Over the summer, my Mom called me to come over to her house and help her with the tomatoes in her garden. She had sprained her wrist and wanted me to help her par-boil the tomatoes, take the skins off, put them in a food processor and then portion them out in Ziploc bags to put in her freezer for making pasta sauce later, or to add to soups. Now, I love tomatoes in things, I love pasta sauce, pizza sauce and ketchup, but I hate the tomato seeds! The squishiness of them…. it just grosses me out. So, in doing this little project for my Mom, I had to encounter tons of seeds! I wished I had gloves, so it wouldn’t have been so bad. But, the benefit was I got to take home some of the crushed tomatoes to put in my freezer. I almost always make my own spaghetti sauce, because now that my kids are getting older, (and eating more!) I would have to buy 2 jars of sauce. So, last night I made pasta. My spaghetti sauce is nothing out of the ordinary. I’ll use some tomatoes my Mom gave me, plus a 26 oz can of crushed tomatoes, maybe a small can of tomato sauce, lots of garlic, crushed red pepper, Italian seasonings. I was about to put the pasta in to cook, when I thought about making just one serving of lasagna for my lunch today. I already had the sauce, I had some cheese, and lasagna noodles, so in with the spaghetti, I threw in 1 lasagna noodle! After it was cooked, I let it cool off. I have a small ramekin, so I put enough sauce to cover the bottom. I cut the noodle in half. I placed half the noodle over the sauce, 1/4 cup of ricotta cheese, .5 ounce of fancy shredded mozarella, fresh spinach to cover the bottom, some more sauce, the other noodle, 1/4 cup of ricotta, more spinach, .5 ounce of cheese and covered it with more sauce. It looked fantastic. Since the noodles were already cooked, I baked it for about 25 minutes at 350. My family was a little jealous when I told them that was for my lunch! Next time, maybe I’ll make more individual ones, so everyone can have their own!
Each lasagna prepared like this is approx. 303 calories, 4 fat and 3 fiber
You could also try layering it with zuchini instead of the spinach, or maybe eggplant??
How adorable!
When I lived alone I used to make tiny sized lasagna’s in the bottom of a loaf pan instead of a big casserole dish. It was good for 2 or 3 servings for myself.
We have these divided microwave plates that I usually put leftovers in for the next day’s lunch. Works perfectly as I’m putting away leftovers to throw some in there and the dish just goes from fridge to micro!
Another idea I saw recently in a cookbook uses up the extra boiled lasagna noodles once your lasagna is fully assembled. You lay them out and put a plop of any extra lasagna stuffing. Then roll it up like a burrito, line them in a pan and bake them with sauce over them. Kind of like a DIY manicotti. Those could work for individual servings too!
Oh! I meant to ask where you found the nutritional yeast? I went to Trader Joe’s today and the only yeast of theirs the employee could find was the baking kind. I explained it’s got a nutty, cheesy flavor but he had no idea what I was talking about. Hmmm…
Or instead of spinach, zucchini, or eggplant, there’s always pepperoni, sausage, or even extra cheese. Mmmm… now I want me some lasagna.
Christina, I found about 6 different varieties at whole foods. It was kind of pricey, but they came in bigger containers. $11.99 and up. But it seems like it will last a long time. Or check out this site, it has a smaller container for only $5.19!
http://www.veganstore.com/index.html?stocknumber=235
Ok, thanks! I think I’ll order it online b/c the closest Whole Foods is Willowbrook – like 20 or 30 minutes away. That’s too far to buy one thing, even if gas has gone all the way down to $3.59/gallon. 😛