Spinach & Mushroom Lasagna

Love me some weekend!

This weekend was especially great, as my mother-in-law took all of us girls to the Compel Women's Conference at the Marina Inn in South Sioux City. Great speakers and wonderful topics. One of their missions is human trafficking (sp?). I couldn't believe how prevalent this is in the US. Most girls that are trafficked are between 9-14 yrs old... and 70-80% of all missing children get approached by a "trafficker" within 24 hours of them going missing. THAT'S NUTS! And not just in big cities like New York or LA. Here in Iowa! Sporting events draw lots of children for trafficking. We learned that for last year's Super Bowl in Dallas/Fort Worth 10,000 children were brought into the city for the weekend!!! 10,000!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't even wrap my head around that. I realized this happened around the world, but I didn't realize it was so prevalent on Main Street, USA! This is just terrible! 

They did share a hotline number to call if you ever feel you have seen a victim of human trafficking. 888-373-7888. Common indicators include- No ID, disorientation (due to being shipped from city to city over night so no one can trace them), malnutrition, STDs, scars, bruising, and not being able to answer for themselves. Please take action if you see this!

I don't have a good intro to this lasagna after that...

Thank you Laa Loosh for the recipe! I just made a few changes.

Spinach & Mushroom Lasagna

• 8 ounces lasagna noodles
• 5 medium portobello mushroom caps,diced
• 2 sweet onions, thinly sliced
• 2 cups cooked & diced chicken 
• 4 cups baby spinach
• 2 cups nonfat ricotta cheese
• 2 cups non-fat milk
• 2 oz crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 4 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp whole wheat flour
• 4 garlic cloves
• 4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. To prepare onion filling: heat 3 tbsp butter in a large skillet over medium heat.
3. Add onions and cook, stirring frequently, until golden brown and very soft, about 20 minutes. (If they begin to stick, add water 1/4 cup at a time to release them and prevent burning.) Add mushrooms and cook, stirring, until just beginning to soften, about 3 minutes.
4. Add wine and 2 teaspoons salt and continue cooking until most of the liquid is absorbed, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in pepper.
5. To prepare spinach filling: Place spinach, ricotta, basil, garlic and 2 teaspoon salt in a food processor and process until smooth.
6. To prepare white sauce: Heat 1 tbsp butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.
7. Add flour and stir until bubbling, about 30 seconds.
8. Gradually whisk in milk and 1/2 teaspoon salt and bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Cook, whisking, until the sauce has the consistency of thick gravy, about 1 minute.
9. Add Gorgonzola and gently whisk until it is melted. Remove from the heat. (The sauce will continue to thicken as it sits.)
10. To assemble lasagna: Coat a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
11. Spread 1/2 cup white sauce in the prepared pan. Place a layer of noodles over the sauce.
12. Spread half of the spinach filling over the noodles and top with one-third of the onion filling.
13. Evenly spread 1/2 cup white sauce over the onions.
14. Repeat with another layer of noodles, the remaining spinach filling, half the remaining onion filling and half the remaining white sauce.
15. To finish, top with a third layer of noodles, spread the remaining onion filling over the noodles and then spread or dollop the remaining white sauce on top.

Bake until hot and bubbling, about 30 minutes. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving. Cut into 8 equally sized servings. 

 

 This lasagna was good when I made it. But I felt it was missing something. So, the recipe I posted has more salt than I made it with to help. And later I realized I forgot to add the red wine... that definitely would have helped flavor!! :)

 In other news-- we bought a Sam's Club membership. Yikes! We used to have one when we lived in Kansas, but we had to drive 30 minutes to get there. Now I have Sam's in my backyard. This could be very dangerous! :) 

That's where these strawberries come in. Sam's strawberries always seem to be better. Better than Hy-Vee, Fareway & Wal- Mart. Maybe I'm crazy, but I think they're better.

 You haven't forgotten about my surprise, have you?! Ok, good! Me neither. I am still diligently working on it, trying to perfect it! I will tell you that it is some sort of improvement on this blog. It will make reading it, etc easier and hopefully more enjoyable & interactive.