Vegetarian Skillet Lasagna Pasta

Just when you think you’re on top of things – as a parent, or as anything, really – the universe will almost certainly chuckle to itself and remind you, “Not quite, sister, not quite.” I’ve recently been feeling like I was managing the Venn diagram that is my kids’ food preferences. You know what I mean, right? Where one kid’s love of starch can intersect with the other  kid’s attachment to legumes in a Chili Mac. Or something like that.

Well, before I got to sure of myself another element was thrown in the mix. Once a week Esme and a friend from school are being tutored together. I pick all the kids up off of the bus, bring them back here. The girls go over super fun French grammar and some math for an hour with their smarty-pants tutor while Julian battles invisible ninjas in his room and I make dinner. Once in awhile the friend stays for dinner. The friend who doesn’t really like vegetables. At all. Alrighty then.

I’m sure a smarter person than me could have come up with a new Venn diagram where the intersection of all three kids created the perfect dish. Me? I put a bunch of things in a pot and then covered it with a lot of cheese. Voila! Skillet lasagna! I made mine vegetarian, but you could absolutely include sausage or ground beef in this and I think it would be great. The trick is to make enough sauce to cover your dried pasta and then enough cheese – go for gooey mozzarella and soft ricotta – to blanket the whole business. As I was putting this together I was thinking that zucchini noodles would make a cool twist. But it also would have made a dinner that one kid wouldn’t have touched. So, this was a compromise. It was also a dinner that everyone happily ate. Take that, universe!

photo by Leila Ashtari