Really Easy Garden Lasagna

When I was a kid, my mother discovered that I'd eat just about anything as long as it had spaghetti sauce on it. She didn't always indulge me, but we were both thankful when broccoli was served on the same night as chicken cacciatore or chicken parmigiana (after my stepfather's first heart attack, it was "chicken something" just about every night). Not much has changed since then except that I no longer eat chicken. I still don't love a whole lot of vegetables that are really good for you, which is why garden lasagna is such an easy way to make things such as broccoli and carrots go down a little easier.

Before I start in on this recipe, let me tell you that it is a heavily modified lasagna recipe. As in (obviously) there's no meat sause and also no ricotta or parmesan/Parmigiano Reggiano. Ricotta is a vegetarian cheese, but it's a colossal pain in the ass and I didn't really think it added all that much, so I started leaving it out a few years ago. So here we go. Note: The recipe is meant to be "easy" but I've put some alternatives in parentheses that may make it a little more labor intensive. The easiest part is you let the sauce and water from the vegetables cook the noodles instead of cooking them ahead of time (so this lasagna takes a little longer to cook in the oven).

Ingredients:
1 cup chopped summer (yellow) squash
1 cup chopped zucchini
1 or 1 1/2 cups shredded carrot (to taste)
1 medium jar or can of mushrooms pieces and stems, drained (or fresh sliced mushrooms if you prefer)
1 cup thawed and drained frozen chopped broccoli (or fresh, finely chopped)
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
9 lasagna noodles (I use a whole grain noodle)
1 26 ounce-ish jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce (I use Newman's Own Organic Herb Marinara)
1 15 ounce can or 2 8 ounce cans of plain tomato sauce (I use the 15 ounce can of Contadina Roma Tomato Sauce or the Dole Organic Tomato Sauce)
Chopped garlic (I use the stuff in a jar, because I'm lazy like that)
Dried herbs (whatever you like--my favorite herb is rosemary, so I add it to my sauce).

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the sauces into a medium bowl and add the chopped garlic and herbs (to taste) and mix well. Lightly oil a 9 x 13 pan (I use a glass baking dish) and then spread 1 cup of the sauce in the bottom. Place three noodles on top of the sauce, evenly spaced (they'll expand during cooking). Then spread the chopped broccoli, mushrooms and carrot over the noodles and top with half the cheese. Pour 1 1/2 cups of sauce over the cheese and then place three more noodles on top of the sauce. Sprinkle on the squash and zucchini and the rest of the cheese and cover with 1 cup of sauce. Place three more noodles on top and cover with the remaining sauce (cover it completely to avoid crunchy noodles). Cover the dish tightly with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and (optional) sprinkle some additional cheese on top. Bake (not optional) another 15 minutes.

Notes: You can choose any combination of vegetables you like but note that some vegetables have a higher water content than others. The squash and zucchini in this recipe means that you have to let it set for a while after baking so that the water is absorbed. I usually just turn off the oven and let it sit in there another half an hour before serving. Let it set even longer and re-heat it later, if you like. I don't make lasagna often because there's a lot of it, but the leftovers actually taste better than the first night because the added herbs and garlic have time to really sink in. It's a good thing, because now I have a week's worth of lunches. It ain't pretty, but it sho' is good.