food – Zina Hermez

I can’t believe that at this age I’ve never made lasagna, but I do consider myself naturally a good cook – take a look at all my other recipes in this category! I love to cook! So I gave it a try yesterday – and it came out yummy good! See the pics below meant to be from start to finish – and then I will add a quick recap on how to cook it yourself at home. Don’t sweat the small stuff, as there are many different variations to making a great lasagna – but I will let you know the ingredients and steps that I used!

So this is the meat mixture, first I caramelized a chopped onion, then I added the Bob Evans, Italian pork sausage – cooked it up real well – and of course, added some salt and pepper. After this was cooked, I added Prego meat sauce.

With the Prego meat sauce! All you need to do is bring this to a boil for a few minutes!

You’re going to need to boil about 15 to 20 of these lasagna noodles, at the minimum, 12 because that will make for three full layers.

Chill the noodles before you bake, it does make for tastier lasagna noodles.

You can use baking spray – cooking spray should work also – I happen to like real unsalted butter. So I just spread it!

This is the meat sauce, a.k.a., Prego sauce with meat and Italian beef pork sausage mix (in the pic above) – it was mixed with caramelized onions, and some salt and pepper, remember?! What a combination!

After you add the first layer of meat sauce (visible underneath), then you add the FIRST layer of lasagna (chilled) noodles.

Then I topped it with Mozzarella and Parmesan, shredded cheese! So: 1) the Bottom layer is the meat sauce, 2) and then add the first layer of noodles 3) then add another layer of meat sauce and THEN the RICOTTA cheese, and finally, your layer of Mozzarella!

Repeat! I believe I’m on noodle layer two or three, so finally, just top it with Mozzarella and Parmesan cheese!

Take a look at the beauty ready to go into the oven at 350-365 F, for a minimum of 45 minutes. Please note: cooking times may vary.

And Voilà! You have a yummy delicious baked pan of lasagna. I’m so thankful for my pizza slicer. Lol 🍝

Always store in Tupperware or glass. You can keep it in the fridge for up to 3 to 5 days and you can even freeze.

I hope you enjoyed the photos, and I hope that gives some explanation! The idea is to make it the way you like. To summarize, I first chopped an onion, and then caramelized it, and then I added Italian beef pork, and sausage, and after that, I cooked it together with the onion and added some salt and pepper. Once you’re finished, you can add Prego meat sauce and mix it up really well. And there you will have your meat sauce layer. Then you add that to a greased baking pan as noted in the photo. After you add that to your greased baking pan, you add the next layer, which is the layer of boiled lasagna noodles. Once you add your layer of boiled lasagna noodles, you add another layer of meat sauce, then a layer of ricotta, then a layer of Mozzarella and Parmesan, shredded cheese. And you repeat the process by adding another layer of noodles, more meat sauce, more ricotta, mozzarella, etc. There are many variations to making a great lasagna. Typically you have three layers. I was very pleased with how mine turned out.

About Zina

Zina Hermez has authored the books, Not Without God: A Story of Survival, and Not Without God: Hope In the Storm. She has written hundreds of blog articles and her website has had more than 100,000 viewers! Zina has been in education for 22 years and has helped people of all different backgrounds and cultures. When she is not writing or teaching, she enjoys cooking and baking and spending time with family or friends. You can reach her at zinahermez@outlook.com.

Culinary

Homemade wheat walnut cake!🌾🥮🌰

July 2, 2023July 2, 2023 Zina Hermez

One of the things I love about making this cake is that you can just combine all the ingredients at one time and mix them. It doesn’t take a lot of preparation time; you mainly have to gather all your ingredients and mix. This is my own recipe.

Pics are in order, and here’s a trick! After I buttered the cake pans, I also added sesame seeds to them. That put some nice sesame seeds on the bottom of the cakes when I flipped them over!👩‍🍳

So delicious. I’m going to add the link of a previous post I wrote when I first made this cake. It went viral. As a matter of fact, if you search this cake my blog post comes at the top of Google. Here it is: https://notwithoutgod.net/2022/07/06/assyrian-chaldean-cake%F0%9F%92%9F%E2%98%A6%EF%B8%8F/

Keep in mind when you follow this recipe there has to be a good balance between dough and cake. What I mean is, your batter can’t be too doughy. If it is, you are making more of a bread. Remember, this is a cake. You can add an extra quarter to a half cup of vegetable oil to smoothen out your ingredients if needed. You can also add up to a half cup of water. First I recommend the water. A little vegetable oil won’t hurt though.

