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.

Susan’s Coconut Thai Veggie Soup

Funny name? Too long? I couldn’t decide what to call it.  It’s really my sister’s recipe and she has a blog but hasn’t put it up yet. So I am putting it on my blog first!  I haven’t made it by myself yet, when I do I will try to remember to take a picture and try to remember to get my husband to teach me how to upload the picture.  This was served in bread bowls and was very much a comfort food. You do not need to serve in a bread bowl. It is very filling on it’s own.  My sister uses whatever veggies she has in the fridge but I’m writing down what she served me.

Susan’s Coconut Thai Veggie Soup

Image via Wikipedia

2 potatoes cubed
1-2 sweet potatoes cubed
1 onion chopped small
2-3 carrots sliced
1/2 of a head of cabbage chopped into bite size pieces
1 can coconut milk
1 whole chicken
curry powder
arrowroot powder or whole wheat flour

Cook the chicken in the crockpot for at least 4 hours or overnight. Take the meat off the chicken and set aside. Saute the onion and other veggies in a large stockpot, omit the cabbage till later. Add chicken broth (the water you cooked your chicken in) till just covering the veggies. Add the cabbage and chicken and curry.  Bring to a boil and cook till veggies tender.  Mix arrowroot or flour with the can of coconut milk then add to the soup. Do not boil if using the arrowroot powder. It will break down and just be runny.  Serve!