Spicy Roasted Eggplant with Tomatoes and Cilantro

Yummly.com is a great website if you have not yet discovered it.  You can just type ingredients and it gives you recipes with those ingredients.  Have some stuff at home, but don't know what to make with it?  Just type it into Yummly and you'll have multiple options! 

That is how I found this recipe for spicy roasted eggplant with tomatoes and cilantro- http://www.yummly.com/recipe/Spicy-Roasted-Eggplant-With-Tomatoes-And-Cilantro-Epicurious

I was planning to make a Middle Eastern dish for an Iraqi family I know around Christmas time, but I ended up getting sick and not being able to.  Now I had eggplant, tomatoes, cilantro, & onions, but didn't want to make a difficult meal...so what could I do with them before they went bad?  I took them with me to my mom's house where I was going for Christmas break and put the ingredients into yummly and found this great recipe that I made when my brother and sis-in-law got there.

Full recipe is in the link- here's an overview:

Roast the eggplant.
Mash the pulp.
Saute onions.
Add 3 Tbsp ginger.
Add chopped tomatoes, cumin, paprika, coriander, & cayenne pepper.
Add eggplant & stir until thickened.
Remove from heat and stir in fresh cilantro.
Serve over rice (at least that's what I did).

If you follow the recipe, this is a spicy dish!  It would be easy to adjust your seasoning amounts to make it less spicy (or more) to your tastes though.

Smoothies

I love making smoothies.  Very tasty and a great way to get a lot of good stuff in you without even realizing it!  I don't have a regular protocol for my smoothies, it really just depends on what I have and/or what I remember to put in them.  I try to add spinach to all smoothies if I have it (very healthy and I promise you don't even notice) and flax seed.  I cut a bunch of bananas in half and have them frozen that I use sometimes (my bananas were always going brown before I used them all so I really like this!).  Sometimes I use a mixture of fruit and sometimes just one fruit.

This smoothie had 1/2 cup spinach, 1/2 cup blueberries, 1/2 cup black raspberries, 1/2 cup milk, 1 Tbsp flax seed, 1 Tbsp almond butter, 1 Tbsp honey, and 1/2 cup ice.  This was good but for my own taste preference I prefer a little less almond butter.  This is when I was counting weight watchers points so that's why I have measurements for everything.  Usually now I don't measure.

This smoothie was simply strawberries, milk, flax seed, almond butter, honey, and ice.

Like I said, my smoothies just depend on what I have at the moment and what I remember to put in them.  These are the only ones I have pics of but I've also used mangos, blueberries, the frozen bananas, red raspberries, peaches, etc.

Parfait

Got this general idea from the Simple Foods for Busy Families book as well.  I use plain greek yogurt and from there the ingredients vary.

This one included honey, cereal flakes, almond slices, flax seed, sunflower seeds, and tangelos.

This one has vanilla extract, honey, cereal flakes, almond slices, walnuts, pecans, banana chips, and raspberries.



Unique Grilled Cheese

You won't find this grilled cheese sandwich on any kids' menu!  Mixed greens, goat cheese, and strawberries.  I also added a tiny bit of a walnut balsamic vinaigrette.

Parmesan Crusted Chicken & Mashed Potatoes

I got this recipe from weight watchers- http://www.food.com/recipe/weight-watchers-parmesan-chicken-cutlets-185342.  If you are doing weight watchers it is only 4 points, if not, it still tastes good!

You mix parmesan cheese with Italian bread crumbs, paprika, garlic powder, pepper, & dried parsley.  I don't have dried parsley so I used fresh from my "garden" (I live in an apartment, but have some herbs & veggies growing in containers on my balcany).

Dip your chicken breasts in the mix so they are covered and bake.

I made this recipe with mashed potatoes (no picture).  I peeled my potatoes and boiled them along with a clove or 2 of garlic.  Once they were super soft I added some garlic infused oil and mixed & mashed.  Switched everything to a mixing bowl and added milk and used an electic mixer to mash everything.  I then added a dollop of sour cream and mixed a little more.  The sour cream made them taste extra great!

Sage Chicken Bonus

Here is a bonus to the Sage Chicken Breast recipe I posted yesterday.  I had leftover sauce and saved it and today I steamed broccoli, warmed up the sauce, and poured the sauce over the broccoli when I was ready to serve.  Seemed to be a good way to use up the extra sauce!

Sage Chicken Breast & Parmesan Balsamic Roasted Green Beans and Mushrooms

Tonight I made a delicious dinner!  I took a pic of my meat and side dish together so this post is a 2-in-1 deal ;-). 

I'm attempting a little container gardening on the balcony of my apartment and one of the things I am growing is sage. 

I also have a bunch of chicken breasts in my freezer from a Market Day order thanks to my mom so I did a little Pinterest search and found this recipe for Sage Chicken Breasts.  My pictures never turn out as well as the pictures beside the recipes, but as long as it still tastes good, who cares, right?

An hour before I wanted to start cooking I salted and peppered my breasts, my chicken breasts that is... and marinated them in the fridge in a mixture of garlic infused olive oil, lemon juice, and sage leaves.

After an hour I put 4 Tbsp of butter and 3 of garlic infused olive oil into a pan on medium heat.  Once it started to bubble I added the chicken breasts (save sage leaves and marinade sauce) and cooked them on one side.  The recipe says to cook for 8, but my chicken breasts were really thin so it didn't take that long.  Just watch them and make sure they don't start to burn. 

Once one side was cooked I flipped them over and put the sage leaves in the butter oil in the pan (not on the chicken).  When the sage leaves turn dark green/brown take them out and put them on a paper towel (or a few as they are pretty oily).  As they dry the will get crispy.

When your chicken is cooked through remove the chicken from the pan and add the marinade to the pan stirring it for around a minute.

Serve the chicken with some spoonfulls of the sauce and the sage leaves sprinkled over.

For my side dish I used another Pinterest find- http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2009/01/recipe-for-roasted-green-beans-with.html.  I trimmed my green beans and cut them in bite size pieces.  I cut my mushrooms in 1/2" slices.  I mixed together garlic infused olive oil and balsamic vinegar and poured it over the mushrooms and green beans in a bowl (ok, that's not true, I seperately poured them over, then mixed everything together b/c I forgot to the oil & vinegar together first, it still worked fine!).  Then I spread out the beans & mushrooms on a baking sheet and baked them in the oven.  Bake until green beans are crispy and mushroom juices have evaporated.  When done serve seasoned with salt and pepper and sprinked with parmesan cheese. 

Yummy meal I had tonight for sure!!!