Tag Archives: eggplant

A Loaded Lunch Post

by

Hi guys; I hope everyone is having a good Monday!  I prewrote this lunch post and set it to publish in advance because I’ve got a lot to talk about today.  While I’m actually eating lunch, you guys will be getting a lunch-time recipe!

First up, the recipe!  Homemade Veggie Burgers –

  • 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • half a large sweet onion, chopped
  • 1 large purple eggplant, chopped
  • 2 T worchestire sauce
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 15 oz can chick peas, drained
  • 1/2 cup raw oats
  • 1 tsp sweet curry powder
  • 1 tsp garam masala
  • salt and pepper to taste
  1. Preheat oven to 400*.  Spread two baking sheets with aluminum foil and grease thoroughly with cooking spray.
  2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add onion to pan and saute until starting to become translucent, 2-3minutes.  Season with pepper and salt to draw out the moisture.
  3. Add eggplant and worchestire sauce* to the pan.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 5-7minutes. 
  4. Remove pan from heat and set aside.
  5. Place chick peas in the bowl of a medium food processor and pulse twice.  Do not pulse until smooth, remember, you are not making hummus!
  6. Working in 1/2 cup batches, pulse eggplant mixture into the chick peas. 
  7. Pulse in oats and seasoning until well-combined, scraping down the sides as need be.
  8. Remove the food processor’s bowl from its base, being careful to mind the blades.
  9. Shape mixture into 8 palm-sized patties and place on the prepared baking trays.  The patties will be very soft, but will firm up as they cook.
  10. Bake for 30-35minutes, until the outsides of the burgers have started to brown.

*please note – worchestire sauce is actually not vegan.  But, we’ve got three bottles of it in our pantry (from a review for the blog) and I can’t afford to buy another bottle of something else.

For lunch I packed a veggie burger on an Arnold Multi-Grain Sandwich Thin spread with a bit of horseradish mustard.

Delish!  I snuck a bite of the burgers during production last night and I’m loving the use of eggplant as a base.

On the side, a baggie of sliced cucumber.

The Sandwich Thins were actually sent to me for free to review the two newest varieties.

I’ll let you know in my evening post what I thought, but I’ve tried other varieties in the past so I’m expecting to love them.

The review is part of a healthy living initiative, so I was also sent this wicked cool Le Sportsac gym bag.

Way too cool for me 🙂

What are you having for lunch today?

Dinner from Across the Pond

by

Guess what I was doing this evening?!?!

Heck yeah, baby!  When Adam and I heard that Bill Nye (The Science Guy) would be speaking at my campus tonight we jumped at the chance to go.

“Bill Nye” was assigned homework watching for science class several times when I was in school.  He is definitely a childhood icon for me.  His talk fit into a series about sustainability and climate change; it was amazing.  He was intelligent, captivating, and funny, and I was pretty much star-struck.

Before we could go to the show I had an afternoon of classes and studying.  By the end of tonight I will have at least 100 notecards for tomorrow’s test!  While I worked, Adam brought me home a cookie.

Black and White cookies are my very favorite, but I wasn’t feeling the chocolate today for some reason.  I did devour all of the white though 😉

My dinner tonight left me feeling very British. 

As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, and I had received a bottle of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce to review.

As soon as I got the package I knew I needed to buy an eggplant.  Here’s an eat your veggies tip – You are just a few simple steps away from food perfection!  Chop up an eggplant, pan-steam it until it’s nice and soft, then saute with some Worcestershire sauce.  The eggplant turns into perfect pillows and the flavor is pure umami.

Tonight I did half a small eggplant and a handful of chopped okra with Worcestershire and marinara.

Yum!  I know this doesn’t look very pretty, but it truly is one of my favorite meals.

To round out the ‘across the pond’ feel I served my meal with this can of Heinz Curry Beanz that caught my eye at the grocery store.

The ingredients list was just too interesting to pass up –

Sadly, I wasn’t the hugest fan.  I left most of it on my plate, but it was fun to try.

Now I’ve got to get my head out of England, and out of space, and back into reality for my HUGE exam tomorrow.  I will be up very late, and tomorrow’s post will probably be very late, but YOU might want to stop by in the morning for a giveaway 😀

Did you watch “Bill Nye the Science Guy” while you were growing up?

