This means dinner has to be quick and at my best attempt, nutritious. Also, I'm obsessive about not repeating anything twice in at least three weeks. I try to use only local produce when it's in season and we eat meat about once a week, if our pockets allow for a farm fresh, free range organic kind of critter.
This week I will do my best to document our dinners each night, whether hits or misses and try to honestly tell you how long they took me to create. Also, please note by the time I'm home my apartment is devoid of any kind of flattering, picture-taking light, so bear with my blurry, totally unprofessional pictures. Ready?
Last night was lasagna night. I was craving something gooey and cheesy, of course. We stopped by the farm market and picked up all kinds of goodies; shiny purple eggplants, baby beets and fennel, skinny little zucchini, big, fat bunches of kale. Not to mention, fresh bread, free range sweet italian pork sausage and horseradish pickles. We came home sweaty and hungry. Since it was Sunday, I was totally undaunted by the task ahead of me. 20 minutes in, of course, I was cursing my idea of spending my day trapped in my hole of a kitchen, roasting myself and my veggies.
I started out by making the cheese. I looked around the internet at different variations on nut cheese, took from each recipe what I thought mattered the most and gave it a shot. I soaked my two cups of cashews for 2 hours while i was out shopping and came home to plump little water babies. I also set up a block of firm tofu to drain. I threw both into the food processor (breaking up the tofu) with the juice of one lemon, two raw cloves of garlic, three tablespoons nutritional yeast, salt, pepper and a few shakes of onion powder.
The result was not so good... I added some more salt and we were on track. I let that sit in the fridge while I prepared the other fillings. 
Next, I chopped up four zucchini and one (peeled!) eggplant and let them roast in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes, turning once. When those were ready, I pulled them out to rest. As my premade pasta sauce (i'm italian, I make big batches and store in the freezer for future meals) came up to temperature, I let 1 1/2 cups of unsweetened soy milk do the same for a béchamel. Then, I let two tablespoons of earth balance melt in my pan until just bubbly, turning the heat to medium I whisked in equal measurements of flour and cooked that for about one minute. I then whisked in a small amount of my heated soy milk until thick, then little by little the rest, whisking enough to make sure no lumps formed. With the heat on medium-low I added in two table spoons of nutritional yeast, salt, white pepper and a pinch of nutmeg. As it came to bubble, I added in about a lb of baby spinach to wilt.
Next is layering. With the oven preheating to 350, I layered red sauce, no-boil lasagna noodles, cashew ricotta, roasted veggies, spinach béchamel for two rounds, topping with more sauce (with these no boil noodles, you want to drown this casserole) to finish and sprinkling with tofu mozzarella and nutritional yeast. I covered with foil to bake about 20 minutes, then uncovered to go another 20-25. Let me tell you, this may be the ugliest lasagna I've ever made, but I can't remember ever being able to eat this much of it without feeling ill or horribly guilty.. or both. I also had tons of leftovers which fed us and our houseguest lunch for two days.
If I could (and I will) do it again, I'd make a creamier white sauce, maybe with some silken tofu added in, and perhaps make the splurge on fresh pasta sheets for an even gooier bite. Oh, and with the cashew-soaking, veggie roasting and layering this took about 4 hours. My advice is to prep everything when you have the time and then make the dish whenever, because that part is really just about 15 minutes plus the baking time. Hope you try it yourself!
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