
Being back home for winter break was wonderful; I missed my family so much during the previous semester. Since my dad is such a wonderful chef, I took the opportunity to learn a few new recipes while I was back. This dish requires frequent attention to create, but is well worth it! The recipe I'm posting is enough to serve several people, so you may want to halve it.
You will need:
*olive oil
*1 and 1/2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
*2 shallots
*2 cups of risotto
*7-8 cups of vegetable broth
*1/4 to 1/2 cup of white wine
*1/2 cup of freshly-grated parmesan cheese
For the vegetable broth, we used a Better Than Bouillon vegetarian base (there are several that you could choose from) and followed the instructions for how much boiling water to add to dilute it properly. Put your vegetable broth in a pot to warm on the stove. You will be using it slowly throughout this process.

Next add the butter and some olive oil to a shallow but wide pan.

While those are heating up, finely dice two shallots and then add them to the shallow pan containing the butter. Mixing frequently, heat the shallots until they become nearly transparent.


After the shallots are done, add the risotto. Stir and mix in well. Next, add between 1/4 and 1/2 cup of white wine. (The kind we used was an Alois Lageder Pinot Grigio.) Continue stirring constantly until the moisture is almost gone from the dish. Then you'll want to add enough of the vegetable broth to just cover the risotto.


Once the moisture from the broth is nearly gone, you will want to repeat the process of adding more to cover the risotto. This process should take about 45 minutes; you will need to be stirring constantly during this time. Once it becomes difficult for the risotto to keep absorbing more broth, you are done! This should happen after using about 7 or 8 cups of the broth.
Finally, stir the parmesan into the risotto. You are done and it is ready to serve!

Note: If this dish is too rich for you, you could dilute the broth more than specified and/or use less parmesan cheese. Try serving with green beans or other veggies on the side!





This was my first time experimenting with fake ground beef. I used a little over 1/3 of this package.
This first step is to fill the bottom of your baking dish with 2 & 2/3 cups of the pasta sauce. Spread the sauce evenly over the bottom.
Top with 7-8 noodles, making sure to press the lasagna into the sauce.
The next step is to made the cheese mixture. Combine all the ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, Romano cheese, parsley, basil, spinach, and garlic powder in a bowl. Mix well.
Spread only half of the cheese mixture over the noodles. This part is a bit difficult to do without messing up the noodles because the mixture is thick. Try to cover every bit of the noodles though and spread evenly.
The ground fake meat came out in a big lump. It doesn't need to be cooked first, only broken up into smaller crumbles.
I didn't know if I would like it or not (and you may not either) so I only spread it over half the dish.
Cover evenly with half the mozzarella cheese.
Now add another 2 & 2/3 cups of pasta sauce over the mozzarella cheese. Top with the sliced mushrooms.
Add another 7-8 uncooked lasagna noodles, again making sure to press the noodles into the sauce.
Find the other half of your ricotta cheese mixture (I mixed two batches separately)
and spread over the noodles like last time.
Add the rest of the pasta sauces (another 2 & 2/3 cups of sauce) over the cheese mixture.
Top with the rest of the mozzarella cheese.
Heat uncovered for 40-45 minutes at 350˚. Let cool for 15-20 minutes before cutting.




