Going on Walkabout

by

Walk to The Spot

Katie and I were supposed to meet this morning for breakfast and a study session,

but we spent most of our time talking, whoops!

We did manage the breakfast part though.  A grande iced (it was so warm here today!) coffee with skim milk,

and a thing of artichoke and spinach humus.

I know that humus is a strange breakfast but it sounded so good I just couldn’t pass it up!

Unfortunately the flavor was too garlicy for my taste buds, but it was nice to get some veggies into my morning.  I finished about half each of the humus and the bread sticks.

Walk to school

I had a busy time on campus today – a meeting, two classes, and another meeting, all back to back.  I snacked on a small vegan pumpkin pecan blondie before my first meeting.

And during Anatomy I ate this Balance Pure Cherry Pecan Bar.

I was a little unsure about the flavor – I got it on super sale at Wegmans – but I ended up being a fan.  It wasn’t as amazing as the cookie dough variety, but it also wasn’t as caloric and had fewer grams of saturated fat.

School fun facts – 1. They recently discovered taste buds in our lungs.  2. I did such a good job on my Orgo homework (rewriting the class notes) that he gave me extra-credit points!

Walk to Wegmans

I knew I needed to get in a couple hours of solid concentration with my Orgo notes, so I headed to the Wegmans’ Cafe to study.  And to get a tasty dinner.

Veggies, veggies, everywhere,

and green beans and chicken and eggplant in garlic sauce.

Since I was alone, and therefore wasn’t sharing a drink with the husband, I decided to try this fun looking drink.

I don’t know if it tasted exactly like chai OR cola, but the flavor had a nice spice and wasn’t too sweet.

Walk Get picked up and drive home

I covered more than 2 miles just in transit today, but canceling my run was Adam this evening wasn’t an option.  We ran one mile out and walked one mile back, with a very exciting destination in the middle –

One morning few weeks ago, I was taking a walk and talking on the phone with my mom when I spotted that window display…..and I made such a loud exclamation of glee that the owner (who was in his car outside) asked me if I’d like him to open up the shop specially for me!  Excited much?  I told him I could contain myself, but my mom told me that for my ‘fall gift’ (yes, she’s crazy) I could go charge a couple of pumpkin brews.

Nice!  We are very excited about our selection.

A sampling of pumpkin/seasonal beers,

a Root beer from Abita (one of my top 3 favorite beer companies),

and a few Tuskers, our new favorite beer that is almost impossible to find in Buffalo! 

The Village Beer Merchant is awesome about having a great selection of things that are absent elsewhere in Buffalo, and the employees are all super nice and helpful.

Adam had to crack open a Tusker the minute we got home, and he saved a few swigs in the bottle for me.

Ahhhh.

What is your favorite type of beer?  I actually don’t like beer that much, but I have three obsessions – 21st Amendment, Hell or High Watermelon; Abita, particularly the strawberry and winter brews; and Tusker.

It’s All About Your Perception

by

This morning there was an issue with the alarms – Adam actually slept through his first class! – so the big breakfast I had planned couldn’t happen.  We were in such a rush leaving the house it was not until I sat down in the car that I realized I hadn’t washed my face, brushed my teeth, or put on make-up!!!  Thank goodness I managed to grab this PB Cookie Lara Bar for breakfast.

When I got to Anatomy Lab it seemed like bad-news-bombs were just dropping all over the place –

  • we have a homework assignment, and my group’s is due even though the apparatus we were given was broken
  • I only scored a 75% on last week’s quiz
  • we now have a quiz next week (that brings my quiz/exam total for next week up to 5!)

But you know what?  My morning was better than their’s –

It’s all about perception; when things seem bad you’ve got to put them into perspective before you get upset.  By the way – yes, we did a frog lab; yes, it was awful.  I wasn’t bothered by the cats at all but Mr. Hops made me pretty sad.

In my break between labs I did some Orgo reading and ate lunch.  Plums (why did I buy so many of these?!),

and another turkey/Laughing Cow/Sandwich Thin.

