If they tease you, that means they love you.

They'll change their tune as the years go by and your soil turns black and crumbly and the vegetables grown in your soil taste better than ever.

Just because they've never heard of it doesn't mean it didn't exist. No one is born knowing everything. It's a great opportunity to teach them. Just show them this.

Your family should be hung by their thumbs and "educated". I used to have a deli/restaurant, and a very popular catering request was vegetable lasagna. My sister loves to experiment with food, but she would never be happy without meat, no matter how delicious the vegetarian meal.... I guess some people are just like that. Anyway, I vote for you and against your family, in case that helps.

I love vegetable lasagna. Zucchini, spinach, mushrooms...good stuff. If I'd succeeded in growing any veggies, I would have made some myself.

Some people just don't like anything new. My mother gets on my case because I'm "picky" and don't like beans, but then I invite her out for sushi....

She's never taken me up on it, even when I offer to pay. :P

My husband swears that he doesn't really like squash....but he always eats it and tonight he was talking about how good this "stuff" is and I said what stuff and he held up a piece of squash...I didn't gloat though cause then he would pout and not eat it...but I was smiling big time inside to myself..

Sorry, but I'm with the rest of your family. Lasagna must have meat or it's not Lasagna; it's a vegetable cake.

Your green light to buy some cows, chickens, pigs.....Do NOT pass GO.

Me meat eater too ;-)

Vegetable cake, yum!

Although beef cake's good, too. (wink)

The cafeteria at my old job served veggie lasagna now and then, simply delicious, I tried several times to make it but didnÂt come out nearly as good.

I have a LOT of leftovers here. I made a BIG lasagna. Oh well. Steak tonight.

I may be remembering incorrectly but all my times of eating lasagna in Italia it was without meat. In my family my lasagna is the best in the world now that I using all fresh veggies it taste that much better. Nest step start growing all my own herbs. An planning that next year in planting baoxes on my deck.

I love veggie lasagna but it makes for a rather large meal for a family of one so I rarely make it. Would you save a piece for me? If I start walking now I might just reach CT before the end of summer. ;-)

On a slightly more serious note though... my Grandmama Rose made the most amazing lasagne. Her feeling was that fresh veggie lasagne should be made with white sauce because the flavor of the veggies was "bright" and needed the smoothing out that the white sauce gave.

Red sauce lasagne was made with roasted veggies so that the sauce and veggies wouldn't compete. In Gram's opinion roasting the veggies gives them a deeper, meatier flavor that stands next to the red sauce and not "inside" it.

Don't give up on the veggie lasagna. And if your family just can't get past it you might try dicing up some good "stick" pepperoni and sprinkling that in a layer. Mmmmmmmmmm Yum!

Luckily, my daughters LOVE veggie lasagna - two of them are vegetarians. :) I like both kinds, but prefer the vegetable - SO good when the veggies come from your very own garden. . .
Keep experimenting and enjoy!
P.S. If I lived closer, I'd volunteer to come help with your leftovers. :)

So, you actually told them it was "veggie" lasagna? I never let on to my family that there wasn't any meat in there, just served it and let them enjoy. Eventually somebody asked, "Where's the beef?" and I just smiled and said nothing. Nameless dishes are the best way to sneak nutrition into a family that thinks junk food and meat are the only food groups.

I'd love some of your left-overs, too! I've never had a recipe for Veggie Lasagna, would you be willing to share yours? I've only ever had it at restaurants and thoroughly enjoyed it every time.

I'm not a vegetarian by any stretch of the imagination, but I'd come to your house and eat veggie lasagna. I think your family shouldn't diss your efforts. Next time, stick a slab of bologna or liverwurst in front of them, while you eat yummy lasagna.

Unfortunately I have a husband who is a real meat & potatoes type of guy so I can relate.

As with traditional meat lasagna, there are some that
are 'to die for' and there are those that are barely
edible. I like veggie lasagna if it is the 'to die for'
type, but unfortunately, my wife makes the barely edible
type and I eat it and compliment her on it, (she does
not take constructive criticism very well).
That is my take on this issue.

Did you precook the carrots? Sometimes hard veggies will turn heads. I love veggies but being a guy and a meat eater I prefer at least some meat in my meals too.