I am not a fan of vegetable oil and always cook with extra-virgin olive oil instead. However, when it comes to baking vegetable oil is sometimes needed. Be sure not to add too much water. There has to be a good balance, It will smoothen your batter out. Just make sure you are not making wheat bread!

Here’s a pic below that shows how your batter should look before the cakes are baked:

Also, keep in mind that if you have that even balance and do this right – you may even be able to add a little bit of extra whole wheat flour. It may be half of a cup to one full cup. Don’t get too carried away with extra flour because then the cake will lose its flavor. Here’s the recipe from my initial post, again: https://notwithoutgod.net/2022/07/06/assyrian-chaldean-cake%F0%9F%92%9F%E2%98%A6%EF%B8%8F/

A little extra flour will give you more cake!🥮Here are some more pictures below, and I’m going to try to add the pics that show the steps from start to finish. Refer to the recipe link I gave you in my previous post – I will also add the ingredients below. That will tell you how much of each ingredient to use in your cake. Enjoy it!🌾🥮🌰

Three cups of whole wheat flour. One and a half cups of sugar. 2 teaspoons of baking powder or baking soda. Three eggs. One cup of milk. Again, you can add up to a half cup of water to smooth it out. Also add a tablespoon of vanilla extract. Finally, don’t forget one whole cup of chopped walnuts. Very important. Again, a quarter cup of vegetable oil won’t hurt and will smoothen it.👩‍🍳🥮

This is how your cake batter should look.🥮

A nice trick is to add sesame seeds to the cake pans just after you butter them.😊

About Zina

Zina Hermez has authored the Best-selling-book, Not Without God: A Story of Survival. Zina’s written several hundred articles and has taught thousands of students from all over the world from many different backgrounds and parts of the world. She’s appeared in Christianity Today, the Suite T blog, and the Southern Writers magazine among other places. Last August she created the “Writing Because I Can’t Not Write Group” meetings and workshops where aspiring and seasoned authors can network and learn together. Ask about her meetings if you are interested in attending. Zina writes on faith, science, and overcoming adversity. She also likes to write about health and diet and loves to cook and bake. Her latest book, Not Without God: Hope In the Storm was published last year.

Culinary

Chicken lemon butter delight!🐥🍋🧈🥬🌱

March 5, 2023March 5, 2023 Zina Hermez

Lunch today was sensational! It started out as a chicken lemon idea, of course, I had to add unsalted butter cubes to the top of the chicken. I had to dash it with kosher salt, black ground pepper, table salt, and thyme leaves. I added lemon slices to the chicken entrée. I added potatoes, I cut them into cube sizes, and put unsalted butter over the veggies in the tray as well. As you can see I did a healthy side of a mixed salad, topped with spinach, top whatever you can with spinach! The iron benefits are incredible. With some ranch drizzled over, a Coke on the side, and additional salt and pepper at hand – this dish was Fantabulous. #chef #foodie #connossieur #extravirginoliveoil 🫒 #meltedbutter #chickenrecipes #mediterranean #paleo #protein #health ⚕️👩‍⚕️👩‍🍳

About Zina

Zina Hermez has authored the best-selling book(s), Not Without God: A Story of Survival and Not Without God: Hope In the Storm. She’s been featured in numerous articles, guest posts, podcasts, websites, newsletters, and magazines. She’s also been featured on The Neil Haley (media giant’s) Show, The Intuitive Edge podcast, and on ESPN’s ‘Solutions from the Huddle’broadcast as well as Grace and Truth Radio World!

