Vegetarian Zucchini Lasagna

First of all I want to thank my readers for the kind comments and emails while my hubby was in the hospital. I really appreciate your caring words, thoughts, and prayers. I have the nicest readers!!!

He is home now and back at work, so things are finally back to normal.

My mom brought me a zucchini from her garden that was bigger than my lasagna pan, she had somehow missed it when picking them and it grew into a monster. So she gave it to me to see what I could do with it. I decided to make lasagna. While it was baking this morning, I had the news on and learned that today is National Lasagna Day! Who knew? I guess there is a day for everything.

This vegetarian lasagna uses strips of zucchini instead of noodles. I cut the zucchini into 1/4 " strips the long way, boiled them for about 3 minutes to soften them, and let them drain on paper towel. It is a great way to use up some of that overwhelming zucchini harvest. I used my homemade spaghetti sauce which I canned last summer, you can use any sauce you like.

Vegetarian Zucchini Lasagna

ingredients:

2-3 large zucchini, sliced into 1/4" strips, par-boiled for 3 min., let drain on paper towels

1 onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 T. olive oil

8 oz. mini-bella mushrooms, chopped

2 c. spaghetti sauce
1 6 oz. can tomato paste

2 eggs

1 1/2 c. cottage cheese

1/2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese

additional 1 c. shredded mozzarella cheese

1/4 c. Parmesan cheese

1 T. flour

2 large handfuls spinach, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 375.

In saucepan cook onion and garlic in olive oil about 4 min., add mushrooms and cook additional 4-5 min. till tender. Add spaghetti sauce and tomato paste, heat through.

In small bowl mix eggs, cottage cheese, 1/2 c. mozzarella, Parmesan cheese and flour.

In lasagna pan place about 1/2 c. sauce on bottom of pan. Next place spinach in pan, then a layer of zucchini strips. Spoon cheese mixture over this, spoon about 1/2 c. of sauce, then the remaining zucchini, and the rest of the sauce. Bake Uncovered 30-40 min., top with the other 1 c. of shredded mozzarella and bake 10 min. longer. Let stand 10-15 min. before serving.