Labor of Love Lasagna!

My supper club decided that next month's theme will be recipes from Cooking Light Magazine. I started thumbing through recipes already and saw a dish that I wanted to make this week since it looked so good and was easy to freeze. This lasagna was a labor of love, let me tell you! I can't believe I prepared this dish on a weeknight, but it was well worth it.

Three different pots, a casserole dish, multiple bowls, measuring cups, measuring spoons, a garlic press, two different wooden spoons, a large ladle, and a dirty spoon rest are all piled high in my kitchen sink!

I tweaked the recipe originally published by the magazine and was happy with the results! It was light, yet the creamy spinach sauce and browned cheese on top were rich in flavor and made for a guiltless piece of comfort food!

Garden-Style Lasagna (Adapted from Cooking Light)

Ingredients:

Olive oil

Cooking spray

2 cups chopped yellow onion

5 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups chopped zucchini

2 cups thinly sliced carrots

1 box of frozen chopped broccoli, thawed

1 box of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup all purpose flour

3 1/2 cups of 1% milk

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

dash of nutmeg

1 tub (16 ounces) of 1% whipped cottage cheese (Friendship brand is best)

2 cups reduced fat shredded Italian blend cheeses (Sargento brand is best)

16 lasagna noodles, cooked and divided

Directions:

1) Heat oven to 375 degrees and coat lasagna pan using cooking spray

2) Add one tablespoon olive oil to dutch oven on medium heat and cook onions until they are translucent and light brown, 10 minutes. Add garlic and cook for another 2 minutes. Spoon mixture into bowl.

3) Add one tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and stir in zucchini. Saute for 8 minutes until it begins to brown; add onion mixture back into dutch oven.

4) Add a teaspoon of olive oil to pan and stir in carrots, sauteing for 8 minutes. Add thawed broccoli. Salt and pepper to taste. Saute for another minute and set aside.

5) In a medium saucepan, place flour in and slowly whisk in milk. Bring do a low boil, constantly whisking for 2 minutes. Add spinach, parmesan cheese, nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste. Keep on low simmer so sauce stays warm.

6) Cook lasagna noodles according to directions minus 2 minutes since they will soften in the oven.

7) Assemble the lasagna: Place noodles on bottom of pan. Spread cottage cheese over the noodles. Add the spinach sauce and then the vegetable mixture. Repeat until you have noodles on top. Add the last of the spinach sauce on top and then place Italian cheese over the sauce.

8) Bake for 20 minutes

9) Place oven on low broil for 2 minutes or until the cheese on top browns nicely.