Stuffed Eggplant

I am kind of on an eggplant kick.  I just can't seem to get enough of it lately.  I had one sitting in the fridge and I really would have liked to fry it up but I knew that was probably not the best choice.  I have also been craving stuffed peppers lately (even though I hate cooked peppers) I just wanted the filling so I decided to stuff the eggplant. Believe it or not I actually have a list of ingredients today :)

First I chopped the onion and garlic and cooked them with the ground venison until browned.  While I was that was cooking I scooped out the middle of the eggplant and finely chopped the middle of the eggplant that I removed.  When the meat was browned, I set it to the side and sauteed the zucchini, mushroom and center of the eggplant.  Side note... I added a little salt and pepper to both mixtures. 

before baking

 I cooked the veggies until they were soft and then added the meat back to the pan and added the can of diced tomatoes.  I added a little more salt and pepper and a few random spices(Italian seasoning, and I don't really remember what else)  Then I put in a handful of shredded mozzarella.  I forgot to take a picture before I filled the eggplant with the mixture and then topped it with the crushed crouton and Parmesan combo.  Then I baked it for about 40 minutes in a preheated 400 degree oven. 

Finished Product



 Ingredients

I small onion
2 cloves garlic
1 lb ground venison (if I had my choice I would have used ground turkey, you could use beef too)

1 large eggplant or 2 small

1 small zucchini
6-8 mushrooms sliced
1/4 cup garlic croutons crushed mixed with 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
hand full mozzarella cheese

1 can diced tomatoes

Zeke's Squash Soup

Good Morning! 
Drum roll please...
 I have a real recipe for you today and it is FABULOUS!!  I don't have a picture at the moment but I will add one shortly.  I made this soup over the weekend and had a few requests for the recipe so here it is.  I think it makes sense...

Zeke’s Squash Soup      

8 Cups chopped onion

4 Cups acorn squash peeled, seeded and chopped

4 Cups butternut squash peeled seeded, and chopped

Cover with one container (carton) Swanson’s 33% reduced sodium chicken broth

Cook until veggies are tender

1 little box fresh sage, leaves only. add when squash is about halfway done

Puree mixture in blender when squash is soft

Make roux:

¼ cup flour and ¼ cup butter cooked until nutty and light brown in color not black. Thicken puree with the roux. Add a 1/2 pint heavy cream, salt and pepper to taste, and garnish with a few teaspoons cream ,not cream fraiche, and grated 3yr. gouda or some smoked cheese and chopped parsley or a few pieces sage chopped.  I strongly recommend the 3yr gouda I think it makes the soup just perfect!

This soup is so easy and so delicious.  I totally recommend it even if you are not a squash person!

Kicked up Turkey Sandwich

It is what it is... A turkey sandwich with buffalo ranch spread, avocado, tomato, and spinach.  Pretty simple.  I totally blew it by purchasing cheap disgusting turkey but other than that it was amazing.  With the cracked black pepper and sea salt crunchers and hummus... a perfect combination!

Veggie Egg Scrambler

I woke up this morning craving coffee.  I don't keep coffee in the house I normally just drink it at work or when I am out.  I wanted it so bad that I tapped into the instant coffee I keep on hand for recipes.  I added a splash of heavy cream and choked it down and it wasn't too bad.  I wouldn't recommend it but it fulfilled my craving.  I can't remember if I mentioned this yet but I have given up sweets for "lent".  I think I might be crazy, I never realized how often I pop a piece of chocolate or something into my mouth!  Yikes!  It might be the death of me but so far I have made it without cheating!  Alright... back to my breakfast...
It was very simple, very delicious, and very healthy.  Here are some pictures...

Above:  veggies sauteing

Finished product

Ingredients:
Olive Oil
Spinach
Tomato
Onion
Zucchini
3 Egg Whites
a handful of shredded cheddar

the rest is history... Thanks for checking it out! :)

Almost homemade pizza

With the help of some pizza dough from Trader Joes we had homemade pizza for dinner tonight and it was delicious!!  I was pleasantly surprised by the whole wheat crust.  I was kind of expecting it to be dry but it wasn't.  It was definitely a good purchase!

whole wheat crust, mushrooms, onion, zucchini

sausage, mushroom, and onion.  Clearly this pizza was Dustins :)

Shrimp Scampi

In the true spirit of Fat Tuesday I decided I would make something that included 2 sticks of butter in the ingredients.  It was basically amazing and so simple.  Here it is...

Shrimp Scampi with cheesy flatbread and roasted balsamic brussels sprouts

Short and sweet tonight... I am tired :)

Beef Stroganoff

Today I was craving beef...  so weird considering I am not really a huge beef fan but I saw a picture of beef stroganoff on Pinterest that looked amazing so I decided to create my own :)  I tried to take more pictures so hopefully my description will make more sense if you would like to create it on your own.

I started by slicing the sirloin into strips and putting them in a Ziploc and lightly coating them with a little soy sauce.  Pictured above.  I let this mixture sit in the fridge for about 20 minutes.  While that was in the fridge I chopped up some onions and mushrooms and started to saute them in olive oil...

