Vege or Meat Lasagna

Vegetable Lasagna

10 cooked lasagna noodles
6 Cups favorite marinara sauce
5 cups grated  mozzarella cheese
1 pkg chopped spinach thawed (the one in the box)
1 zucchini diced
6 mushrooms diced
6 artichokes diced (from a can)
1 garlic clove minced (or 1 tsp prepared minced garlic)
1 14oz container of ricotta cheese (I use low fat)
¼ teaspoon of nutmeg
1 C chopped onion
1 C shredded parmesan cheese

Cook noodles as directed. Rinse in cold water and let sit for a few minutes.  Cook onion, and garlic in sauté pan.  After onions are translucent, add spinach and cook until most of the water is evaporated. Turn off the heat and add ricotta cheese, stir until combined. Add nutmeg to the mixture. Mix well.
In a 9 x 13 pan, place a small amount of sauce on the bottom just to prevent noodles from sticking.  Place 5 noodles in bottom of pan, overlapping to fit.  Spread half of the spinach mixture on top of noodles. Top with half of zucchini, mushrooms and artichoke hearts. Sprinkle the vegetables with some salt.  Sprinkle half of mozzarella cheese on top of vege mixture.  Then pour and spread 3 cups of marinara sauce. Repeat noodle, spinach, vegetable, cheese and sauce layers.  Sprinkle parmesan cheese over sauce.  Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes or until golden and bubbly. Let sit for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Meat Lasagna
**To make meat lasagna, add 1 lb of ground beef into onion and garlic mixture, with a teaspoon of  Italian seasoning.  Don’t add nutmeg or spinach.  Cook until browned and most of the moisture is evaporated.  Add 6 (or more) cups of sauce to the beef mixture. When layering, put small amount of sauce before noodles, 5 noodles and then half of ricotta container and spread the best you can over noodles. I usually use my hands.  Top with mozzarella and then meat sauce. Repeat layers and then top with parmesan. Bake the same.

***For the picture above (to satisfy all tastes) I used a very large lasagna pan and did 1/3 vege and 2/3 meat.  It worked out perfect. I used about 16 noodles and increased all of my other ingredients.  Also, there are 100's of variations, different vegetables,  using italian sausage with the ground beef, etc. Mix it up and do what sounds good to you.

Our favorite marinara is Giada's Marinara, but a bottled or can sauce works great too!