Roasted Eggplant Sandwiches

I was trying to think of something to do with the eggplant that we had left over from the roasted eggplant towers and decided to make some sandwiches. I was really surprised at how good they turned out! I think I said about three times during dinner how much I liked them. Nick liked them too- I had made him one chicken sandwich and one eggplant, and he actually liked the eggplant better! I will definitely be making these again in the future for a quick, casual dinner.

Ingredients-
Whole wheat bread (I recommend using the bread from a bakery rather than typical sandwich bread)
Roasted red pepper, sliced (I roasted ours, but you can buy the jarred kind to save time if you want)
Roasted eggplant slices (See this post on roasting eggplant)
Pesto
Olive oil mayo (or light mayo)
Tomato, sliced
Crumbled goat cheese

Directions:
1. Preheat broiler.
2. Toast bread in a toaster or under the broiler.
3. Spread a thin layer of mayo on one slice of bread
4. Spread a layer of pesto on top of the mayo.
5. Place slices of eggplant, followed by roasted red peppers, and tomatoes on the bread.
5. Sprinkle goat cheese on top of tomatoes.
6. Place sandwiches (open faced) under the broiler to slightly melt the cheese.
7. Remove from oven and top with second piece of bread.

Roasted Eggplant Towers

Tonight's dinner was just kind of a "create as I go" type dinner, but it turned out pretty well! I knew I would like it going in because it involved 3 of my favorite things: spaghetti squash, marinara, and broccoli. I don't know why, but I had been wanting to try eggplant for a while now. I decided that roasting it was the way to go. I don't really know that I did it right because I think there is some sort of process to get the excess water out, but I just guessed. It seemed fine to me, but maybe it could have been better- I don't know?? Anyway, Nick and I both really liked it, and it was very healthy since it was pretty much all vegetables!


Ingredients:
1 spaghetti squash
1 bunch of broccoli
1 medium eggplant
2-3 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup of marinara (I used Trader Joe's Arrabiata sauce- I was very impressed with it)
Shredded or shaved Parmesan
salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Line a baking sheet with paper towels.
2. Slice the eggplant crosswise into half inch slices.
3. Place slices of eggplant in a single layer and sprinkle with salt.
4. Place another layer of paper towels on top, pressing down lightly. Let sit for about 20 minutes. Then, with a dry paper towel, blot to pick up any remaining moisture.
5. Preheat oven to 375.
6. Cut broccoli into florets, toss with 1 Tbsp of olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
7. Brush eggplant with 1-2 Tbsp olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
8. Put eggplant and broccoli in oven to roast. It will probably take 25-35 minutes, but you will want to check and take them out when they are tender.
9. Cook spaghetti squash according to these directions (but without the tomatoes).
10. Once everything is cooked, assemble each plate with a pile of spaghetti squash, 3 slices of eggplant with marinara poured over each layer, and then add the broccoli. Sprinkle with Parmesan.

Stuffed Peppers

I think the last time I had a stuffed pepper had to have been in the early 90's. Do people even make these anymore??? I am not really sure what made me want to make these, but they were really good and healthy "comfort" food! I found the recipe on Simply Recipes and only made a couple small changes.

Ingredients

* 6 bell peppers (I used a variety of colors)
* 1/2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
* 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and chopped
* 1 clove of garlic, peeled and chopped
* 3/4 lb of 96% lean ground beef
* 1/4 lb of lean ground turkey (you could use all beef or all turkey if you want)
* 1 1/2 cup of cooked brown rice
* 1 can diced tomatoes with oregano and garlic, drained
* 1 tsp of dried oregano
* Fresh ground pepper
* Salt
* 1/2 cup ketchup
* 1/2 tsp of Worcestershire Sauce
* Dash of Tabasco sauce

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Meanwhile, cut top off peppers 1 inch from the stem end, and remove seeds. Then add peppers to the water and boil, keeping peppers completely submerged, until their flesh slightly softened, about 3 minutes. Drain, set aside to cool.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Heat 1/2 tbsp of the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and garlic, and cook, stirring often, until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Remove skillet from heat, add meat, rice, tomatoes, and oregano, and season generously with salt and pepper. Mix well.

