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Hello! Ms. Kate here, and welcome to my series, “Cook the Book”! No, we aren’t going to be eating actual books. (Talk about paper cuts), we will be reading a book, and I will share a recipe that corresponds with said story!  Are you ready? Then let’s get cooking (with adult supervision of course)!

The book for today’s post is Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White. The story is about a woman named Rebecca Estelle, who despises pumpkins. When she was little, money was tight, and her family had to cut expenses, leaving them to eating pumpkins; steamed pumpkins, boiled pumpkins, breakfast-, lunch-, and dinner pumpkins. Rebecca Estelle had had enough pumpkins, and grew everything except for the gourd. 

However, we will be making our own pumpkin dish; pumpkin lasagna (a great substitute for meat, this one’s for you, vegetarians!)

For this recipe we will need:

  • 10 lasagna noodles

  • ½ tablespoon olive oil

  • 6 ounces spinach (from 1 bag spinach)

  • 1 (15 ounce) container part skim ricotta

  • ½ teaspoon garlic powder

  • ½ teaspoon salt

  • Freshly ground black pepper

  • 2 (15 ounce) cans pumpkin puree

  • ¼ teaspoon cinnamon

  • ¼ teaspoon nutmeg

  • ¾ teaspoon salt

  • Freshly ground black pepper

  • 3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided (approximately 12 ounces)

  • 1 cup grated parmesan cheese, divided

Recipe:

First, we will fill a pot with water and boil our lasagna noodles. 

While we are doing this, we will sauté our spinach until they are wilted. 

Once the spinach is wilted, we will add the pumpkin puree, mushrooms, cinnamon, nutmeg, garlic, and other seasonings into a pan. We will mix together and allow it to warm up on the stove! 

(pumpkin puree, spinach, mushrooms, and seasonings on pan)

Second, after the noodles are cooked, we will place the first noodle in the dish. Next is the pumpkin puree mixture, we will layer it evenly on the noodle, then the ricotta dollops, parmesan and mozzarella, then more noodles, we will continue this pattern until the pan is filled with delicious lasagna!

(example of pattern when setting up your lasagna!)

Now, let’s set our oven at 400 degrees and see what Rebecca Estelle has made with the pumpkins while it finishes cooking. 

Wow! Rebecca Estelle has been a busy bee and has made a kitchen’s-worth of delicious treats! She has made pumpkin pie (of course), muffins, cakes, and more. But the only person who is in the house to eat all of these goodies is Rebecca Estelle herself! Who is going to help her enjoy her creations, like our fresh pumpkin lasagna!

(My lasagna! Beautiful, isn’t it?)

Read Too Many Pumpkins, to find out how she solves this solution!

Here are links for more information!