Eh, sorry to hear that. My family disses almost everything I fix. Just this morning my husband had to discard a bit of my scrambled eggs he stole while I was busy with the baby. He'd already had brunch, so I was fixing just for myself. So in addition to the eggs and a bit of cream, I added two small, vine ripe tomatoes in chunks and a healthy scattering of mixed garden herbs (sage, thyme, parsley and chives). I had chopped the herbs a couple days ago for potato topping and wanted to get some use out of them before they went bad. I thought the eggs were great. He spit his bite out in the trash.

It used to make me feel really bad, so I took a professional cooking class and worked really hard on it. I've had lots of people rave about my cooking. I've also had quite a few unable or unwilling to eat it. One thing I've noticed though is that those who won't eat it are generally the same sort who won't drink a glass of water. They only drink out of cans and they only eat meat and starches.

Anyone I serve my food to who has a somewhat broader taste (for example, someone who will eat a green bean without it first being boiled with half a pound of bacon) is usually very happy. So I've become quite sure it's not my cooking skills.

That said, I've also given up on trying to change certain others who eat at our house frequently.

"Where's the beef?"

geez o man... feel free to let your running daughter know that my vegetarian sister just ran her first marathon this summer. She seems to be doing ok without the meat. She's 24 and vegetarian for 12 years. I know you were just trying to illustrate a point, but the protein myth is by and large just that... most vegetarians get more than enough protein without having to do anything special, or even monitor their intake.

That said, I loooove veggie lasagna. I can't wait to have a bounty in my garden so I can whip some up!

Maybe their problem was that they considered it a substitute for "real" lasagna. Next time call it squash casserole. They won't be able to argue with that.

Jim

Hey- don't let your family get you down! I grew up in a house where no matter what was served somebody hated it. And I was the cook! Just give them our families standard reply, "There is always peanut butter." and sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor

sorry that you had an unappreciative audience.

I'm fortunate that my son and hubby are very good about enjoying homecooked meals and are happy about veggies.

I loooove Veggie Lasagna! I never make it because I'm the only human in the house. The others are Corgis. Sometimes I cook something & take it over to my parents nearby, but my dear father is a Neanderthal and simply *must* have a slab of meat on his his plate at dinnertime, otherwise it isn't a real meal.

By the way, for your family's info, there is a restaurant up here that makes a delicious veggie lasagna. $6 for one serving!

Thanks for all the sympathetic replies. The thing is, my family is not usually overly picky and they do eat a very good variety of healthy foods. I cook and bake daily, and they gobble most everything up, so it is not an issue of them being difficult to please.

And about the runners needing protein thing, my daughter is getting that counsel from her boyfriend who supposedly knows everything about running, so I am not going to open that can right now.

Someone wanted the recipe. It is basic. Boil a box of lasagna noodles, have ready some nice simmered tomato sauce that has herbs and garlic (about a quart), and mixed in a bowl have a large container of ricotta cheese with an egg, a good amount of parmesan, at least a cup each of shredded carrot and zucchini (no you do not pre-cook this). Layer your sauce, noodles, and cheese mixture in your pan until you have 3 or 4 layers, and top with a bag of shredded mozzarella. Bake at 350 until it's done.

Here's an idea for you. If no vegetarians are partaking, make it the same way but throw in a little bit of chopped up Italian sausage or other meat. Just enough to qualify it as a meat dish.

Jim

My nephew (a vegetarian and a bicycle marathoner) has a recipe for vegetarian chile that includes a half cup of bulghur wheat soaked in a cup of boiling water. Give a meaty chew. You might try adding that to your tomato sauce. Really hard to tell there's no meat in there.
For other recipes, try the harvest forum.

Real lasagna has no meat. Growing up in a very Italian area, I had never heard of lasagna with meat in it until I was older. Meatballs and/or sausage, etc. is served on the side not in it.
I remember being in college and having a party. People were aghast at the idea I was making lasagna without meat. Once everyone had a forkful, they changed their minds: )
Remy

It was me (I?) that wanted the recipe. Thank you for sharing it. If/when our zucchini plants really start to produce I am planning on making this. Appreciate your taking the time to post it.

Edie

Sorry they were annoying. Did anyone else offer to may YOU dinner any time soon? Because that's work -- to prepare food for a bunch of people.

Lasagnas come in all styles -- not just the traditional beef/pork ones. Veggie is a fav here, as is "mexican" with beans in the filling. I like "white" but my spouse does not.

I'm sure it was lovely.

V.