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!

Sweet Potato Experiments

For the longest time, I would wander through the produce section and look dreamily towards the sweet potatoes wondering why they were there if it wasn’t November or December. What a waste.

But guess what?!

I have two amazing, quick, and EASY options for your sweet potatoes! I am always looking for meals/sides I can prep on Sunday and munch on throughout the week. Every week I have the hardest time deciding which of the two following spices to use!

Littlest over at The Schell Cafe loves sweet potatoes cubed and tossed with olive oil and cinnamon in a ziploc, and that was the original go-to snack of mine.

Until the fabulous guys over at the The Bitten Word posted a slight variation. They claimed that cubed sweet potatoes tossed with olive oil and fajita seasoning (I use the chicken variety) would please anyone.

 

I decided to try these out one night when I had a group of my favorite guinea pigs over for dinner! 3/5 of us supposedly disliked sweet potatoes. I told them that it was hypothesized by the chaps over there that anyone would love them.

 

After observing and collecting data, the conclusion of this experiment supported our hypothesis! Not only did all 3 of them totally dig the potatoes, a few beers and games of wii bowling later they were digging through my fridge looking for the remaining cubes.

So try them I say, you will be pleasantly surprised (and so will your guinea pigs).

 

Disclaimer: If you have guinea pigs, I wouldn’t recommend dropping the leftovers in the bowl, don’t know how the olive oil would do in their squeaky little systems!

Enjoy!