CHEESY LASAGNA and THREE AWARDS IN LAST 10 DAYS

In the last 10 days I got meself three awards from my foodie friends! My sincere thanks go to Sandra @Welcome to Sandra's Easy Cooking, Medeja @Cranberry Jam, and Brandie @The Country Cook. You can check the official appreciation @My Awards page.

From Sandra                        From Medeja and Brandie 

I already wrote how FoodBuzz is a wonderful community of food loving people who are willing to share their "secret" ingredients with everyone. Has anybody seen "The Kung-Fu Panda" animated movie? But of course you did, what a silly question!!! At the end of the movie, when Po looses all his confidence and hope to fulfill his destiny as the Dragon Warrior, his father, Mr. Ping- the noodle master, reveals to him that the secret is that there is no secret ingredient in making the special soup:
Mr. Ping: "The secret ingredient is... nothing! .... You heard me. Nothing! There is no secret ingredient. .... To make something special you just have to believe it's special."
So what there is, is a lot of dedication and lots and lots of love and imagination. Yes, imagination! For without imagination, there would be no Duchess Potatoes or Veggie and Parmesan Cake or Sandra's Monday breakfast. What can possibly transform milk, flour, and eggs into a delicious cake, pancake, or waffle... than the imagination of a foodie? Who sees a nice piece of raw meat, a potato spud, and broccoli floret, and immediately visions a plate with juicy steak laying beside some roasted potatoes, and steamed broccoli drizzled with lemon juice? So yes, in my opinion foodies are the artists who transform raw into delicious indulgent mouthwatering creations no one can resist!!!!!!!!!!!!  Foodies are really a nice bunch of creative imaginative generous people. Thank you again for the awards, for nice encouraging comments, and support!

And here we finally reached the cheesy lasagna! 
I don't remember anymore what the exact measurements were, because I forgot to write them down while cooking. But I do remember that it was super delicious. I cook this kind of food when my daughter and I are home alone. Just a loving gesture to show her how much I appreciate her being in my life!

STUFFED GREEN BELL PEPPERS

Ginger in the filling gives the dish a nice heat that warms the back of your throat, the cumin contributes its smokiness, parsley its bright freshness, rich tomato soup slight acidity balances the sharpness of garlic and sweetness of onion, while the mashed potatoes with its creaminess offers a nice introduction to your taste buds of what is coming “to town”.

Stuffed Green Bell Peppers

DOUBLE TROUBLE

The female part of our family likes creamy, soft flavors, while the male part of the family prefers clean, fresh flavors. So, when I cook pasta I always go in two directions: totally white sauce for one side and simple tomato sauce for the other side. I make my sauces a little special by adding some nutritious vegetables. 


The biggest mistake people do when they boil pasta is add oil to the water so they can avoid "sticky" pasta situations. But oil makes the sauce slide right off the pasta and prevents pasta from absorbing all the delicious flavors from the sauce. Result: two individual dishes on the same plate: pasta + sauce; instead of one heavenly meal you cannot have enough of.


Is it really so hard to stick around the oven during the time needed for the pasta to be cooked?


Manage your time.
- Once the water is boiling, it is enough just to stick around and stir the pasta until water boils again, turn the heat down a bit, set timer to 10 minutes (which is the cooking time for most dry pasta), and then just stir occasionally to prevent pasta  from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
- And actually the time that it takes for the water to boil and the pasta to cook, is the same amount of time it takes to make the white sauce.

Double Trouble