Lasagna Night!

On Tuesday night, I taught my boyfriend Paul to make lasagna while we watched American Idol (go Lee DeWyze! yes, I'm that kind of nerd). Paul's not a vegan. In fact, he has the appetite of an overweight toddler — ridiculous amounts of fish sticks, Hamburger Helper, frozen TV dinners, pretzels, and ice cream.

In Jamie Oliver style, I'm trying to teach Paul to cook whole foods from scratch. I realize convincing him to go vegan is still a far cry from reality, but I'd least like to wean him off of eating processed crap. Learning to cook is the first step, right?

We each made our own pan of lasagna. Paul's had hamburger, ricotta, white pasta lasagna (the only kind he'll eat), marinara, and mozzarella. Here he is layering some noodles (sorry for the meat in the picture!) and acting like a goof. I promise he isn't cross-eyed in real life...

Here I am (or at least, here's my hands) layering my pan — rice pasta lasagna, marinara, basil-tofu ricotta from Vegan with a Vengeance, spinach, and Follow Your Heart vegan mozzarella:

I'll spare y'all the pictures of Paul's finished meaty lasagna, but believe me when I say that it turned out surprisingly prettier than mine. I gave him the proper rectangle lasagna pan, while I settled for the oval pan:

My FYH cheeze totally liquified in the oven, so it looks a little funky but trust me when I say that it was amazingly delicious!

This was my first time using the rice lasagna (you don't pre-boil it at all!), and though it took ages to cook (a whole hour!), it was worth it. I love the chewier texture of rice pasta over whole wheat. I'll probably stick with rice lasagna from now on. Here's a sloppily-plated serving of my vegan lasagna:

Note: I added a little Daiya Italian Shreds to the top for this picture since the FYH melted off the top.