Pasta Please #10 - Lasagne

My treasured friend Jacqueline who cooks, writes and shares her photos at Tinned Tomatoes has been running an ongoing event celebrating pasta. Each month there is a different theme with guest hosts helping out some months. I'm pleased to be hosting Pasta Please for October.

Truth be told, I don't cook pasta all that often, but when I do, there is nothing better than the comfort of noodles smothered in thick tomato or cream sauce, adorned with vegetables and seasonings that suits the cook's mood. Served up with some crusty bread and salad on the side, well, that can be heaven.

After some thought, I'm asking for your favorite vegetarian lasagne recipe. Though it might require a bit more fuss than other pasta-based meals, lasagne for me was one of the earliest dishes I really learned how to cook after becoming a vegetarian and one that certainly appeals even to those who enjoy meat. I'm always looking for new ideas and am excited to see what readers share, especially as it is getting cooler and warming layered pasta dishes certainly appear more often on my table.

To contribute this month, all you need to do is come up with a vegetarian lasagne, post about it on your blog, link to Tinned Tomatoes and my page in your post and then add your recipe via the linky tool at the end of this post by the 28th of the month. Please include the logo in your post.

Note, your submission must be vegetarian as this is a vegetarian site, and please only one entry per blogger. If you use twitter, tweet your post with @LisaTurner22 and #PastaPlease and I will re-tweet it to my followers.

Often I don't want to fuss with breakfast, or should I say most of the time, meaning a quick alternative must be on hand for not only morning grazing, but also healthy bites to satisfy cravings whenever they hit. Energy bars have always been a good choice, though most of the store-bought varieties are filled with artificial sweeteners and are just too sweet and stale tasting. Did I mention how costly they are?

The solution is to make your own energy bars at home, for a fraction of the cost, with total control over what you are adding into the mix, and with very little investment in time. As a health conscious vegetarian, I find that these are especially handy for road trips. Pizza, bland oily salads and bagels just don't satisfy hunger when you need a real energy fix on the road. Packed with protein, homemade energy bars are also a great snack to take to work or school. What I particularly like about these homemade bars is that there is no added sweetener — just the goodness of dried fruit and some unsweetened apple juice. Feel free to mix and match your favorite staples. You really can't go wrong with this recipe.

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Fresh or dried, in any and all varieties, mushrooms are undoubtedly a weakness of mine, and so it was with some disquiet to find recently that I had gone two whole weeks without eating them in any substantial quantity! No wonder the craving hit with a vengeance. A breakfast out with a good friend failed to satisfy the need, yielding a very disappointing amount of miniscule mushrooms in a vegetable and egg skillet. So with a light dinner of an Asian-style roasted broccoli with miso-tahini-tamari sauce already mapped out, I decided to quickly fix the craving with these fast and easy teriyaki mushrooms to go along with the broccoli.

Quickly pan-fried over high heat to keep the juices in, these mushrooms are plump and tender and glazed in a simple and zesty homemade teriyaki sauce with a little garlic, ginger and dried red chili flakes to give them a delightful little kick. I really don't quite understand why anyone would bother with a store-bought teriyaki sauce when it's almost the easiest possible sauce to make at home with the quality ingredients you may already have in your pantry or can easily obtain — just a little tamari or soy sauce, rice vinegar and sugar. No more than 10 minutes prep and 10 minutes cooking, and you have a delicious and attractive side dish for any Asian-themed meal and a quick fix for mushroom lovers at that — double or triple the recipe if you're going to be feeding a few people. I also fried up some cashews and tossed them with the mushrooms to give the dish a little extra texture and because, well, fried cashews are always a treat in their own right.

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Lentils are the perfect solution for what I call "mid-week meals" when you need a fast and bother-free weekday dinner without giving up taste and nutrition. This is especially true on those days when I haven't planned ahead, because — unlike whole beans which require at least several hours of soaking before cooking — lentils don't have to be soaked at all or need only a couple of hours of soaking to speed up what is already a short cooking process. They're also extraordinarily versatile and can be prepared or paired with almost any number of other ingredients and flavors.

I'm especially fond of the Puy or French lentils that hold their shape when cooked — these beautiful dark green and blue speckled little pearls are especially attractive and toothsome in a soup. Their earthy and peppery flavor combines beautifully with tangy fresh tomatoes and spices, as with this quick and easy thick, nourishing and delicious stew made with lentils, tomatoes and harissa, the classic North African chili, garlic and cumin condiment. It's perfect if you have harissa on hand, whether store-bought or homemade. In fact, I used some leftover green harissa made with fresh jalapeños instead of dried red chilies that I had prepared to serve with some baked chickpea koftas earlier in the week! Delicious, but any variety of harissa will make this stew a savory delight … just adjust the amount of harissa to suit your preferences.

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