Eggplant Green Bean Pasta with Tomato Lentil Sauce

It's the end of my food week so I clearly needed to get rid of some veggies. This is a meal that dirtied a ton of dishes and was not really quick. But it was fun and delicious.

Eggplant Green Bean Pasta with Tomato Lentil Sauce

• .25c lentils
• 2 plum tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2 large red onion, chopped/diced

• 1-2TB olive oil
• 1 eggplant, cubed
• 3-5c green beans, trimmed and cut into bite sized pieces

• 3/4c dry rye pasta, cooked

Combine the first 3 ingredients in a pot, cover with water, and boil until lentils become very tender, adding water as necessary. Add salt and pepper to taste. Blend 1/2 of it together.

Heat oil in skillet or pot. Add eggplant and cook 5-10 minutes until starts to become tender. Add green beans and cook to desired consistency. Add salt to taste.

Mix pasta and eggplant/green beans together. Top with sauce. Sooooo good.

Summery Rye Pasta

Since my grocery bill has been low from traveling so much, I decided to splurge a little at the grocery store. I ended up in an aisle I rarely visit and found something amazing- rye pasta. 100% rye. I don't usually eat pasta because it always seems like I get too many calories for not enough filling, but it's nice to have on hand for a quick meal. Today I had some veggies leftover from last week's shopping, so I thought I'd throw most of it together for an easy pasta dish.

Summery Rye Pasta

• .75 c uncooked rye pasta
• 1 small/medium onion, sliced (if you are not a massive onion fan, you may want to use half an onion or a quarter
• 1 small head of broccoli, cut into bite size pieces
• 1 large tomato
• 3 cloves garlic, 1 peeled and 2 in skin
• .75 TB olive oil plus extra

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cut 1 clove garlic into small pieces, add a touch of salt, and make into a paste by smashing with the flat side of a knife. Add to olive oil and set aside. The longer it sits, the better it will be.

Add pasta to boiling water and cook until tender. Spray onion and broccoli with olive oil and toss to coat; spread on baking sheet. Cut tomato in half, spray with olive oil, and place skin down on baking sheet. Add rest of garlic. Bake until browned, about 20 minutes, stirring once midway thorough (leave tomatoes whole an flip garlic).

Add everything but tomatoes to a large bowl. Put tomatoes on top and gently tear open with knife to mush it up. Add garlic olive oil and toss to coat. Enjoy!

This was perfect for an oppressively hot afternoon- I didn't have to stand in a sweltering kitchen to long. The only thing I would add is some freshly ground pepper. Yum.

Mexican Bruschetta - Special LBDelicious Crossover!

I spent the weekend with some good friends, including LBDelicious. We'd had a long weekend full of delicious but totally unhealth food, so we wanted a light dinner that was somewhat healthy. A quick survey of the fridge found some great crusty bread, an onion, garlic, an avodcado, and colby jack cheese. We tossed around a few ideas and ultimately decided on this delicious snack.

Mexican Bruschetta

• 1/2 loaf crusty bread


• Chunk of cheese cut into squares to top the bread (we used colby jack but vegan cheese would work just as well, especially since it doesn't get as melty)


• 1 onion, chopped


• 4 cloves garlic, chopped


• 1 can fire roasted tomatoes


• 1-2 tsp adobo suace


• 1 avocado


• Juice from 1/2 lime


• 1-2 tsp Cumin

Preheat oven to 350. Sautee onion in olive oil until translucent. Add garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add tomatoes with a little water and adobo and let simmer 20-30 minutes.

Cut bread into 1/4 inch rounds and toast in oven. Flip and add cheese until it melts.

Mash avocado and add lime juice, cumin, and salt to taste. Spread on bread.

Place tomato mixture in bowl as a dipping sauce.

This really hit the spot. In fact, LBD's finance gave an "mmm" of approval. The cumin really pulled everything together. Yum. (Picture coming soon!)

Split Pea and Bulgur Stuffed Tomato

I was so excited about these beaufiul beefsteak tomatoes at a decent price at the grocery this weekend. I couldn't resist. I knew exactly what I'd do- stuff 'em!

Ingredients
1 medium/large red onion, chopped or diced
.5 cup yellow split peas
.5 cup bulgur
3 TB nutritional yeast
Salt/pepper to taste
2 beautiful beefsteak tomatoes

In a medium sauce pan, bring 2-3 cups of water to a boil and add onions and split peas. Cook for 15 minutes, then add bulgur. Cook for 15 minutes until the bulgur is done. Stir in nutritional yeast and salt/pepper.