Today’s Food Lab experiment was fat cookery.  My group had to prepare deep-fried Pakoda (Indian-style veggie tempura), pan-fried catfish, and fried bread (to experiment with the effects of the quality of the cooking oil).  The small room got pretty crazy with five groups frying, the smell was out of control!  I had to take three (small) bites of fried bread so I could write up my lab report and it was pretty nauseating.  I just took a tiny plate of food at the end.

Next week we are doing fruit, and I am much more excited to sample then!

I actually felt pretty sick just from that small amount of fried food, but I knew that the gym would make me feel better.  30minutes on the elliptical, random, level 6.  I kept my workout short because I was feeling awkward about just how bad I smelled!  My hair and skin are like smell sponges; when I worked at Cold Stone in high school the smell of waffle cones would waft off of me for days!

I took a shower as soon as I walked home (and scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed!).  Then Adam and I took a quick fountain diet soda walk and got started on dinner.  I was actually so hungry after our walk that I ate this mini bag of kettle korn while we cooked.

Dinner was three simple steps.  Prepare some quinoa.

Pan-steam eggplant and spinach.

Make a quick curry sauce out of 0% Plain Stonyfield, curry powder, garlic powder, onion powder, and brown sugar.

Serve and consume.

Adam thought this was going to be gross and he ended up pleasantly surprised, and I thought it would be wonderful and ended up underwhelmed.  It’s all about perception!

Have you ever been so tired (or rushed!) that you forgot to brush your teeth?

Word to the Wise

by

This has got to be a quick post so I can get back to studying.  Word to the wise – Weekends are for working; embroider that on a pillow for me, will ya?

I actually had to leave campus and head home soon after eating lunch, because there were no working printers (grrr).  It ended up being a good thing because I got a ton of work done for my night class and now I’m a few weeks ahead on those assignments.  Plus, I got to eat an ice cream cookie sandwich.

I headed back to campus for class, during which I gave a 15minute presentation on school foodservice management.  It was a bit embarrassing to be the first to go, but I’m glad I got it out of the way.

I’ve been getting green every time Meghann mentions her gingerbread granola so when we spotted this at the Co-op yesterday I squealed with glee.

The nutritional stats were pretty sound (store bought granola can be a fat/sugar bomb), the price was right, and gingerbread?!  I ate a serving with skim milk this evening while dinner cooked.

Sadly, the taste wasn’t quite right.  I’ll keep eating it but the flavor was much spicier and less sweeter than I was expecting.

Dinner was the last of my Naan Pizza samples from Tandoor Chef.  Roasted Eggplant.

Nutrionals and ingredients.

This time I stuck to a single serving because I was splitting with Adam.

Yet again, I was blown away by how wonderful Naan is in the pizza crust medium.  This is the exact amount of chew I want from all my crusts!  The eggplant was perfectly crunchy and not greasy at all.  Now that my samples I gone I definitely plan on purchasing more Naan Pizzas with my own money, sooo good.

We had green bean fries on the side.

I seriously never thought roasting a green bean could create such magic.  These were fresh local green beans and they were even more amazing than usual.

All together.

We are going to take a diet soda walk and then it’s to the books.  My first Anatomy quiz has 200+ bones on it and is Thursday, who else thinks I should have started studying before tonight??

Any brand recommendations for a good gingerbread granola?

The Farmers’ Market Feeds My Soul

by

What better way to announce my Zevia giveaway winner than to toast one in her honor?

Caitlin (commenter #5), this Zevia Cola’s for you!

By the way, after you e-mail me your address so I can get your prize sent off, I suggest drinking the Cola flavor first.  Cola is hands-down the best Zevia out there; it doesn’t taste diet at all, but the flavor isn’t exactly “Coke” either, much earthier.  There is almost a coffee note to it.

This morning the weather was wonderful and I took a nice walk to the Co-op and the farmers’ market.  Look at my bounty of local goodies –

I’m most excited about the plethora of peppers,

I ended up with two purple, one lime, and a pimento!

The only fail was breakfast; I planned on getting something to eat at the farmer’s market but there were so many tasty things to choose from that I got overwhelmed and ended up with nothing 😉 Instead I had a fat-free raspberry lemonade yogurt when I got home.

