Spring!

(Though it started snowing, again this evening...) it is spring, and the boys tilled the garden this afternoon so we went out and got the materials to get our garden ready.

We picked up a bag of seed start soil.

Here are the herbs we use the most!

Those baby cumbers are great on there own, or sliced in a glass of water ;)
The hot pepper is for my Mother-in-law <3
And Rahne picked out the sunflowers, these are supposed to have lots of seeds, yum!

Two kinds of tomatoes, a small breed for sandwiches and cooking,
and cherries for snacking and salads!

We also picked up some peat moss pots, that go right into the ground
when the seedlings have sprouted!

Now, we just have to wait for the winter deja vu to end!  Once the sprouts to have at least two sets of leaves we'll start our fifth garden!  We have great luck with ours and I really encourage you to start one, too. Even if it's in pots.  A friend of mine's Mom doesn't have good sun in the backyard, so she sets up at least 10 big terracotta pots in her driveway! She grows all her favourites!

Ideas?

If you have a great recipe that you would like to share, email it to me and I will try it out, shoot it and post it here and credit you, of course!  I realized I have posted two soups and two dinner meals already and am working on a breakfast and a dessert to share with you soon! 
-xo
Rebecca.

Vegan Lasagna

We love yummy pastas and this has become a household fave! (Even the meat-eaters enjoy this recipe!)
We experiment with different veggies now and than, and for this blog entry I tried adding eggplant to the mix, that is a weird vegetable to cook if you have any suggestions please comment below!

You will need:

Four cloves of garlic, a bag or box of baby spinach, a box of mushrooms, two small or one large zucchini,
and an eggplant (or any other vegetables you would like add).

Two bottles of pasta sauce, (this is my favourite, I also like the Catelli sauce,) and some olive oil.

One box of oven-ready lasagna pasta.

Prep:

preheat oven to 450 degrees

Peel and crush the garlic cloves and place in a pot with 2cm (1/2 inch) of water.
(I am using my veggie steamer to try and keep as much nuchies as possible, with about 3cm (an inch) of water.

Fill the rest of the pot up with the spinach, if you are not using baby spinach, trim off the stems.
The spinach really shrinks down so pack it in, turn your burner to medium heat,
turn down to low when the water starts to boil. Cook untill wilted and dark green (about ten mintues)

meanwhile, warm the sauce in a medium sized pot and....

Cut the ends off the zucchini and using a carrot/potato peeler peel off some of the skin,
cut in half and than into thin half moons.

Cut off the ends off the eggplant and cut into thin rounds.

Cut the mushrooms into small pieces.

Steam the eggplant in some water with a dash of slat and pepper.

Coat the base of a large frying pan with some olive oil and saute zucchini untill soft.

Coat the base of a large frying pan with olive oil and cook mushrooms over medium heat untill brown.

and now, we layer the deliciousness!

Using an oven safe dish start with a layer of sauce.

Put down the first layer of (uncooked) pasta.

Start layer veggies, (I've started with the eggplant)

and now the zucchini...

some mushrooms...

and then the spinach...

another layer of pasta....

now, for the second layer of sauce.
Be generous with the sauce, it is the moisture from the sauce that is going to cook the pasta.

(My casserole dish is smaller at the bottom so as I move up I add a third column of pasta.)
I do about three layers of sauce, pasta, veggies, sauce, pasta, and veggies,
putting even a little extra sauce at the top to make sure the lasagna doesn't dry out.

cover casserole dish with aluminum foil for 20 minutes, uncover and cook for another 15 minutes.at this time taste a piece of the pasta from the top to make sure it is fully cooked.

Let it stand for 15 minutes before digging in! Enjoy!