Sweet Potato and Spinach Lasagna

I know what some of you are thinking, because I've heard it before: "I don't do lasagna." I understand the sentiment. Lasagna has many different steps and seems rather labor intensive for what ends up as essentially a casserole. But, this version is so healthy, so tasty, so inexpensive, and freezes so well, that I do think it is worthwhile. There are a few steps, but some can be done ahead of time, and the whole process makes for a pleasant morning of cooking and a totally stress free dinner party when you are ready to just bake and serve.

This recipe is a spin-off of a Cooking Light recipe for "Parmesan and Root Vegetable Lasagna," you can see the original here: http://tiny.cc/zEIX6. I make the sauce exactly according to their directions. I thought this vegetable lasagna was a great idea, but frankly, I think my version is better. And even though the original came from Cooking Light, mine leaves out the mozzarella (which I couldn't taste when I made the original), and adds spinach, so it should be lighter.

I've made this recipe to fit two 8x8 baking dishes, because that's the perfect size for my freezer and I have two 8x8 baking dishes with snap-on lids. I make one for now and one for later; each one is four generous servings. This recipe also works for one 9x13 pan (though you would need only 9 instead of 12 lasagna sheets). If you've got the room in your freezer, you could double this recipe and make one 9x13 pan-full to feed a big group now (8 servings), and put two 8x8s in the freezer. Having one of these in the freezer is great for impromptu entertaining. I have a tendency to casually invite people over for lunch or dinner tomorrow, and then look in the fridge and realize that to pull off even a casual meal for more than two people, I need to go to the store. If I've got one of these in the freezer, all I have to do is move it to the fridge the day before to thaw. A green salad on the side makes this a refreshing meal, and I've usually got enough veggies in the house to whip up a decent salad. Cooking Light recommends serving this with a pinot noir or sangiovese, and I like it with a pinot noir.

Ingredients:

• About 4 pounds sweet potatoes (or yams, or butternut squash, or a mix thereof), peeled, sliced long ways into about ½ inch thick slices
  
• Cooking spray or 2 Tbs oil
  
• 4 cups 1% milk
  
• I cup onion, coarsely chopped
  
• 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
  
• 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
  
• 1 bay leaf
  
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
  
• ½ tsp salt, plus more for sprinkling
  
• ¼ tsp fresh ground black pepper
  
• 1¼ cups grated Parmesan cheese
  
• 1 Tbs olive oil
  
• 2 shallots or ½ a red onion, diced
  
• 2 cloves garlic, diced
  
• 20oz (1.25lbs) Fresh spinach (not baby), washed [This amount is flexible, I buy my spinach in 10oz packages, so 20oz is convenient for me]
  
• 12 no-boil lasagna noodles (usually one package)
  

Step 1: Roast the Sweet Potatoes (can be done a day ahead of other steps). Preheat oven to 450°. Spray baking sheets with cooking spray and spread out sweet potato slices in a single layer, sprinkle with a few pinches of salt. Roast 45 minutes, or until tender. You can do this a day or two ahead, while you have something else (perhaps more sweet potatoes), in the oven for dinner. If cooking ahead, store the slices in Tupperware or zip bags in the fridge.

Step 2: Make the White Sauce. Combine onion, milk, nutmeg, cinnamon, and bay leaf in a medium sauce pan over medium high heat; bring to a simmer. Remove from heat; let stand 15 minutes. Strain milk mixture through a fine sieve over a bowl to remove the solids. Discard the solids. Return milk mixture to the pan. Add flour, ½ tsp salt, and pepper to milk mixture, stirring with a whisk. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently with a whisk for 10 minutes, until sauce is thick. Remove from heat, stir in Parmesan. Set aside.

Step 3: Sauté the Spinach (you can do this as while the sauce rests in Step 2). In large sauté pan sweat the shallots (or red onion) and garlic in the olive oil, with a generous pinch of salt, over medium heat. Once they start to soften, start adding the spinach, as much as will fit, and add a generous pinch of salt. As the spinach wilts and makes room for more, add the rest of the spinach and a pinch of salt. Keep going until all the spinach is just wilted. Remove from heat and place spinach in a strainer and let excess moisture drain out while you begin to assemble the lasagna.

Step 4: Assemble. Warning: This recipe makes just enough sauce for two 8x8 dishes, so use somewhat sparingly as you go.

Spray the interior of an 8x8 baking dish with cooking spray. Line the interior of the dish you intend to freeze with foil, and then spray the foil with cooking spray.

For each dish:

A) Spread a thin layer of sauce in the baking dish, and top with 2 lasagna noodles. It's ok if they overlap slightly. (In a 9x13 pan you would have room for 3 noodles side by side.)

B) Spread a thin layer of sauce on the noodles. Spread a layer of spinach on top of this sauce, and then top the spinach with a layer of sweet potato slices, and top this with a thin layer of sauce.

