Vegan Lasagna Nests: Fun Spring Dinner!

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food." -George Bernard Shaw

The inspiration for today's recipe, comes from something that my mother recently made. She made lasagna "cupcakes" using wontons and lasagna ingredients. The idea to even make this today, was when I was perusing the cupboard and refrigerator for dinner ideas to come to me. I had about half of a box of lasagna noodles, 5 noodles to be exact. What on earth do you do with that? I dislike wasting anything, especially food, so I decided to make something like my mother's lasagna cupcakes, except these will be called Lasagna Nests and be made with the noodles. Last year (big and waddly, and about to have a baby), I made Candy Bird's Nests, that were very make-with-your-kiddos friendly. So this spring, here are some edible nests that are cute, fun, and guaranteed to be a hit with your family.

Vegan Lasagna Nests

What you will need:

• 5 lasagna noodles, cooked al dente according to box and cut in half
• 1/2 cup pasta sauce
• 8 oz frozen spinach
• 1 16 oz container Tofutti Ricotta "Cheese"
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp Litehouse Garlic
• 2 tsp Litehouse Italian
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 6 slices Tofutti Mozzarella, crumbled
• 1 tbsp ground flaxseed
• GoVeggie vegan Parmesan "cheese", to taste
• Muffin Tin
• Coconut Oil to grease tin with

This is what mine looked like before baking them!

What to do:

Preheat oven 350 degrees. Grease 5 spots on a muffin pan with coconut oil. In each cup of the pan, place lasagna noodle half, crisscrossed. Spoon about a tablespoon of pasta sauce in each cup. In a large bowl, combine spinach, ricotta, oregano, garlic, Italian seasoning, salt, Mozzarella, and flaxseed, then scoop it into each cup on top of the pasta sauce that you spooned. Drizzle remaining pasta sauce on top of each cup and sprinkle with Parmesan. Cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 5- 10 minutes. Let sit in pan for about 10 minutes before removing from pan and serving. The longer you let them sit to set, the easier they are to remove from pan and the prettier they look. These would be great to serve with salad and garlic bread. Enjoy!

The finished product! Yummmm!