Zina’s written several hundred articles and has taught thousands of students from all over the world from many different backgrounds and parts of the world. She’s appeared in Christianity Today, the Suite T blog, and the Southern Writers magazine among many other places. Last August she created the “Writing Because I Can’t Not Write Group” meetings and workshops where aspiring and seasoned authors can network and learn together.

Zina writes on faith, science, and overcoming adversity. She also likes to write about health and diet and loves to help others. Her latest book, Not Without God: Hope In the Storm was just published last year.

Culinary

Kufta-creation!🥩🍳🥖

February 11, 2023February 11, 2023 Zina Hermez

You can never have enough animal food on your plate! Take a look at my kufta-creation. Two pieces of Kuftas, less than 100 g in total, cooked with parsley flakes, and spiced in salt, pepper, a dash of cumin, allspice, chili pepper flakes, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, and coriander!👩‍🍳

I also have two large sized eggs, scrambled, but spiced with only salt and pepper😊. On the side I have some delicious Asiago cheese (Santorini), flavored w/Rosemary and Olive Oil to go on a wheat bun, and a warm cup of coffee.☕️

This was so yummy good!😋 Again, you can never have enough animal food on your plate to keep you young and healthy!⚕️#healthyfat #paleo #keto #mediterranean #protein #intermittentfasting #ketosis #health #healthydiet #cheese #extravirginoliveoil #wheat #fiber #dietarycholesterol 🥩🥖🍳🌱🧀🫒👩‍🍳⚕️👩‍⚕️☕️

About Zina

Culinary

Christmas cookies (a healthier version) 🍪👩‍🍳🎄

December 10, 2022December 10, 2022 Zina Hermez

One way to make your cookies healthier is to use whole wheat flour. These cookies are used with whole wheat mill flour. It gives them a nutritional benefit. Not only is whole wheat flour better for your digestive tract, but it is also better for people with diabetes. I’m not a diabetic, but I always choose whole wheat over white whenever I can. We all have the potential to be, so we have to be careful.

One of my favorite things to do around the holidays is to bake, especially around Christmas time. I also sprinkled these homemade cookies to give them a holiday effect.🤶 They turned out delicious! Another trick is to use melted butter. Most recipes will call for a stick of butter.🧈

I melt the butter almost all the way through. Because when you melt the butter it makes it easier to turn your ingredients into a dough. No need for a mixer. Just melt your stick of butter, and you can easily roll your combination into a cookie dough. I like to space each cookie two inches apart and make larger ones.🍪👩‍🍳

Another tip is to use parchment paper. I always use parchment paper it’s a nice clean sheet and it gives the cookies a nice round shape. The cookies turn out smoother than when you use aluminum foil, for example. Baking is fun and making healthier choices makes it even better. Follow my blog for more tips and tricks.👩‍🍳🤶🍪

About Zina

Zina Hermez has authored the best-selling book, Not Without God: A Story of Survival. She’s been featured in numerous articles, guest posts, podcasts, websites, newsletters, and magazines. She’s also been featured on the Intuitive Edge podcast as well as ESPN’s “Solutions from the Huddle” broadcast and on Grace and Truth Radio World! Zina’s written several hundred articles and has taught thousands of students of all ages from many different backgrounds and cultures. She’s appeared in Christianity Today, the Suite T blog, and the Southern Writers magazine among other places. She writes on faith, science, and overcoming adversity. She also writes on health and diet and loves to help others. Her latest book, Not Without God: Hope In the Storm is live and for sale! You can order your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Not-Without-God-Hope-Storm-ebook/dp/B09P9T2DLT

Culinary

Chicken broccoli medley🥦🐣🫒

December 8, 2022December 8, 2022 Zina Hermez

This #dish is so yummy. It’s #chicken #broccoli medley, I added some #sharp #cheddar and #wholewheat #bread as you can see below. With a little #ranch on the side, this meal was delicious. Cooked in extra-virgin olive oil, with #koshersalt #groundblackpepper and a little table salt, of course. It’s healthy and tasty too! Of course I had to have some water on the side.😊🫒🥦🥦🐣 #mediterraneandiet #ketorecipes #protein #paleodiet #healthy #paleofood ⚕️🥦👩‍🍳