Zucchini Lasagna

This summer, one of my mom's coworkers gave her a giant zucchini from her garden, and my mom had no idea what to do with it. We had SO MUCH zucchini, and my mom tried out so many zucchini recipes. One of my favorites that she made was this zucchini lasagna, which used zucchini slices in place of the pasta, and I was so in love with it that I called my mom up and asked her for the recipe.

This recipe is a modification of what she gave me, but most of it is pretty similar. It was surprisingly simple! I've never made lasagna, but I'm definitely less afraid of it now!

Here is (some of) the cast of characters:

In this picture I've got 1 zucchini (although I really should have had 2...), onions, celery, garlic, tomato sauce, tomato paste, fat free ricotta, part skim mozzarella, and 93% lean ground turkey. Not pictured: fresh baby spinach, dried oregano, fresh basil, salt, pepper, olive oil, and parmesan cheese.

The thing I love about this recipe is that it's so filling, and the heaviest components are the turkey and the cheese--which aren't so terrible for you. 

The first thing I did, even before leaving for the grocery, was peel and slice my zucchini into as think pieces as possible. My knife skills are a little sub-par, so these slices aren't really even. But they get the job done! Like I said, I definitely should have used more than one zucchini to have more of a pasta-like layer, but I worked with what I had.

After I sliced them, I sprinkled salt on each side of every zucchini slice and let them sit to pull out some of the extra moisture. Nobody likes watery lasagna. Just sayin'.

The first thing I did was heat up my "saucepan" (it's just a pot) and drop in some olive oil, minced garlic, and diced onions. I already had the garlic and onions prepared and chillin in my fridge, since I use both of those things frequently enough to just always keep them around. I'd say this was about 1/3 cup of diced onions and 1 clove of garlic. I would probably be a little more generous next time around.

Not pictured: I dropped in some celery last minute because I thought it would be nice.

I drizzled in just a tiny bit more olive oil (like a teaspoon?) and threw the turkey into the pot to brown it up with the onions and garlic on medium high heat. I forgot to season the meat though, so DON'T DO THAT. Salt and pepper goes a long way. After the turkey was all cooked through, I drained some of the excess water.

I dropped the temperature down to medium low and poured in two 8 oz cans of tomato sauce (not jarred sauce! There is a difference!) and about 1 tablespoon of tomato paste. If I were to use jarred sauce (which my mom did), I would just brown the turkey and pour the sauce over it. But I didn't have jarred sauce and these cans of tomato sauce have been sitting on the shelf for like six months. So I got it done.

At this point I went to taste the sauce and realized that I didn't season the turkey, so I just attacked the whole thing with salt and pepper. After that was all sorted out, I threw in about a tablespoon's worth of dried oregano.

I've declared my love for fresh basil on this blog before, and I still stand firm on that statement. I love basil. I chopped some up and threw it in the sauce, and took the sauce off the heat.

I also added some parmesan cheese because my mom told me to. This was about 1/4 cup. I mixed it all together and you know what? I probably could have stopped here and just poured it over some pasta. BUT THIS IS LASAGNA. So I carried on.

I sautéed a bunch of spinach with some garlic, and I used a little bit of olive oil to get the job done. I only made enough spinach for one layer, though, because I forgot about how much spinach cooks down and I actually needed to leave some fresh spinach for like...the rest of the meals I'm eating this week. Go figure. THEN I STARTED TO ASSEMBLE THE LASAGNA!!!

I only had one zucchini, so I used a smaller square pan. I think this is 9x9? Whatever. First step is to put some sauce down on the bottom!

The next step is to lay down some zucchini slices, or in my case, desperately stretch the amount of zucchini you have to cover one layer. 

Of course, I patted the slices dry with paper towels because they were very wet at this point. Salt, man. It does the trick.

I've never actually made lasagna before, but my mom told me to put the ricotta down before the spinach?? I just did what she told me. I was skeptical about using fat free ricotta, but the final product actually wound up being pretty similar to regular ricotta so 100% would use again.

I laid down my one single layer of spinach down on top of the ricotta, and despite using almost an entire container's worth of spinach, I only had this dinky little sprinkling of spinach to show for it. Pathetic.

