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Protein Packed Lasagna

Hey!

How’s everyone doing today?

I am here watching city workers, 3 trucks to be exact, working on our neighbor’s pipe, it seems. A burst pipe maybe, as there are just soooo much water, it turn icy every morning. Yep, they have been working on whatever they are working on for some days now.

As a result, my neighbor would park anywhere. Like common decency’s gone throughout window as she would even blocked other neighbor’s area that the garbage truck could not pick up the bins. Hence, those bins are totally still full. Yikes!

She would also park where I usually park my car, which is right in front of my house. Now I have to drive around to find a parking space lol – le sigh!

Anyways. Today I’d like to share a lasagna recipe, what we had last night for dinner 😀

This was a no hassle dinner yet super creamy and all around yumminess, if I may say so myself 🙂

I used ready-to use- spaghetti sauce for this lasagna and oven ready lasagna pieces, as seriously, am lazy cooking 😛

As none of us really like ricotta on our lasagna, I used cream cheese that I soften with full fat milk, and the result? CREAMY 😉

The sauce I used had ground beef in it, but I added mushrooms and chicken for the following lasagna.

Ingredients

  • 1 box oven ready lasagna
  • 500 g lean ground chicken
  • 1 box fresh button mushrooms skinned, chopped
  • 1 jar spaghetti sauce with real ground beef
  • 1 block cream cheese
  • 1/2 c milk
  • Grated cheese
  • 1 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

  • Heat oil, brown chicken
  • Stir in mushroom, cook til soften
  • Mix cream cheese with milk, pour into pot
  • Cook until bubbly, stir in sauce
  • Spread some chicken sauce on pan, lay lasagna noodle, cover with soke sauce
  • Repeat steps until the last noodle, cover with suace and top generously with grated cheese
  • Bake for 45 mins, covered, in preheated 400 F
  • Take off aluminum foil, bake for another 5-10 mins
  • Cool 5-10 mins, serve

I have to be honest, even the creamy chicken and mushroom itself, they are goooood for warm rice or even mashed potato with gravy. Am drooling just to think of it!

Hmmm…I think it would be awesome inside a sub sandwich too ;D

Print Recipe

Protein Packed Lasagna

Ingredients

  • 1 box oven ready lasagna
  • 500 g lean ground chicken
  • 1 box fresh button mushrooms skinned, chopped
  • 1 jar spaghetti sauce with real ground beef
  • 1 block cream cheese
  • 1/2 c milk
  • Grated cheese
  • 1 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

  • Heat oil, brown chicken
  • Stir in mushroom, cook til soften
  • Mix cream cheese with milk, pour into pot
  • Cook until bubbly, stir in sauce
  • Spread some chicken sauce on pan, lay lasagna noodle, cover with soke sauce
  • Repeat steps until the last noodle, cover with suace and top generously with grated cheese
  • Bake for 45 mins, covered, in preheated 400 F
  • Take off aluminum foil, bake for another 5-10 mins
  • Cool 5-10 mins, serve
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Rawon (Javanese Beef Soup)

Hello!

When I was a little girl, my parents would take my siblings and I on road trip (like 18 H at least) to visit my late grandmother. She used to have a restaurant, especially for this beef soup that is known as Rawon, originating from East Java island of Indonesia.

Rawon (Javanese Beef Soup)

My SO likes this soup too, however, even though he did get to meet my grandmother before she passed away, he did not get to taste the soup the way my grandmother would make it. My grandmother lost her sight years before she passed away. The lost of her sights also caused her the restaurant, sadly.

Indonesia has many kinds of soups, and Rawon is one of the famous ones. Its authentic broth as the black color and flavor comes from a fruit called, Keluwak, which you can only find in Southeast Asia, and only Indonesians (and some Malaysians) use it in their dish. I have not heard other nations in Southeast Asia ever mentioned this fruit at all.

Keluwak (black nut)

I prepared this soup using my awesome electric pot, the famous Instant Pot, but obviously you can prepare it in regular stove top 🙂

Ingredients

  • 1 kg beef cubes
  • 2 lemongrass bruised
  • 1 thumb ginger
  • 1/2 of a large purple onion
  • 5 garlic
  • 5 candlenut no subs
  • 8-10 keluwak no subs, soften in enough hot boiling water
  • 10 dried kafir lime leaves no subs
  • 3 tbsp Royco or beef powder seasoning
  • 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
  • 1/2 tsp coriander ground
  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil

In fact, if you want that super tender beef, where it just pulls away when you bite it, yet you won’t be around the pot much, you can also prepare it using crockpot (slow cooker pot). This soup is very easy to make with whatever you feel like to, stove top, crockpot, and definitely the Instant Pot 😉

Instructions

  • In a blender, mix garlic, onion, ginger, candlenut, into a fine paste
  • Into Instant Pot (you can use stove top pot if you don’t have an IP), saute oil, paste, lemongrass, turmeric and coriander
  • Stir in beef and coat with spices
  • Pour about 3-4 L water, stir, add in Royco, stir
  • Place lid on
  • Press “soup”, and add 10 more minutes to the timer (50 mins total)

Indonesians love serving the soup (with the rice), accompanied with crackers/chips, with chili sauce, salted egg, new fresh mung bean sprouts (when the tails are still short), and sweet soy sauce 🙂

Print Recipe

Rawon (Javanese Beef Soup)

Black broth soup from Java, Indonesia

Ingredients

  • 1 kg beef cubes
  • 2 lemongrass bruised
  • 1 thumb ginger
  • 1/2 of a large purple onion
  • 5 garlic
  • 5 candlenut no subs
  • 8-10 keluwak no subs, soften in enough hot boiling water
  • 10 dried kafir lime leaves no subs
  • 3 tbsp Royco or beef powder seasoning
  • 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
  • 1/2 tsp coriander ground
  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil

Instructions

  • In a blender, mix garlic, onion, ginger, candlenut, into a fine paste
  • Into Instant Pot (you can use stove top pot if you don’t have an IP), saute oil, paste, lemongrass, turmeric and coriander
  • Stir in beef and coat with spices
  • Pour about 3-4 L water, stir, add in Royco, stir
  • Place lid on
  • Press “soup”, and add 10 more minutes to the timer (50 mins total)

Notes

Serve the soup with warm rice!