Having just spent a wonderful few days in New Orleans, I'm refreshed and full of lots of ideas.  The food there was stupendous, of course: red fish, black drum, banana praline bread pudding--well, you get the idea.  All that, plus hanging out with some of the best people the world has to offer: urban librarians. Talk about a happy break full of lots of interesting ideas.

Anyway, back at home I seem to have adopted my own attitude of the "Big Easy," in other words, with minimal effort, getting something on the table that satisfies the teenaged carnivore, and, well, everyone else too. 

This is so easy I almost hesitate to share it.  Nonetheless, I recently taught it to my pal Elizabeth who quickly incorporated it into her culinary repertoire to universal raves.  If you don't already have a lasagna recipe to which you're attached, this is a good candidate I think.  At least, everyone around here is crazy about it , even though it doesn't have meat in it....come to think about it, they may not know it's meatless, so for goodness sake don't tell 'em! I use whole-wheat lasagna noodles because I really like their almost nutty taste, but if your family is whole-wheat averse, regular lasagna noodles are just fine.  Do not use those "no-boil" noodles however, which for some reason strike me as rather sinister because, though you don't pre-boil these noodles, they work perfectly anyway.