Vegetable and Sausage Lasagna

Ingredients (in the order I added them to the pan):

3 Tbsp olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 large onion, diced
1 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
salt and pepper

1 tomato, diced (optional, I had one that needed to be used and figured it would be good in here)
1 can of diced tomatoes (mine was Hunt's, seasoned with basil and oregano)
2 cups fresh, washed spinach
1 jar spaghetti sauce (make sure it is dairy-free and soy-free, most are dairy free unless they are cheesy kinds. But Prego is not so free, I'm not sure about Ragu... I used Kroger's Private Selection sauce and it was delicious!)

1 tsp sugar
2 tsp dried basil
1 tsp oregano

1/3-ish lb ground Italian sausage, cooked (I would recommend going with mild OR if you don't like the flavor of sausage, you can use ground beef OR omit it completely for a vegetarian lasagna)

Lasagna noodles (I used Barilla, and cooked the whole package but only needed probably 2/3 of the noodles)
Mozzarella cheese *I added this only to my husband's non-dairy lasagna 

Instructions:
Saute garlic and onion in olive oil. When garlic is starting to brown and onion is starting to go clear, add mushrooms and saute until the mushrooms start to look like you want to eat them. Add some salt and pepper.

At this point, you have a couple of options. I did not want to use all of the sausage I bought but wanted to cook it all to freeze and use the next time I make this... SO, you can cook the sausage in a separate pan and add to the recipe later (that's what I did and how I will explain in the rest of the recipe) OR add the raw sausage to cook with your garlic and onion. 

Add spinach and fresh tomato, cook for a minute or two, then add can of tomatoes. Let simmer for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, cook lasagna noodles in separate pot. Boil water and add noodles (should take 8-10 minutes depending on the type of noodle).

Back to the sauce: add spaghetti sauce, sugar, basil and oregano. Stir well and then add sausage. Allow to continue simmering until your noodles are cooked (or longer, doesn't matter).

In a 9x13 pan (or in my case, I used two 8x8 pans so I broke my noodles in half before cooking), layer sauce, noodles, sauce, noodles and sauce until you have used all your sauce. If it doesn't need to be dairy-free, add cheese in the layers and top with cheese.

Our oven was broken so I just heated it up to melt the cheese in the microwave (I used Pyrex since it is microwave-safe). If you use cheese, putting it in the oven will let it get the nice golden top... 
-Nikki Adams