White Veggie Lasagna

This is a fabulous healthy white sauce lasagna that you can add chicken too or not! It’s great either way.  My friend, Amy, and I made it up to freeze and our families loved it. So we made 8 of them yesterday!  Amy’s family has to eat gluten free. We do not, so we use whole wheat noodles and they use brown rice noodles.  Great way to get more freezer meals in your freezer is to quadruple a recipe instead of doing 4 different recipes.  Next week we plan on doing a red lasagna or Shepherd’s Pie.

Below is amounts for one or 8 lasagnas.

White Veggie Lasagna

1 pan       8 pans

9-12            64       whole wheat or brown rice lasagna noodles (This was 2.5 (13 oz) boxes)
1/2 c            1 c       butter
1                   8        onions chopped
1                   8        minced garlic
1  tsp           6 tsp  Real salt or sea salt
2 c                18 c    Chicken broth
1 1/2 c          6c      whole milk (we used less milk cause it was plenty runny)
4 c               16 c     shredded mozzarella cheese
1 c               4+c      parmesan cheese (we used less cause we didn’t have any more)
1 tsp           8 tsp    basil
1 tsp            8 tsp   oregano
1/2 tsp        4 tsp   black pepper
2 c                16 c    cottage cheese (preferably organic, regular has nasty stuff in it)
1/2 c             4 c     shredded chicken (approximately 1/2 of a whole chicken) This was for 4 pans.
3 c                10 c    fresh spinach (can use frozen as well)
1                    6         small zucchini shredded (3/4c each pan)
2                   16        carrots shredded
1                   4          packages of mushrooms chopped fine
1c                  4  c     Ultra gel (you can use arrowroot, cornstarch or flour for thickening)

Cook butter, garlic, & onions till softened in a pan on the stove over med-high heat.  Add all the veggies except the spinach. (If using frozen spinach throw it in now.) Add spices, salt, & pepper, chicken broth, & milk.  Then wisk in the ultra gel slowly and don’t let it boil.  Then layer in a 13×9 pan 1/2 c sauce, uncooked noodles, cottage cheese, more sauce, spinach, cheeses then repeat ending with mozzarella cheese. Cover with tinfoil and freeze.  Or if eating immediately bake in a 350 degree oven for about an hour covered with an inverted cookie sheet.  If baking from frozen take directly from freezer and place in 350 oven for 2 hours.

Spinach Soup

This time of year I love quick and easy meals but especially soup.  A friend brought me this soup after they had a church party and had way too much leftover. I was more than happy to take it off of her hands.

Spinach Soup

Spinach

Yield 4 servings

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour or cornstarch
• 2 cups milk
• 1 cup Half and Half (or real cream)
• 1/2 cup chopped onions
• 1 tsp. minced garlic
• salt and pepper to taste
  Directions
  1. In a medium saucepan, combine chicken broth and spinach. Bring to a boil, and cook until spinach is tender.
  2. In a small pan saute onions in 2 Tablespoons butter until tender, add minced garlic then add to cooked spinach.  Let it cool- then put it in a food processor or a blender and process until it is smooth. I used a stick blender. Less mess and accidents.
  3. Melt 3 Tablespoons butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in flour, and cook for 2 minutes. Gradually whisk in milk and half and half.  Cook, stirring constantly, until thickened. Stir in spinach mixture.

Quick Lunch

Went to Boise Farmer’s Market today to buy pasture-fed lamb for Easter dinner. Whoa the people!  My kids loved it.  Lydia was a little fussy but she stayed by me. Anyway, ate lots of free tasters, too much sugar.

So I came home and was hungry for lunch. I threw mushrooms to saute in butter, sprinkled coarse sea salt over the top.  When almost done threw on some fresh organic spinach (from the Farmer’s market) and 1/2 cup water and put a lid on it for a few min. Then I shredded some baby swiss over the top.

OH OH OH! It was divine! I never get to eat those things cause my husband hates them all.  It was so much better than chocolate! Yes I said chocolate!