easy lasagna

I had never attempted to make lasagna before last week, having always opted for the cheater "lasagna" from Real Simple. With food allergies to consider, however, I took on the challenge of veggie lasagna from scratch. I modified this recipe and was pretty pleased (with the exception of an important omission that I've added back in here).

Ingredients:

• 1 8 ounce package oven-ready lasagna noodles
  
• 1 9 ounce package frozen raw spinach
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 3 eggs
• 3 cups low-fat cottage cheese
• 3+ cups pre-made tomato sauce (see below: 28oz diced tomatoes, 2TB tomato paste, Italian seasonings, garlic, onion and a little water) or jarred pasta sauce
  
• 3 cups grated low-moisture part skim mozzarella cheese

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.

Make your tomato sauce:
Sauté a few cloves of garlic (to taste) and one small onion with olive oil in a medium sized pot. Add large can (28oz) diced tomatoes (don't drain), 2TB tomato paste, about 2TB Italian seasonings (marjoram, thyme, rosemary, savory, sage, oregano and basil), and a little water to match up with the tomato paste. Mash everything down to crush the tomatoes farther than they already are (I used a potato masher), and let it all simmer a little bit so the spices distribute and soak up nicely.  Next time I'd like a little more than 3 cups, but I like lots of tomato sauce.

Make the rest of the lasagna:
In medium mixing bowl, beat eggs; add cottage cheese and Parmesan cheese.
Spray a 13 x 9-inch glass baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.
Put one layer of slightly cooked lasagna noodles flat across the bottom of the baking dish.
Add a thin layer of the tomato sauce and 1/2 the leaf spinach, pressing down lightly and evenly over noodles.
Top with another layer of lasagna noodles.
Top this layer of noodles with another thin layer of tomato sauce and the cottage cheese mixture; add the remaining spinach.
Then add the last of the lasagna noodles laid evenly on top of spinach.
Spread the remaining pasta sauce evenly over the top; sprinkle with a little more Italian seasoning and the mozzarella cheese.
Press down lightly.

In a nutshell: 
You're layering noodles, spinach, the cottage cheese mixture, and pasta sauce throughout then topping with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. I like my ingredients evenly spaced, but you may want to mix it up a little.

Other things you might consider adding: mushrooms, shredded chicken, tofu, ground beef (or the fake version of it)...As always, think about what you'd like to be eating later ;-)

Finally:
Cover baking dish with foil, using foil sprayed with cooking spray and keeping foil off the center of the lasagna. Secure sides tightly over baking dish.
Bake about 1 hour 15 minutes in oven. To lightly brown the top, remove foil for a few minutes at the end of baking time.