I finished up my grocery trip at Wegman’s.  We had a coupon, so I got myself a small iced coffee.

– With skim milk and sugar-free caramel syrup. –

I’ll cop to my lunch being a little strange, if you’ll promise to try it yourself anyway!

I pan cooked chopped eggplant, broccoli and okra in a big splash of chicken broth, then finished it off with ~1/2T of evoo.  Then I added 2t of mango chutney to the skillet, along with 2T each raisins and peanuts.

I know it sounds odd, but I swear that the flavors work.  It’d be great with a bit of spice too.

I’ve got a TON of schoolwork to do this long weekend but we have some fun planned in for tomorrow too.  And a dinner on the agenda for tonight that I’m totally jazzed about.  See you then!

~*~*~ It’s time for some shameless self-promotion!

1) Check out my mini guest post at Iowa Girl Eats.

2) I’m throwing my hat into the ring for Project Food Blog!  Actually, I’m thinking about resigning before it even begins, but check out my profile anyways!

3) Are you following me on Twitter?

Sugar Sodas Are Toast

by

Today was another one of those days where I plan to go to the gym and then get distracted for hours.  This means that working out gets pushed back, and lunch gets pushed back, and so on.  I’ve got precious few days left until school (i.e. real life) starts again though, so I’m enjoying the unstructured time!

I had to go to the co-op for a few things this morning so I extended my walk a couple of blocks to The Spot for coffee.

Grande iced toddy with skim milk.  The caffeine was supposed to power me through my work out on an empty stomach – I’m, perhaps, a bit gun-shy from yesterday – but I messed around so long that I finally had to cave and eat breakfast.

Toast with Smart Balance and Crofter’s Strawberry Spread.

I never ever eat toast for some reason, but I really enjoyed this.

My right leg (my tendonitis leg) had a bit of a twinge in it all morning so I planned a treadmill interval workout that would allow me to get in the amount of time I wanted without too much impact on my legs.  Since I knew it was going to be a longer work out I put a packet of Cherry Lime Propel (thanks, BlogHer) into my water.

Thumbs up, Propel!  This tasted great and I have to believe it played a role in the fact that it took me forever to get hungry this afternoon.

My treadmill work out –

  • 6 minutes walking, warm up
  • 20 sets of intervals – 2minutes running/2minutes walking (40minutes total)
  • 4minutes walking, cool down

In the end that added up to 50minutes; 4.13miles.  I finished things up at the gym with 10minutes of abs work and stretching.

When I did finally get hungry in this afternoon I made myself a protein packed lunch –

Broccoli, eggplant, and cole slaw mix sautéed in some homemade peanut sauce.

Just yum!

To drink (in addition to h2o, of course!) was a Zevia Ginger Ale.

I’ve worked with Zevia before, and while nothing can replace my Cherry Coke Zero love, I’m a big fan.  Soda with no sugar or chemicals?  I’d say that’s pretty perfect for an addict enthusiast like me!  Zevia was recently featured in Oprah’s magazine so they sent me some free samples to celebrate.  I’ll be doing a giveaway later on too.

The ginger ale was yummy, just like “regular” ginger ale but a little less sweet.  And it didn’t have that awful spice aftertaste that some brands get.

What is your favorite flavor/brand of soda.  My very, very favorite thing on Earth is fountain diet coke (with ice and a straw) with a shot of cherry coke!

Miso Tasty

by

That mini bag of kettle corn was good, but dinner was better.

Miso-Marinated Tofu and Eggplant with Soba Noodles, from Health Magazine.  I followed the recipe pretty loosely, here are some of the changes I made –

  • doubled the tofu
  • used buckwheat instead of soba noodles
  • used neon and graffiti eggplant
  • used cole slaw mix for cabbage
  • used more veggies and less oil

Our version was pretty fabulous though.

The miso marinated tofu gets the best crust.

A cautionary tale – the boys left frosting the fridge from their failed brownies and this afternoon I ate at least 8 spoonfuls, straight from the jar.  Instant tummy ache and migraine.

Tofu, seitan, tempeh; pick a favorite.