Godzilla veggie laszgna

For all of those of you who do not cook , or are afraid to cook for fear of messing up, today's post will make you feel good and hopefully give you courage to try anything . I am going to share with you an important fact- that is those of us who do cook, always have those dishes that are a complete fail. I had one yesterday, complete with pictures of the process ! It's something I will call Godzilla Veggie Lasagna

Godzilla Veggie lasagna - makes 6 generous servings

1 box oven ready lasagna noodles
1 cup ricotta cheese( small container)
1 bag low fat shredded mozzarella
1 jar marinara sauce of your choice
1 container red pepper hummus
1 eggplant
2 cups fresh spinach
1 zucchini
2 shallots
1 red pepper
3 Mexican orange peppers( or any other kind of bell pepper you can get your hands on)
2 carrots

Get a 9x13 cake pan. Spread about a third of a cup of sauce on the bottom of the pan and place a layer of the no boil noodles.Top noodles with half of the hummus, half of the ricotta and then begin layering veggies.

Look quizzically at the pan and wonder how you will fit everything in beyond one big layer.

Question physics as you dump the entire bag of cheese in the pan, then add the remaining ricotta and hummus. Place remaining veggies on top , a layer of noodles and then the remaining sauce.


Invent an aluminum foil girdle type device for the pan , praing that the contents will not leak out. Place pan on a cookie sheet, and place in a 375 degree oven for 1 1/2 hrs, because you are not certain that there will be enough liquid from the veggies to steam the noodles . Serve to family with great optomisim

The verdict ? Veggies were still crunchy. Next time either blanch the veggies before assembly OR find a way to cook this baby in the crock pot. The no boil noodles were a little tough as well, so back to the drawing board. I served it with an AWESOME salad, who's recipe comes originally from Sweet Tomatoes, but I changed a few things to make it closer to my own nutritional standards. I am going to try this again with a healthier substitute for the lemonaid concentrate

Summer Lemon with Spiced Pecans Tossed Salad

Dressing- Yields 5 cups
3 cups Mayonnaise- whole egg
2 cups Lemonade Concentrate
2 ½ TBLS Dijon Mustard
Combine ingredients and whisk until smooth.
( this dressing has an AMAZING lemon flavor and a little goes a long way !)

Spiced Pecans
1 ¼ cups ¼” Diced Pecans
1 c water
2 TBLS White Sugar
¾ tsp Ground Cumin
½ tsp Table Salt
1/8 tsp Cayenne Pepper

Pour water in a small sauce pan. Add sugar, cumin, salt, cayenne pepper. Heat until bubbling and sugar dissolves. Immediately add pecans and stir to coat. Spread pecans on baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees until brown and toasted. Store remaining nuts in a jar- try not to mindlessly snack on these !

Salad
place Chopped Romaine and watercress blend in bowl. Add dried crasins, spiced pecans and toss with lemon dressing.

Exercise wise it was a great day. For some reason I am really falling in love with wall squats. They feel amazing on my back . Weird !