Eggplant Parmesan and Lemony Quinoa with fresh vegetables

After not having our Green Bean Delivery order for 2 weeks, Ryan and I have almost devoured our order that just came on Friday. So tonight for dinner we decided to use the lovely eggplant we received and some bulk quinoa we ordered a few weeks ago. Here's what we came up with.

We peeled and cut the eggplant in dollar size slices and used the ones without seeds. Beat 2 eggs in a bowl. In another bowl add bread crumbs and some spices. Meanwhile heat some oil in a frying pan. Dredge the eggplant in the egg and then in the breadcrumbs to coat both sides. Fry it in the hot oil turning to cook evenly on both sides. Drain on a plate with paper towel. Since we didn't have any pasta sauce to go with it, we dipped it in a side of Thousand Island and Blue cheese dressing.

For the quinoa dish, I came across a this recipe on All Recipes.com and modified it for what I had. Instead of celery, red onion and parsley, I used white onion, some left over corn that I cut off of the cob and fresh carrots all from Green Bean Delivery as well and a few banana peppers from our garden.

I doubled the recipe and used  2 cups of quinoa in 4 cups of water. Cook to a boil on the stove and turn the heat down to medium until almost all of the water cooks out. I stirred it a bit as well so it didn't stick and added some sea salt to it. While the quinoa was cooking I diced all of the vegetables and put them in a serving bowl.

For the dressing I juiced 3 fresh lemons to get about a 1/2 cup of lemon juice since I cooked more quinoa then the recipe called for. I also mixed in some ground red pepper for some pizazz. 

Once the quinoa was done cooking, I turned off the heat and let it cool for about 5 minutes. I then added it to the vegetables and tossed it all with the lemon juice. Boy was it tasty and quite filling. The quinoa dish could have been a meal all in itself. I'll definitely be cooking with this grain again,

Egg Rolls

I LOVE Egg Rolls and now that I found egg roll wrappers I plan to be making them a whole lot more. I went for a veggie take on them for the first attempt, which turned out to be delicious, next time I'm going to try them with some pork sausage. I used broccoli slaw which you can find in the produce section of the grocery store and a can of bean sprouts, you can also buy fresh sprouts too. The egg roll wrappers are in the produce section of any grocery store near the soy meat products and fresh sprouts etc.


I marinated the broccoli slaw and bean sprouts in some hoisin sauce, soy sauce and ginger for about a half hour. The egg roll wrappers are really easy to use, place them diagonal on a cutting board, fill the middle with a couple teaspoons of your filling. Fold the bottom corner in over the filling and roll snug. Then tuck the sides in around the roll of filling. Use some water to wet the other end of the egg roll wrapper and roll up tight. Place them on a plate until you heat your oil in a skillet. I used vegetable oil and heated it for about 15-20 minutes before putting in the pan.


Once the oil is heated put the egg rolls in the pan and cook them until crisp turning a few times.


These were quite tasty... I can't wait to make them again. I've got a few wrappers left and may try dessert egg rolls later this week with apples and cream cheese, I'll let you know how they turn out.

Since the wrappers were 2 for $4 I also bought wonton wrappers and plan to make those next weekend!

Tasty Pasta dish

This dish I just created this week for dinner and it was quite tasty, sorry no pictures though. We had a bag of fresh spinach we bought on clearance at Meijer in the fall and just through it in the freezer. Last week Meijer also had Buttoni pastas on sale as well. I thawed out the spinach and put it in the food processor with 3 cloves of garlic, a generous amount of ricotta cheese and a some cottage cheese and then blended it all together to make a sauce. While that was blending, I boiled water for the Spinach Buttoni tortellini. Once the water boils add some olive oil so the pasta doesn't stick. Then add the tortellini and let it cook for 7-9 minutes. I turned mine off when all of the tortellini floated to the top of the pot and puffed up. Drain the pasta. Add the pasta to the spinach sauce and mix together. Put in a baking dish, top with favorite cheese and bake in a 350 degree oven for about a half hour. Quick, easy and tasty!

Great crockpot recipe

When I moved to Dayton my sister bought me a box of crock pot recipe cards and one of my favorite recipes from them is Cashew Chicken. It's super easy, doesn't require a whole lot of ingredients and is AMAZINGLY tasty.

Ingredients:
1 lb of chicken breasts
diced celery
diced green onions
2 tablespoons of butter
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
soy sauce
cashews

Layer the chicken at the bottom of the crock pot. But the butter on top and then add the celery and green onions. Pour in the cream of mushroom soup and soy sauce, top with cashews. Cook on high 4-6 hours or on low 6-8 hours. Serve over hot rice.

