on the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Place a layer of lasagna noodles, 1/3 of the vegetable mixture, and 1/3 of the mozzarella. Repeat until all the noodles, vegetable mixture, and mozzarella are used. Sprinkle top with Parmesan cheese. Bake for 50 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
I'd add to try either using all cottage cheese or a mix 50-50 of cottage cheese and ricotta, which is normally way more expensive than CC. I first thought of using cc after we received a fzn lasagna entree thru the now closed, Angel Food Ministries. I read the ingredients and learned that CC was used instead of ricotta. I didn't say anything and went ahead and baked it off. The family ate it, judged it quite good, although the tomato sauce was a bit sweet (the hamburger and mac entree used the same sweet sauce so we were familiar with it. I only make lasagna when I get the cheeses on sale and then I mix up several trays and freeze them. Sometimes it's with a meat sauce, sometimes vegetarian, sometimes veggie filled. Depends on what is on hand, what needs to be used up. After I made my first combo CC-ricotta lasagna, and they ate it, I told them of the substitution. They were OK with it, said that they couldn't tell.
ReplyDeleteHTH
We make our own pasta now. The hubby used to, years ago, but circumstances were such that the pasta maker was put away and ignored for close to ten years. We found it in moving into the new house, and since October, I think we've made fresh pasta at least once a week! It's good for us, better than store bought at the very least, with only flour, egg, and a pinch of salt needed.
ReplyDeleteWe use a pasta maker, a hand cranked machine that lets you make different kinds of flat noodles. We have the plates for lasagna, fettuccine, and a very thin noodle that is just like spaghetti but isn't, because spaghetti is an "extruded" noodle. ;) We also have a plate for making raviolis and omg yum...
The difference between store bought and home made is huge. First there's flavor. Second, I started losing weight when we switched to home made, and that is because there is very little for the body to process and so it goes faster and the body works more efficiently! And three, it cooks in 3 minutes from fresh, basically (the raviolis take a bit longer). Since we're buying flour in 25lb bags and larger now, it's a bit cheaper, too. :)
This vegetable lasagna sounds quite tasty. Thanks for the recipe.
ReplyDeleteI use cottage cheese in my lasagna too. I've tried making mozerrella it's not too hard, but to me it wasn't worth the work. I did it when we had WIC and a stockpile of milk.
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