C) Make a second layer by placing two noodles, topping them with a thin layer of sauce, topping that with spinach, then sweet potatoes, and then sauce.

D) Top the whole thing with two more noodles and a more generous layer of sauce. Cover with foil that has been sprayed with cooking spray.

Step 5: Bake. When ready to bake (you can leave the assembled lasagna in the fridge overnight, or all day), preheat oven to 375°, bake for 30 minutes covered with the foil. Remove the foil and bake for another 20 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes, and serve.

Step 6: Freezing, Thawing, and Baking the second lasagna. Freeze the assembled lasagna covered tightly. You can leave this in the freezer for weeks. If you have warning a day ahead, thaw the lasagna in the fridge overnight, then follow the baking instructions in Step 5. If you need to go straight from freezer to oven, put the lasagna (still covered with foil) in the cold oven, then bring oven to 375°temp. Bake covered for about 90 minutes (or until center is warm), and then remove foil and bake for 20 more minutes. [Warning: of course only do this if your baking dish is something safe like Pyrex that will not shatter when it goes from frozen to hot.]

Slow Cooker Black Bean Soup

I stumbled upon a version of this recipe a couple years ago and it has become regular fare in our house. I usually make these once a week. They are easy, healthy, cheap, hearty, and really quite good. There is tons of room for variation here. Other than the ratio of liquid to beans, you can change this recipe based on what you like or what you have on hand. For example, I leave the bell peppers out in the winter when bell peppers are shipped from far away and are expensive. It takes about 15 or 20 minutes to put the dish together in the morning, and it should cook for at least 7 hours, but will be fine in the crock pot all day. Dustin and I can eat almost the whole pot when this is all we have for a hearty dinner, but it makes four big bowls, so I suppose that's four servings. If serving four, cornbread on the side would be a nice way to make this a more complete meal. The leftovers are great. This recipe fills my full-size crock pot, so if you have one of those small ones, you'll need to halve it.

Soup Ingredients:
1 Tbs olive oil
1 large red onion, chopped
1 med red bell pepper, chopped (optional)
1 med green bell pepper, chopped (optional)
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeno, seeds and ribs removed, chopped (optional, leave it out if you don't like heat, or just don't have one on hand.)
Salt
1 Tbs chipotle flakes (optional, but very good, adds smokiness)
4 tsps ground cumin
2 tsps chili powder (optional)
1 16oz package dry black beans
7 cups hot chicken stock (or broth), vegetable stock, or water, or a mix (stock = more flavor).

Topping options:
fresh lime juice
cilantro
plain yogurt
sour cream
cheddar or jack cheese
slices of jarred jalapenos

1. Sauté all of the vegetables in olive oil with a couple pinches of salt. Once the veggies soften, make a little space in the pan and toast the spices for about 30 seconds, then stir into the vegetables.

2. Place the beans in the bottom of the slow cooker. Top with the sautéed vegetables. Top it all with 7 cups hot liquid. If using homemade stock or water, add a half tsp of salt. If you are using store bought stock or broth, it's probably salty enough.

3. Cook on high for at least 7 hours.

4. If you want a thicker soup, you can give it a few buzzes with an immersion blender or put two cups of the soup in a blender, blend, and then add them back to the pot. I usually just eat it as is, with the whole beans.

5. Top as you like and enjoy.

Quick Spicy Black Beans

These are an absolute staple in our kitchen. Today I whipped up a batch because I'm having dinner at a friend's and wanted Dustin to have something easy in the fridge for dinner. I'm trying to move to using dried beans more than canned, but canned beans are so great for quick cooking. These spicy beans have a thick consistency that makes them perfect for filling tacos or quesadillas or layering in huevos rancheros. They are also great on their own as a hearty side dish or chip dip. They are fine in the fridge for days, so make a big batch and enjoy the leftovers. This recipe makes enough for tacos for two and enough leftovers to have heuvos for breakfast, but if I had more cans of beans in the house, I would have made more.

This is a very flexible recipe. For the sake of those who like the certainty of measurements, I'm trying to be specific, but you can make this very basic recipe your own. If you don't love spice, you'll want to decrease the amounts of jalapenos. For a more complex spicy flavor, add some pickled jalapenos.

Takes about 15min.

Tsp oil (olive or vegetable/canola, etc)
Half of a red onion, chopped.
3 garlic cloves, minced.
1 lrg jalapeno, deseeded, deveined, and diced.
2 cans black beans
juice of 1.5 limes
juice of one orange (or tangerine)
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. chili powder

1. Heat the oil in a medium sauce pan, preferably non stick, sweat the onion, garlic, and jalapeno in the pan for just a few minutes, add a generous pinch of salt until they start to soften.

2. Drain and rinse both cans of beans and add to the pan. Add lime juice, orange juice, cumin and chili powder. Cook on medium heat, on a very low simmer, stirring occasionally, until beans are soft and the liquid has evaporated and the mixture is thick.

3. Take off the heat and enjoy.