With NYE fast approaching I’m sure most of you have plans underway or something brewing in your mind, like maybe a certain someone that you want to plant a wet one on?!  Maybe a party you want to be seen at?  But I always thought NYE was a lot to do about nothing. You spend so much time planning, primping, preparing…then the ball drops at midnight, your coach turns back into a pumpkin, and all you’re left with is a night of empty promises and a red wine stain on the carpet that wasn’t there before.

One of my favourite past celebrations of this eve, and by favourite I mean the worst is when my family decided to have a little party of our own. My sister and I were a little older now so we were allowed to sit at the big kid table i.e. enjoy in a festive beverage with our folks. Only things didn’t really go as planned.

You see the night started with us all going ice skating, but my right eye was getting super itchy and there was always some sort of substance pooling in the corner and making things blurry.  Not thinking anything of it I soldiered on.  Once we got home I looked in the mirror and Quasimodo was looking back at me. My eye was practically swollen shut and keep in mind I was at a stage in life where I would only leave the house in full hair AND makeup. I wanted to crawl into a hole and die, but my boyfriend who emphatically stroked my face all night kept saying “babe you can barely tell”…So there I was with one swollen eye and him a growing nose.

I popped a few Benadryl hoping that would bring my face back to normal, while doing my best to not cry out of my one good eye.  My NYE resolution that year was more of a wish. Please let me wake up tomorrow and not look like a troll.

It’s no wonder that after years of disappointment I slowly started to become a Grandma with my planning.  I can honestly say that of all the years where I have been snug as a bug in my bed by quarter after the ball drops have been by far the BEST and most comfy…5, 4, 3, 2, 1 HAPPY NEW YEAR!  and Zzzzzzzz.

But if you’re looking for a lasagna that is anything but a disappointment then look no further. It is so easy to throw together and is one of those meals that anyone would be crazy not to love. I made enough to feed an army and 9 girls polished off every last bite, the sign of a good meal… when your guests lick their plates.

Ingredients
Makes 2 large casserole dishes.
I’d say you’ll have leftovers but I can’t make any promises

6 Zucchini
5-6 large Portobello mushrooms
2 lbs ground beef (or any other meat of choice)
3-4 colves of garlic
½ red onion chopped
2 large packages of the celebrity soft goat cheese
1 large jar of sauce about 1L (feel free to go the homemade route)
2 tbsp of dried oregano
¼ cup of grapeseed oil (more if needed)
Sliced black olives (if your not a fan of olives you can omit)
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 400 and then line to large cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

Slice up your zucchini keeping in mind that because this lasagna doesn’t have a noodle base, the end product when you cut into it won’t exactly stay in tact, so I just made sure to cut the zucchini (which you will be using as your noodle substitute) into the shape I wanted for each slice. Brush with oil then into the oven for about 15 minutes. You don’t want to over cook your veg at this stage because they’ll still be going back into the oven once everything is layered in your casserole dish.

Repeat the same process with your mushrooms and once all your veg are ready let’s start layering.

First up in your casserole dish put a base of sauce, and you need very little, just enough to barely cover then layer on your zucchini.

The second layer of your lasagna is going to be your soft goat cheese. I found that I used one large package for each lasagna, but save half of it for the top. Top the zucchini layer with just a little more sauce then crumble up your goat cheese.

Third step if you’re an olive lover like me sprinkle with some olive love and then again a little more sauce to cover.

Fourth step is a good sprinkling of oregano then throw on your mushrooms, and you guessed it a little more sauce to cover and of course we have to use up all that delicious zucchini, so another layer of “noodles”

Fifth is of course more sauce and more oregano and then the cherry on top, the other half of your soft goat cheese.

Then into the oven it goes for about an hour at 400. I would suggest that you cover the lasagna for the first 30 minutes so you don’t burn the top layer. The best part is the middle goat cheese layer gets cooked into the sauce so you end up with rich creamy concoction that is so good I swear I could drink it.

Now I’m sure all the carnivores are thinking but what about the meat? When I made this dinner I had a vegetarian and a non beef eater attending, so to keep things kosher I simply cooked up my beef on the side with some fresh garlic and red onion and after I plated each piece I topped it off with a big beefy scoop.

The true cherry on top.