Veggie Lasagna

*Casie Here*

This was a HUGE hit with the entire family. HUGE!!! The kids devoured this, Vernon craved it all day the next day. I will definitely be making this again and soon if Vernon has anything to do with it!!! I have not made Lasagna since we have gone vegetarian/vegan (so going on over a year and a half). No wonder everyone loved it.

First of all I found this little gem at Hy-Vee in their health food section in the cold case. I was sold. I have been wanting to make veggie lasagna, but didn't know how to get around the ricotta part. Welp, this was the ticket!!! It is made from Tofu if you couldn't guess and it does taste VERY similar to the real thing and has the exact same texture. It did cost almost $6 though, but it fed the whole family for two dinners and one lunch, so that's not too bad. 

 I already had some really old Lasagna noodles (like a year and a half old lasagna noodles). They worked just fine though.

I made the 'white' mixture with the Tofutti Ricotta, one of those frozen spinach blocks (thawed and wrung out, chopped up a little more), and for my 'egg' I used chia seed goop. How do you make Chia seed goop? Take 1 TBS. Chia Seeds and mix with 3 TBS water (this substitutes one 'egg'). Let it sit for about 10 mins and it turns into goop, like an egg. It helps bind things just like an egg. If you need more than one 'egg' just double it or triple it (I have used it in cookies that call for eggs and it works perfectly). I added some salt, pepper and garlic powder here too.

For my 'meat' mixture I used 1 whole onion, 4 cloves of garlic, 1 zucchini, 1 yellow squash, 2 carrots, little bit of yellow pepper, 1 can mushrooms and I had 4 fresh ones too, and this product below (that I have had in my freezer for way too long). Chopped up everything, sauteed and mixed everything together with spaghetti sauce. 

Do all the regular layers like a regular lasagna (the kids helped)!

 I used these Veggie Shreds for some 'cheese' in between the layers (this product melts really well and tastes really good too, much better than the Diaya brand I think). 

 We had some french bread and green beans with it the first night and a lettuce salad the second night. Mmmmmm

 We had a lovely family meal. Isn't that what it's all about?

So, so good. A little time consuming, but not too bad considering how many meals it made. AND it would have gone farther if Vernon didn't over-indulge! Just sayin'....

*UPDATE*

I made this again and changed up a few things. First of all I the Hy-Vee I got the Tofuitti Ricotta was out and I called almost every single one in town and no one had it, so I just used regular Tofu crumbled it and added everything else above and it worked perfectly. It tasted just the same. So, now I'm not going to spend $6 and get that when I can just use regular tofu.
I also didn't use the Quorn crumbles. I used Seitan instead as the 'meat'.

Here is what Seitan looks like up close. I always chop or food process mine really tiny.

I didn't have any frozen spinach so I just food processed some fresh leaves really fine and mixed them in with the Tofu cheese mixture. Everything else was the same. It was so freaking delicious.