Meanwhile, carefully massacre tomatoes by cutting off top and carefully scooping out the middle. Try not to rip the side or cut through the side or bottom. Put guts into stuffing and let it cook for a few minutes (5 to 15).

Add stuffing mixture to tomato and put in oven on 350 for 10 minutes or so. I'm only guessing because I royally messed this part up. I put them in for maybe 20 minutes while the stuffing cooked. I opened the oven and they had deflated. Good thing I have no camera to produce any evidence. I took my flattened tomato and topped it with the...former stuffing, now topping. I use these ingredients together all of the time, but this was definitely one of the tastest ways I've combined them. Probably because I usually mix the tomato in with it, but his time it was separate and I could really taste it.

It made 2 delicious servings and I can only imagine how amazing it would have been if the tomatoes and been little serving bowls. Next time, my friends...

Spring Vegetable Salad: Harnessing the Power of Steam

All winter I've been obsessed with roasting. Since spring is around the corner I decided to try a new cooking method to obsess over, one that doesn't raise the temperature in my apartment. Tonight, the steamer basket became my new best friend.

I needed something with protein but didn't want to use the usual suspects (lentils/split peas), then I had the brilliant idea to use quinoa since it is a complete protein. I also wanted to use some fat in my favorite form- olive oil- to help me feel full when I reheat it for lunch. And the asparagus made me feel like it is spring, which it almost is. This dish was incredibly easy to make.




Ingredients

• 1 bundle of asparagus (I estimate mine was about 24 stalks), bottom woody part removed and cut into bite size pieces
• 2 medium/large tomatoes
• 1 large red onion, sliced into large pieces
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• .5 cup quinoa
• 1 cup water
• 1-2 TB capers
• 1 TB olive oil
• Fresh dill to taste, I think I used about .25 cup
• Salt and pepper to taste

Bring garlic, qunioa, and water to a boil, then reduce to simmer for 15 minutes or until all the water is absorbed, just like rice. I actually stick my ear in the pot to see if I hear water. In another pan, add onions to steam basket for 7-10 minutes or until they begin to soften. Add tomatoes (whole) and steam for about 4-5 minutes or until the skin starts to pull away. Remove tomatoes and add asparagus. Steam with onions for 2-3 minutes (it's done when it's bright green).

In a large bowl, cut/mush tomatoes so they are bite sized. Add olive oil, asparagus, onions, capers, dill, quinoa, salt, and pepper. Thoroughly mix and adjust seasoning as necessary. It makes 2 large servings or could be 4-5 servings as a side dish.



I ate it hot, but I bet it's great cold. It was nice, light, and refreshing. It seems like a good potluck food.

Creamy Tomato Soup w/Cauliflower Base

Yes, it's another tomato soup recipe. But it's different this time, I swear! I had some poor tomatoes that were on their last legs and I knew I wanted to roast them because, well, I'm obsessed with roasting. Oh, and it makes them taste even more amazing. Usually I use tofu as the base to make it creamy, but I wanted to use cauliflower to be a little different. And because it, too, was on its last leg.

Ingredients

1 medium head cauliflower, cut into small pieces

8-10 roma tomatoes

4-6 cloves garlic still in paper

1 cup unsweetened soy milk

Olive oil for roasting tomatoes

.5 cup fresh basil leaves (whole)

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375. Steam califlower until soft. Meanwhile, cut tomatoes in half lengthwise and toss with olive oil (I used my oil sprayer-genius). Place cut side up in baking dish and add garlic. Check after 15 minutes and rotate dishes and flip the garlic over. Check after 10-15 minutes to see if garlic is soft. When it's become soft or just started to brown remove and let cool a few minutes. When tomatoes start to brown, remove from oven.

In an empty pot or blender, add cauliflower, tomatoes, basil, garlic (remove paper, you can generally just squeeze it out), and salt and pepper. Blend together until it turns a nice shade of orange-pink and becomes smooth. It makes 2 large servings or 3 medium servings, and you get most of your veggie servings all in one sitting.

I could eat this every day. I would consider adding some red pepper flakes and/or some croutons, but it's pretty perfect as-is. Maybe some wine, but I'm still not sure how to cook with it yet, so maybe next time.