While they were cooking I mixed together approx 3 tablespoons flour, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, mustard powder.  Then I dumped it in the bag with the beef and tossed it around to coat.  When the onions where just starting to turn translucent I took them out of the pan and put them off to the side.  Then I added a little more olive oil to the pan and added the beef.

onions and mushrooms resting

beef while cooking

when the beef was almost done I added the mushrooms and onions back to the pan.  I let that mixture cook a little while longer and then I added a cup and half of beef stock to the pan and stirred it frequently to get all of the amazing flavorful bits off of the bottom of the pan.  I let it simmer for a few minutes until it was thickened and then added a 1/4 cup of sour cream and a handful of Parmesan cheese.  I mixed in the cheese until it was blended well and then added a handful of peas.  I forgot to mention that during this process I boiled water and made a bag of whole wheat egg noodles.  Here is the finished product...

It was seriously amazing and totally hit the spot!  So I am trying really hard to pay attention to what I add while I cook.  My goal is to actually have an ingredient list and a recipe that makes sense someday.  For now this will have to work :) baby steps right?!?

Thanks for looking!

Chili Lime Fish Tacos

Yes, it's true... two blogs in one day!!  This is what happens when I actually get a day off of work!  I heard some friends talking about fish tacos today and I could not get them out of my head.  I threw some together with what I had laying around.

First I marinated the fish in... chili powder, garlic, onion powder, salt, pepper, lime, honey, olive oil and cilantro.  Then I threw it on a pan and put it under the broiler...

When the fish was done I just broke it into pieces and "built" my tacos.  I looked through the fridge for anything that looked like it would taste good on them and I pulled it out.  I used tomato, avocado, lettuce, cheese, and my secret buffalo ranch sauce on top.  Paired with a little cilantro lime rice and here they are!

Strawberry Banana Oatmeal

While trying to decide what to make for breakfast this morning a little voice inside my head was telling me I should really eat something healthy instead of frying some eggs.  Plus if I eat a healthy breakfast I can totally have a shamrock shake at some point today and not feel guilty LOL :)

I had a banana that was sitting on the counter fading fast, I also had a ton of strawberries because they were buy one get one for Valentines day and I couldn't pass them up!  I cooked up some oatmeal tossed in the banana and strawberries and this is what I got...

Eggplant Parmesan Lasagna

Valentines Day... as far as I am concerned it's kind of overrated but it's a good excuse for me to cook something amazing so I'll take it!

I couldn't decide if I should make eggplant parm or eggplant lasagna so I kind of combined them both and this is what I got.  It might be the ugliest thing I have ever made but it was extremely tasty!!

I started offs by peeling and slicing the eggplant and then coated it in a bread crumb mixture that consisted of bread crumbs, garlic powder, onion powder, Italian seasoning, and Parmesan.  Oh yea of course a little salt and pepper.  I dipped the eggplant in egg then the bread crumbs and put them in a single layer on a olive oil coated sheet pan.  I baked them at 375* for 20 minutes on each side.  Here are a few photos... oh just an FYI I don't really ever measure anything sorry!

                                                          Before baking





After baking

Then I basically just made lasagna with it.  I realized that I didn't make enough eggplant so I did a mixture of noodles and eggplant otherwise I would have skipped the noodles.  I started by putting a little sauce in the bottom of the pan then a layer of eggplant, sauce, noodles, cottage cheese mixture* (yes I used cottage cheese! I am normally anti cottage cheese in lasagna), parm, noodles, sauce, eggplant, sauteed mushrooms,onions, zucchini, more sauce, noodles, cottage cheese mixture, mozzarella, noodles, the remaining sauce, then I topped it with a combo of mozzarella and parm.  I covered it and baked it at 400* for about an hour.

 Here are some photos, like I said it wasn't pretty but it was AMAZING!!

Thanks for looking... and if you actually want to make this "recipe" or anything else I make please feel free to ask and I can try and explain it better to you! :)





*Cottage cheese mixtures contains cottage cheese, one egg, salt, pepper, and parsley

Creamy Shrimp Pasta

I'm not gonna lie... I kind of like this blogging thing it's too bad I cook all day at work on the weekends so I wont have anything fun to post.

Tonight for dinner I was feeling lazy after a long week so here is what I created!

                             Shrimp in a creamy tomato sauce over whole wheat spinach pasta

Over all for just tossing it together at the last minute it was quite delicious.  I may or may not have added a little too many red pepper flakes though.  :)

My first "blog"

So... I made a smoothie for breakfast today and felt the need to share it because it was just so pretty!  I also felt that everyone is probably annoyed with my posting pictures of my food on Facebook all the time.  So long story short I decided to start a food blogish type thing so that the people that care to see what I am eating can see it :)  On a side note I have no idea how to work this website so hopefully things will get better as I go along!

Before (banana, bing cherry, blueberry, nectarine, ice, and a touch of milk)

After (sorry for the blurry photo)