Veggie Lasagna

•1/2 box lasagna noodles or ~0.5 lbs lasagna noodles, cooked according to directions on box.
•1 Jar Pasta Sauce of your choice
•16 oz mozzarella, shredded
•A container of Ricotta Cheese (not sure how many ounces are in it)
•Two Eggs
•Two Zucchinis, sliced into rounds
•A gaggle of mushrooms. I had a bunch, I think 8 or so large white buttons, sliced
•1 Package Frozen Spinach, also prepared according to directions and set aside.

Preheat oven to 375˚

1) Take all of the ricotta cheese, and 3/4's of the sliced mozzarella, and mix together in a large bowl. Also add two eggs to this cheesy mixture and make sure it is well blended. You could also at this point mix in the cooked spinach to make things easy, but I made things hard on me and did not as will be seen below.

2) Grease up a baking pan with spray, olive oil, or butter. Anything will work, you just don't want too much sticking.
2) Lay down a layer of zucchini slices, and pepper/salt generously
3) A layer of sliced mushrooms
4) A layer of spinach goodness
5) Layer of Ricotta/Mozz/Egg mixture
6) Slap some noodles down, depending on the size of the pan, 3.5 noodles will do.
7) Cover in some sauce!
8) Repeat these steps indefinitely until you run out of things to add.
9) Once you have your top layer of sauce, cover with the remaining 1/4 of the shredded mozzarella on top.
10) Cover this whole 'Mesopotamia with aluminum foil and pop it in the oven for 30 minutes.*
11) Rip off the aluminum foil and let bake uncovered for 10 more minutes. Longer if you like it extra crunchy.
12) Take out of oven, let cool for ~10 minutes or until you cannot wait any longer and eat. I like it with salad and crusty bread.

**So someone in the Corral used all the aluminum foil and so I baked mine uncovered for the entire time. If you do this, it may take a bit longer for everything to get done. The veggies remain toothsome and the noodles are crunchy. You may want to have some sauce (or gravy) on the side if you like it wetter.

It makes a ton of lasagna. And is good energy for tackling reaction mechanisms.

Pasta Sauce Magee, with Shrimp

Last night Bret and I made a really yummy pasta sauce for our dear friends Mary and Paul. It is really easy and quite tasty.

One onion, chopped
Garlic, couple cloves chopped
One orange (or any color) bell pepper, chopped, or slices
Handful of white mushrooms, sliced
One can stewed tomatoes
Seven or eight cherry tomatoes
White wine
Basil, bay leaves, other herbs that you like

Sautee the onions and garlic until soft. Add bell pepper and sautee until a bit soft. Add a hearty amount of white wine and the can of stewed tomatoes. Let simmer for a few minutes. Add the cherry tomatoes whole. The tomatoes get extra tasty as they stew in the hot sauce. Add the mushrooms and herbs and let simmer until everything is cooked through and delicious. Season with salt and pepper and serve in heaping spoonfuls over fresh pasta. We also added cooked shrimp on top of the pasta and sauce. You could also add unwrapped sausage and cook it in the sauce. This is another nice variation that goes well over pasta. We served this with a simple salad and bread.