Ramadan day 6

I bought ready to cook lasagna for break fasting dinner. I cooked it using my oil less frying oven. I don't like the taste. I thought it would taste better and cooked through in regular oven. Since I was too hungry, I finish it anyway.

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Shrimp Alfredo Pasta

Honey and I are not a pasta eater. However, once in a while I do like to prepare pasta for our dinner. I have to make sure that honey is up to it. This shrimp Alfredo was easy to cook.

I am using a jar of ready to use alfredo sauce. For those who cannot eat milk or egg, you can create your own alfredo sauce by mixing the flour with olive oil and add water. Seasoned it with ground black pepper and salt.
Boil pasta as in the instruction.
Drain.
Add alfredo sauce and mix them well.
Lastly, add shrimp. Mix well until shrimp turned pink.
Turn off the stove. Shrimp doesn't take long to cook.
Serve warm or cold.

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Stuffed Shell

Another super easy meal for my breaking fast dinner today. I have chicken stuffing with cheese on a spread of spaghetti sauce.
Ingredients:
1/2 lb ground chicken
1 small onion
1 small green bell pepper
1 egg
1 cup of cottage cheese
1 cup of chopped mozarella cheese
1 cup of gouda cheese
2 cups of spaghetti sauce
18 pieces jumbo shell noodle

Method:
Cook chicken, onion and green bell pepper in a skillet. Let it cool, drain and set aside.
In a big pot boil water and salt.
Cook the jumbo shell for about 20 minutes.
Drain and set aside.
In a big bowl, mix chicken with egg, cottage cheese, and gouda.
In a baking sheet, pour the spaghetti sauce for the base.
Stuff the mixture into each shell and line them up on top of the spaghetti sauce.
Then top it off with the mozarella cheese.
Bake in the oven covered with foil at 350 degree F for about 25 minutes.
Serve warm. Enjoy!
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Shrimp Alfredo

I had so much food at the Mupy's Family Christmas dinner last night that I decided to cook a simple shrimp alfredo for my dinner tonight.
I am using a ready to use alfredo sauce.
I added 2 cups uncooked shrimp.
Half teaspoon ground black pepper.
Half teaspoon dried parsley.
Half teaspoon dried thyme.
2 tablespoons cream cheese.

Firstly, boil water with some salt.
Cook pasta for about 10 minutes. I am using a flat crinkle cut pasta.
Drain the water.
Add alfredo sauce, cream cheese, shrimp, dried herbs.
Mix well in the pot.
Garnish with fresh ground parmesan cheese.
Serve warm.

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Ramadan 21 - Spaghetti and Stuffed Mozarella Meatballs

I seldom cook spaghetti with meatballs. This meal should be the easiest to cook. I went to the store for ready to use meatballs, unfortuantely I could not find any without pork. So, I bought a small bag of stuffing mix. I could use bread crumbs for the meatball but I prefer the flavor of the stuffing mix. I have to cook my own meatballs. I have featured a few versions of my meatballs; with turkey meat, and with asian flavor.

I am using about 2 lbs of ground lean beef 80/20. One egg and 2 cups stuffing mix. I also add a small cube of mozarella cheese inside the meatball.
In a big bowl, crack and egg and mix well with the stuffing mix. Then add ground beef.
Combine well.
Make a small ball from the beef and add small cube of mozarella cheese the the center of the ball.
Set the meatball on a baking sheet.
Drizzle some olive oil.
Bake the meatballs in the oven on 275 degree F for 40 minutes.

I am using Ragu brand tomato sauce with basil for this spaghetti. In a big pot, heat the tomato sauce on low heat. Add the cooked meatballs into the tomato and basil sauce.

Boil about 3 cups spaghetti until cooked. Drain the water.

Lastly, before seving, add the spaghetti into the tomato sauce. Mix well.
Serve wam with parmesan cheese.
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Spinach and Cheese Tortellini

Spinach and Cheese Tortellini

Yet another simple meal for our berbuka (break fasting). This tortellini came right out of a box. All I did was to boil it in water for about 15 minutes. I garnish it with grated parmesan cheese.
Honey asked for this.
I still have my left over curry and rice, so I added those meal in my plate. Yummy!
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Twelfth Day Ramadan - Spaghetti and Meatballs

I am not really a big fan of spaghetti or pasta. But occasionally I will order this on the menu. This time I am trying the wheat spaghetti instead of the regular plain spaghetti. Some said that the wheat spaghetti is healthier and loaded with fiber. As for me, I just wanted to try something different. Plus, spaghetti is very cheap here in the State. I can get a box of spaghetti which usually can serve 4 to 6 people at a $1 or $2. One of my colleague said that the wheat spaghetti is very tasty, so I've got to give it a try.

Ingredients:
Spaghetti enough for 2 serving.
Boil it in water and seasoned with some salt and 1 tablespoon olive oil.
Cook until spaghetti is soft.

Ingredients for the meatballs:
1/2 lb ground beef
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 large onion ( grated)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Mix all ingredients for the meatballs in a bowl. Do not overwork it.
Form a bite size mini balls.
Pan fry this meatballs or bake it in the oven at 325 degree F for about 30 minutes.
Ingredients for the tomato sauce:
3 large and ripe tomato ( I am using the lemon boy tomato. That is why my sauce is not red)
1 onion
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon celery seeds
1 tablespoon sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Chop tomato.
Dice onion small.
In a large skillet, add tomato.
Add chopped onion.
Add celery seeds.
Add bay leaf.
Add sugar, salt and pepper.
Let it simmer on medium low for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, add meatballs into the tomato sauce. Cook it for another 10 minutes.

