Vegan Lasagna

Hi All!

Today I have something a little different for you.

Vegan Lasagna!

One of the guys in my son's wedding party and his girlfriend

are vegan and since I will be doing the rehearsal party, 

I wanted to see what I could make that they would be able 

to eat.  I talked to Sara, Jaryd's fiance, and she said they

like lasagna and they make their "ricotta" with cashews.

I researched it on the internet and found a recipe for the

ricotta and decided to give it a try.

It was really quite simple.

I took raw cashews, soaked them for a couple hours.

after draining off the excess water, they went into the 

food processor.  I added some garlic cloves and other 

seasoning including nutritional yeast,

then gave it a good whirl.

I was surprised at how tasty it was.

The texture was not quite as creamy as ricotta, but 

worked nicely in the lasagna.

I didn't want to use pasta and love to use zucchini instead,

so that's what I did, no gluten in this baby.

I forgot to take a picture before I added more layers,

but you can see that ricotta, it's a beige color.

I did get some vegan mozzarella, so that went in too.

More zucchini and sauce and it was ready for the oven.

I filled this with lots of veggies, broccoli, cauliflower, 

mushrooms and the zucchini.

I should have kept some of the mozzarella for the top,

but there wasn't a lot of it.

Okay, I know, this doesn't look all that pretty.

Would have looked better if I had let it sit for a little

longer before serving it. Once it was cooled, it sure 

did cut and serve better.

How did it taste?

FABULOUS!

We both absolutely loved it.

What would I do differently?

I probably wouldn't use the vegan mozzarella at all.
I didn't think it added much flavor to the dish, the

various veggies, the cashew ricotta and the sauce were

plenty of flavor.

The other evening, I made some more of the cashew

ricotta from the left over cashews and made

some zucchini roll ups with it.

This time they weren't vegan, I use real mozzarella

along with the ricotta and rolled it up in

slices of zucchini added some sauce and it was delicious.

Here's the funny part. 

After all that research and trying out this 

vegan dish, I was talking to the kids and they

want to have a taco bar for the rehearsal dinner.

I don't need the vegan lasagna now,

but I'm glad I learned how to make it and 

we really did love it.
If I need a dairy free dish, I'll be able to make it.

Now to find a vegan taco filling and dessert.

I hope you have enjoyed hearing about my adventures

in vegan cooking.  I'll let you know how the tacos and 

dessert go.
Thanks for stopping in, come again soon,

you never know what you'll find on 

Kristie Kreates!

Zucchini Lasagna

Hello blog friends!

Sometimes I say

"You never know what you'll find on Kristie Kreates"

This is one of those times.

 I don't know if you all know that

I recently had weight loss surgery.  If you are interested

you can click on the link at the top of my home page for

"My Weight Loss Journey"

where I have chronicled my experience very openly.

Today I decided to make something a little different for dinner.

I can't have pasta so I decided to make zucchini lasagna,

replacing the noodles with zucchini strips.

I got this idea from my friend Sue when she posted on facebook

that she was trying it.

I was just okay'd to have some of these veggies that I hadn't

been allowed to have since my surgery.

So follow along below and see how I made it.

Here are the ingredients that I used, except that I did 

put some parmesan cheese in too, but forgot it for the picture.

I don't have a recipe and that's how I cook most of the time.

I just put in what I like and we'll see how it turns out.

I started by putting some of the sauce in the bottom of

the baking dish.  Then I laid down the strips of zucchini,

covered it with spinach, mushrooms and sauteed onions.

I added some sauce on top of the veggies, then another layer

of zucchini strips.

Next I mixed the ricotta with garlic powder, salt, pepper,

oregano and basil and spread that over the zucchini layer.

I cooked up hamburger and drained it, then put that over the

ricotta.

Over that I added shredded mozzarella and 

parmesan cheese. Then covered it with sauce and more

zucchini.

I added a bit more cheese,

covered it with sauce and a little more of both cheeses

and popped it into the oven at 350* for about an hour.

It smelled so good while it was cooking!

It looked so good when it came out of the oven

that it was hard not to dig right in, but I was good

and let it sit for a bit.

You know how hard that first piece is to get out.

It didn't stay together perfectly, but not too bad.

It was pretty liquid-y, you can barely see where I took my 

piece out of the pan. I'm betting once it cools some more it

won't be quite so runny.

How was it?

This dish definitely gets a thumbs up from me.

The flavor was wonderful,

the zucchini was a little al dante and that was perfect for me,

it gave a little crunch and I liked that.

If you don't like the crunch, you could cook it longer to let 

the zucchini get softer.

All in all it tasted pretty much like the lasagna I usually make.

It was DELICIOUS!

Now here's the problem, I don't know how to cook small.

There is a LOT of lasagna left.

Once it cools I think I might just put it into containers and freeze 

some of it.  I'll just have to remember to make some very small

portions, since that is what I eat now.

Here are some of the amounts I used:

zucchini  -  3 medium sized - about 2 lbs.

ricotta  -  one container - 15 oz.

mozzerella  -  about 8 oz.

hamburger  -  about 8 oz.

mushrooms - 4-5 sliced

spinach  -  about 2-3 oz. fresh

sauce  -  one jar - 24 oz.

Thanks for stopping in today.

I hope you'll give this a try or maybe something

else that you eliminate one ingredient and use another.

Changing up the pasta for zucchini worked great,

who knows what else might work.

Until next time,

think outside the box!

Come again soon, like I said:

You never know what you'll find on 

Kristie Kreates!