Tomato Basil Tofu atop Barley

Thinking I'd mastered pan frying tofu, I thought it would be a great dinner. I finely chopped up 1/2 red onion since I was out of garlic, added a few leaves of fresh basil, salt, and 2 TB olive oil all to the frying pan. I tilted it and let the flavors mingle for a couple of hours.

In a small pot I added 1 cup of water and .5 cup barley, brought to a simmer, and let cook for 30 minutes until all the water was gone. As that cooked, I put the frying pan on medium heat and when the oil was hot, I added some strips of extra firm tofu (I cut 1 block into 12 strips). I let it fry for 10 or so minutes and was getting worried. So I tried to flip it, but most pieces stuck. It was not a good moment.

It looked like some of the bits in the pan were starting to burn, so I added 2 large tomatoes, 2 plum tomatoes, more chopped fresh basil, and .5-1 cup water. I let it simmer for 15 minutes or so. When the barley was done, I made two servings and topped with the tomato basil tofu mixture.

It was a little oily but yummy. It made two 500 calories servings and was filling. It could use a little more flavor- maybe veggie boullion or the rest of the onion. Now I'll go back to cowering in fear of the beast that is tofu...

(No camera batteries yet, my apologies!)

Purple Basil Tomato Soup

This isn't really different from my last attempt at tomato soup. I sauteed 1 medium red onion in a little olive oil and added water, 1TB tomato paste, 2 large tomatoes, and 6 roma tomatoes. I brought to the boil and added a few leaves of purple basil since I think the regular basil in my aerogarden killed it. (The purple basil had fallen over last night when I got home. I suspect the regular basil was blocking light or otherwise bullying it.)

Once it boiled for about 15 I added 8 or 10 white mushrooms that I'd chopped up. I let these cook for just a few minutes and then scooped out half of the chunky parts so I could use my immersion blender on the rest. I also added in about .5 cup of soy milk just to make it a little creamier and a few more basil leaves for flavor.

The real best part of everything was the lentil couscous salad I made to go in the soup. First I cut up 3 cloves of garlic, added some salt, a few chopped basil leaves, and 1TB olive oil. I let it sit as long as I could so the garlic and basil would infuse into the oil. Meanwhile, I cooked 3/4 cup lentils until just done so they weren't yet mushy, and I made 3/4 of couscous. Once all the cooking was done, I mixed the oil mixture, lentils, and couscous together and put about 3/4 cup into each of the 4 servings I made. Then I garnished with a gigantic purple basil leaf.

It was great- the raw garlic added extra zing to the soup. I promise I'll get more creative with tomato soup in the spring.

Sorta Chunky Tomato Soup

Since it's 6 degrees outside I thought I'd make some nice warm soup for lunch. And since I've been watching TV all day because it's 6 degrees outside and because I hurt my back running on Friday and have consequently been spending a lot of time with the heating pad, I decided on tomato soup because Sandra Lee (semi-home) made it and it seemed like the right thing to do.

My initial idea was the roast the tomatoes, but since I don't write these things down until after I've made them, I forgot. So, I started with 1/2 a red onion, sauteeing it in a little olive oil until translucent. Then I added 6 tiny cloves of garlic for a few more minutes and deglazed the pan with some red wine vinegar. I've wanted to use rwv in my tomato soup, but I didn't know how it would react to soy milk. But today I'm daring. Bold, even.

After deglazing, I added some water, 6 small plum tomatoes, 1 TB tomato paste, and 8 white mushrooms. I let it cook a few minutes then added 1cup of unsweetened soy milk. After stirring it all up, I scooped out half of the mixture and used my immersion blender to smooth out the rest. Once I added the pulp back in I tore up a few leaves of basil from my aerogarden. It's growing ridiculously high so I had to cut it back a little. What a shame to have fresh basil that I was forced to eat...

Now I don't ever remember having a single bowl of tomato soup in my life until the past year. So I never experienced what I understand is true tradition- grilled cheese and tomato soup. However, Sandra Lee reminded me of this true American meal and I thought I'd follow suit with my own version. I toasted a few pieces of whole wheat toast and spread with a thin layer of french onion Better than Cream Cheese. My favorite part was removing the crust and letting it sit in the soup to get a little soggy. While not exactly what everyone else grew up with, it hit the spot. And made just enough for another meal.

Ugly Soup

My recent lack of culinary innovation is scaring me. I guess I used it all up at Christmas.

