PPN#128: Beef and Spinach Lasagna - My Heaven...

Thing that makes my husband and me so different is pasta...I love them to die...but he is not a big fan of them. Thus I rarely cooked pasta at home. However, since he's joined the health and fitness club, got his own trainer and nutritionist to monitor what he's eating, he started to consume more pasta, especially whole wheat ones. That's yeay for me...
The other day, I prepared this beef and spinach lasagna. Got the recipe from here. I omitted some of the ingredients to match what I had in my kitchen.
I would love to submit this writing to "Presto Pasta Nights". This month is hosted by Helen. It is my very first entry for this wonderful event and I am so excited!


Ingredients:
- 1kg ground beef
- 3 cloves onions, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 plum tomato, cut into small chunks
- 160ml tomato paste
- 250ml spaghetti sauce
- 2 tsp dried basil
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- salt and pepper
- 500g ricotta cheese
- 50g parmesan cheese
- dried parsley leaves
- 2tsp dried oregano
- 2 eggs, beaten with 1/2 cup milk
- bunch of spinach
- 750g of Mozzarella cheese, grated
- 50g parmesan cheese for topping
- 20 lasagna, cooked

Directions:
Cook ground beef with some olive oil, then add onions, garlic and continue to cook until browned. Drain off all fat. Add tomato and mix well. Stir in tomato paste and spaghetti sauce, oregano, basil, salt and pepper to taste and bring it to a boil. Stir occasionally and simmer on low heat for 45minutes uncovered until thick. Preheat oven to 180C. Mix ricotta, parmesan, dried parsley, and oregano in a bowl. Add egg and milk mixture and stir well. Keep it aside. In a lasagna pan, arrange noodles layered with some meat sauce, then mozzarella cheese, more noodles, spinach and then ricotta cheese mixture. Layer by layer, again and again and end it up with a layer of noodles. Toss some meat sauce over the top layer and sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Bake uncovered for 45minutes. Allow to cool before serving.

Pizza for Brunch!

I have had this pizza base sitting in my freezer for more than a month. And since I was all by myself during the day (of course I was with my little Bianca..I mean my husband was not at home), I wanted to make pizza for my brunch. And I still have some pepperoni, red pepper and shredded cheese...so I was set to go! It's so easy, coz I just added the topping and then baked it and enjoyed the fresh warm pizza!

Ingredients:
- 1 pizza base
- 1 package of pizza sauce which came with the base
- pepperoni sausage, cut into thin slices
- red bell pepper, cut into small pieces
- shredded cheese (I used Italian mixed)


This time I did not use conventional oven, instead I used my electric skillet.
First, prepare the skillet by heating it up at 250F for 5minutes. Place the base on it and then spread the sauce evenly. Add whatever topping you prefer (for me this time is pepperoni and red pepper). And at last sprinkle shredded cheese on top.
Put on the lid and baked for 8minutes or until the cheese melted.

Note: by using this electric skillet, it reduces the cooking time significantly. Thus it reduces the energy consumed. Moreover the result is crunchier than the one I baked in a conventional oven.

Spaghetti Bolognese

I used to make this meal when I stayed in a boarding house in Jakarta, Indonesia and in Sydney, Australia. The reason is that I can keep the meat sauce for longer period of time in the fridge or even freezer, and I can just take it out and eat in small portion each and then put it back in. Since Christian is not a big fan of pasta, I rarely make it for us. But today he said once in a while eating pasta is okay. So I made this pasta with a big smile. yuhuuuuu...I love pasta!

Ingredients:
- 1 package of spaghetti noodle (try to find the one which is fast cooked, say about 5min)
- 1 lb of ground beef
- 1 clove of onion (Indonesian-bawang bombay), chop thinly
- 1 green bell pepper, wash and chop into small pieces
- 200gr of mushroom, wash and slice
- 1 jar ready made pasta sauce (I like garlic and mushroom or red wine flavor)
- pepper
- salt
- sugar
- oil
- water
- Parmesan cheese

In a pan, saute the onion for 2minutes. Add ground beef and cook until tender, stir it continuously. Add bell pepper, stir it. Add mushroom and continue to stir. Add the sauce, pepper, salt and sugar. Continue to stir and taste it.

In a pot, boil water. Add salt and a little bit oil. Put in the noodle and boil until cooked. Drain and place it on plate. Pour the sauce on top of the noodle and at last sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on top.