3. Arrange peppers cut side up in a baking dish, then stuff peppers with filling. Combine ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce, and 1/4 cup of water in a small bowl, then spoon over filling. Add 1/4 cup of water to the baking dish. Place in oven and bake for 40-50 minutes (or longer, depending on how big the peppers are that you are stuffing), until the internal temperature of the stuffed pepper is 150-160°F.

Snickers Blondies

I made these blondies for Dub's birthday, which was actually a couple weeks ago but I was a little late in making them (thanks CPA exam)! I chose to make these because bars are easy to transport/give as gifts, and Dub loves candy so I added some Snickers to the batter. I made one pan to give away and then a half pan to keep so that we got to try them too :) I was quite pleased with them- definitely my favorite of all the blondies recipes that I had tried previously! I am pretty sure that Nick, Matt, Blake, and Nat liked them too... Unfortunately they went so fast that I didn't get a very good picture! So, keep in mind that this picture really doesn't do them justice!


Snickers Blondies (adapted from 3B's Toffee Blondies)

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 c brown sugar (I used 1 cup light brown sugar and 1 cup dark brown)
2 sticks melted unsalted butter
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
4 Snickers bars, chopped

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Into a large mixing bowl, mix together: all-purpose flour,baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a second bowl, beat together brown sugar with melted butter.
4. Add egg and vanilla to butter/sugar mixture and mix well.
5. Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture.
6. Fold in the chopped Snickers bars.
7. Spray a 9x13 pan with Pam for Baking.
8. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes. This time is approximate because I used an 8x8 pan and a 4x8 pan rather than one large pan so make sure you watch it- it is done when a toothpick can be inserted and comes out clean.

Arugula Salad

A couple weeks ago, I saw a segment on the Today show where they made flank steak with tomato jam and an arugula salad. It looked delicious, and we hadn't had steak in a while so I decided to make it the next night. I had really high expectations for this because it just looked so good on tv! I wasn't even sure that I liked arugula because I had only had it once before and thought it was just ok. Well, it turned out that the steak was just ok, and the arugula salad was delicious! Arugula has a slight peppery taste, and it went really well with this vinaigrette. The tomatoes and shaved Parmesan were also great additions.

Here is a link to the whole recipe, but the recipe for the salad is below:
• 1 bunch (about 5 1/2 cups) arugula
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 1/4 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
• Dash kosher salt
• Dash freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup Regianno-Parmesan cheese, sliced thin
• 1 cup baby tomatoes, halved

Combine the olive oil, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Add arugula, tomatoes, and cheese and toss well. (You may not need all the dressing so just add a little at a time to the arugula until it is dressed as you like)

Cornbread Salad

Yum! I made this salad a couple nights ago for dinner, and I really loved it! Of course, it helps that I love cornbread! I had seen this recipe before on Smitten Kitchen and thought it looked good, but it seemed like a lot of work for a salad- to have to make cornbread and the dressing rather than just cutting up some vegetables and putting them on a pile of lettuce with bottled dressing. But now I am so glad I tried it! I had already made cornbread earlier in the week using this recipe for Low Fat Cornbread so I wanted to use some of it for the salad. The recipe as I made it is below to serve 2 people. (I served it as a side with trout and mashed potatoes).

Ingredients:
Salad-
1.5-2 cups cornbread, cut into small cubes (mine were more rectangular...)
1 cup baby heirloom tomatoes, halved (You can use any kind of good ripe tomatoes)
1/4 Vidalia onion, very thinly sliced
mixed greens
dressing (see recipe below)

Directions:
1. Turn on broiler (low setting if you have it)
2. Spread cornbread in a single layer on a baking sheet
3. Broil until bread cubes are toasted (mine took about 4 minutes, but you will want to keep an eye on this)
4. Place lettuce, greens,toasted corn bread, onion and tomatoes to a large bowl and toss to combine. Drizzle with buttermilk dressing, season with salt and pepper, and toss again. Serve immediately.

Buttermilk Lime Dressing:
1/2 cup lowfat buttermilk
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tablespoon good quality olive oil
1/2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons finely minced fresh basil
2 tablespoons finely minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons finely minced green onions
salt and pepper

Whisk all of the ingredients together in a small bowl until combined. Can covered tightly and stored in the fridge up to two days. You probably will not need all the dressing- depending on how much you like on your salad.