And then I started the whole thing all over again! Sauce, zucchini, ricotta, NO spinach because I ran out, and then one last layer of sauce. Mmm. Lasagna's are just like ogres. They have layers.

I used about 1 1/2 cups of mozzarella cheese to top off the lasagna, but you could definitely afford to use more. I was just trying to be portion-conscious, since I originally intended for this to be four servings. It wound up being six.

I popped the lasagna in a 350 degree oven for forty five minutes, and O M G when I pulled it out of the oven, this is was the beauty I beheld:

Cheesy, tomato-y, and SO SO SO delicious. It did wind up being a little watery, but a little water never hurt anybody! There's so much going on in this lasagna, that you don't really miss the pasta. The zucchini has such a lovely and neutral flavor and texture, so it acts to bulk up the dish and let the sauce and cheese be the stars. And boy were they stars. SHOW STOPPERS.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Here's the recipe:

Zucchini Lasagna

Ingredients:

-Zucchini (probably 2)

-1 lb of ground turkey

-1/2 onion, diced

-2 cloves of garlic, diced

-2 8 oz cans of tomato sauce

-1 tbsp of tomato paste

-2 cups of part skim mozzarella cheese

-1 15 oz container of fat free ricotta cheese

-About 3 cup of fresh spinach

-Salt & Pepper

-1 tbsp of dried oregano

-1 tbsp of fresh basil

-3 tbsp of olive oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1.) Peel and slice the zucchini into thin strips, and place those strips on a tray in a single layer. Sprinkle with salt and flip to sprinkle the other side with salt. Let sit while you prepare the other layers.

2.) In a saucepan (or pot) on medium heat, sauté the onions and half of the garlic in about 1 tbsp of olive oil until the onions begin to look translucent.

3.) Add about 1 tsp of olive oil to the pan, and brown the turkey with the onions and garlic on medium high heat. Season the turkey with salt and pepper.

4.) Once the turkey is cooked through, add the cans of tomato sauce and the tomato paste and reduce heat to medium low. Stir occasionally until the sauce begins to thicken.

5.) Off the heat, add the oregano, basil, and parmesan cheese. Set aside for layering.

6.) Sauté the spinach with the remaining garlic and olive oil until the spinach has cooked down. Set aside, and begin layering.

7.) Layer the lasagna: Start with a layer of sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 9 inch pan. Cover with a layer of zucchini slices. Spread half of the ricotta cheese on top of the zucchini slices. Evenly layer the spinach on top of the ricotta. Repeat the process with another layer of sauce, zucchini slices, and ricotta. The final layer should be sauce covered with the mozzarella cheese.

8.) Place the lasagna in a 350 degree oven and cook for 45 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and starting to look brown around the edges.

9.) Enjoy! Serves 6.

Vlog Tuesday: Room tour!

Okay okay yes, this is a little late, but the video took forever to load on Youtube!  Besides, I changed the timestamp to make it look like I posted this on a Tuesday.  So I didn't really miss my deadline.


As promised, I did a room tour as my vlog for today!



It's a little on the long side (16 minutes...yikes!!), but if you don't feel like sitting through the whole thing you can definitely feel free to skip around.  I got a little carried away talking about EACH AND EVERY PART OF THE ROOM in detail.  So maybe you'll appreciate it...or maybe you will hate it.  WHATEVER I DIDN'T DO IT FOR YOU.

Sorry.

Also try not to get motion sickness from my shaky-hand-Cloverfield-style camerawork.  I think that's why I had so much trouble getting the picture to focus.  Laaame.

For those of you who don't have time to watch the video, here is a panoramic photo of the finished room!

I finally mastered the panoramic feature on my phone's camera.

The reason why I decided to redo this room was because I am planning (*crosses fingers*) to move back home and find a job in the South Jersey area after graduation.  I feel like I'm taking a big risk by putting so many eggs in one basket (I mean...not ALL of the eggs), but this is where I feel at home...so this is the plan for now.  Who knows how I'll feel in a year, though.  Maybe I'll feel compelled to move far from home...or maybe my job search will just take me there whether I want it to or not.  I know that I can't really guarantee that I'll end up working/living in this area, but this room (along with the other benefits of living at home) are definitely incentive to try and stay.  I have a feeling that this upcoming year of blogging will be documenting some big life changes and some tough decisions.  With the completion of my room, I feel like summer is ending...and winter is coming*.  Yeah, I went there.


