Make a-head Vegetarian Lasagna

Bob and I work almost opposite schedules. Some days I go to work at 4 and he gets off work at 5.  Other days I don’t get off work until 7. Over the summer, this schedule led us to go out to eat a lot. I would get home, starving, Bob would be waiting for me to eat dinner, and we’d end up going someplace and spending money.  This is not an ideal situation.

1 – eating out all the time is making us fat, and we’ve got a wedding to slim down for.

2 – We are buying a townhouse and need to stay on a budget. We aren’t going to be able to afford to eat out anymore.

3 – We like to cook. We have a cooking blog. If we don’t cook very often, we won’t be able to add things to this blog and people will stop reading. That would be lame.

So, the point is, I’m entering this phase where I prepare meals ahead of time, have things on hand, and make/freeze food to use later in the week.

My Vegetarian Lasagna was made the night before we ate it. I spread a little pasta sauce on the bottom of casserole dish, then layered cooked lasagna noodles on top. I then spread ricotta cheese mixed with minced garlic and dried basil over the noodles. I sprinkled sliced zucchini and sliced mushrooms over the cheese. Then I layered another layer of noodles, another layer of ricotta cheese, and more sliced zucchini and sliced mushrooms. I top the lasagna with another layer of noodles, then poured the rest of the jar of pasta sauce over the top, spreading it out to make sure it coats the noodles. I covered the casserole dish with foil, and then stuck it in the fridge.

The next evening, a half hour before I got home, Bob put the foil covered casserole dish in the oven at 375 degrees. When I got home, I took the foil off the dish, and sprinkled cheese on top of it and put it back in the over for 15 mins. I forgot to put spinach inside the lasagna, so while the cheese was melting, I sautéed up a bag of spinach with EVOO and minced garlic. When the lasagna was done, we topped it with sautéed spinach. 

Ravioli Lasagna

In the fall of 2007, Bob and I bet on the CU vs. CSU game and the loser had to make dinner. I bet on CSU, and I lost. Since we were newly dating, I wanted to use this opportunity to impress Bob with my cooking skills. I found a Rachael Ray recipe on foodnetwork.com for Spinach-Artichoke Ravioli-Lasagna. Bob has some adverse reaction to tomatoes, which is why I was attracted to this recipe. The recipe calls for a white sauce to be made out of butter, flour, and milk, but to cut down on the calories, I’ve cut it out in my version. I’m sure Rachael Ray’s version is good, but my version is pretty good too.

You will need:
Some EVOO, 1 bag of fresh spinach, 1 tub of ricotta cheese, 2 cloves of garlic, about a palm full of dried basil, 2 packages of frozen ravioli (we like Safeway Select Mushroom ravioli,) 1 15ounce can of artichoke hearts, and about 1 ½ cups shredded parmesan cheese.

Pre heat the oven to 425. Prepare the ravioli according to the package directions. Chop/crush the garlic (or use some of the minced garlic from a jar) and mix into the ricotta cheese. Mix the dried basil into the ricotta cheese also. Drain the water from the can of artichoke hearts.

In a rectangular baking dish, drizzle some EVOO in the bottom of the dish, then begin layering 1/3 of the ravioli on the bottom. The ravioli is sometimes to hot to handle at this stage, so tongs might be helpful for this step. Another tip for this step, lay the flattest side of the ravioli on the bottom of the dish. For the second layer, spread half of the ricotta cheese mixture with a spatula over the ravioli. Then, layer some of the fresh spinach over the ricotta mixture. For the fourth layer, lay down half of the can of artichoke hearts. To spread them out better, pull the artichoke pieces apart while you are laying them down. After the artichoke layer, I drizzle a little more EVOO over the top.

Continue layering the layers. 1/3 of the ravioli, the other ½ of the ricotta mixture, some more spinach, the other ½ of the artichoke hearts, a little more EVOO, then the last layer of ravioli. Top with the parmesan cheese. Bake for 30min.