I am not sure if the recipe is included in here or not, but that is what I prepared for dinner tonight.
Again, as my father wondered what kind of mood I was in, and where I’m getting all my energy from to be able to manage and prepare these foods and still go on about my day, in trying to find a job, and manage my studies and still even have time to myself.
I shrug saying, I prioritize, I plan, I picture it in my head and just go with it. It works out pretty well. My mom complimented on how I was sooo good in cooking, that I should also be like that in the cleaning. I’m not the greatest, and I’m admitting that now, and cleaning up a few of the things around the house I got a shocked, surprising look of “Are you okay?”
Come on guys, it’s not that bad. I do clean, and besides I still manage to do all of these things and keep my sanity, can you honestly tell me you can do the same? Of course, they said how do I manage to have such patience in the children, especially in their moods that they have, after a long day or a early morning of not much sleep the night before. I say, just tell them basically in a good firm voice of what you expect and see the results.
Sometimes it’ll work, and if they respect you enough they’ll comply. However, if they do not care then they’ll do as they like, and if you spoil them to a point in where they’re acting like this. All I can say is “I told you so.” Of course they’re starting to see now the results of that, yet hard to get out of it since their excuse is, “But, that’s what grandparents do.”
To which I reply, “That’s what grandkids do too.”
So, anyways back to my lasagna dish story. I woke up this morning, and after having a mango lassi, easy recipe for that too. 1/2 cup of mango pulp, 1/2 cup of milk, 2 Tbsp of plain yogurt, 1 Tbsp honey. BLEND! Yum! You can add 1 -2 ice cubes, or a scoop of vanilla or mango ice cream for a shake, or yogurt for the lassi, you can use sugar if you prefer, or honey. You can add some organic baby spinach, and bananas, and strawberries to give it that smoothie taste, and a bit of orange juice, and apple juice too. Adding a touch of white green tea also is good.
Back to the lasagna. All you need is 1lb of cooked ground beef, 1 can of tomato sauce, some water, some veggies you pick your own, and steam them or fry them into the pan until done, set aside. 1 bag of shredded cheese, 1 tub of riccotta cheese, 1 pkg of baby organic spinach, some chopped cilantro, chopped chives/green onions.
Assembling it: In a huge casserole dish, (be sure to preheat oven to 350′F). Add 1/4 cup of the tomato sauce with 1/2-1 cup of water. Mix it through making sure the tomato sauce and water are completely blended and it’s covering the entire pan at the bottom.
Add your oven-ready lasagna noodles one layer at a time, not overlapping each other, just enough it’s touching on the sides and ends.
In a large bowl add the cooked ground beef, more of the tomato sauce, enough that there’s only 1/4 tomato sauce still remaining in the can, then add 1 cup of water to the beef and sauce and mix through. Add that layer on the bottom of the casserole dish over the lasagna noodle.
Sprinkle with the shredded cheese. Add another layer of the lasagna noodle. The veggies you have, whether it’s corn, green beans, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, bell peppers, onions, shallots, potatoes, or mushrooms, and peas. (since im allergic, I opt out of the peas and no one in my family is a mushroom fan). I added that as the 2nd layer. Sprinkled more cheese on top, then added another lasagna noodle.
Then I added the riccotta cheese, with the baby organic spinach on top, and more cheese..then another layer of lasagna noodles, then another layer of the ground beef, and some veggies leftovers, and some of the riccotta cheese leftover and the spinach, with more shredded cheese on top. Covering it with the lasagna noodle, then adding the remaining tomato sauce with the 1/2 cup of water-1 cup of water and adding that on top of the lasagna noodle, with more shredded cheese on top. Then, covering it in foil and baking it for 45 minutes.
A rough 5-10 minutes before it’s done, remove the foil, add chopped cilantro, and spring onions on top,and let it broil for 2-5 minutes until cheese is melted, bubbly, and sides are turning light brown…LIGHT BROWN guys, not dark brown, not black, not charred.
Make sure the lasagna noodles is completely covered in the sauce before baking so it doesn’t crunch, because it won’t properly cook if it’s not covered in the sauce.
Meanwhile, set the table, make it a family meal, make it for the kids to help and set up the table. Prepare a salad on the side, be it lettuce, chopped tomatoes, chopped cucumbers, carrots, baby organic spinach, and sliced strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, apples, oranges, and add a touch of lemon juice, salt and black pepper, and olive oil. You can add a handful or two of chopped pecans, walnuts, almonds, cashews, peanuts, and any other kind of nut.
Prepare some juice or milk, if you have dinner rolls, cut them in half, and wet them gently and toast them, add some margarine on the side and garlic powder to create the garlic bread.
VOILA!
All the above contains all the food from the 4 food groups, of grains (lasagna noodles), veggies (veggies), ground beef (protein, meat), and riccotta cheese, shredded cheese (dairy).
Also in the salad, it contains fruits and veggies apart of the daily food intake from the food guide of healthy eating.
Also the dinner rolls counts as grains towards the daily intake.
Garlic and the herbs pass into the veggies intake so it’s all good.
Have fun, and be safe and enjoy!
Iby is sitting next to me, writing something. I do not know what he’s writing, yet I ask him and he replies with, “You took a video of me? Will this go on Youtube?”
Voila! This was my dinner.