*I've been watching Game of Thrones a lot.  I'm halfway through the second season and it's only been a week. DON'T JUDGE ME.

Transformation Tuesday: DIY Projects

From now on, Transformation Tuesdays don't have to happen on Tuesdays.  Transformation Sunday just doesn't roll off the tongue the same way.  Get over it.


I am OFFICIALLY FINISHED with all of my DIY projects!  It only took me like...the entire summer.

If you need to refresh your memory, I wrote a post back in July about all of the projects I took on.  You can read that here.

I finished a few simple projects to incorporate more of the coral color into my room.  I bought these metal desk organizers that were originally white, and decided to spray paint them coral since my lamp was turquoise.  I also bought this awesome rotating earring stand from amazon that was originally copper, but I primed and then spray painted coral as well.  In the process I managed to also paint the back porch coral, but such is life.  I also went to Home Depot and bought a sample size of coral wall paint, and used that to make those three stenciled canvases.  They're on display above my bed, and it filled the empty space above my bed that was desperate for some wall art.

These are the finished bedside tables!  I'm really pleased with the way they turned out.  I bought a sample size of turquoise/aqua paint from Home Depot and used that for the turquoise drawer and the stenciling on the white drawer.  I didn't want either drawer to be too overwhelmed with their new colors, so I figured stenciling would diffuse the colors a bit.  I also got to use the stencil from the canvas.  To make the stencil fit the drawer, I just taped off a couple of sections.  Overall I think they balance out the white and the turquoise, and have a nice touch of symmetry.

Also, I think there is a lot to be said about what the simple change of a knob can do to the overall effect of a piece of furniture.  Seriously.  I can't stop changing the knobs on things.  I THINK I HAVE A PROBLEM.

The biggest pain-in-my-ass project that I took on was this chair that I got from Goodwill for $3.99.  I saw a lot of potential in this chair, and was really into the fact that it was a coat of paint away from vintage.  I just forgot about the fact that chairs don't magically go from crappy-thrift-store to vintage-makeover in one day.  This was a long and tedious process.

The first thing I did was remove the cushion, tighten up some of the screws to make the frame sturdier, and then sand it down.  I didn't get any of this process, but trust me...you're not missing anything glamorous.  I spent a couple of days priming, painting, and clear-coating the chair to get it to look like an intentional piece of furniture instead of just a makeshift desk chair.  I really love how the white turned out.  I think it suits the frame!

Counter-clocwise from the top right: Ew, ew, ew, FINALLY.

The next step was to prep the seat for some new upholstery.  This part was even less glamorous than the lest, yet somehow I managed to remember to take pictures.  As you can see, the yellow faux-crushed-velvet was quickly disposed of only to reveal...EVEN UGLIER FABRIC.  After I removed the final layer of dirty old upholstery (accompanied by a sad, flat, paper-thin layer of cushioning), I used the base of the seat to trace a new cushion out of this RANDOM FOAM LYING AROUND IN OUR ATTIC.  My dad somehow snagged this from some kind of furniture supply warehouse or something.  I don't know.  But it is super dense and supports my lil' tush and is much much MUCH better than the old cushion.

I'm sure my mom appreciated me using her very nice serrated knife to slice an inedible cushion for upholstery.

Since the block of foam was a little too thick and needed to be cut to size, I hacked away at it using a serrated bread knife.  I hear that carving knives work well, too.  

I probably could have skipped the step where I thinned out the cushion if I had bought a block of high-density foam that was the right size from Joann Fabrics, since it was only like $6.99  But $6.99 is still more expensive than free, so I went ahead and put in the extra effort.

Not pictured: my sweat and tears and anxiety.

The next thing I did was attempt to upholster the chair.  Unfortunately, I am a wimp and did not have the strength to use the staple gun while stretching the fabric out enough to tightly cover the chair.

My dad is a bit of a perfectionist.

So my dad stepped in and did the job waaaay better than I could.

