Food Blog Dot Com

FoodBlogDotCom

Food Blog Dot Com is written
by Lin Ennis, a writer passionate
about good food, healthful
food and food as medicine.

( Food Lovers Only )

Dinner

EGGPLANT PARMESAN LOWFAT

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NO BREADING – NO FRYING – DELICIOUS Eggplant fruit always look so beautiful in the grocery store–deep, rich purple, almost black, the color of royalty and ‘please pay attention to me.’ But what do you do after that? I taught at a private boarding school in Moab, Utah, in the 70s. Students and (mostly male) faculty grew a great deal of what we ate. In fact, my “buy from the store” budget was $10 per household member per month. Everything else had to be acquired from our commissary for free, or at a reduced price by being purchased in bulk (such as rolled oats; corn meal was 4 cents a pound). The Commissary had gunny sacks full of cubed and dried eggplant. I added it to sloppy Joe mix, and chili, and god-knows-what-else. It bulked the food. It was filling. And almost tasteless. The girls living in my home accused me of putting it in cookies. I could have, because what flavor does eggplant have? Couldn’t chocolate chips overpower that? Isn’t eggplant, almost like rice or pasta, a carrier of the sauce? I succumbed recently to the seduction of the jewel-toned globe on the top shelf of the produce aisle. A smallish one. I try to include deeper colors in my diet for phytonutrients and blah, blah, blah. Before I knew it, the little purple globe I carried home had developed a soft brown spot the size of a nickel–even in my crisper. I called my neighbor who cooks everything from scratch three times a day because of an allergy her husband has. (She’s a totally amazing cook and an even more amazing hostess!) She emailed me a recipe for eggplant Parmesan that did not involve breading or frying. Not even peeling. I liked the result so well (it served 4 meals for one person) that I bought another small eggplant this weekend, with a promise to myself not to keep it in the fridge so long before preparing it. Here’s how it goes: Depending upon the size of your eggplant, you’ll choose a small or medium or large baking dish. Spray with non-stick spray. Bake 10-30 minutes, depending upon the thickness of your slices. DO NOT COVER! (makes the dish too watery) If this is a main dish rather than a side dish, meaning no meat is being served, increase the sauce quantity and add Morningstar Farms Burger Crumbles to give a more main dish texture and feel to the entree. Tell us all in the comments below how you like this.

STUFFED PEPPERS

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Intending to roast more red peppers, I picked up three very large ones at the market for $1 each, day before yesterday. They looked so lush and inviting on the kitchen counter, my partner suggested we have stuffed peppers for our special Friday night dinner. That’s how yesterday’s lengthy post came about…I was thinking peppers. You can see I had to encourage them to play snuggle together in my 7 X 12 ceramic baking dish. I was rushing to get them in the oven on time, so I didn’t trim the white membranes carefully with a knife. What I pulled out with my hands is all I removed. The seeds and stems get tossed out the back door for whatever wildlife browses by: Western and Eastern cottontails, mule deer, collared peccaries, and, of course, squirrels who might like the seeds. I mentioned tenting the dish. Of course, if your baking dish has its own cover, aluminum foil is unnecessary. However, acidic foods should never bee cooked in aluminum. If you cover lasagna (or our tomatoey stuffed peppers) with aluminum foil, whether in the refrigerator for a few days or in the oven a few minutes, there will be some breakdown of the aluminum by the acid. On foil, that shows up as dark pin pricks. On the food, it shows as white spots. While some online cooks and Extension Service Officers say the jury is out on whether eating aluminum is harmful, for me it is enough that it is called into question! “Is this poison?” you ask. “We don’t know,” we say. “OK, I guess I’ll eat it.” Is Homer Simpson your nutrition advisor? After the ends of the foil are secured to the dish, it’s easier to pull up the middle. Your tent doesn’t have to have vaulted ceilings like the one shown here. Just keep the foil off the tomatoes! We baked ours 2.25 hours at 350. I turned it up to about 375 for 10-15 minutes near the end of that, because these peppers were huge, with thick skins! After they fork-tested tender, we sprinkled about 2 teaspoonfuls of finely grated Mexican style cheese on each one, popped them back in the oven, turned the oven off, and waited a bit under 10 minutes for the cheese to melt. They were a big hit! Everyone had seconds!

