Tuna Lasagna Rocket Salad

"Don't talk when your mouth is full"

If there were two things I have learned about food from my parents, that would be loving and respecting food. My dad was the type who would do anything in the name of food, a real gourmet that is. He would planned weeks in advance if there's a special recipe he's concocting and he wouldn't mind crossing rivers and mountains to get his hands on the freshest ingredients or food he's craving for. But oh boy, oh boy I dolefully admit that his excessive "amour" for food caused him his health. He eventually had diabetes, anyways anything that is out of proportion is definitely not good.

My Mom on the otherhand, is the type who doesn't care if the food is not as tasty as long as it is cooked well with nutrients still intact and chewed slowly appreciating every spoonful. Mom is not as a good cook as was Dad but she always reiterated the value of choosing well what we serve on our table. It is from her that I have learned loving vegetables. Believe me she looks young for her age.

Though I cannot blame my Dad for being so for who doesn't love food and eating? We are all guilty of that. But our society is now confronted with a growing number of overweight individuals and obesity issues. We cannot just neglect this for a lot of health problem stems from this. I know it goes beyond what we put on our plate for this involves a change of lifestyle too. But we can already start from something small, like preparing healthy meals everyday. And who said that healthy food are not always delicious. Believe me it just requires a little bit of imagination.

It's true that there's definitely a lot of factors that's fattening our society; our stressful environment, bad eating habits and a lot more. But I only have one solution to that: nothing beats a good sinful scrumptous but a good dose of exercise and happy thoughts! I definitely feel lucky to have grown up with such extremities of my parents when it comes to food for their difference gave me the balance in enjoying food to the right limit.

This is my participation to Hank Cardellos' Stuffed Nation October event on "STUFFED: An Insider’s Look at Who’s (Really) Making America Fat" a hand in hand event with Jenn the "queen" of FoodieBlog Roll. I also added up some photos of the my sister in law's green wedding, hope you like them!

Tuna Lasagna Arugula Salad
Ingredients (4 people):

8 sheets of lasagna noodles
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 zucchini, diced
1 red pepper, diced
400 g tuna in brine drained
65g rocket (arugula)
4 tablespoons home-made pesto sauce

Preparation:

Cook the lasagna noodles. Drain and put them in the covered pan to keep warm. Heat olive oil in a skillet and fry zucchini and red pepper. They must keep their color. Remove from heat and gently mix the tuna and arugula. Place a little of the tuna mixture on 4 plates and cover with a sheet of lasagne. Add the rest of the tuna mixture and cover the remaining lasagne sheets. Add pepper and garnish generously with pesto.

Lasagna Mozzarella Ratatouille

Lasagna Mozzarella Ratatouille

"A failure is a man who has blundered but is not capable of cashing in on the experience."

"My reputation grows with every failure."

I still remember twenty five years ago, when the spelling bee master pronounced the word "mozzarella", It was the end of my dream to finish first place that year. I went down the stage, head bow avoiding all the looks of everybody because my tears were starting to flow. I literally cried a river that day losing to my greatest adversary, the first honor student of our class. It is always so hard to fail, specially when you think you've given your best. And for my child's heart, winning that spelling contest meant everything to me. I cried and I thought it was the end of everything. But of course, I realised eventually as I grow old that life is truly full of failures. Year after year I've known failures of all form. And year after I cry but I am still here. That is what counts.

Eventually I came to realise that mozzarella is a cheese and that it taste good. Eventually I realised that I am really poor in spelling. :-) Ratatouille used to be my password, but I always misspell it so I decided to change it. Anyways, when mozzarella and ratatouille are on my plate all forms of spelling are allowed.

I am sending this lasagna recipe to Hillary the lovely host of this week's Presto Pasta Night, a delicious pasta event created by Ruth.

Lasagna Mozzarella Ratataouille

1 pack of dry lasagna noodles
about half a casserole of your left over Ratataouille
3/4 pound mozzarella cheese
1 can of tomato sauce
salt and pepper

Bing a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook your lasagna noodles. Put your tomato sauce on your ratatouille to add liquid on it. Preheat your oven at 190° celsius. Assemble your lasagna by spreading a layer of ratatouille, a layer of noodles and mozzarella cheese. You can sprinkle the top with parmesan cheese if you want. Bake for 25 minutes covered with foil and another ten minutes without cover.

My other pasta recipes:

Spicy Fettuccine Prawn Curry
Beets, Basil, Riccotta Candy Ravioli in Orange sauce