`

I forgot to take a picture of the finished cushion all by itself, but here is a picture of it in the frame of the chair.  I think it looks awesome!  I am super in love with this coral damask fabric, which my mom ordered on fabric.com.  We're also going to use it for window treatments, but I'm not worrying about that right now!  I tried to use a part of the pattern that was less obvious, mostly because I couldn't cut too far into the fabric because we need it for curtains.  But I can't believe how good it looks!

It took me kind of a while to get the ball rolling, but the transformation is pretty amazing.  And I'm sitting on it right now as I'm writing this entry, and LET ME TELL YOU HOW HAPPY MY BUTT IS.  That old cushion was pretty sad.

Expect a room tour soon!  I'm FINALLY FINISHED with my room.  FINALLY.

Blog Every Day in July: Day 15, Upcoming DIY Projects

So we've made a bit of progress on the room:

The headboard came in and I asked my dad to attach it to the bed, and I am really loving the way it looks!

I also moved all my clothes from the other closet into the new one, and I moved all of my books onto this bookshelf.  I don't have a lot of books at the moment because I went through and donated a lot of books that I knew I wasn't planning on reading again.  I also have a lot of my text and reference books at school for obvious reasons.  I also reeeeally need to organize all of that music on the fourth shelf.  Yikes.  I'm scared to see what it will look like after I move home from school.

In the last two entries, I talked about how tired I was from being out and about all day.  That was because I spent my entire weekend shopping for furniture and pillows for my room.  We went to about ten stores over the weekend, and somehow only wound up with like....three things that I really needed.

It turns out I'm gonna have to do a couple of DIY projects to customize a few things.

I ASSEMBLED THIS MYSELF!  It took me two hours, but I did it!  We found this at the Christmas Tree Shops for a really great price, so I don't feel guilty about doing some minor alterations.  I'm planning on using this as a stand to put my makeup in, and I'm going to get some turquoise colored baskets or bins to put in the shelves.  As for the drawer, I'm going to replace the knob with something that will match the chest of drawers that I ordered and paint the face of the drawer turquoise, so the visual you get down the front is all turquoise.  I wanted to get as much of the blue onto this piece, so there would be a bit of symmetry when you are looking at the bed, because on the other side is this piece:

I am in love with this little telephone table that we found Roomers in Haddonfield.  Fate practically handed me this piece of furniture.  We had gone to Haddonfield specifically to check out the consignment gallery that was conveniently located by some public parking.  Except there was a big craft fair going on that blocked a huge section of the road, so we couldn't get to the parking lot and wound up parking far away and walking to the shop.  The consignment shop wound up being closed, and we had to walk back to the car, but my mom insisted that we walk on the other side of the street (which you couldn't see because of the fair) so we could see the crafts on that side.  We saw this telephone table in the window and saw that it was the perfect color, and figured that it would be great as a night stand and before we even get the chance to walk into the store, we look up and see a sign that says everything in the whole store is 50% off.  Right color, right style, and the right price..That table was mine.

I do want to modify it just a little bit, by changing the knob on the drawer (just like the other table) and painting the drawer white to tie it in with the other furniture.  And this piece has been painted to have a distressed look, which I really love.  I'm going to look up some techniques on how to get that look...but if it seems too complicated I'm going to skip it.  This is not the time to be pushing my luck!

You can also see the duvet cover and pillowcases that I bought for the bed.  I'm planning on using these with white sheets, to diffuse the turquoise a bit.  But so far I have a TON of turquoise happening and I need to get the coral in, in a way that makes a statement complimentary to what I already have.  I already ordered some coral throw pillows for the bed, but I also have a few other ideas.

-Wall art.  I looked through every piece of wall art at every single store we went to, and couldn't find a single thing that I liked.  It turns out that coral is not an easy color to find.  Instead I'm going to see if I can find some coral fabric and my local JoAnn Fabrics and stretch that over a couple of canvas frames.  I'll use that as the main piece of wall art over my bed.  I also have a couple of frames of wall art in my current room that would look great painted coral, so I'm going to get that done as well.

-My desk chair.  I've been trying to see if there are any nice upholstered dining room chairs or vanity chairs at my local Goodwill, because I would love to have a coral desk chair with maybe some turquoise upholstery.  I'm just waiting to find the right piece, since I don't want to spend a ton of money on a chair that I'm just going to paint over.  And as you could imagine, finding an already made coral chair is kind of rough.