I made this yesterday and doctored the recipe a bit, I added some fresh diced peppers from my garden and used Trader Joe's cream of portabello mushroom soup that comes in a container and it added ALOT to the recipe. We served it with Trader Joe's potstickers too!! It was an amazing dinner and there's usually leftovers.

Cupboard confection muffins

Since I didn't have to work this morning and Ryan made breakfast yesterday morning, I was in the mood to bake something. For some reason muffins sounded really good, but I hadn't prepared to make them so I needed to scour my cupboards for ingredients I could put into muffins. I came across a jar of maraschino cherries and some chopped pecans and remembered the best Christmas gift I ever got from my mom, my jumbo muffin pan. So alas, I created cherry pecan jumbo muffins this morning. I followed a recipe that I have for Lemon Raspberry jumbo muffins and just substituted the cherries in for the raspberries and added a few extra touches.

Ingredients:
2 cups of flour
1 cup of sugar
3 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 eggs
1 cup of milk or half and half (I used milk since it was going to go bad and it's all I had in the fridge)
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
1 cup of cherries
chopped pecans
Honey

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and set aside
In separate bowl, combine the eggs, milk, oil and honey and stir together. (I used honey because the original recipe uses lemon extract, and I thought it would give it good flavor)
Stir into dry ingredients until moist.
Fold in cherries and add pecans.
Fill greased jumbo muffin pan 3/4 of the way full.
Bake at 400 for 35-40 minutes.

I baked these a bit longer than my lemon ones because of the pecans and if you add the honey it will make the muffins look a bit darker, but don't worry they aren't burnt.

Ryan really enjoyed them as they reminded him of a cherry pecan pound cake his mom makes around the holidays. I guess using up things in your cupboard can create delicious treats.

Spanish Birthday Cake

I offered to make a birthday cake for someone whose part of a nonprofit that I'm involved in and since she is Hispanic, I thought a Tres Leches cake would be perfect. I had thought about making a cake from scratch but didn't have enough time and needed a recipe that was easy from a cake mix. I found one on this website called Lynn's Kitchen Adventures, but added my own touches to it.

The recipe calls for yellow cake mix and I had french vanilla at home, so that's what I used.
Other ingredients include: 1 3.4 oz package of vanilla pudding mix (I used french vanilla to go with the cake mix)
1 cup of milk
1 cup of oil
4 eggs

Mix together the cake mix, pudding mix, oil, milk and eggs with an electric mixer and pour into a greased 9 x 13 pan and bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until completely done. (I baked for about 40-45 minutes)

The great thing about Tres Leches is you mix 3 types of milk syrups to pour into the cake after it is baked which makes it a moist and delectable treat. For the milk syrup (or Tres Leches) you'll need:
1 can of evaporated milk
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1 cup of heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon of vanilla

Mix all of these together in a bowl when ready to use.

Once the cake is completely cool, poke holes in it with a large fork, all over the cake. Wipe the fork off every once in awhile so it doesn't stick. Then pour 1/3 of the milk mixture all over the cake so it seeps into the holes and starts to soak into the cake. I did it once, let it sit for about 10 minutes and continued until all of the milk was gone.

Put the cake in the fridge for 3-4 hours so all of the milk soaks in.

You can make a buttercream frosting, actually if I had more time I was going to make a buttercream dulce de leche frosting (Maybe next time). I used cool whip to frost it and swirled condensed milk over the top of it.

It was a hit at the meeting and Ryan even enjoyed a few pieces later. Keep it refrigerated though.

Oatmeal Cinnamon Muffins

So I got up this morning thinking muffins sounded good, however I didn't get around to making them until this evening. I found this recipe on Allrecipes and am trying to eat healthier baked goods. These were pretty good, my only complaint like other people was that they stuck to the muffin cups. I did change the recipe a little bit.

1 cup oats
1 cup buttermilk (I didn't have any so I made my own with milk and lemon juice)
2 eggs lightly beaten
1 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
cinnamon
I also added a 1/2 cup of applesauce

Combine oats and buttermilk and let sit for 5 minutes.
Stir in eggs then apple sauce.
Combine dry ingredients and then add to wet mix until moist.
Fill baking cups about 2/3 full.
Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes.
Cool 10 minutes on wire rack.

Very tasty but like I said I can't figure out why they stick to the muffin cups, if you can please let me know!