Oven – Baked Ratatouille

To be honest, until about a month ago, I had no idea what this dish consisted of but ever since that cute little mouse mastered the dish I couldn’t get it out of my head!

Mom has an amazing garden in her backyard and showered me with vegetables the last time I was visiting. Which was awesome considering I was in San Francisco for 2 weeks and came home to empty cabinets and banking account…

I am also excited about this recipe because it is made of 90% homegrown ingredients (minus bell pepper, onion, and garlic)!!!!

Found this oven-baked version in Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything. I chose this method because, hey, convenience is key here. The toughest part is the chopping (as usual) but that’s it folks!

1 pound eggplant, sliced 1/2 inch thick and salted if time allows

1 large onion, sliced

1 medium zucchini, trimmed and cut into large chunks

1 red or yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded, and sliced.

1 round tomatoes, cored and chopped

10 cloves of garlic, halved

Fresh herbs. I used fresh basil and oregano out of my very own patio garden. Mark says you can pretty much use any of the savory herbs.

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

In addition, if you have potatoes and/or mushrooms you can throw those in, as they are the most common added ingredient to ratatouille, but Mark says any vegetable will do great in this recipe!

Here is the beautiful array of vegetables pre-oven

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. If you salted the eggplant, squeeze out extra liquid, rinse and dry.

Film a casserole dish with a couple tablespoons of the olive oil, then layer the vegetables. I did onion, eggplant, zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, herbs, salt and pepper, and the garlic. But then it didn’t matter because you drizzle the remaining olive oil over it all and swish the veggies around a bit.

Bake for about 1 hour, pressing down on the vegetables occasionally with a spatula, until they are all completely tender. When they are tender remove.
Garnish with more herbs and drizzle a bit more olive oil, if you please. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.

I boiled a few shrimp tonight and threw them in the mix. It was delicious!

Enjoy this easy, healthy recipe!

Summer Munchin’

Hey there… anyone still, um, there? Wow. It’s been a good long while since I was here. So I can’t blame you if you aren’t there any longer.

Now that school is out, I’m back from San Francisco (best place in the U.S. of A. if you weren’t already aware), left my Nerd/Stud there for an internship at Apple, and the summer is rolling I am ready to work this baby back into my life!

I am determined to lose and keep these last lingering, yo-yo’ing, 15 pounds off! So I’m back into health food mode, as I seem to attempt every summer. Usually works out but only until around October 31st……..

In addition, this summer, I am challenging myself to use only the growing stack of cookbooks I have around the apartment for recipes! I have become entirely too dependent on technology for good food! No more internet diving for what sounds good, surely that recipe is somewhere. in. one. of these. That is the intent anyway! There is no point in having fabulous cookbooks if one isn’t going to use them!

I look forward to sharing healthy recipes from my own collection with you this summer!

Stay tuned for Ratatouille tomorrow!!!

Krista:)

Caribbean Black Bean Soup

Once again another great find from Cookie Madness. But alas, not a dessert! This soup is so very easy and yum! I made it vegetarian so omitted the chicken, but the flavors are so great you will please the whole family!

Ingredients
1/2 cup diced onion
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 (14-oz.) can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
1 (8-oz.) can tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 pound chicken breast tenders
2 (15-oz.) cans black beans, drained*
1/2 teaspoon salt
Toppings: diced avocado, chopped fresh cilantro, sour cream

* Since I opted for the vegetarian option, I used 3 cans of black beans to insure a hearty soup.

Preparation
1. Sauté onion, brown sugar, chili powder,cumin, and coriander in hot oil in a Dutch Oven, or other large pot, over medium heat 2 to 3 minutes or until onion is tender and fragrant. Add garlic, and cook 1 minute.

2. Stir in tomatoes, tomato sauce, chicken broth, orange juice, and tomato paste until well blended. Stir in chicken. Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook 2 hours. Shred chicken with two forks in Dutch oven.** Add black beans, and cook 10 more minutes. Stir in salt. Serve with desired toppings.

**For the vegetarian option, I let the mixture simmer for ~45 minutes, then added the black beans.

Note: Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 2 days, or freeze up to 3 months. Thaw in refrigerator. When reheating, add water or canned broth to reach desired consistency.

Enjoy!

Citrus Baked Salmon En Papillote

It seems the trendy way to cook fish this spring is en papillote! I totally threw this together for a caribbean inspired meal! And I am so proud.  

 

 

All of this is approximate depending on the size of your fish. My fish was about 24 oz, 

Rub

Mix the following:

Orange zest

Melted butter (about a Tbs max)

Few shakes of cinnamon

Few shakes of oregano

Sea Salt – not too much.

A bit of squeezed orange juice, so that your rub isn’t completely dry.

 

Rinse the fish, then pat dry. Place the fish on a ~12×12 inch piece of foil or parchment paper, and lavishly spread the rub all over the fish.  Throw some wedges of the orange that you zested around the fish and some parsley just to make it pretty.  Place another piece of foil the same size on top and roll each edge to close the fish.

Bake for ~17 minutes at 400 degrees (bake time depends on size of fish). Make sure to open your papillote away from you so you don’t get doused in hot steam! Use  a fork to make sure the salmon flakes. If it doesn’t flake it isn’t ready yet (wrap it back up and send it in for a bit longer)! 

This was DELICIOUS !

 

Enjoy!

Banana and Chocolate Chip Bars

I love banana bread but a little deviation from the norm never hurt anyone! I found this delicious recipe over at my favorite sweet treats blog, Cookie Madness! If you haven’t checked out her blog you are REALLY missing out!

These bars are really simple and are just the right texture. Try them next time instead of bread when your ‘nanas are extra ripe!

 

Banana Chocolate Chip Bars

1/2 cup all-purpose flour (2.25 oz)
2 1/2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 ½ oz banana, mashed (a little less than ¼ cup if you don’t have a scale)
2 tablespoons corn syrup
1 1/2 tablespoons melted butter (cooled) – I used salted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup pecans, toasted and chopped (I used walnuts and forgot to toast)
1/3 cup chocolate chips or chunks (use more if you want)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper or foil.

Stir flour, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together in a bowl.

Stir mashed banana, syrup, melted butter and vanilla in a second bowl. Pour flour mixture into banana mixture and stir until well mixed. Stir in pecans and chocolate. Mixture should be goopy, but not too runny. If it’s runny, chill it for an hour.

Empty the goopy banana mixture onto the parchment lined sheet and shape into a rectangle about 9×2 inches. The best way to do this is with damp hands.

Bake on center rack for 15 minutes. Pull from oven and quickly score the long bar into 1 ½ to 2 inch wide bars, but don’t separate. If you have a sharp pizza cutter, this will work awesomely! Quickly return to oven and bake for another 5 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes on tray, then carefully separate the bars and let them sit on a cooling rack to finish cooling. They should develop kind of a crispy shell.

Makes 6

Next time and I am doubling this recipe because I think a lot of the kiddos I babysit would love these guys!