Cannelloni *revisted*

Cannelloni is a cylindrical tube pasta, about an inch in diameter.

The two brands found at Cold Storage.

Just checking how many tubes can fit nicely into the casserole dish.

Stuffing consist of spinach, black olives, ricotta cheese, some basil herbs and caramelized sweet onions. Mix them all up and stuff into the tube pasta. Spread out some tomato pasta sauce (used bottled) at the bottom of the dish before arranging the cannelloni on top.

Add a little more pasta sauce on the top before adding the cheese of your choice - used two types of cheese, cheddar and Gouda.

Bake in pre-heated oven at 180C degrees for about 35 min or until the cheese is nice and golden!

Ta-da, a quick fix. Great with a side serve of fresh salad. Longest activity was probably waiting for the frozen spinach to thaw or was that caramelising the onions?? haha, maybe the former.

Made it!

Over the weekend, participated in the World Kidney Day Run organized by the National Kidney Foundation of Malaysia (NKF), in collaboration with the Malaysian Society of Nephrology (MSN) and Ministry of Health (MOH). Other than trying to support a good cause, thought it would be a good 'physical challenge' to myself to finish the 5km run. Aim is to complete the course without stopping (because once you do, there's a higher tendency that you'll end up stopping more than just once - well that's what I think anyway).

First things first:
* We have been having some wet mornings lately and am very grateful the rain stayed off until the afternoon.

* Was so thankful that I didn’t get any stitch otherwise that would have just spoiled the entire run as once you get a stitch it is hard to get lose it fast!

Overall it was a good jogrun though I strained/pulled a nerve on my left thigh after the first 300m or so but managed to keep going and not stop. Other than fitness, the next biggest stumbling block is probably mental. Best advise is to stick to your own pace and not be overly influenced by the over enthusiast especially at the start where you seem to get left behind as everyone seems to be running as if a wild dog were at their heels.

Let’s see how I occupied my time, my MP3 would have been handy had Master Prince not lost it over CNY so had to settle to the heavy jiggle janggle of someone else’s car/house keys, the pony-tail bob of the person in front of me, better yet was focusing on the race number where some one had strategically placed at their bum, the heavy heaving of the person next to me, the different running styles around me, the school girls giggles around me, etc.

Anyway, like the story of the tortoise and the hare, some runners couldn’t sustain their initial lightning pace and just lagged back towards the end. Overall think I paced myself too well as I still had more to give towards the end, ie. I didn’t reach lung and heart bursting capacity at the finishing line. ;x

In total, took 45min to complete the course. Not fast as I heard that some took less than 25min to wheeze through the whole course. Well if I had known that they took names until 60 pax I might have spurred myself a little more as I came in just past that.

Though I didn’t get any medal, rewarded myself with a couple cups of milo from the van. And I’m sure everyone agrees with me that milo from the van tastes the best, nothing beats it. Somehow can’t replicate the same great taste at home. I know that I'd probably sound like I'm contradicting myself but generally dislike milo (don’t like the taste) but somehow can’t resist the ones from the van.

Was a little nervous before the run as I wasn’t sure whether I could complete the course – worst case would be just to walk the entire length. Trying to get some sympathy from Master Prince proved difficult.
Me: So how…..what happens if I cannot finish?
MP: Who asked you to join in the first place!

As for DH, he was so sure that I would take at least 1.5 hours to finish (if not longer!!).

You can tell I got a lot of support that morning! Well, at least I consoled myself that they got up earlier to accompany me to the venue *sigh*

Best tip I can share about doing a long run is to spend time stretching after or as much as you can through out the day. Really helps in minimising the day-after body soreness and stiffness. :)

Quick Spinach Cannanoli

Sorry guys, been very busy. n-o-t-i-m-e-t-o-b-r-e-a-d-t-h!

Over the weekend managed to make this and it was simple and quick. Surprisingly DH liked it so much that he requested for it to be on the weekly weekend menu!! Also as much as Master Prince protested that he hated spinach blah-blah and giving me i'm-being-poisoned-faced...he polished it up. All you need is some spinach (fresh or frozen). If using fresh, you will need to wash and blanch the spinach in hot water for about 4 min, drain and immediately plug into cold water, gently squeeze out excess water from spinach. In a bowl, mix spinach with your preference of feta or ricotta and olives or anchovies. Stuff them into the cannanoli (tube) pasta. Using Leggo's bottled classic bolognaise sauce, spread some sauce thinly at the bottom of an oven/heat-proof dish, place the stuffed pasta on top and layer another thin layer of the bolognaise sauce or if you wish, can use white/cream sauce. Spread some shredded cheese of your choice on top and bake in preheated oven at 220C degrees for about 30min until the cheese is melty and golden in colour.

There you go, a very quick healthy chessy affair!