Roasted carrots with avocado

I actually made this side dish a while ago, but then I came across the picture and realized I had never added it to the blog! I want to immediately because it was so good, and I wanted to remind myself to make it again soon! I read the recipe for Roasted Carrot and Avocado salad on Smitten Kitchen, one of my favorites and knew I wanted to try it or something similar. I had forgotten how good roasted carrots are!

I made a few changes from the original recipe. First, I reduced the oil because I really didn't think it needed much. Second, as much as I love cumin, I left it out because I just wanted to taste the pure sweetness of the carrots. The recipe as I made it is below:
Ingredients:
- 1 lb carrots, peeled and sliced into 2 inch pieces (I used organic but you don't have to)
-1/2 to 1 Tbsp olive oil
- salt and pepper
- 1/4 avocado, sliced

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Toss carrots with olive oil (or spray if you have an olive oil spray can) on baking sheet
3. Sprinkle carrots with salt and pepper
4. Roast in the oven for about 20-25 minutes. You will want to check yours because time will vary based on the thickness of the carrots. They are done when they are fork tender, but not mushy.
5. Toss carrots with avocado slices and serve.

I would say this probably serves 3-4 people, but we had no problem finishing it off with just 2 of us!

Lime Pound Cake

After the "fiesta" for Cath and Trone, we had A LOT of limes left over. And I had cut them all up. Don't ask my why I thought we needed so many lime slices for Corona and margaritas. Anyway, I wanted to find something to do with them so we didn't have to throw them all away, and I found this recipe for Key Lime Cream Cheese Pound Cake. This was a great recipe as long as you don't make it harder than it has to be... Sliced limes are much harder to zest and juice than whole limes. If you find your self in a situation with sliced limes, I say toss them and splurge on the whole limes at 44 cents each! Also, when I started to make the cake, I realized that I forgot to set out the butter and cream cheese. So, I had the genius idea to put them in the warming drawer to speed up the process. This was a genius idea until I left it in for too long and had a pool of butter to clean up. At least not all of it melted so I just guessed and added a couple more tablespoons. Needless to say, the measurements weren't completely accurate, but it still turned out great!

It had a great texture and was not too dense (a problem I tend to have trouble with when baking pound cakes). The cake itself has a hint of lime, but it is not overwhelming, and the glaze provides a great sweet and tart flavor to complement the cake. I definitely recommend not skipping the glaze. I made a couple minor changes to the original and used fresh juice rather than bottled and reduced fat cream cheese. Also, I think my pan must have been smaller because I reduced the cooking time by 15 minutes. So, once it has been in for an hour, I would start checking it for "doneness." The recipe as I made it is below:
Ingredients:
For the Pound Cake:
3 1/4 cups cake flour
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 1/4 sticks
8 oz. reduced fat cream cheese
3 cups granulated sugar
6 large eggs
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
3 tbsp. lime juice
2 tsp. very finely grated lime zest
Confectioners' sugar for garnish

For the Glaze:
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup Key Lime Juice

Instructions:
Have all ingredients at room temperature. Position oven rack in lower third of oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9 or 10-inch bundt pan.

Sift together flour, baking soda and salt, set aside.

With an electric mixer, fitted with a flat beater, beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed until creamy and smooth, about 30-40 seconds. Add 3 cups of the sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes, stop mixer and scrape bowl occasionally. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla and 3 tbsp. lime juice. Reduce speed to low. Fold in flour, baking soda, and salt mixture in 3 additions, blending each addition just until smooth, stop mixer and scrape bowl occasionally. Fold in lime zest.

Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake until cake is golden, and a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 1/2 hours. Cool upright in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Invert cake onto cooling rack with waxed or parchment paper placed underneath rack, and glaze. Place cake on serving plate, and dust with powdered sugar.

Makes 12-16 servings.

Key Lime Glaze:

In a small bowl, whisk 1/4 cup key lime juice and 3/4 cup sugar until blended. Set rack over a sheet of waxed paper, invert cake onto rack. Generously brush cake with glaze. After glaze has set; approximately 10 minutes, lightly sprinkle cake with powdered sugar.