Veggie Lasagna Rolls!

No MEAT for a WEEK challenge!!!!! Ever wonder what it would be like to be a vegetarian? I have. I just mainly wonder if I could really go without meat. My one and only love is salmon. Can I survive without it for one week? I think so. I am mainly doing this as a health experiment. After eating ranch turkey burgers (see recipe below) every day for nearly a week I am feeling kind of icky (I know I could of threw them away instead of eating them all but I am a grad student. I am not made of money!). SO anyway. This is my challenge. Go one whole week without meat. I started on friday and so far so good. The first no-meat dish that came to my mind was.. pasta! (What self-respecting person does not like pasta?) I thought I could make some lasagna rolls! I am sure that there are about a million different ways to make these but here is how I did it. And they are pretty yummy and healthy too!

What you need (for 5 rolls):

Whole wheat lasagna noodles 

3/4 cup part-skim ricotta cheese

1 can of stewed tomatoes with italian seasoning

(Can use tomato sauce instead, if desired)

A handful of red onions, chopped

2 handfulls of spinach

garlic powder

tin foil

baking pan

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
• Cook whole wheat lasagna noodles according to package. At first I was like, how the heck is this going to work? My pot is too small! But really, you stick 2 or 3 in the boiling water at a time and they soften up pretty quick so you can just squish them down into the water after a minute or so. My package of noodles said they were supposed to cook for about 10 minutes.
• While you are cooking your noodles you can soften up your onions for about 5 mins in a pan with a bit of butter if you like
• Lay out your noodles and place about 2 tbls of ricotta cheese per noodle 
• Sprinkle with some garlic powder (everything tastes better with garlic! Yum!
• If you are using the canned tomatoes like I did. Drain the tomatoes BUT keep the liquid in a bowl and set aside. you will use it later.
• Place how ever many tomatoes you want on the noodles - I used about 3 per noodle
• Then add your onions and your spinach
• Now the fun part! Slowly roll your noodles up. Be careful not to roll them too tight or the cheese and stuff with gush out!
• Place on a baking pan lined with tin foil for easy clean up! I placed them on the pan with the seam side down to keep them together.
• Then pour the liquid from the tomato can over them and bake for about 20 minutes
• Bon appetit!