SuperWoweeOMFGEggplant Lasagna

Last week, I went to the Honest Weight Food Co-op, where I was bent on getting affordable, local, organic veggies to make vegetarian lasagna with. The problem is, I'm pretty darn indecisive and therefore decided to buy half the produce section (not just for this recipe, but for others this week as well). Everything looked so good! I even got a block of organic, local mozzerella for this dish. Which was a pain in the butt to grate, but a pleasure to pick at during this ordeal! :p

I'm not here to lecture on the advantages of locally produced anything versus factory farmed, unethical Monsanto GMO, corn-infused, shipped from 8 different countries bullshit, buuuuuuuuuuuuuut, I've always wanted to have my own vegetable garden. Locally grown things usually just taste better to me. Not everything in here is organic because of budget reasons, but I tried. Speaking of unethical, if there's a sugar mama out there who wants to buy me a patch of land and do that for me.... no, just kidding! I watch MTV's True Life waaay too much. :p Back on topic! Here's how it went down:

Ingredients:

1 eggplant, peeled and sliced thinly lengthwise
10-15 mushrooms, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 onion, diced but with chunkiness
1 green pepper, same as above
1 jar of (preferably) organic chunky tomato sauce (or whatever flavor you'd like)
1 pkg Gimme Lean ground beef style TVP
1 block of mozzarella cheese, grated (or you can buy grated mozzarella if it makes your life easier)
1 tub of ricotta cheese (14-16 oz.)
Ronzoni lasagna noodles
4 boops of balsamic vinegar
Olive oil or vegetable oil to fill Ziploc bag
Adobo all purpose seasoning (or oregano, salt, and garlic mixed)
Garlic powder (or minced garlic)
Oil for frying


Directions:

1. After preparing your eggplant, sprinkle with a small amount of salt and place slices between paper towels on a plate. Let stand for at least 1 hour. Can stand for up to 4 hours. Throw away paper towels once finished.
2. Lightly sprinkle adobo on eggplant slices (I coated both sides, unfortunately, and it came out slightly too salty) and place in a Ziploc bag. Add vinegar and oil and mix around until the mixture isn't separated. Let stand in refrigerator for 2 hours or overnight.
3. Stir Beef style TVP and garlic powder in a mixing bowl until broken down into tiny, ground beef looking chunks. Since the TVP is pretty gooey, this may be difficult. Don't worry. When you get it in the frying pan, you'll be able to chop it up some more.
4. Heat a large frying pan with raised sides on medium heat until oil is crispy. Or splattery. But not too splattery. Whatever. Add onions and saute until clear.
5. Add peppers and cook until somewhat broken down. Then add mushrooms and cook for a couple of minutes.
6. Add TVP mixture and chop with spatula as best as you can. Keep chopping, stirring and cooking for a couple of minutes.
7. Add sauce and garlic, turn the heat down low, and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
8. Spread "meat" sauce very thinly on the bottom of the baking pan. Place three noodles over top. Spread ricotta cheese moderately on the noodles and top conservatively with marinated eggplant and liberally sprinkled mozzerella cheese. Add another thin layer of meat sauce and then noodles. You see the pattern. Repeat until you run out of ingredients and/or reach the top of your pan. On the last layer, you should have noodles with meat sauce and/or ricotta on top. Sprinkle with mozzerella.
9. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
10. Slice up and enjoy!

Serves 6-12

P.S. If you're vegan, use daiya cheese and there's another thingy for vegan ricotta cheese. They're goooooood <3