Meaty Three Cheese Lasagna

I am in one of those moods of cooking and I'm updating my Food Blog with more recipes. And I'm sure my little one would appreciate it, too though she eats pretty well and she's never fussed with my cooking because she just loves what I cook. I guess been a child, most children aren't given the choice of picking what they will like to have for meals but I always tell my little Caitlin what I will be cooking and if I am trying a new recipe, I will ask her for her opinion.

So, this week there going to be a couple of new recipes and I showed my little Caitlin and she picked this lasagna recipe and here I am cooking this for her.

Ingredients:-

- 500g of ground beef but it also depends on how much you are cooking and how big your dish is.

- 2 Tbsps olive oil

- 1 cup chopped onion 

- 1 tbsp minced garlic

- 6 oz or 170g tomato paste

- 28 oz or 800g or 2 cans of petite cut tomatoes 

- 1 tbsp Oregano

- 1 tbsp Basil

- 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

- 1/2 tsp pepper 

- 1 tbsp salt

- 6-9 lasagna sheets, cooked according to instructions or use those pre-cooked ones

- 2-3 cups of shredded Mozarella cheese

- 10-15 oz container Ricotta cheese

- 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius and at the same time grease a ovenproof dish.

2. Heat olive oil in a saucepan. Add beef, onion and garlic cook until meat turns brown and cooked through. 

3. Add tomato paste, tomatoes, oregano, basil, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper and cook until it comes to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 3 minutes.

4. Now arrange lasagna sheets at the bottom. Top the sheets with Mozarella cheese, then followed by spoonfuls of Ricotta cheese. Dish out the meat mixture onto the Ricotta cheese generously and then sprinkle generously with Parmesan cheese.

5. Repeat with another 2 layers but I only managed one more layer as my dish isn't so deep.

6. Bake for about 50 minutes.

Caitlin's verdict??? She had a second helping......so mummy passed Caitlin's test.

White Carrot Pork Rib Soup

Tried this recipe but never came round to blogging it as it's just been a super busy time for me. With the preparation to go London Paris and then back with all the post holiday with meetings with potential job opprotunities, blogging took a slight backseat.

But here is the recipe. Boiling Chinese soup is never difficult. Just getting the right ingredients together and having a slow cooker and a lot of things can be done. The beauty of the slow cooker. God bless the man that created it.

- 500g to 1kg of pork ribs and soft ribs (depending how many people you're cooking for)

- 1 white carrot, sliced 

- 3 large bowls of water

- 1 gobo root, sliced about 1inch thick

- 5-6 dried red dates

- handful of dried wolf berries 

- handful of dried lily bulbs

- handful of euryale seeds

1. Boil some water over high heat first and then pour over the pork. This removes the murky looking stuff from the pork or else your soup will turn out murky. You may do it twice if you wish but make sure you have 2 rounds of boiling water with you then.

2. On a separate pot, boil the 3 large bowls of water.

3. Once boiled, throw in all the ingredients including the pork and allow to boil under high heat for about 10 to 15 mins.

4. Then, transfer the entire pot and pour it into a Slow Cooker to cook.

**NOTE**

If you've got someone to watch the Slow Cooker, cook under Low for about 3 hours and then switch to Auto for the rest of the time till you want to have it. Or, you can leave it under Auto for the next 6-8 hours and it will be fine. I actually boiled mine at 6.30am and transferred to Slow Cooker at 7am under Low till 10.30am and switched to Auto thereafter; and left it till I had it at 7pm. 

It turned out well so do give it a shot. Simple, easy and healthy.