Loads of Veggies, Meat and Yummy Flavor!

Foodography is definitely not my gifting so my apologies up front for not being able to deliver a mouth watering image of this yummy dinner from tonight.

Cauliflower has been a new veggie for me to experiment with and so far, I am finding it an easy one to sneak into our meals.  Tonight's new veggie was eggplant.  I've not done much with this; can probably count on one hand the times I've ever eaten it and I've not been overly thrilled with it.  I decided to give it another chance tonight and dinner was very yummy.  It is a hit or miss with the kids, my daughter has plowed through hers and asked for more, my youngest is still munching and my middle two didn't want anything to do with it.  They're at least not crying for something else.  Maybe their just stuffed from our yummy potluck lunch at church today.

Tonight's dinner was a meat and veggie filled lasagna without any pasta.  No reason in particular for me to leave out the pasta.  I'm not cutting carbs, gluten or the sort.  More out of curiosity and flexibility; to be able to omit the normal if needed and still be able to satisfy our food needs and wants.  Taste and heartiness was amazing.  Presentation, not so much.  It looked good on the outside but the whole inside was very soupy.  The good side of using whole wheat pasta cooked al dente before putting the how thing together is that it soaks up some of those juices.  So, I don't know that I'll be doing another pasta-less lasagna unless someone has a good idea for making these veggies not so watery.

Here's what was in it:

• 1 lb ground beef, browned and drained
• 1 lb ground sausage, browned and drained
• 3 eggs
• 1 container of cottage cheese
• 2 cups or so italian cheese/mozzarella
• 1 cup or so of feta cheese
• Parmesan cheese to taste and to top
• 1 eggplant sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 1 zucchini thinly sliced
• Large jar of pasta sauce
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• oregano, thyme, garlic, onion and other spices to liking

Mix meats, tomatoes and sauce together.  In another bowl, mix eggs and cheeses and herbs/seasonings.  Add a bit of sauce and meat on bottom of baking dish.  Then layer eggplant and then zucchini.  Add half of the cheese/egg blend evenly over veggie layer.  Repeat with meat/sauce mixture, veggie mixture and then cheese.  I topped (packed more like it) the rest of the meat and sauce on the top and then covered it with parmesan cheese and a strip of zucchini slices for decoration.  I baked it for an hour at 350* and then let sit for about 20 minutes.

This would be a good place for feed back from any foodies that are reading this.  How could this be made and not be so soupy at the end?