Pumpkin Lasagna courtesy of Meg!

Pumpkin Lasagna, whoever would have thought? Well, since I am still avoiding tomatoes I thought I would try my friend Meagan's recipe that I ran into a few weeks ago on her blog.

Meg is awesome, her blog is fantastic. I met Meagan years ago with the Fly Gurlz, she was part of the Durham Chapter same as I and she is loaded with awesome energy, passion and fun loving awesomeness!

Be sure to check her out as she pursues all things good and has a great ability to megify the average recipe into something much healthier while maintaining super yummy flavor!

http://www.megified.wordpress.com/

Here is her recipe and photo from her blog, with my substitutions as I of course used what I had on hand:

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1 clove minced garlic
1 pkg frozen spinach or 2 cups fresh - this I omitted as Bill has reminded me on many occasion that spinach does not belong in Lasagna, I don't agree, however changed this to a pkg of crimini mushrooms (next time will use a minimum of 2 pkgs of mushrooms)1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp dried sage (I used fresh thyme, because I had some)1 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
3 cups pureed pumpkin (I used canned) (used 1 can, 796ml)1/2 brick cream cheese-softened

2 tbsp egg white (used 1 whole egg)1/4 cup parmasean cheese

3/4 cup coconut milk (used 1 can 400ml)1/2 cup skim milk (omitted)1/4 cup grated mozzarella cheese (I used 1/2 cup)aprox. 1/2 pkg oven ready lasagna noodles (I used a box of gluten free noodles - it was small, could have used more noodles)

Method:

In frying pan heat olive oil over medium heat. Saute onions and garlic until translucent (aprox 3-4 min)
Defrost spinach and squeeze out excess water and add to pan. (did mushrooms here)Add 1/2 tsp salt, sage, black pepper, and nutmeg.

Stir and remove from heat.
Preheat oven to 400F
In stand mixer add softened cream cheese, parmasean, and egg whites (whole egg). Mix well.
Add pumpkin, 1/2 tsp salt, sage, black pepper, and nutmeg. Mix until smooth. ( I added 1/2 - 3/4 approx can of coconut milk to the pumpkin mixture)In a 9×13 glass baking dish add milk (used approx 1/4 can of coconut milk here) to bottom of pan and top with lasagna noodles.

Spread 1/3 of pumpkin mixture evenly over noodles.
Spread 1/2 of the spinach mixture over the pumpkin, and add another layer of noodles.
Repeat with another layer of pumpkin, spinach, and noodles.
Top with remaining pumpkin, and sprinkle with mozzarella.
Cover with tin foil and bake for 20 min.
Remove foil and bake for another 10-15 minutes, or until cheese is bubbling and golden.

http://megified.wordpress.com/2011/11/01/pumpkin-lasagna/#comment-44

Now, as I wasn't sure if my family would be so willing to try a pumpkin lasagna I also made a quick beef and mozza regular lasagna as well. Happily, my hubby actually liked the pumpkin lasagna, totally surpised by this and of course happy with how well it turned out. I will certainly be comtemplating this for the next pot luck I have to go to or gathering of sorts.

Next to try (maybe next weekend) will be pumpkin chili, post sure to follow.

Technical difficulties, I copied and posted and apparently blogger does not like wordpress. Feel free to click on Meg's link and grab the recipe there instead.

Happy cooking!