Black Bean Lasagna

Hello Friends!
It's been a while since either Sean or myself posted on here, due to a tragic car accident at the end of June in which Sean's youngest sister was involved. As things are coming together, and she's getting healthier everyday (thank you all for the prayers and hope), we hope to continue this blog. I'd like to thank those of you who so patiently waited for the next post, as to what to make.
So, to get things started, I'd like to introduce you to my delicious black bean lasagna. It's super easy to make, and makes a lot - which is nice to freeze so you can pull it out of the freezer and pop it into the microwaves. I got the idea when Sean and I went to eat at Cafe Lou Lou in Louisville. He ordered black bean lasagna, and I thought it was delicious. I love vegetarian lasagnas, so I went home and started playing with different recipes to create this, trying to perfect the taste, yet make it my own and make it healthy. Finally, I after different attempts at how everything should make, I decided this was the best recipe I created for this dish. For this black bean lasagna, you need

2 Cans of Black Beans
1 LARGE (45 oz) jar of pasta sauce
2 Teaspoons Ground cumin
1 Tablespoon Garlic Powder
2 Teaspoons Red Pepper Flakes
Whole Wheat Lasagna Noodles
1 15oz Container Part Skim Ricotta Cheese
1 tablespoon Parmesan
1 10oz package chopped spinach (thawed if frozen)
2 Cups Mexican Style Shredded Cheddar Jack Cheese

Preheat oven to 375 F. Drain and rinse the black beans. Mush them, and mixed the mushed black beans with the jar of pasta sauce, ground cumin, and red pepper flakes. (Feel free to add more or less spice as you wish, if you like hotter or not so hot!) Blend the ricotta with garlic powder, Parmesan cheese, and thawed spinach. Using a 9x13" pan, layer the blends with the noodles in the following order...

1/4 Black bean/sauce mix
Noodles
1/2 Ricotta mix
1/3 Shredded cheese
1/4 Black bean/sauce mix
Noodles
1/2 Ricotta mix
1/3 Shredded cheese
1/4 Black bean/sauce mix
Noodles
1/4 Black bean/sauce mix
1/3 Shredded cheese

Cover pan with aluminum foil. Bake for 1 hour, uncover, and bake for 15 more minutes. Let sit about 10 minutes once out of the oven.

It's a great, filling meal, low calorie meal, and easy to play around with - for example, I love adding mushrooms to the ricotta mixture (too bad Sean isn't as big a fan of mushrooms as I am). As for low cal - the recipe (if followed above) makes approximately 12 servings, and has about 255 calories per serving, 9 grams of fat.

Enjoy!