Polenta Veggie Lasagna

I loooooove pasta. I'd say at least once a day I crave macaroni and cheese and lasagna and spaghetti and meatballs. Yeah, my pasta obsession is bad...Pasta in moderation (pasta and moderation just don't work for me) is okay but there's nothing that's really nutritionally good for you unless it's a whole wheat pasta which to me always seem very chewy no matter how long you cook them for. Anyways, I've been wanting to come up with ways to curb my pasta cravings and I've started to realize that it's usually the stuff that we pair with pasta that I really crave like cheese and red sauce. So I knew if I could find a lower calorie, less filling substitute, I could almost cut pasta entirely out of my diet. Thus begins my experiment making polenta veggie lasagna.

Let me just give you a quick preview...this is what it looked like when I finished...

First, pick out what kind of vegetables you want to include in your lasagna. I love broccoli in just about anything and in the last few months, I've been putting brussel sprouts in stir-rys and omelets so I figured it could work well in lasagna too. Normally, I would use a red pepper, but my boyfriend's mom was coming for dinner and she's allergic to peppers. I also used a green zucchini and a yellow onion and kind of eyeballed the amounts for each vegetable. I added some fresh spinach towards the end because I didn't want it to cook too quickly.

I always sauté my veggies in olive oil or in olive oil cooking spray. While they are cooking, I grind some rainbow peppercorns and sea salt into the mixture. No matter what vegetables I'm cooking, salt and pepper are a must...

Since it's lasagna, of course, I needed to layer it all with some fat-free ricotta cheese, egg, and italian seasoning mixture. 

I used garlic basil polenta and sliced it very thin...I found that in an 8x8 pan, I could fit about three rows with three and a half slices across. 

First, I put a thin layer of red sauce on the bottom of the pan and then put the polenta down followed by a layer of the sautéed veggies and then the ricotta cheese mixture on top of that. I topped the first layer with red sauce and then sprinkled a little mozzarella on top and then repeated all of the steps again. After I put the second layer of the lasagna down, I finished it off with a sprinkling of italian seasonings. 

Vous la!

Then I baked it at 375 for thirty minutes covered and then 15 minutes uncovered. It was delicious!

Polenta Veggie Lasagna

• One tube of polenta
• 2 1/2 cups of fresh vegetables of your choice (broccoli, peppers, onions, spinach, brussel sprouts, etc.)
• 1 jar of red sauce
• 1 1/4 cup fat free ricotta cheese
• 1 egg
• Italian seasonings
• Shredded mozzarella 

Preparation 

1. Dice fresh vegetables and sauté in oil just till tender. 
2. Slice polenta thinly while veggies are sautéing. 
3. Mix ricotta cheese, egg, italian seasonings. 
4. Layer red sauce, polenta slices, vegetables, ricotta cheese mixture, red sauce and mozzarella. 
5. Repeat step 4. 
6. Cook at 375 degrees for 30 minutes covered. 
7. Cook for 15 minutes uncovered and then let stand for 5-10 minutes to cool. 

Pollotarian, pescatarian, vegetarian, vegan...what am I?!

When I first started cooking my own food when I moved away to college, I was introduced to all the different kinds of diets in regards to meat and animal by-product consumption...pollotarian, pescatarian, vegetarian, and vegan. Most people haven't heard of pollotarian or pecatarian even though they might identify with those eating habits. I had a friend in college who called herself a pollotarian when I first met her, became vegetarian shortly after, and a couple years later went vegan. Because of the nature of the vegan diet, it was difficult for her to get the protein that she needed so she has since gone back to simply being a vegetarian.

So...not that I've used all these different words, let me define them for you.

A pollotarian is someone who eats poultry i.e. chicken, duck, turkey, etc. Some have used this term to mean someone who eats both poultry and fish but technically one would not consume any fish.
A pescatarian is someone who eats fish i.e. cod, salmon, swordfish, shrimp, etc.
A vegetarian is someone who doesn't eat any kind of meat but eats animal by-products i.e. eggs, dairy products, honey, etc. You can even break this category down more into two more categories:

1. ovo-vegetarian, someone who eats eggs
2. lacto-vegetarian, someone who eats dairy products

A vegan is someone who doesn't eat any kind of meat and won't eat any animal by-products.

I haven't done a whole lot of research on these different eating habits and lifestyle decisions other than what I learned in the general nutrition class I took in college and from the many friends I have who have either tried out one or more of these options or who are have been eating one of these diets long term. For short periods of time, I have only eaten fish and poultry but never for very long. For me, I hate to say it but rather than being about animal rights, my diet is much more about nutrition.

I have threatened to become a vegetarian many times in the last 10 months but every time, my boyfriend has talked me out of it and convinced me to simply have more moderation in my consumption of beef and pork. Personally, I think that all diets are about moderation...cutting something  you love out of your diet can make you want to binge on something else thats unhealthy. It's easier to eat healthy when you treat yourself a little bit as a reward for eating well.

Thoughts? Comments? Criticism?