 Well, we're 10 days into 2024 and my plan to eat more vegetables and incorporate more plant based foods into our diet has already been derailed by an inscrutable desire for comfort food.🤦🏻♀️ Please tell me that I'm not the only person who's healthy eating plan for 2024 has already been derailed - less than 2 weeks into the new year. If you happen to find yourself in a similar predicament, not to worry. We may have veered slightly off track but I have a plan to get us back on the plant based eating bandwagon.😜 Be honest. How many of you just made a face when you read that?🤣 I get it. For me, the phrase plant based eating evokes images of someone wandering though a greenhouse nibbling the leaves of hanging house plants and chewing on the petals of colorful flowers.🪴🌻 Not exactly the picture of culinary decadence. 😅 Maybe I should try and eat like a flexitarian instead and just focus on buying (and eating) more vegetables. 🥒🍆🌽🥦🫑 Full disclosure: I had no idea that a flexitarian diet was even a real thing until I started to google alternative names for plant based diets.😆  Comfort food for me, means all things Italian. Pasta, bread, pizza - give me all the carbs.🍝 🍕🥖 😂 The draw to these cheesy delights is real so I'm trying to mesh my love of comfort food and my desire to fill my stomach with more vegetables.😜 Hello vegetable lasagna. Everything I love about a warm, comforting Italian dish with some healthy produce to boot. And the only person who knows just how many healthy veggies are in this meal is the person who prepares it. #sneakyveggies 😉  Roasted Vegetable Lasagna Marinara 3 Tablespoons olive oil 2 onions, diced 2 carrots, sliced thin 2 celery stalks, sliced thin 8 cloves garlic, minced 1/4 teaspoons fennel 1 bay leaf 4 cans crushed tomatoes 2/3 fresh basil, chopped 1 teaspoon oregano 2 teaspoons sugar salt and pepper Vegetables 1 red bell pepper 1 yellow bell pepper 1 zucchini, cut into 1/4" rounds 4 ounces sliced mushrooms 1 eggplant, peeled and sliced thin 1 red onion, sliced into 1/4" rounds 6 cloves garlic, smashed 1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar 1 Tablespoon olive oil 1/2 teaspoon oregano 1/2 teaspoon basil 1/2 teaspoon salt Lasagna 15 ounces ricotta 1/2 cup parmesan cheese 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped 5 cups marinara 1 box no boil lasagna noodles 3 cups shredded mozarella
Heat oil in skillet. Add onion, carrot and celery and saute until tender.
Add remaining ingredients and simmer 30 minutes - 1 hour. Use an immersion blender to puree if you want a smoother sauce. Discard bay leaf.
 Cover with foil and bake 45 minutes at 400. Uncover and bake 10 minutes. Let rest 15 minutes before serving.  Is there anything better on a chilly January day than a steaming hot square of lasagna - that's actually good for you? 🤗
Ciao!
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