LOW-CARB STUFFED PEPPERS

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Vegetarian stuffed peppers are often stuffed with rice, and I’ve made them that way many times. However, I’ve switched to using MorningStar Farms (MSF) Burger Crumbles – a low-fat, pre-cooked substitute for ground beef. To bind the meatloaf-style mixture together, you can use egg or cheese. Egg makes it taste more like meat, but only slightly so because the seasonings are the real kicker in this comforting dish. I use grated mozzarella cheese as a binder, and it works well with a low-fat version (white cheeses are generally lower fat than are yellow cheeses). We buy grated Mozzarella in a large bag and keep all or most of it in the freezer. (You can keep a small amount in a baggie in the fridge, but air in the bag and warmer temps can make it spoil if you leave it in the fridge too long.) We used to use a blend of yellow and white cheese, but including cheddar within the mixture increases calories per serving. Our favorite recipe is very flexible both in quantity and ingredients. While many people lean toward Italian seasonings, we prefer Mexican. STUFFED PEPPER RECIPE about 30 min. prep, from start to cleanup Also you’ll need: Mix ingredients (just the top set of bullets, please) together in a large bowl. You don’t have to put tomatoes in the mixture, since they will be poured over top, but putting a can in the mixture lowers the calorie count per serving (cut large pieces). The crumbles and cheese can be mixed in frozen; just break apart lumps with a fork or a hammer. Spray the baking dish lightly with non-stick spray. Cut the stemmed tops off the peppers to stuff them whole, putting their caps back on (or not)…OR…halve the peppers. We usually halve them lengthwise, so one pepper makes two servings–and they bake faster. Also, if you halve them lengthwise, you don’t have to buy peppers with flat bottoms to stand on! Stuff the peppers by pressing the mixture into each pepper tightly and fit them like puzzle pieces into the dish. I usually start the stuffing with a spoon, but as the crevices fill, I finish off my pressing by hand. The reason measurements don’t have to be precise depending upon how many peppers you’re stuffing is that you fill the peppers based upon how much mixture you have – either mounding it up high or just filling! (Extra mixture can be frozen for next time.) Pour a can of S&W Mexican Style Stewed Tomatoes over top, making sure the liquid covers the bottom of the dish. Tear off a l-o-n-g sheet of aluminum foil (half again the length of your dish). Form it into a tent so that it does not touch the food. Crimp it to the handles on the dish. (Tomatoes will ‘eat’ aluminum foil; then you’ll ‘eat’ the aluminum in your food. Tremendously dangerous.) Bake at 350 for 90-120 minutes. At our altitude, 4300 ft. above sea level, we bake for at least two hours. This dish is best baked a longer time at a lower temperature, than rushed by turning the oven up. (Even 300 degrees is nice.) If you need to shorten the baking time, parboil the peppers. You can do that in the microwave by placing them in a covered dish (don’t use plastic) with just the water remaining on them after you’ve rinsed them inside and out. Nuke on high for 90 second to 2 minutes. The peppers should show slight softening. Test doneness of the completed casserole by piercing a pepper wall with a fork. We like ours completely soft, but you may prefer more crunch. For a great finish, just before serving, remove the foil and sprinkle a bit of grated cheddar cheese on top. Return to the oven to melt (or brown, if you prefer) the cheese. This is one of our favorite dishes to serve non-vegetarians. They never ask what it’s made of; though, most know I’m a vegetarian. My mother-in-law always asked prior to visiting us if they could expect to have some of my famous stuffed peppers. We sometimes fix a side salad to go with it, but when it’s just us, we may not. I love peas along side. What’s great about this dish: 1. It’s delicious 2.It’s nourishing comfort food 3. It’s high-protein, low carbohydrate 4. It keeps well in the fridge, tastes good as leftovers and can be frozen 5. It’s all about “assembling,” not “cooking” 6. You can put this together at 4:00, and have a steaming, savory dinner almost by magic at 6:00 or 6:30 (depending upon altitude) 7. Can be baked and reheated! Yay!