Drain the spaghetti.
Plate it in the center. Pour the tomato sauce with the meatballs on top of the spaghetti.
Serve warm. You can garnish it with some grated cheese.

Enjoy!

Fried Spaghetti - 3

Yes, third time is a charm. I fell in love with fried spaghetti ever since I tried it. I have 2 posts on this delicious fried spaghetti. Each time I cook this dish, I use slightly different ingredients. I either use shrimp or anchovies. But the basic sambal paste is the same that is red chili blended with onion, garlic, shrimp paste and lemongrass. The first post I did on fried spaghetti I named it as Spaghetti goreng. Goreng in English means Fry. The food was so good that I don't even remember to take the picture.

My second post on fried spaghetti was excellent, however the picture did not do justice to the food. Here I am with my third post on fried spaghetti.

It was not hard to cook this fried spaghetti and the taste is like the lo mein take out. I wish I have bean sprout as I find bean sprout taste so much better with this fried lo mein. Instead I am using romaine lettuce.

Ingredients:
1 lb or 454g thin spaghetti
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon salt

For the paste:
3 tablespoons homemade sambal (blend red chili, onion, garlic, lemongrass, shrimp paste)
1 beef patty
1/2 cup dried anchovies
1 heart romaine lettuce (chopped)
1/2 cup chopped chives
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
3 tablespoon olive oil for cooking
1/2 cup water
Some cherry tomato for garnish

Method:
Cook spaghetti until soft in a pot of boiling water. Add olive oil so that spaghetti did not sticking. Add salt.

In a big skillet, heat olive oil on medium. Add anchovies and mesh beef patty. Cook until beef brown. Then add homemade sambal. Mix well. Add water. Then add oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and light soy sauce. Stir. Then add cooked spaghetti. Stir well. Add chives and chopped romaine lettuce. Coat well. Let it cook for about 5 minutes. Turn off stove. Serve warm with cherry tomato as garnish.

Baked Manicotti

I was scratching my head for my dinner tonight. As I opened my kitchen cabinet I found a box of manicotti. I must have bought this manicotti ages ago and forgot about it. Manicotti is a large, tubular shaped pasta. Manicotti is usually stuffed with various types of cheeses, meats, vegetables or seafood, and then baked in a cheese or tomato based sauce. Manicotti, like other pasta, is simply an Italian dough made with semolina flour, water, and sometimes eggs. The fresh dough is kneaded, worked, and then shaped into a wide variety of styles, including manicotti, spaghetti, macaroni, lasagna and ziti, to name only a few.

Luckily I still have a tub of cottage cheese in the fridge. So I decided to assemble this into a simple baked manicotti with cottage cheese.

Firstly, boil water and cook the manicotti according to the instructions from the box.

Then in a bowl, mix 2 cups cottage cheese with a pinch of salt, 1 tablespoon apple sauce, and 1 cup of string beans.

Divide the cottage cheese mix into 6 portion and stuff it in the cooked manicotti.

Pour a cup of spaghetti sauce. You can use any of your favorite tomato sauce.

Lastly, I sprinkle some cheddar cheese.

Bake this manicotti in the oven on 400 degree F about 30 minutes.

Lasagna

I was lazing around the house when I saw the food channel showing mushroom lasagna. I have ground beef in the freezer from the last cooking and got to thinking that it would be perfect for lasagna. This lasagna was not so bad for my first try. Honey like the top crust so much. He even told my MIL about my lasagna.


The first thing I did was making the rue. I used a cup of flour and cook it in a stick of salted butter (4 oz/114 gm). I added 3 cups of water and cook until it thickened. I then layer part of this rue at the bottom of the pan.

Then layer cooked lasagna pasta.

Next layer is the cooked and seasoned ground beef.

Then add lots of cheese. I used Irish cheese, mozarella cheese and ricotta cheese. Yummy!

After another layer of pasta, I added sauteed mushroom.

Yup. Add another layer of all good cheese.

I finished it off with a layer of pasta and Ragu sauce.

I baked this lasagna in the oven on 400 degree for about 1 and half hour.

Pasta Noodle Soup

This is my regular bekal to work. I dump all the vegetables found in my garden with chicken stock, egg and pasta. Serve warm.

Spaghetti Goreng

1 packet of medium size spaghetti .
7 medium size shallots (chopped)
5 garlic (chopped)
1 cup tomato sauce
½ cup chilli paste
2 cups shrimp (any size)
½ cup oyster sauce
2 tablespoon kicap masin (thin soy sauce)
Fresh parsley and fresh rosemary (chopped) to garnish
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Boil water with some vegetable oil to soften the spaghetti. Toss and put aside. Heat vegetable oil in saucepan or kuali. Brown onion and garlic. Add chilli paste, tomato ketchup and cook until oil come to the surface. Add shrimp. Cook for 3 minutes. Add spaghetti. Then add oyster sauce and kicap. Serve warm. Garnish with parsley and rosemary.