Pumpkin Lasagne

If there's a part in my human anatomy that I tend to overexert/overuse or abuse,  then, it's probably my eyes. My  love for reading until the wee of dawn, short duration of sleep and over exposure to LED and all things bright and electronic are really taking its toll. The strain that I put to my ocular organ is confirmed by  my the ever worsening eyesight.


Without my eyeglasses, I could not drive , read street sign or see a crossing kangaroo even if my life depends on it. I can not recognise people standing 3 meters away from me and I hopelessly possess a nocturnal vision of an aging bat . My frownies is alarmingly deepening. Blame it on habitually  glaring I do every time my eyeglasses isn't on. Before this premature aging worsens, I really have to so something.

More healthy foods, more sleep and less reading time. Good luck!

Beta carotin is known to be helpful to the body, esp . our eyes. My granny, Lola Pilar, used to coax me into eating carrots and squash saying it could brighing my eyes like a flashlight at night. I never really believed her after checking it out several times in infront of the  mirror. Bless her for trying though.

I have been cooking many Beta carotene rich pumpkins this past weeks. After all, my eyeballs really need some pampering. This  is one of my favorites pumpkin based recipe so far. It's meatless, healthy and quite yummy. Hope my eyeballs are appreciating the effort.

Pumpkin Lasagne 
serves 4

Olive oil

1 pumpkin ( about 1 kg)

4 cloves garlic

1 chili pepper, seeded

2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar

1 can ( 400 g) of your favourite tomato sauce

400 ml water

60 g Parmesan cheese

 lasagne sheets as needed

400 g cottage cheese

100 ml milk

1 tbsp.  sunflower seeds

a handful Rosemary

salt and white pepper

1. In a small sauce pan, heat milk until scalding  hot. Turn off the heat . Stir in cottage cheese, 30 g of grated Parmesan cheese. Season with salt and white pepper.Set aside.

 1. Preheat oven to 180 °c. Cut off the hard stem of the pumpkin. Cut pumpkin into half. Scrape out seeds. Cut pumpkin into 1-2 cm  slices. Bake for about 45-50 minutes or until tender. Use baking paper to make cleaning and your life easier.

2.  Heat olive oil in a sauce pan. Saute chopped garlic and Chili pepper.

 3. Add your favourite tomato sauce. I love meatless   bolognese sauce with  mediterranean vegetables ! Add  in water. Bring to a boil, season with Worcestershire  sauce. Let the sauce simmer for 15 minutes or until it thickens up a bit. Season with salt and pepper.

 4. Put 1/3 of the tomato sauce in your lasagne form. Cover with lasagne sheets.

6.Arrage baked pumpkin over lasagne.

 7.Sprinkle with with Parmesan cheese.Pour 1/3 of sauce over Pumpkin. Add in rosemary leaves.

9. Repeat and make second layer. Carefully arrange the last Lasagne sheets over pumpkin and tomato sauce layer. Carefully pour milk-cottage cheese mixture over the lasagne sheets.

 9. Sprinkle with sunflower seed. Bake for about 40 minutes.

Serve pipping hot and with greed salad.