Sunday, January 21, 2007

Quick recap and a new recipe


As far as I can tell, the banquet went off with very few glitches last night. I had a great time and actually made it to the end for a change. With energy to spare. I can't remember the last time I was up early (5:30) and managed to stay up until 1:30 AM without a headache, grumpiness and staring meanly at other people who still had energy themeslves.

I wasn't the only one amazed - The Man and my boss were, also.

The resort gave me a GF meal. Instead of the soup and salad, I received a huge fruit plate with cottage cheese. While the others ate their entree of chicken, beef filet (both in sauces), twiced-bake potato, and green beans/carrots, I had the GF version with a baked potato left uncut, a filet with no sauce, and the same veggies but with no seasoning. How wonderful to eat at a party and not want to curl up and go to sleep right after! And it was kind of cool to have my tablemates watch in envy as the banquet manager carried my food to me himself while the others had to wait for the cart.

Needless to say, I am a little wiped out. We slept until 8 and were on the road by 9, but driving was somewhat dicey due to some snow and sleet that swept through early that morning and continued on and off today. By noon, I was crashed on the couch with a headache and my boys. I woke up about 3, still with the headache, and decided I better eat something more than the half a protein bar I had for breakfast.

I rooted through the fridge to see what I could see and here's what I came up with tonight.

Clean out the Veggie Crisper Lasagna

Veggie layer:

4 cups peeled and diced butternut squash
1 cup chopped asparagus
1 cup peeled and diced carrot
1 large onion, sliced
1 large tomato, diced
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tsp sea salt

Sauce layer:

1 29-oz can tomato sauce
2 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
2 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
Sea salt

Other stuff:

6 Tinkyada lasagna noodles
2 balls mozzarella
Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Peel and chop the veggies and put them into a big bowl. Pour about 1/4 cup of olive oil over the top, the sea salt, and then toss to coat. Line a jelly roll pan with foil and then dump the veggies into the pan. Make sure they are in 1 even layer; if not, move some to a second pan. Place in the oven and roast until carmelized, about 30 minutes.

While the veggies are in the oven, start the sauce. Saute the garlic in the olive oil for 1-2 minutes. Pour in the tomato sauce and then add the basil and oregano. Stir and then reduce heat to medium-low. Let simmer. Add salt to taste.

Grate the mozzarella. Pull out the wedge of parmesan and have your grater ready. Prepare your lasagna noodles according to the package directions. Rinse with cold water, then place between paper towels to dry off.

Layer the lasagna in a 8x10 baking dish**: sauce, 3 noodles, veggies, cheese....and again until you run out of space or out of layering stuff. Cheese should be the top layer. Once you get the last layer of cheese on, grate some parmesan on top.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Let sit for a few minutes after baking before cutting.

**When it's just me eating something, I make it pretty small. If making a standard 9x13, you'd probably want to double everything.

I am now going to submit to the headache that won't give up. Nighty-night, all.

3 comments:

Dianne said...

This looks really nice, just the sort of thing I eat, when the husband wants something that I cant or dont want to eat!

Mike Eberhart said...

Looks quite good. Sounds like you had a busy past couple of days, and it's nice to hear the banquet went well. Congrats.

Sheri said...

Dianne - precisely! He came home much earlier than expected and was disappointed that I made something he wouldn't eat. That'll teach him to be so picky!

Mike - we had a great time but I am still recovering from being awake for so many hours.