Zucchini Lasagna!

I ambled through the garden this morning after I was caught up on my work. I'm constantly amazed with what I find there. For no reason at all, one squash plant will have nothing to harvest, no blooms and a fairly shriveled appearance. Three feet away, another plant will be producing happily. Oh well! This morning I discovered a honeydew melon that is about 7 inches along, and some baby watermelons and some cantelopes that made me smile. My two pumpkins are almost ready! I will make pumpkin bread, and a pie for Michael!

Maybe, just maybe, all that composted horse poopy and sawdust did the trick. Maybe with some additional amending after the garden is done this year, next year can be even better!

Maybe I can actually remember what I am planting, or mark it effectively!)

Maybe my gardener will no longer answer my "what's wrong with my garden, Zenon?" questions with a shrug and a nonchalant "Your soil, eet is sheet!" Mind you, he was not speaking of the horse poopy when he described my soil as "sheet" last summer, while we watched my first garden shrivel up and die.

Anyway, this is what I found this morning. I went up to get a few squash.


















I came back with a bunch of them, some green beans, cukes, peppers, cherry tomatoes, etc. And a few roses for my desk!


Mom and Dad sent me this recipe just in the nick of time:

Zucchini Lasagne

1/2 pound ground beef
1/3 cup chopped onion
1 15 oz tomato sauce
1/2 tsp. each: salt, oregano
1/4 tsp. basil
1/8 tsp pepper
4 medium zucchini
1 egg
2 tbsp flour
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup cottage cheese.

Right off the bat, I wreaked havoc with the recipe by subbing firm tofu chunks for the beef.... that way Karen would enjoy this also. Michael wouldn't touch a zucchini if his life depended on it, so heading in a vegetarian direction with the recipe would mean it would be utilized more effectively. I browned the tofu and onion and then to that, I added the tomato sauce, salt, oregano, basil and pepper.

Per the recipe, I sliced the zucchini lengthwise into 1/4 inch slices.

















In a small bowl, I combined cottage cheese and egg. Onto the layer of zucchini in the pan, I sprinkled 1 tbsp flour, and topped with the cottage cheese mix, and half the tomato sauce/meat (tofu). I put a cup of the mozzarella on that.

.




















Then, I repeated the zucchini and flour layer, and then another cup of mozarella and tomato/meat (tofu). (that Folgers cannister is my pre-composter! I freeze garden scraps to hasten the composting process and add them to my composter outside once a week!)


















Yum. Tonight I will bake it at 375 (covered tightly with foil) for 45 min.... and then let stand for 10 minutes to aid with ease in cutting.

Whoo hoo! Another keeper zucchini recipe!! Thanks for emailing that, Dad!!