Thursday, October 22, 2009

Simple pasta -by Susan


I was inspired by a recipe of a healthy pasta dish. Its been ages since we had some good pasta.

Recipe:
1/2 box pasta
1/2 c mushrooms
1 yellow bell pepper
1 small onion
1/2 can cream of mushroom soup
Italian seasoning
1 tsp oil

Chop vegetables and saute the onions adding the other vegetables when the onion is done.
Boil pasta. Drain and add vegetables, soup and seasonings. Stir thoroughly and leave on heat enough to warm up the soup. Then serve.

Description:
This simple dish turned out really good. I intentionally used just enough mushroom soup to keep the dish from being dry to try to limit the fat.

Suggestions:
I used the vegetables in the fridge, but I think most vegetables would work well here. If you want more juice, just add more soup.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Falafel Wraps -by Susan

We found an "international market" which we decided to check out. In there we found falafel mix and I was inspired to see what I could do with it. This is loosely based off a wrap that we love in a neighborhood restaurant.

Recipe:
Falafel Mix
1 small tomato
feta cheese
lettuce
wrap

Follow directions on box to make falafel. This was really simple: mix, wait and fry.

To make the wraps, tear lettuce and slice a tomato onto a wrap. Sprinkle feta cheese on top and add the sliced falafels. Finally wrap them up and eat!

Description: These were absolutely awesome wraps. They came really close to matching our favorite ever! We will definitely be making them again!


Suggestions: The restaurant we like makes a similar wrap, but includes thousand island dressing (I think) which makes them more juicy. I think this might be the final touch required to make them perfect.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Egg Battered Eggplant by Sanjay

It is a rare occasion that brings together eggs and eggplants. I made this because 3 eggs in my fridge got cracked and was feeling too creative to make a dinner omelet.

Recipe

oil for quick frying
2 medium eggplants
3 eggs
1 cup flour
1 tbs wheat germ
1 tbs paprika
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper

Cut the eggplant into thick steaks and set aside.
Whisk the eggs.
Drop the wheat germ into the eggs and add mix in the flour little by little until you get a consistency you like. I used a rather light very runny batter because Susan does not like to feel like she is eating a piece of food wrapped in a loaf of bread.
Add in your spices.
Put a couple of the eggplant steaks into the batter and heat up your oil.
You can test the oil by dribbling a tiny bit of batter into it. The batter should cook on contact.
Fry the eggplant (it shouldn't take too long).

Description

The hotter the oil the quicker it cooks. Once the batter is crispy it doesn't absorb too much oil. Keeping the oil hot and doing a quick in-and-out job stops the eggplant from getting really greasy. The batter should be crispy and the inside should be juicy without making the whole thing soggy. This is a bit of a balancing act which may sett off a few smoke alarms while putting you and your stove top in mortal danger. I think that the terror sweats make best condiment after taziki.

Suggestions

I am thinking of subbing out the eggs with gluten and water and varying the sizes of the eggplant cuts for experimentation.