Gluten Free Vegan Spinach Lasagna

There are a few comfort foods that I have really missed since going gluten and dairy free.  Lasagna is one of them!  Mom-Mom had such a great lasagna recipe that we used to make but of course it was full of cheese and gluten-filled meat replacers.

My best friend, Sherri, insists that she tried to get me to try this lasagna quite a while back, and that I turned up my nose at it!  I suppose that is possible in my pre-dietary change days.  But wow, what a mistake that was!  She shared the recipe with me recently and insisted that it was one of her family's favorite things to eat.  So I decided to try it.  Oh. My. Goodness.   IN LOVE.  This is all that was left of the huge pan I made!  Did I mention how incredibly easy it was to make??

Without further ado, here is my (only very slightly altered) version of Sherri's recipe.  :)  You can get the noodles at Walmart, but we go through so much of this now that I just get the case on Amazon as linked.  :)  You can also use regular noodles if you aren't gluten free.  The original recipe used regular ones.  

Gluten Free Vegan Spinach Lasagna

1 package Tinkyada Brown Rice Lasagna Noodles 

Fresh spinach leaves - use as few or as many as you'd like.  You can also use frozen spinach.

1 jar of spaghetti sauce

1 cup of water

Tofu Cheese Topping (recipe below)

Layer sauce, uncooked noodles, Tofu Cheese Sauce and spinach, ending with the sauce.

Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour at 350 until bubbling hot.

Remove foil and bake 5-10 more minutes.

Tofu Cheese Topping

1/2 cup raw cashews

1/2 cup water

2 tsp salt

1 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes

2 tbsp lemon juice

pinch of garlic powder

1 lb tofu, rinsed and drained

Combine all ingredients and blend until creamy and smooth.

That's what it looked like before it went in the oven.  So pretty and fresh looking!  None of us could believe how much this tasted and had the texture of ricotta cheese!  It really was incredible!  We've already made this several times!

Thanks for holding out on me, friend!  :P    Love ya!  :)

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Crazy Cat Lady?

I'm afraid I'll soon get that title if I'm not careful!

This cutie (since named Gracie) showed up on our doorstep with two other tiny kittens.  The kittens were terribly frightened and we never could get them to come to us.  Gracie had to have been around humans before because she was as friendly as could be!  She was happy to come into a warm house and be snuggled!  We took her to the vet and got her all checked out and shots given.

This is Jamie.  Believe it or not, he was a feral cat.  We've been wooing him ever since we moved into this rental house.  He used to come steal fish out of our fire pit in the summer.  He eventually took to eating out of a bowl on our back porch.  We moved it to the front porch and made him a bed.  It took him a while, but he got used to that.  He went from running away when we opened the door to gradually getting used to us and letting us be on the porch at the same time.  He would rub up against "us" through the glass door, but wouldn't let us touch him otherwise.  We kept saying he wanted so badly to be loved!  

                            

Well, one day recently he came to the door with an injured paw - bleeding a little.  I decided maybe it was time to try to trap him.  The trap was out for a few days before I finally caught him with some yummy salmon!  Unfortunately, I caught him on a Friday night and wasn't able to get him into the vet until Tuesday!  Thankfully I found a kind, local gal who loaned me a larger cage than I had.  I was able to fit a litter box and food and water in it.  Interestingly enough, I think all it took was being caged to have him realize that we weren't going to hurt him.  He morphed very quickly into a super loving cat!  He drools when you are petting him!!

Sadly, the two kittens were never seen again after a few days.  Hopefully they didn't spread the word. ;)

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