Zucchini Lasagna

My family has been making this recipe for years....because everyone grows zucchini if they have a garden, which means that they have an abundance of zucchini mid to late summer.  And there's only so much zucchini bread that one can eat!  I made this a few weeks ago when I was prepping my food for the week.  I used a pound of ground chicken, and half of that went into chicken meatballs to snack on.

Recipe for the zucchini lasagna: 

   I used both green zucchini and yellow summer squash. Cut into slices ~1/4 " thick. Line the bottom of your dish with sauce (here's where I used the other half of my ground chicken; added it to some marinara I had on hand once the chicken was browned. Cook the sauce until it is very thick; the vegetables produce a LOT of liquid when they cook off and you don't want your lasagna to drown before it is ready to be eaten!.) Spread a scant amount of sauce in the bottom of your pan (I used a shallow 2 quart casserole, cooking for one!) and then start layering in the zucchini/squash slices. I dot small layers of ricotta, Parmesan, and fresh mozzarella on top of the slices. Spread a layer of the sauce on top. Repeat the layers until you are satisfied ~ I usually get 3 layers. Top the last layer with more cheese (as much or as little as you'd like, I tend to be sparing). 

  I used my toaster oven @ 350 for ~30-35 minutes so that I didn't heat up the entire house on an 85+ degree day. It is done when the knife goes through the layers quite easily. Let it stand until the juices reabsorb to prevent it from being a soggy mess :D

 I almost never follow a formal recipe, just go with what I like and try to keep it healthy. I don't season my ricotta; there's a lot of flavor in the sauce and I try to keep the sodium down. I use fresh basil whenever I can, especially in sauce. I think I tossed in a handful of baby spinach leaves with the marinara, too on that particular day.  Enjoy!!!