Lately I've been a little obsessed with nutritional yeast. A "stand by" of mine is yellow split peas and barley with nutritional yeast, so I went with what I know. I jazzed it up with some red onion, plum tomatoes, and portobellas. I knew that the shrooms would make it a little gross, but it was pretty ugly. Tasted alright, though not as nutritional yeasty as I'd wanted.

Indian Night In

Around 5pm I decided that all I wanted for dinner was beer bread and hummus. I had ingredients to wing a hummus but not enough flour to make the bread. I could a. walk across the street to the corner grocery and get some flour or b. fork over a little more cash for the real stuff at Lebanese Taverna conveniently next door to the grocery. It took me 15 minutes to come to the conclusion that I didn't want to leave the apartment at all, my kitchen was actually fully stocked, and I probably need to have a little more caloric discression after a week of binge eating. After a conversation with someone this afternoon about being fiscally responsible, I decided to use what I had in the kitchen.

I opened the fridge and was completely uninspired. Kale. Tomatoes. Butternut Squash. Mushrooms. Yuck. I couldn't come up with anything remotely interesting and could only see each ingredient in a silo when, out of nowhere, I had a flash of inspiration. I opted to make a kale/chickpea concotion and did a little Googling for some assistance. Apparently I wanted to make something similar to Balti. Evidently my strange concotion has probably been made many a time by many a generation. Does that make me brilliant for discovering something on my own that had already been discovered? Yes.

My yearning for whole wheat bread something was consuming me, so I rememered that I could make Roti. Jennilicous and I were just talking about roti as we shared her first Indian feast in which we both tried to see how much we could shove into our bodies before our stomachs would explode. And then we added a little more.

So it nicely came together for me. I mixed a cup of whole wheat flour with some water (maybe 2/3 cup? I started with .25 cup and added more until it was firm/stiff). Once I made it into a dough ball, I added in some chopped garlic and let it rest for 10 or 15 minutes with a moist cloth atop. It must be amazing if it has to freaking rest.

Meanwhile I sauteed a large red onion in some olive oil (1TBish) until transparent, then I added some garlic for a minute or two. I cut up 7 plum tomatoes, which are my favorites, and added them in along with some of the liquid from a can of chickpeas. I threw in some salt, curry powder, the chickpeas (sans liquid), and a gigantic 16oz bag of fresh kale and cooked until the kale was done. My brother inspired me to buy the kale since he mentioned it several times while I visited him last week. Good job, bro!

While that was going I made 3 little balls out of the dough and flattened them out into little circles that were not thick but not really thin. I am a chump and can't succecssfully use a rolling pin, so I used the palm of my hands. And it worked like a charm. I put the last remaining drops of garlic olive oil into a frying pan and put it on medium. Then I realized that this was pretty stupid because olive oil has a low smoke point and I really needed the temp on high. Oh well. I turned the heat up a little more but not all the way and cooked both sides of the roti until they were brown. It's much more fun to make them when you have a gas stove because the next step is to put the roti on the open flame for a few seconds per side. But, considering my history with heat sources, it's probably better that my kitchen is lame.

The kale mixture made 3 large servings- more than I expected, which was a nice surprise. I can't wait to try it reheated when the curry has had time to mingle more with the other ingredients. And the roti were the perfect accompaniment. The garlic chunks inside it were super amazing. I'm now delightfully full and overpoweringly odorous.

I've Been Waiting All Day to Make This Pizza

Because I haven't been feeling well (jetlag from my ridiculous LA overnighter), I decided to cheer myself up with food. I need to overdose on veggies since I am not feeling well, and I wanted to sneak in a little protein that is not peanut butter. What's better than pizza?

I used my onion-herbed beer bread recipe (3c flour, onion, herbs, 1 bottle beer) as the basis for crust. I flattened it out into 4 mini-crusts on a greased cookie sheet. I put it in a 375 degree oven for a few minutes while I assembled the sauce, which is strangely similar to my creamy tomato soup- 3 regular tomatos, 2TB tomato paste, 1 package of firm silken tofu, 4 cloves garlic, and salt/pepper- using my handy dandy immersion blender. I slapped the sauce on the pizza and put it back in while I made the other toppings- spinach (2pkg frozen), mushrooms (10 white), and thinly sliced red onion (.25c). I added those to the pizza and put it back in while I chopped up 2 roma tomatoes and 10 black olives. Last time out, I added the tomato slices, olives, and capers (the greatest ingredient ever). I let it cook a few more minutes then turned the broiler on for a few more so the tomatoes would roast a little.

