Contemplating Meat Free Mondays

When I was a teenager, I went through a vegetarian phase. I think most people do at some point in their lives. I told myself it was a moral thing, but really I thought it would help me lose weight, and most of my friends were doing it. I'm dead principled, me. The weight thing might have worked, had I any idea what a vegetarian diet actually entailed. Instead, I ate frozen vegetable lasagne all the time. It was by far my favourite food (after chips, obviously). I still hold quite a flame for vegetable lasagne, and to me it's up there with all the great comfort foods. And, because it's made of vegetables, it's very healthy (yes yes I know it's made of cheese and pasta). I've been toying with the idea of meat free Mondays for a while, partially to assuage the terrible guilt I inevitably feel after a weekend of booze, chicken cottage and pizza (every weekend), and partially because I think it's a Good Thing, health wise. Also, it's nice and forces me to be creative. Some may not agree, but I do the cooking, so boo urns to you.

So recently I made a vegetable lasagne, the recipe for which I got from BBC Good Food, obviously. The best thing about this lasagne is that it was incredibly simple, and there was no faffing about making white sauce, I just used more cheese. There are no pictures, because my phone was charging when I made it, but come on, everyone knows what a lasagne looks like. It's a lovely, easy, and most of all comforting, Monday night meal.

The recipe called for 700g grated courgettes, but I got tired of grating halfway through, and so grated one and sliced one. This made the texture nicer though, in my opinion.

Also, my local Co-op, being the worst supermarket in the world, didn't have the recommended ricotta, so I used marscapone. I'm sure this is a terrible sin, but whatevs, it's hardly the most authentic recipe I've ever seen anyway. AND courgettes in a packet were over twice the price of the loose courgettes sitting right beside them. Plastic must be very expensive. Buy loose courgettes everyone.

Creamy courgette lasagne  

(Serves 4, but I recommend only serving to  two and eating the leftovers because I love leftovers)

9 lasagne sheets (I used egg and didn't boil them first, it was fine)

Oil

A large onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

2 big huge courgettes (or maybe 5 small ones) Grated and chopped

A red pepper

A handful of spinach

A tub of marscapone

100g grated cheddar (recipe said 50g but I love cheese)

Tub of fresh tomato sauce from the supermarket (or make your own, if you're so inclined)

Pop the oven on to 220 degrees. Heat the oil and fry the onion for a couple of minutes. Add the courgettes and cook until the courgettes are soften and a slightly worrying bright green colour.

Heat the sauce in the microwave for about 2 minutes.

Stir in 2/3rds of the two cheeses and season. This cheesey mush is delicious (to me, it's probably actually disgusting) so resist the urge to eat it.

Spread a layer of the mush (so appetising) at the bottom of a baking dish, then a layer of pasta, then a layer of tomato sauce, then repeat. 

Blob the rest of the marscapone on top, and then all the grated cheddar you have left. 

Heat in the oven for 20-25 minutes.

Serve with a salad, if you feel like it.

So that's what I had for dinner last Monday. Hardly inspired, but I enjoyed it plenty. I'm off home this weekend (for a wedding and a 90th birthday party and exhaustion) and then on holidays (SALZBURG) the following week, so I probably won't be cooking. But if I see anything exciting, I'll be sure to take a picture, mean to blog about it, and forget.