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!