Monday, June 29, 2009

Recipe- Eggplant Pannini

Sorry for the lack of posts this week. I've kind of had blogger's block. I was actually trying to think of something interesting enough to post and came up with nothing. Good thing we went to an indoor arena football game and had a family party this weekend to spice things up!

In the meantime, I wanted to share a recipe for the awesome sandwiches we had tonight. We gobbled them up so quickly I forgot to get a picture- sorry! We got this recipe from our new BH&G "Vegetarian Cooking" cookbook.

Eggplant Panini

1 cup torn arugla (can sub spinach, arugla is spicer)
2 t. red wine vinegar (we had garlic flavored- yum!)
1 t. olive oil

Toss together in a small bowl.

1 Eggplant, cut into 1/2 in. thick rounds
3 oz fresh Mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
1 12in. plain or seasoned round foccacia bread, halved horizontally
1 large tomato, thinly sliced
1/3 c. seasoned dry bread crumbs
2T parmesan cheese
1 egg
1T milk
2T flour

In a shallow dish, beat together egg and milk. In another dish, stir the bread crumbs and parm. cheese. Put the flour in a third dish. (we're breading the eggplant, see how that works?) Dip the eggplant slices inot the flour to coat, then dip into the egg mixture and last, into the crumb mixture.

In a 12 in. non-stick skillet, heat 1T oil over med. heat. Add eggplant slices and cook for 6-8 min. or until lightly browned, turning once. Top the eggplant slices with the mozzarella cheese. Cook, covered, just until the cheese begins to melt.

To serve, put the eggplant slices cheese side up on bottom half of bread. Top with the arugala mixture and tomato slices (and the top half of the bread, of course). Cut into serving-size wedges.

TIP: To keep the eggplant from tasting bitter, you will need to "degorge" it (I know, it sounds disgusting). Just make sure you rinse it really well- we didn't do a great job and it was a bit salty...

This was super-quick and really, really yummy! You can also make a great "second day" meal with the leftovers- just put some spaghetti sauce and some of the parm cheese on the eggplant/mozz and viola- eggplant parm!

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Food Storage Audition- Curried Lentils and Rice



You thought I'd forgotten- right? Nope. It's just that Meatless May sucked all of our food experement mojo so we kind of slacked on the food storage auditions. We did manage to do one.

For those of you who might be new to my blog, we've been auditioning shelf-stable recipes to be part of our 3 month emergency food supply - you know, in case someone looses a job, or whatever. You can catch up on all of it here.

Anywho- today's dish is Curried Lentils and Rice from- you guessed it- Safely Gathered In. This dish is completely veggie (yeah!) and uses lentils which is on my list of "learn to cook with these ingredients" along with polenta.

The reviews on this one were mixed. I don't know if it was the day or what, but when DMP made this for dinner, I couldn't eat it, smell it or be in the same room as it. DMP and the girls ate it right up. I was able to eat the leftovers a couple of times and found it both filling and yummy, though.

I know that isn't a glowing recommendation, but I'm trying to be honest here. Following the recipe directions produced nicely flavored lentils (even for someone like me that isn't wild about Balsalmic Vinegar) that didn't taste too "dry" and enough sauce to go nicely with the rice. I do wonder what it would be like without the cilantro and sour cream (added because we were "rotating").

So in all, this recipe probably deserves another shot to see if we still like it without the cilantro and sour cream.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Veg-tastic Recipes

A couple people have asked for meatless recipes (no, really!). So I figured I'd post links to some of our new favorites here. 

We made and froze a ton of these "Make Ahead Lunch Wraps" and I've been taking them for lunch (imagine that!). They heat up really well and are tasty with salsa.

Our all-time favorite veggie meal is this yummy California Grilled Veggie Sandwich- sooooo good.  Don't be afraid of the grilled red peppers or red onion- I'm not a fan of peppers, but I"m finding I like them grilled and the onion gets all sweet and mellow.

One night we made Carmelized Onion and Gorgonzola pizza (it was my first time carmelizing onions and it went really well!).  This is a good recipe, but we cut the gorgonzola in half and used a cup or two of mozzerella.  I wouldn't have wanted just gorgonzola!  But still use both onions- we only used one and wished there were more. We used an easy Garlic  Bread Machine pizza crust and our pizza stone and it was fantastic. Next time we are going to grill the pizza.

For quick and easy stuff, we liked this Tortellini with Fresh Vegetables although next time we'll try to grill the veggies and just toss with the tortellini.  For other "quick" nights we had breakfast for dinner (with Morningstar sausages - they are veggie and very yummy).  We also like the Bisquick "impossibly easy pies" recipes-  Especially the Quesadilla Pie and the Spinach Parmesan Pie- they taste like a lighter version of a quiche.

Enjoy!

Followers