-Lamps!  I did not find any lampshades or lamps that were coral, but there are a couple of options online.  I don't have any lamps at the moment, but I think if I can get the lamp on my nightstand to have some coral that will be a great way to balance out all the turquoise that I already have.


I'm getting so close to the end, and I feel like I'm sprinting to the finish line.  I can't wait to see what it's going to look like all put together!!

Blog Every Day in July: Day 10, Sun-dried Tomato, Feta, and Chicken Couscous Salad

Today I made one of my favorite couscous recipes for lunch.

I brought it to work in a lil tupperware. So cute!

I put this recipe together once during last fall semester, when I had bought some feta and sun-dried tomatoes without planning something to make with them.  I just really like feta cheese and sun-dried tomatoes.  I threw them together with some couscous, and then decided to add the chicken in because I was tired of eating plain chicken breast, and voila!  A delicious couscous salad.

Here is a neat and tidy collage of all the main ingredients in this salad.  There is nothing neat and tidy about my kitchen setup when I cook.  Ooops.  I used the couscous that said Whole Grain on the box because it makes me feel healthy.  The sun dried tomatoes were the only jar that I could find in my entire grocery store, which was RIDICULOUS, and the feta cheese I bought was already in crumbles because cutting a big block of feta is TOO MUCH DRAMA.  I used two chicken tenders in stead of one chicken breast, because it's what was in my freezer.

The first thing I did was cook the chicken.  I just used a nonstick pan with some cooking spray, because I didn't want it to be too greasy.  I seasoned the chicken with salt and pepper while it was cooking, but then after it was mostly cooked through I threw in a splash of balsamic vinegar (for a mediterranean flavor) and let the chicken finish cooking while that reduced.  The balsamic vinegar doesn't impact the taste of this salad too heavily, so if you skipped it you probably wouldn't miss it.

It's all fluffed up with fork.  Mmmmm.

While the chicken cooled, I made the couscous according to the directions on the box.  Riveting stuff, I know.  I made two servings worth of couscous, so I would have enough for lunch today and tomorrow, but you could just make this for one day and halve all the rest of the ingredients.

Tomatoes, feta, chicken, oh my!

While the couscous was cooking, I went ahead and chopped up all the other ingredients of the salad.  I also chopped up the feta a bit more just to get some consistent pieces.  After that I threw it all in a bowl (which was not big enough)...

and I sprinkled in some dried basil!  I would have loved to use some fresh basil (which we did not have), or maybe throw in some oregano, but all I could reach in the spice cabinet was the basil.  I ain't no Barefoot Contessa, but this stuff will do just fine.  Mix it all together....

And there you have it!  A nice couscous salad.    I've never eaten this particular dish cold, so I had to try it.

Hmmm...not enough evidence tasted to form a conclusion...

Yup.  It's good cold.

I think if I was better prepared, I would throw in some fresh herbs or make a simple dressing.  But this is delicious as is!  When eaten warm, the feta starts to soften ever so slightly and the heat offsets the tanginess of the tomatoes.  When eaten cold, all the flavors have time to get together and become best friends.  SO GOOD.  Enjoy!

Recipe is after the jump.

Blog Every Day in July: Day 8, Arts and Crapfts

Let me talk a little bit about my summer job.

Fingerprint flower petals, aka not our best idea.
Don't give little kids markers. Just don't.

I work for my brother in law, Matt, who works for the Girl Scouts of Central and Southern New Jersey.  In the summer, he has to go out and run all these programs with various other summer camps in order to increase their participation numbers.  I help him with his programs, and one of the camps we work with has an agreement that the Girl Scouts (...me and Matt and our other coworker Natasha) will come three times a week and teach arts and crafts.

Our first craft was name tags.  Mine was about my interests,
and Matt's was about...um...the Revolutionary War?

I teach arts and crafts.

This is actually from two summers ago, when I did the
same program.  Clearly I haven't improved much.

I'm not good

Ummmmmm

at arts and crafts.

UMMMMMM.

Arts and crapfts.