#3 chard pesto lasagna with zucchini and peppers

Chard pesto lasagna with zucchini and peppers :

i made this lasagna for my husband who can not have tomato based foods. i love all things pasta and missed making lasagna. i figured why not give pesto a whirl. turned out pretty good! i did add some marinara to each layer on half but honestly i enjoyed it better without. the pesto was pretty tasty and i have a decent amount left over for another pasta dish later this week.

1 zucchini

1 large carrot

3 or 4 sweet peppers or 1 large red bell pepper

1 package whole wheat lasagna noodles

1 small container of ricotta cheese

2 cups mozzarella cheese

1 egg

a few leaves of chopped chard

olive oil

(pesto recipe)

1 large bunch of chard

a few sprigs of basil

1 cup almonds or walnuts

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup Gorgonzola

3 cloves garlic

olive oil and lemon juice

*start by combining all pesto ingredients in a food processor or blender. alternate streaming in olive oil and little dashes of lemon juice until desired constancy(creamy paste) more olive oil than lemon juice ( i taste as i go to make sure i have not gone overboard) set aside

* slice zucchini length wise into thin strips a quarter of an inch thick and peppers into strips. brush with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. put in oven on 400 until just tender.

*cook pasta according to package direction, drain and set aside

*mix ricotta and egg in a bowl, add salt and pepper to taste

*shred carrot

*to build lasagna spread some pesto on bottom of a 9x13 pan. lay down first layer of noodles.

-spread more pesto on noodles and some of cheese mixture, half the shredded carrot then sprinkle some of the motz. cheese on top.

-next instead of noodles, layer the zucchini then spread more pesto, cheese mix, 1/2 chopped chard ,the peppers and the rest of the shredded carrots.

-one more layer of noodles, more pesto, remaining cheese mix, remaining chard and shredded motz.

bake at 350 for 30-45 min or bubbly and golden brown on top.

recipe #2 (what to do with all that leftover matzo)

ok, so i don't get matzo in my produce delivery but I thought i would add this recipe in case you got some extra from passover....and this recipe DOES NOT taste like cardboard. just sayin

Recipe #2

praline, chocolate and marshmallow matzo

oven 350

5 pieces matzo

bag chocolate chips

bag mini marshmallow

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup plus an extra teaspoon butter

dash of salt

*melt butter and brown sugar in sauce pan with a dash or two of salt

*line baking sheet with matzo and smear the melted sugar mixture on top, bake for 5 minutes

*remove and evenly sprinkle top with chocolate chips

* put desired amount of marshmallows on top of chocolate chips, place back in oven for 5-10 minutes or until chocolate is melted

*place on rack to cool and break into pieces like brittle..

IT'S SOOOO YUMMY you will not care that you are still eating matzo even after passover has already ended!

#`1 carrot and parsnip soup

Delivery List

Carrots

Chard

Sweet Potatoes

Corn

Asparagus

Parsnips

PackhamPears

Fuji Apples

Zucchini

mango

Recipe #1

Carrot and Parsnip soup

4 or so cups carrots and parsnips

1 sweet potato

1 whole yellow onion

3 cloves garlic chopped

1 box veggie stock

half cup almond milk

teaspoon dried rosemary

dash of dried thyme

salt and pepper to taste

dash of red wine vinegar

*chop onion and garlic and saute with some butter and olive oil in a heavy pot or dutch oven until translucent

*next add stock. chopped carrots , parsnips, sweet potato, rosemary and thyme to pot and bring to boil. cook veggies until tender.

*In small batches add veggies and stock to a food processor or blender and blend until smooth.(careful blending...I normally add as little stock as I can when blending to avoid splatter and getting burned)

*Add all the blended contents back to pot and add almond milk. Bring soup to a simmer for 20 minutes or so. If the soup is too thick add more veggie stock until desired thickness. salt and pepper to taste .

It can be a little sweet so I added a dash of red wine vinegar to my pot to cut the sweet a little.

Hope you like it..We did!

Plan B

So I started this blog in an attempt to save money by not eating out for a whole year...needless to say I BIG FAT FAILED. well, actually we had our third child and I soon realized there was no way I could cook three meals a day on the new sleep deprivation I am finally growing a custom to...blah blah..but I say that while we did manage to stop eating out, we did save a LOAD of money and I often find myself toying with the idea once again... mind you on a much smaller, less inane scale.

So here I am again, but this time I got something new up my sleeve...About 4 or 5 months ago we signed up for a bi-weekly produce delivery. The deal is that I get an email on Friday of the goods that I am gonna get and they are deliver right to my door on Tuesday morning....now is the part where i pause for a moment and sing praises to PALMETTO ORGANICS. If you live in Jax and eat organic produce and don't use these guys then you are nuts. plain and simple...ok, so here I am with all these veggies, some of which I have never seen nor heard of in my life and I gotta cook em or we have just wasted hard earned money and that is not something I am in to..money wasting. So I have some friends that use this service and even blog about what they cook so I figured I could do the same. I will post my bi-weekly list of produce and then the recipes I make to use the stuff up...can't promise it will all be amazing and wonderful and your new favorite thing to eat, but I am sure gonna try!