RECIPE: Meredith's Slightly Healthier, Slightly Easier Lasagne

Mmm, lasagne. Delicious combination of pasta, tomato sauce, cheeses, fakey meat and tofu. Here's how I do it:

Procure: two cans of TJ's Tuscany tomato sauce (about 1 lb each), garlic, onions, soft tofu, 1 lb ricotta cheese, a large bunch of parsley, 2 eggs one lemon, Parmesan cheese, a bag of fakey meatballs, 1 lb mozzarella, and a 1 lb box of no-boil lasagne noodles.

First: Doctor up your sauce with sauteed onions, garlic, a few sprinkles of dried oregano, red pepper flakes and salt and pepper for good measure.

Second: Break out your handy dandy food processor. Blend up your ricotta, soft tofu, parsley, lemon zest, as much Parmesan as your heart desires, salt and pepper. Dump out in a bowl, unless you have a monstrous processor, which could hold all of this. Mine cannot. Taste for salt, pepper and more cheese. Beat the eggs. Mix thoroughly with cheese-tofu mix.

Third: Defrost frozen"meat" balls in microwave. Cut into quarters. Grate or cut mozzarella into bits. Preheat oven to 350F.

Fourth: Cover a baking sheet in tin foil. You'll thank me later, promise. Put baking sheet in the bottom third of oven. Grease a huge glass dish. I use a 15x12x2 1/2 Pyrex. Pour a bit of sauce on the bottom to coat. Add a layer of the noodles. Put on a half of the cheese mixture, a half of the "meat" a third of the mozzarella. Pour on some more sauce. Layer with noodles going in the opposite direction from the first layer. Repeat layering of cheese-tofu, "meat" mozzarella and sauce. Layer with noodles going in the same direction as the first layer. Pour as much sauce as can fit over noodles. Sprinkle remaining mozzarella over and more Parmesan, if you like. Put dish on top of baking sheet. Bake for one hour. Let cool for 15 minutes before serving. Serve with a green salad and some fantastic bread. Feeds a small army, a large dinner party or two people dinner for one week.