I had to write the blog while it cooled, otherwise I'd have burned my mouth. It's pretty good- though the sauce could have been stronger (more salt/tomato paste maybe?. And I used frozen spinach, which made the crust a little soggy in the middle because I didn't strain it very well.

Still hit the spot.

Lentil Soupish

I threw together lentils, corn, red onion, garlic, cilantro, chili powder, cumin, and a little salt. It was good and easy (just like jennilicious).

Cauliflower with Tomato Basil Tofu Sauce

It's basically what it sounds like. I steamed some cauliflower and, again using my fantabulous attachment to my immersion blender, blended together a plum tomato, 1 clove of garlic, .25 block silken tofu, salt, basil, and randomly some nutritional yeast (though I'm fairly certain it didn't add anything to it).

Tofu sauces are amazing. Thank you jennilicious for introducing me to tofu, once my nemesis, ironically because of jennilicious' failed attempt back in undergrad. This is a quick, tasty dish. And I'd definitely lick the sauce up off the floor. I may have licked the plate clean, too.

I tried taking pictures for about 10 minutes, but I was ultimately unsuccessful for whatever reason.

Still Around...Barely

I haven't posted in 3 weeks because I've either been too busy training to cook anything creative or out of town. As a result, I've now gotten sick. So today I decided to make soup- and lots of it. My freezer is now full for those long days when training takes up too much time...*Sigh*

I sauteed 2 medium onions and 4 cloves of garlic until transparent. I diced some tomatoes and threw them in the pot along with some water. I let them boil for 15 minutes or so and added 4 cups of yellow squash, one giant can of kidney beans (it held 9 servings), and an entire package of organic wheat spaghetti. I was feeling uncreative because my brain was shut off so I only seasoned it with salt and pepper, but in the end it was a good decision. It cooked until everything was done, and then I scooped it into 8 containers (about 375 calories a piece).

It hit the spot and was just what the doctor ordered. I'm glad I made heaps and heaps of it because it's something I won't mind eating over and over again. Good job, self. Maybe next time I'll use a nice veggie broth for more flavor.

(It is soupier than the picture leads you to believe.)

Tofu Saturday

Jennilicious inspired me to buy tofu a few weeks ago and I was so pleased with the quiches that I decided to branch out. This morning I made scrambled silken tofu (1/2 the box) with green onions, cilantro, chilli powder, and turmeric. After a small mishap with 1/2 the bottle of chilli powder ending up in the pan, I plopped the mixture atop a nice warm piece of toast with Trader Jose's (Trader Joe's) habenero and lime salsa. Yum and only about 250 calories.

Since I still had a half a block of tofu and 2 tomatoes I needed to use today, I thought a creamy tomato basil soup would hit the spot on this freezing (well, below freezing) day. I blended the tomatoes and tofu, put it in a pot, and added salt, pepper, and dried basil. When I have soups, I like to dip bread into it, but today I decided to be a little different and use whole grain couscous. Instead of making the couscous first and then adding the soup, I put 1/3cup couscous in the bowl and topped with the soup and covered. Five long minutes later, I returned to the bowl slightly disappointed. I was hoping for a soupy mixture with couscous sitting on the bottom of the bowl. But, it all sort of mixed together. And the water from the tomato separated a little bit from the rest of the soup so I had to stir it all together again. Which is fine, it all tastes the same!

The soup came out a beautiful pink, and when topped with raw green onions, it looked amazing (if only my camera worked). It tastes even better than it looks. Next time I make it, I might thin it out some with unsweetened soy milk. And I meant to add some roasted garlic (6 cloves) to the blender, but I was famished and couldn't wait for the garlic to roast so I left it out. Only about 400 calories for a giant bowl.

Unrelated to tofu, I decided to make some pear chips. So I used my fancy slicer (otherwise known as a knife) to create somewhat even slices. But since I'm dumb, some of them ended up quite a bit thicker than the others. Oh well. I popped them in a 275ish degree oven and let them cook for an hour, maybe a little longer. I flipped them twice and moved the pan around when I put them back in. The last time I flipped them, I sprinkled cinnamon over them and added a total of .5TB of dark brown sugar to the tops. I let them cook until the brown sugar looked bubbley, then I put them on the rack to cool.

Amazingly I haven't scarfed them down yet, but that's because they were cooling while I was making my soup. I sampled one, though, and they are delightful.