Everything and the Kitchen Sink Lasagna

What to do when you make some kind of tomato based stew that despite your best intentions and efforts is just outright bland? Of course, the logical conclusion is to mix in the same quantity of spaghetti sauce and use it to as a lasagna sauce. (What? That didn't occur to you?)

Just to give you an idea of how extremely non Italian your stew can be and still make this work, my original crockpot stew was tomato based with onions, carrots, green lentils, chick peas, quinoa, and seasoned with some pesto (okay a little ITALIAN). We then added sauteed kale, mushrooms, and some more Italian seasoning to try and improve the taste. No luck. Finally, we poured in a whole jar of homemade tomato sauce, tasted it and voila! Perfect lasagna sauce!

DIRECTIONS
(1) Have some kind of tomato based stew that kind pass as lasagna sauce.

(2) If you want to add roasted eggplant to your lasagna which is lovely, slice the eggplant thinly, salt it, let weep for 15-20 min and then rinse the salt off. Brush or rub the eggplant with olive oil and roast in a pan at 350 degrees F until TOTALLY cooked (think tender and mushy else you will be subjected to rubbery chewy eggplant in your otherwise delicious lasagna).

(3) For the ricotta filling, (a) I am usually too cheap to buy ricotta and (b) I am frequently trying to get more protein into my diet, so I have found that tofu makes an amazing ricotta substitute! At least one block of soft or medium firm tofu. Drain the water out (but don't worry about "drying it"), and then mash the tofu with 1 or 2 eggs, Italian seasonings, salt and pepper. I also like to add a bit of garlic powder. This time I also added in about half a cup of kefir cheese since I happened to have it sitting in the fridge. If I have Parmesan, I will stir some of this in as well.

(4) For the cheese topping: if like me you somehow manage to forget that lasagna uses mozzarella and parmesan (don't ask), and therefore did not buy any, you can use cheddar cheese! (I apologize to all the Italians out there who are having conniption fits.) I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the sharp taste of the cheddar with the lasagna. In a pinch, I would totally do this again.

(5) Use a 9x13" pan, starting with sauce on the bottom, then noodles, tofu, eggplant, repeat. Bake for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees F or until the sauce is bubbling at the edges. Continue to bake until the cheese is browned on top or put it under the broiler if you want to eat faster :)

Ingredient List
Lasagna Noodles
Some kind of tomato stew (or spaghetti sauce)
One medium eggplant (you could also use sauteed spinach, or zucchini)
One block of soft tofu
Ricotta (optional)
1-2 eggs
Italian seasonings (oregano, basil, thyme)
Cheddar cheese (or you could be traditional and use mozzarella/parmesan)