vegan lasagna

Our family tries to eat healthy and vegan home cooked meals together most nights of the week. We’re not perfect though, and sometimes it’s a “breakfast for dinner” night or a “fend for yourself” night. Hey – it happens! By no means does being vegan mean that you have to eat perfectly all the time. Did you know Oreos are vegan? So, you could technically be a vegan AND eat Oreos all day long… not exactly a picture perfect vegan diet right? I think you get the idea. No one is perfect and if you’re considering going vegan, you still wont be perfect. Where there is a will to be lazy once a week or a will to eat some chocolate – there’s a way! But, I digress…

As a family, we used to eat separate meals at dinner time or eat out way more often than we do now. The reason we changed was mostly due to frustration and money. So much money being wasted because we were being just lazy. So, when we had our youngest daughter and decided to go down to one income, we started experimenting with home cooked meal ideas that were easy and cheap. We started using the slow cooker way more often to cook our vegan meals. One of my favorites is vegan lasagna. Not only is it easy and cheap to make, but it’s really delicious and there’s almost no wrong way to cook it. You can use any vegetables you like and it comes out slightly different every time (which is okay in my book!). Here’s the official recipe, but don’t forget you can substitute the list of fresh veggies with your own list of favorites. You can even use frozen bagged veggies too!

vegan lasagna slow cooker ingredients

• 1 x box of dry Lasagna Noodles (No Egg, No dairy)
• 2 x cucumbers, sliced
• 4 x yellow Squash, sliced
• 1 x eggplant, cubed
• 4 x carrots, sliced
• 2 x cups of mushrooms, sliced
• 2 x jars of marinara sauce
• 1 x pack of firm tofu
• 1 x bunch of spinach leaves

directions

1. Pour 1 – 2 cups of sauce on bottom of crockpot
2. Layer noodles over sauce
3. Assemble in order:
   1. mushrooms
   2. eggplant
   3. carrots
   4. cucumber
   5. yellow squash
   6. tofu
   7. spinach
   8. sauce noodles
4. REPEAT assembly 1 through 8.
5. Set the slow cooker to Medium for 7 – 8 hours.

I hope you give this one a try because we really do eat it once a week in our house and it’s one of my favorites. I really love the fact that the tofu takes the place of cheese and still provides a great source of protein. Our kids have learned to really love tofu and my hope is that you at least give this one a try.

On that note, here’s another vegan recipe for vegan eggplant parm that I found from minimalist baker. mmm.. now that sounds good too.