Veggie Burgers and Pasta Salad

I've been doing veggie burgers for lunches lately. I take a Morningstar Garden Burger, toss it in the microwave for a min or so, and its good to go. I put it on a whole wheat bun with some sprouts and sliced tomato, along with a slice of swiss cheese. I also add a bit of Miracle Whip/ Low-fat Mayo because I like to pretend I'm in Canada. This is a very tasty lunch, and I believe its relatively healthy. More healthy than eating dead cow.

I have also made up a pasta salad to have on hand to go on the side of my burger. I got the recipe out of the Skinny Bitch cookbook, which means its vegan, and its mighty tasty. First, you boil some pasta, drain it, and let it cool. I used fancy veggie pasta I bought at the Farmers Market. Then, you make a sauce out of the oil from oil packed artichoke hearts and oil packed sundried tomatoes, along with a squirt or lemon juice and some dried basil. Mix a small jar of marinated sun dried tomatoes, a small jar or marinated artichoke hearts, the pasta, and the sauce together. I added some chopped black olives to this pasta salad, because everything is better with black olives. This salad is yummy and healthy and doesn't use mayo, so you could take it to a picnic and not worry about it going bad.

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.