Vegetables alla Gorgeous

Ha! That’s not a real thing, but it should be. 

Anyone who knows me (and my internet persona) is aware of my love of vegetables that are simple and can be eaten day after day after day and well, you get the picture.

It’s a sickness for wellness and it’s probably not going away anytime soon.

Most of the time I really do love a roasted bunch of broccoli crowns or a sliced up & pesto’d head of cauliflower, but sometimes I long for something saucy. Slightly cheesed.

Heavily basil’d.

So Monday I was in the mood for cheese, mozzarella specifically, but I was not in a place mentally to make something like pizza or veggie lasagna. I blame Thanksgiving. I debated just eating straight mozzarella, but 25 sticks of string cheese later, I felt unfulfilled and decided that having a vegetable was probably the adult thing to do.

And so here we are. Baked Veggie Marinara.

It’s sort of lasagna-like (because layers) but without any of the lasagna stuff and a lot of broccoli. There’s also a fair amount of cheese and a super easy sauce that has roasted tomatoes in it and YES I realize that I was complaining about making pizza five seconds ago and now I’ve got you making sauce, but it’s lazy sauce so it works.

Mostly Lazy Sauce

If you are wondering if this works with a jar of pasta —the answer is yes. You can use just regular old pasta sauce but listen…you are already using regular old vegetables and though I love vegetables, they need help. Help them!

Just not too much because this is lazy sauce.

You will need
1 can of BASIC Tomato Sauce (no added sugar)
1/4 cup Tomato Paste
Onion, Garlic, Basil, and Olive Oil
& the most important part…1 dry pint of beautifully sweet Cherry Tomatoes

Let’s do this. 

 

Easy Baked Vegetable Marinara

It’s layered with mozzarella and saucy roasted veggies.
And love. 

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First of all, roast the vegetables. 
If you don’t, it’s a soggy mess.
Ew. 

The layers go a little like this:
Sauce + Roasted Tomatoes
Veggies
Cheese
Sauce…Cheese…Veggies…etc. 

Bake it covered, then uncovered for that beautifully bubbly brown cheese crust and top with
a boatload of basil.

So simple, yet so cheesy. 

Use any vegetables you want but if you want my suggestions:
Broccoli, Zucchini, Mushrooms & Cherry Tomatoes

This particular dish has cauliflower in it but it didn’t WOW me.
Next time I will leave it out and I wanted to be 100% honest with you.

You deserve nothing but honesty. And cheese  ❤

I have to say, I really hate telling you how many CUPS of vegetables to use. It’s silly. Just roast a full sheet pan of assorted veggies and use what fills your baking dish. If you have leftovers, just eat them. It’s better than trying portion out broccoli.  🙌