Vegetable Lasagna

There are times that I envy vegetarians, although they are few and far between.  One of those times, however, is when lasagna is served to a large amount of people.  There's often a meatless option.  Sometimes it's the normal red sauce lasagna just with no ground beef.  But when it is the white sauce version with veggies, I can't help myself.  I love it.  You, though you may be an unabashed meat-eater, just might too.

I know it's a lot of ingredients, but it's worth it.

Ingredients

• Lasagna noodles - use traditional ones if you like but I am ALL about the oven-ready ones.  So much less work!
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 head broccoli, chopped
• 1 zucchini, chopped lengthwise and then sliced
• 1 carrot, thinly sliced
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 white onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup flour
• 3 cups milk
• 3/4 cup parmesan cheese
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 package frozen spinach, thawed
• 8 oz low fat small curd cottage cheese
• 24 oz ricotta cheese
• 2 1/2 cups low fat mozzarella cheese, shredded

Directions

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees
• If using traditional noodles that require boiling, following directions in doing so 
• Heat oil in large skillet or wok.  When hot, add veggies and saute 10 minutes.  Set aside.

• In a sauce pan, whisk together flour and milk and stir very frequently while bringing to boil over medium heat
• Into milk mixture, stir the parmesan cheese, salt and pepper.  Continue cooking 1 minute and remove from heat.
• Add thawed spinach to milk mixture and stir well

• Reserve 1/2 spinach mixture for later use
• In a small bowl, combine cottage and ricotta cheeses
• Spread 1/2 spinach mixture (separate from the reserve!) into the bottom of a greased 9x13 baking dish
• Layer noodles, cheese mixture, veggies, spinach mixture, and 2 cups shredded cheese, ending with noodles.
• On top of second layer of noodles, spread the reserved spinach mixture and the final 1/2 cup shredded cheese
• Cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes or until lightly browned on top and noodles are done (if using the oven-ready ones).  I used the oven-ready ones and it took about 45 minutes.  Remember to remove foil for last 5 minutes to let the cheese on top brown!
• Allow to cool 10 minutes before serving.

As you can see, there's a lot of prep involved.  The good news is that you can prepare it ahead of time, cover, and bake the next day.  Or, you can at least do the veggie chopping the day before which will save time the day you actually put it together.  Enjoy!