Lasagna (Without The Lasagna). Sigh.

I am the first to admit that I am the most foodily challenged of anyone contributing to this blog. As with most things in life, I blame my mother for this deficiency. Growing up, we NEVER ate fresh vegetables (canned and frozen, baby). And as a result, most friends can remember having a conversation with me at one time or another in which I displayed my food-related ignorance. Recently I was forced to duck into a bathroom at a fancy work-related dinner and quietly call someone from my cell phone to inquire about whether or not prosciutto is vegetarian (it's not). Which is why when Naomi suggested these so-called "greens" as this week's challenge, I seriously had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. I was under the stupid impression that we were making salads. Turns out, lots of recipes include COOKED greens. Who knew? Ok, I knew spinach was a green. And I've eaten it. Cooked. Many times. I just forgot. Anyway! Friends suggested kale. Mustard greens. Collard greens. Chard. Problem was, I had absolutely no idea what any of these things were. So...this week's challenge was a true learning experience for me. I'm a better person now. The kind of person who cooks chard. (Even if I don't particularly cook it well. Oy).

Moving on!

I found a bunch of awesome recipes and was really looking forward to my first foray into the world of cooked greens. However, I went to the laaaame Chinatown Path Mark the same night that I bought my cookie ingredients, and everything was out of stock, I couldn't find anything, I was cold and wet (it was pouring rain outside), and I just wanted to go home. In the end, I ditched my cool recipes and wound up making this one.

I bought what appeared to be nothing short of a shitload of chard. But who knew -- when you cook it, it, um, goes away...

Chard: Starts out big, ends up small

So, my casserole thingee had much less greens than a greens-newbie such as me would have anticipated. So that was slightly disenchanting. However, I bravely moved forward with the recipe. Well, it turned out that this recipe was waaaay more work than it was worth. I chopped the onion and red peppers for, like, 40 minutes. I had to sautee the chard in its own pan, then transfer it into the casserole dish. Let's just say that it was a lot of chopping and a lot of dishes for what turned out to be, in essence, spinach lasagna without the lasagna.

Sooooo, we ate it.

And, ya know, it tasted good. Chard turned out to be tasty. Veggies are good. Who doesn't like cheese?

But really, it was kinda like a salad, but hot, and covered in cheese. Not the heartiest, nor the healthiest.

As you can see, I paired it with a not-so-special spinach, tomato and parmesan salad. I thought I was being cute -- ya know, matching my little green salad to our hot green meal. Turns out, it wasn't that cute. We ate it, and we were just kinda hungry.

Boo on this stupid recipe!!