Our family is continuing our one vegetarian dinner a week goal for the year. Couple of things that have surprised me:

• vegetarian meals are more filling than I expected (that’s awesome)
• I’ve actually made more than one vegetarian meal in a week (I’m getting the hang of it!)
• spinach is a great source of iron so I can’t have the “we need red meat for iron” argument anymore

I’ve been doing some research on great ways to get all of the wonderful nutrients needed if you have a vegetarian diet, again I’m not giving up meat, but I think it’s important to understand the benefits of being a vegetarian and expose my children to it.

Cooking as a family is a big thing in my house so I want my kiddos to see their mom cooking with variation and using different ingredients. That is so very important to me! I wasn’t raised around a ton of cooking, we had our staples and ALWAYS great spreads for holidays, but it wasn’t a nightly thing and so I want to make sure my kids have that. Sunday is for cooking and my girls love it.

This Sunday, we prepped delicious creamy spinach lasagna rollups. They were really easy and on Tuesday when we ate them, I simply popped the casserole dish into the oven for 20 minutes and it reheated perfectly. I do recommend an oven for reheating since it has spinach in it. Microwaves can make it a little slimy, blah.

I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of spinach rollup recipes, but I decided to use one of my favorite mixtures for lasagna in this dish so it’s nice and creamy. I do not like cottage cheese, but mixed with ricotta and an egg, it creates the most scrumptious filling for lasagna. I use this when making actual layered lasagna. Try it! You will never go back. Also adding lemon zest to each layer is a must, it creates a nice citrusy break in between the salty and sweet marinara flavors.

Creamy Spinach Lasagna Rollups

Prep time: 15 minutes | Cook time: 20-25 minutes | Total time: 40-45 minutes

Ingredients

• 2-3 tbs olive oil
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 3 tbs minced garlic
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 6 oz spinach (I just buy the salad bag from the store and rinse)
• 1 cup ricotta
• 1 cup small curd cottage cheese
• 1 egg
• salt and pepper
• 1 tbs parsley
• 2 tbs spinach and herb seasoning
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
• 7 lasagna noodles, cooked
• approx 4 cups marinara (you might use less or more based on how much you like in eat rollup)
• zest of one lemon
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Recipe

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the lasagna noodles
• Heat up olive oil in a skillet and sauté onion and garlic (approx 4 min, stirring occasionally)
• Add red pepper flakes and spinach and toss with tongs occasionally as the spinach begins to cook and wilt. Do not overcook.
• In a separate bowl, mix together ricotta, cottage cheese, egg, salt and pepper, parsley, spinach and herb seasoning and parmesan cheese
• To assemble, lay a single lasagna noodle down and spread a spoonful of the ricotta mixture down the middle of the noodle, followed my a spoonful of marinara, a little bit of spinach, sprinkle mozzarella cheese and add a little bit of lemon zest (see below picture of how this looks) then roll it up longways, repeat for all 7 noodles
• In a small casserole dish, spread a spoonful of marinara on the bottom and then begin placing the rollups in the dish. Once all rollups are in, spoon some marinara overtop, sprinkle mozzarella cheese and lemon zest
• Bake for 20-25 minutes (until cheese is melted)
• Enjoy!

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XO, Rachel