We promised to share one of Jennifer and Mike's favorite on-the-road meals – Vegetable Lasagna.
This meal is a bit trickier to prepare than the simple Salsa Chicken recipe we shared in our last How We Roll in our RV video.
Preparation is the key. The payoff, though, is a mouth watering meal that you can easily prepare by popping it out of the freezer and then warming in your RV's microwave or convection oven. We usually find one piece is enough for a serving, and this recipe makes enough for from nine to 12 pieces. A salad and a vegetable are its usual side dishes for us.
Here's Jennifer showing the preparation and cooking process:
Please note that we call this Vegetable Lasagna, not vegetarian. That's because it uses eggs and dairy products (cottage cheese), so it's not pure vegan. But the veggies give it a flavor and texture that we now prefer to the regular lasagna made with meat.
Vegetable Lasagna Ingredients
- 6 lasagna noodles
- two quarts of water to boil lasagna noodles
- 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
- 1 cup chopped onipn
- 1-1/2 cups carrots, sliced 1/8 in thick
- 1 cup sliced mushrooms
- 1 cup quartered and sliced zucchini
- 1- 10 oz package of frozen, chopped spinach, thawed and well-draoined
- 2 tsp. minced garlic (about one clove)
- 1-3/4 cups spaghetti or marinara sauce (about one 15 oz jar)
- 1/2 cup water (into spaghetti/marinara sauce)
- 1 tsp. basil
- 1/2 tsp. oregano
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups low-fat cottage cheese
- 1/2 cup graded parmesan cheese
- 12 oz shredded part-skim Mozzarella cheese
Vegetable Lasagna Instructions:
- Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for about 12 minutes. Drain, rinse and cover with cold water
- Heat vegetable oil in saucepan. Add onions, carrots, zucchini, mushrooms and garlic. Saute until carrots are tender, about 10 minutes. Add spinach last few minutes of cooking. Mix thoroughly as cooking.
- Bring spaghetti/marinara sauce, water and spices to a simmer. Simmer for 8-10 minutes.
- Beat eggs, blend in cottage cheese, Parmesan cheese and vegetables
- Spread a thin layer of sauce over the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish. Cover with 3 noodles (dried well); spoon half of cheese and vegetable mixture over noodles. Cover with half of a=sauce and half of Mozzarella cheese. Repeat layer of noodles, cheese and vegetable mixture and sauce.
- Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes
- Remove foil and sprinkle top with remaining Mozzarella cheese. Bake uncovered about 15 minutes more or until center is bubbly.
That's it. After it cools, divide it up how you'd like and put it in freezer. Again, it makes nine-12 pieces, depending on how generous you cut it up.
Enjoy!
If you'd like, we can show other favorite RV Lifestyle recipes we like on a semi-regular basis.
Let us know.
Meantime, if you RV or on-the-road recipe you'd like to share, use comments below.
3 Responses to “How We Roll in Our RV: Jennifer’s Make-Ahead Vegetable Lasagna”
Comments are closed.
July 04, 2015at1:54 pm, Sean said:
Hi Jennifer and Mike,
I was curious, could you elaborate a bit more on the techniques you used to produce such a delicious recipe? I’ve noticed that you may prefer to keep the videos short, but adding a little bit more details on the “Why’s” would definitely improve interest over time. Things such as rinsing pasta seem taboo in a lot of cooking shows, as it may rinse a lot of nutrients off the pasta itself.
I’d also like to see more substitutions for things that you may believe will result in possibly a slightly different recipe, but caters more to specific tastes. Maybe perhaps Coconut Oil instead of Vegetable Oil?
Also, how do you think adding Avocado would fair in a recipe such as this? I think maybe having a spoonful of Avocado a day is a great way to keep in daily nutrients.
May 10, 2015at7:51 pm, QT Ball said:
Jennifer, That sounds delicious. And I love the idea of taking my own meals. I wonder if you would mind sharing the rest of the process of using your own pre-prepared meals? I’d love to know how you package and store the meals in your roadtrek, how you defrost, warm and serve. Do you vacuum pack? How many meals can you fit in the RT fridge? Thanks.
May 10, 2015at10:46 pm, Jennifer Wendland said:
I wait until the next day when the food has cooled and then place it in plastic zip-lock bags, trying to get as much air out as possible. Sometimes I’ll use small glass containers, but that can end up being lot of glass containers banging around in the drawers after they are emptied and the meals eaten. I don’t like to use the microwave. I’ve read it kills the nutrients in your food. I try to plan ahead and get the container out the day before to defrost in the refrigerator. I use the convection oven to warm the meal. I have never vacuum packed, but that sounds like a great idea. In the CS we have a huge freezer. I plan on filling it for this trip!