Not Quite A Veggie Lasagna

Last week I had the urge to make a veggie lasagna.  I love me a good hearty meal, and this is oober healthy!  You might me saying to yourself, that doesn't look like a lasagna.  I stood in the pasta aisle at the food store looking at the lasagna noodles.  I had nasty flashbacks to the last time I tried to make lasagna...every single one ripped.  All I had left was a bunch of flat jigsawed pasta pieces, barely supporting layers of meat, cheese, and sauce.  I swore I would never make a traditional lasagna again!  So as I stared at those noodles, wondering if I should break my promise to myself...I chickened out and bought rotini.

Now you know me, I always seem to modify recipes...whether it's because I forgot an ingredient or I'm having some kind of wacky craving.  So, as I looked at veggie lasagna recipes (after buying the ingredients) I realized veggie lasagnas typically have white sauces.  Ho hum.  Red it would be. And I love my turkey meat, so this was not quite a veggie lasagna...it just had a lot of veggies in it.

As I boiled the pasta, I browned up some Italian seasoned turkey meat and in a separate pan, cooked all of my veggies... green and yellow zucchini, broccoli, garlic, mushrooms, and shredded carrots.

To the cooked veggies, I added a can of diced tomatoes and some chopped spinach that I thawed out in the microwave...best bargain in the foodstore!  To the meat I added just a little bit of my tomato sauce, just to give a little flavor.

In a separate bowl, I whisked two eggs and mixed in ricotta cheese and some Italian seasoning.  I typically wouldn't add egg, but I was recently told I needed to eat more eggs...at least one a day...so in they went!  I love disguising food in other food.  

Then, I started layering...

A lil' bit of sauce

Some noodles

Ricotta mixture

Veggies

Turkey

Sauce...gotta control my warm colors in this picture!

Mozzarella

Repeat!  Noodles...ricotta...veggies...turkey...sauce...cheese...

At this point I thought I was going to have too much for my baking pan.

But it all fit just right!

This was absolutely delicious!  I'm glad I didn't use the white sauce because I felt like it was just a little healthier.  There was a bit of cheese, but that's calcium, right??? And it made so much food that I was able to eat it for lunch, too!

A Royal Tea Party

It took me a while, but I finally fell for the royal wedding hype.  There was just something about the history and tradition behind it all.  I absolutely loved that wedding dress!  Isn't she beautiful?!?  I think I selfishly got into the wedding because it gave me an excuse to make tea sandwiches for my co-workers and use my new Sophie Conran footed cake plate.  I looove white Sophie Conran and can't wait to build my collection.  I made 4 different kinds of sandwiches, alternating between fresh white bread and pumpernickel.

One sandwich had a pimento cheese spread which I embellished with a square-cut radish and a small green olive.

I never imagined sot cream cheese, cucumber and mint would make such a lovely combination.  I might salt the cucumber next time.

My friend Mary said her favorite was garlic herb cheese, cucumber, and watercress...delicious!  When I peeled the English cucumber I ended up with these great green ribbons so I threaded them on a toothpick to dress things up.

This was my favorite!  Smoked salmon spread with chives.  And I couldn't let these great chive-tops go to waste!  Lovely.

These were so yummy and a perfect tough for our ladies-only wedding tea party. 

Spring Has Most Certainly Sprung

I keep falling into some serious blogging lulls.  I guess things have been busy around here.  As we move into Spring, I realize why I love it here so much.  In the winter, Quaint Oaks is nice, but it loses much of its beauty, as I'm sure most yards do.  It is so exciting to hear birds and see shades of green come out from hiding.  Here are some early shots of Quaint Oaks.  Ian has done a lot of work transplanting and cleaning out...I can't wait for everything to fill in!