Guest Post: Ali @ A Serendipitous Life

When I saw Mara’s tweet asking for guest posts for What’s For Dinner, I was so excited! It was love at first read when I discovered this incredible blog, and I couldn’t wait to be even a small part of it.

How rude of me, I haven’t introduced myself. I’m Ali, and I blog over at A Serendipitous Life. I’ve been blogging for about a year, and just recently had a new blog beginning as I switched from health and weight loss focused, to talking about everything and anything that matters to me.

As quickly as I jumped at the chance to guest post, I realized I had to find something incredible, fantastic, amazing, spectac…..oh, you get the point – I needed something tasty, to blog about.

My first reaction was to come up with some fancy schmancy recipe that I had never tried before. Who wouldn’t love to try making beef bourguignon? More importantly, how impressive would that be? My next thought was “I don’t eat beef, so that’s probably not the best plan.” I felt like a nervous teenager trying to pick out the perfect dress for the prom.

So, you’re probably wondering what impressively difficult dish I have for you today, right? It probably has 25 ingredients, and you’ll need an ice cream maker and a smoker (I’m not sure what you could make using both of those, smoked salmon ice cream maybe?). Well, without further ado, I present to you…….lasagne.

That’s right, not-so-fancy, but totally delicious, lasagne. But not just any lasagne, my favourite recipe ever. I finally realized that fancy recipes, while fun to try once in a while, just aren’t me! This lasagne is tasty, easy to make, and something I think everyone should try once (unless you have a dairy sensitivity, in which case this might kill ya.)

This lasagne is inspired by spanakopita, the totally delicious Greek dish made with phyllo pastry.   This meatless casserole is easy to make, and freezes really well.

Here’s what you’ll need to make it: (do as I say, not as I do – this picture is missing 1 egg, and 1 onion)

·       Whole wheat lasagne noodles (no need to buy oven ready)

·       500 grams of ricotta cheese (reduced fat or fat free)

·       5 oz feta cheese, crumbled (reduced fat)

·       2 eggs, lightly beaten

·       1 ¼ cup of skim milk

·       ½ tsp grated nutmeg

·       ½ tsp salt

·       ½ tsp pepper

·       2 boxes of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained

·       3 cloves of garlic, minced

·       4 tomatoes

·       Grated mozzarella cheese to cover the top (reduced fat)

·       2 onions, minced

Here’s how you put it all together:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and spray 9×13 inch casserole dish with non-stick spray. Set aside for now.

Mince your onions, and cook them over medium heat with 1 tsp of olive oil until translucent – 4-5 minutes. Mix the ricotta, feta, drained spinach, 2 beaten eggs, nutmeg, salt and pepper, and minced garlic together in a bowl, and add the cooked onion. Mix in the skim milk.

Take a small amount of the cheese mixture and spread it in the bottom of the dish, and cover with uncooked lasagne noodles. Take 1/3 of the remaining mixture and spread over the noodles, cover with more noodles, 1/3 more mixture, more noodles and then the final 1/3 of the mixture. On top of this, sprinkle grated mozzarella cheese to cover.

Finally, cut tomatoes thinly and arrange on top of mozzarella.

At this point, you’ll be so impressed with how pretty it is, you won’t want to put it in the oven!

Reluctantly, place this covered with tinfoil, into the oven for 30 minutes, remove foil and put it back in the oven for another 20.

The final product, while not quite as pretty, is pretty darn tasty.

Aren’t you glad I didn’t go with the beef?

Tagged as: guest post, Italian, vegetables, vegetarian