Yummy yummy veggie lasagna

I've never made lasagna before (until tonight) because I don't really like Italian food (namely lasagna or anything with ricotta cheese). I had a bunch of mozarella and cottage cheese given to me at work and lasagna was the first thing that came to mind. I decided to give it a whirl since Gary likes it and I had all the other ingredients on hand already. It was a huge hit. Owen had a piece of his own and even came back for seconds.

Ingredients:

16 oz fresh spinach (or you can use frozen)-- cooked and drained well

1 yellow bell pepper/1 green/1 red (all diced)

1 onion (diced)

4 large carrots (shredded)

3 cloves garlic (diced)

1 16 oz container cottage cheese

dried basil

2 eggs

mozzarella/parmesan cheese (I used 16 oz combined)

1 box lasagna noodles (I bought the "oven-ready" kind)

salt/pepper to taste

marinara sauce (I had homemade sauce frozen so I just used that but you can use the sauce in a jar if you want something quick. I will post my sauce recipe following this one)

Preheat oven to 350. Sautee veggies (carrots, bell peppers, onion, garlic) until soft. Set aside.

In a bowl, combine cottage cheese, eggs, spinach, 2 tsp basil, salt/pepper to taste and blend well. Add cooked veggies to cheese mixture and stir until incorporated.

To assemble lasagna: Pour a little sauce on the bottom of a 12.5x9.5 casserole dish. Place 1 layer of lasagna noodles on top of the sauce. Spread 1/2 of the veggie mix over the noodles. Sprinkle cheese (mozzarella and parmesan) over the veggie mix, pour a little more sauce and then repeat until you have 2 layers of veggie mix

(from bottom, order should go like this: sauce, noodles, veggie mixture, cheese, sauce, noodles, veggie mixture, cheese). After the last layer of cheese, place 1 more layer of noodles over the top. Then pour the remaining sauce over the noodles and one more sprinkle of cheese.

Bake (covered with foil) for 60 min. After 60 min, remove foil and bake for 20 min uncovered. Let stand about 10 minutes before serving.

Marinara sauce:

1/4 C olive oil

3 garlic cloves (kept whole)

1 T tomato paste

1 35oz can whole peeled Italian tomatoes w/their juice (crushed by hand)

pinch of sugar

2 sprigs of basil

salt/pepper to taste

In a large saucepan, heat the oil. Add the garlic and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the canned tomatoes with their juices. Stir in the sugar and basil, season with salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Simmer the sauce over low heat, stirring occasionally, until it thickens and is reduced to 3 cups, about 30 minutes. Season again with salt and pepper. Discard the basil sprigs and garlic.

I have pictures but I'm too tired to upload them right now. Will try to get them on here by tomorrow