Meatless Monday: Spinach Lasagne

Previously, I posted a recipe for meatless Spinach Lasagne that is "baked" in the microwave. Here's a similar recipe that is cooked in the oven and it uses no-boil noodles. This makes the recipe easier, though the time is about the same. You have to give the noodles time to cook once it's assembled but you don't have to deal with cooking the noodles ahead.

Oven-Baked Spinach Lasagne
(serves 6-8)

9 no-boil lasagne noodles (2" wide by 10" long)
non-stick cooking spray
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1 ½ cups water
1 Tablespoon vegetable stock concentrate or dry vegetable soup mix
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon dried basil
½ teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon black pepper
a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
12 ounces frozen spinach, thawed but not drained
2 cups low-fat cottage cheese, a 16 ounce container
2 eggs
8 ounces shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese (2 cups)
½ cup Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400°F. Spray a 9"x 11" baking dish with cooking spray.

Heat oil in a large skillet. Sauté onion for 4 minutes. Add garlic, cook for another minute. Add tomato sauce, tomato paste, water, vegetable soup mix, salt, sugar, basil, oregano, black pepper, and crushed red pepper. Stir to combine and bring to a simmer. Keep warm while you mix up the filling.

Combine the spinach, cottage cheese and eggs in a medium bowl.

To assemble, lay 3 noodles in dish  Ladle on ⅓ of the sauce, ½ the spinach mixture, then sprinkle on ¾ cup of mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers, finishing with another 3 noodles covered by the remainder of the sauce, making sure that the noodles are completely covered. Cover tightly with foil.

Bake for 40 minutes. Remove the foil and sprinkle on the last ½ cup mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese. Bake for 10 more minutes. Let stand for at least 10 minutes before serving to allow cheese to set up which makes lasagne easier to cut.

Freezes well.

Freezing Bell Peppers

Even in the winter, bell peppers periodically go on sale. I recently found red peppers for 77¢ and green ones for 25¢ which is quite a deal. Peppers, particularly the red, can be very expensive, so it was time to stock up. I like to buy a bunch of them when they are on sale and either roast them or chop them up and freeze them. We did a post on roasting peppers last summer. This is another way to stockpile peppers: dice them up and freeze them for use in soups, stews, and sauces. We recently posted a chicken curry recipe where you could use frozen peppers rather than fresh. Their texture will get soft when you defrost them, making them unsuitable for salads. But, if you are going to cook them, this is a great way to save some money by stocking up during a sale. You also speed up prep time later by chopping the peppers in advance.

Make sure to wash the peppers first. Cut it in half the long way, then cut each half in half, again cutting stem to base so you have 4 quarters. This makes it easier to cut away the white membranes, especially if you make the cut along side one of the ribs with the white membrane. Cut out the stem, seeds, and white membranes. Slice into strips and then cut into small squares. Doesn't need to be perfect little squares, but try to keep the square size fairly uniform. I find a ¼"  to ⅜" dice is a good size for most recipes

A medium pepper yields about 1 ¼ cup of diced peppers. Just measure out the frozen peppers for your recipe - they usually don't freeze into a solid block so they are easy to measure.

Here's a turkey meatloaf recipe that uses frozen diced peppers.

Herbs - whenever you need them

Nowadays, many recipes call for fresh herbs. Fresh herbs are wonderful but unless you grow them yourself, they are expensive and quite perishable. We at the School of Eating Good try to use fresh herbs when we have them - we grow them in our gardens and have small pots of them in sunny windows for winter use. But, we realize that many people don't have access to fresh herbs. Therefore, we give you an alternative to fresh herbs, either with dried or frozen herbs, in our recipes.

The basic conversion rate for fresh to dried herbs is 3x fresh =  1 dried herbs. If a recipe calls for 1 Tablespoon fresh herbs, use 1 Teaspoon dried herbs. Frozen herbs need no conversion. Certain herbs such as cilantro and chives do not dry well but they freeze quite well. Other herbs such as basil, thyme, oregano, Italian parsley, and rosemary also freeze well. Give them a rinse, allow them to airdry, then freeze them in a thin layer on a cookie sheet. Once frozen, put them in a plastic bag for storage in the deep freeze. When you need some, just take out what you need and use like fresh. Since packages of fresh herbs at the market usually contain more than you'll need for a single recipe, this is also a great way to get the most out of those expensive fresh herbs.

Dried herbs have a long storage life but it's not forever. After about 1 year, they lose a lot of flavor. You should try to buy just a little at a time. Some supermarkets now sell dried herbs and spices in the bulk section where you can buy much less than a whole jar for a reasonable price. If you can only buy herbs in a full jar,  have a herb swap with your friends. Have a group of friends each buy a jar or two of dried herbs. Get together and divvy up the each jar among the group. Now you all have a little bit of all the herbs rather than each of you having a big jar of one herb that you'll never use up before it loses its punch!